2020 Ongoing MOTY List: Imperium vs. Carter/Smith

67. Marcel Barthel/Fabian Aichner vs. Oliver Carter/Ashton Smith NXT UK 3/7 (Aired 3/26/20)

ER: Marcel Barthel is someone I wished showed up on TV far more often, and if more people saw performances like this it would certainly get others to agree. This was a good tag that built to some nice near falls and close calls, gave us a couple different unexpected outcomes on familiar moments, and played as a great showcase for Martel in particular. but also the impeccable timing of Aichner. It starts with Barthel grounding Carter and crossing his ankles in an Indian deathlock, and I loved how Barthel kept finding ways to keep a lock on Carter's ankles while Carter kept trying to shake him. Carter is a flier and I liked how Imperium kept trying to prevent him from leaving his feet, making it mean a little bit more when he was able to pull off stuff like his backdrop splash (with Carter rolling onto Smith's back on the apron and then getting a boost flipping back from the apron into the ring). 

Barthel took three big bumps to the floor during the match, taking a fast flipping bump after getting juked by Carter, and later getting shoved off the top rope by Smith while setting up a European Bomb. Barthel brought speed and meanness and Aichner was more of a cudgel, and they show how fun simply cutting Carter off from Smith can be. I really like Imperium's double corner dropkick, with Aichner tying up Carter in the ropes and flipping him upside down, both of Imperium flying in from opposite corners. We knew it was all building to Smith coming in and wrecking them, and I liked little twists on the familiar, like when Aichner was working over Carter and turned to cheapshot Smith on the apron, except Smith saw it coming and socked Aichner first. That's a cool way to set up a hot tag, much more unique than two guys slow crawling to their corners at the same time while one looks over their shoulder. Carter's rana reversal as Aichner was setting up the European Bomb was done really well, an excellent nearfall. With Barthel getting shoved to the floor and the way Carter hooked that pin deep made me certain that was the upset finish. Carter was really good at making the most out of those spots, and that kind of thing sets a TV tag like this apart, even when he got planted by that European Bomb just a few moments later.

2020 MOTY MASTER LIST

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NXT UK Worth Watching: Wolfgang! Mark Coffey! Grizzled Young Vets!

Wolfgang/Mark Coffey vs. Flash Morgan Webster/Mark Andrews NXT UK 10/4 (Aired 10/17/19) (Ep. #64)

ER: This was a fun main event tag title change, that felt like it should have been better but served as a fantastic Wolfgang showcase. Wolfgang has been perhaps the biggest discovery of this NXT UK project. I already knew Ohno had a lot of great matches in NXGT UK, it's made me a much bigger fan of Noam Dar and Jordan Devlin, but mainly it's shown how many genuinely cool talents there are kind of just hiding in plain sight in NXT UK. This match is an excellent reference point to show someone why Wolfgang is a top 5 guy in NXT UK, and a frontrunner for "the best wrestler under WWE contract that nobody knows about". I think both these teams are capable of a better match, but Wolfgang and the way he based for Webster, really made this stand out. Wolfgang has great offense, but is a wonderful base for juniors. He catches ranas with  aplomb, and adds extra touches to them like nobody else. Webster gets to break out all of his low arcing hurricanranas with such a strong base, peaking with Webster swinging around the ringpost to catch a rana that sends Wolfgang skidding an extra five feet across the floor. 

Gallus are a great tag team, both excellent at getting into position for flyer offense. Plenty of tough guy teams can be tough guys, but only the best are able to give plausible openings to smaller teams. Coffey is good at occupying time while waiting for a springboard or flip, doing things like selling his mouth or jaw to stagger into place. Wolfgang takes so many bumps in between kicking so many asses, with his most incredible being an assisted poison rana that could not have spiked him more vertically. Guys that can suspend physics while they bump are eminently watchable, but how many of them also have devastating powerslams and cross bodies and clotheslines and throw their full weight into Irish whips. Webster and Andrews do some fun Rock n Roll Express double teams and fly in circles when get run over, but always looked like they could retain their still new belts. The enziguiri powerslam finish Gallus used to win the belts felt like a cool powerhouse 90s team finish. Excited to see them roll the rematch back.

 

James Drake/Zack Gibson vs. Ashton Smith/Oliver Carter NXT UK 10/4 (Aired 10/24/19) (Ep. #65)

ER: This felt like a great hot tag match that you'd randomly come across on a WCW Saturday Night. It's one of James Drake's best NXT UK performances, a crazed Dynamite Kid acolyte determined to bump big for everything while throwing his big offense just as stiff as he gets. Smith and Carter are a great babyface team and make great dance partners for this kind of quick hard hitting match with Grizzled Young Vets. GYF's act works best at its tightest, when they can show off their actual good timing, and this is a damn tight match with some exquisitely timed moments. Carter works like a crisper 1988 Owen Hart with great moonsaults, big bumps (here there's a great one flying off the apron from a sharp Drake dropkick) and firm hitting offense. Carter takes advantage of his relative size and works a more satisfying version of the "fast tall guy who spins maybe too much" that has run rampant these past few years. Drake really busts his ass through the entire match, filling a huge share of the ring time with activity, and all of his punctuated kicks land with a crack. Smith has a big hot tag where he steamrolls Drake, hits a huge spinning blue thunder bomb and big dive, all with great energy and connection. The finish was a bit sudden and could have been built into something much bigger, but these kind of hot tags are always a pleaser, and literally every team on this roster is capable of this fun style. 

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NXT UK Worth Watching: Barthel! Aichner! Primate! Boar! Conners! Oliver Carter!

Marcel Barthel/Fabian Aichner vs. Primate/Wild Board NXT UK 7/19 (Aired 8/21/19) (Ep. #56)

ER: This felt pretty base level for these two teams, but base level for these teams means that two of my favorite teams had a good tag match. This is probably our best Primate showing so far, getting to slam into Aichner before biting at his ear, throwing a big waterwheel suplex, then taking a crazy late match spinebuster on the apron to separate him from Boar. But this also felt like Imperium really starting to gel as an actual team, with Aichner dropping big spinebusters and slams, and Barthel coming in to crank limbs and throw mean kicks. Wild Boar absorbed a lot of those cruel shots, really got pulverized by the spinebuster/penalty kick combo while fighting back in cool ways (loved his senton to a hands and knees Aichner). The couple minute finishing stretch was really exciting and kept ramping up, with Barthel and Primate taking big bumps to the floor, and Boar hitting his cannonball then missing a gnarly spear sternum first into the middle buckle. Barthel flips him and gives him a brutal running kick while Boar is tied in the ropes, he and Aichner sandwich him with another kick, Aichner plants Primate with the spinebuster on the apron, and the nice flying back elbow into another Aichner spinebuster is the finish. I could have easily seen another 5+ minutes of this, as these teams have the material to add some extra beats. But i'm a big fan of the 6-10 minute NXT UK TV window, and this hit all the marks. 

Joseph Conners vs. Oliver Carter NXT UK 7/20 (Aired 8/28/19) (Ep. #57)

ER: One of the strengths of NXT UK is how well they cycle their roster. There are some guys who deserve to be featured more (like Tyson T-Bone, or Jinny), but the brand is mostly great at staggering debuts and quietly churning through the roster, keeping match-ups fresh and always building to something new. This match is something they do really well, which is giving a nice debut to one guy, while rehabbing a forgotten member of the roster at the same time. Conners hasn't been featured in any way in at least two months, and Carter is a guy with decent size making his debut, and it turns the match into a fun battle of "I have no clue where either of these guys are in the roster hierarchy". Carter works like a stiff Kofi Kingston, and I think that's a very good thing. He lands heavy uppercuts, a nice standing dropkick, super hard clotheslines, nasty double stomp, big belly to belly, works a nice showcase for a debut. Conners gets his showcase by leaning into all of Carter's offense and making him seem like a potential force, taking big bumps to the floor and into the ropes, while being good at cutting of Carter's offense and hitting his own good suplexes and clotheslines and a nice neckbreaker. I actually like the idea of debuting a guy with a loss. It's become far more common for WWE to debut someone with a title win than debut them with a hard fought loss, and the latter is far more interesting. Carter didn't come off worse losing to Conners (who has lost to many people), but instead this came off as a "welcome to the bigger leagues" match that played to the strengths of both. 

COMPLETE GUIDE TO NXT UK

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