NXT UK Worth Watching: Danny Burch! Oney Lorcan! Ridge Holland! Tyson T-Bone! The Hunt!

Oney Lorcan/Danny Burch vs. The Hunt (Wild Boar/Primate) NXT UK 1/17 (Aired 1/30/20) (Ep. #77)

ER: This tag was another one of my introductions to NXT UK. I had never seen Wild Boar before this, and had not in fact ever even heard of him. Wild Boar has been a consistent highlight 77 episodes later and it was because the brand had the good taste to use guys like Oney Lorcan that I even saw him. The match was a cool Danny Burch showcase, one of his greatest performances I've seen. He was a real rugby thug asshole in this, working with disdain against The Hunt, grinding Wild Boar's ears on headlocks and softening up his face with vicious palm strikes that I hardly ever see him use. Muga Burch is something we need to see more often. Wild Boar really threw himself headlong into his own and everyone's offense, hitting hard and getting hit harder. His crash and burns were the best, including a sick missed splash to the floor that kept him away from the finish. Primate made the most out of his hot tag and threw some of several suplexes down the finishing stretch, and really runs over Lorcan with a big lariat. Just like Wild Boar's biggest miss was greater than his greatest hit, Primate also took a great bump into the ringpost. Lorcan nails Primate with a big uppercut and Burch headbutts Boar into next week with a headbutt after Boar had just flattened Lorcan with one of his best ever cannonballs. It was a really great match that felt intense the entire time, and felt bigger than its relatively short 7 minutes. Great, great tag. 

Ridge Holland vs. Tyson T-Bone NXT UK 1/17 (Aired 1/30/20) (Ep. #77)

ER: This is only 3 minutes, but it's two guys who like to fight, fighting for 3 minutes. That's always going to be entertaining, even if I wish they had twice as much time. There's a big boy lock up, heavy knees thrown to the midsection, and real forearm shivers across the length of the jaw. Holland controlled things for a bit, and he's got plenty of ways to muscle around a tough dude like T-Bone. He worked T-Bone over with crossfaces and knees, ran him over with a lariat, and tossed him with a cool belly to belly. They worked back and forth but in a way that wasn't 50-50, just two guys going all out, destined to crash into an early finish. And, once Holland grabbing T-Bone by the ears and throwing headbutts into Tyson's T-Zone I knew the end was nigh. Just a couple of guys hitting and throwing each other around for three minutes, which is what those with good taste call Pro Wrestling.  

COMPLETE GUIDE TO NXT UK

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2020 Ongoing MOTY List: WALTER vs. Holland

26. WALTER vs. Ridge Holland NXT UK 3/7 (Aired 9/3/20)

ER: We're over 5 months into quarantine and they reveal that they've just been sitting on matches like this? Why?? They've been airing months of "classic" matches and they had this unseen tidy heavyweight collision the whole time? What else are they keeping from us? Whatever the answers, I'm glad we eventually got this little gem. There was no backing down here, just WALTER reddening Holland's chest with chops while Holland threw lariats to the side of WALTER's neck. WALTER makes a favorite wrestler decision of mine, to just try to wreck a guy's arm to prevent him from throwing so many lariats, and because Holland is more stubborn than most men it only leads to more ass kicking. These two rams kept butting, and it got better the longer they kept it up. 

WALTER was really cruel, dropping Holland with a back suplex on the apron, stomping Holland right on the neck when Holland tried to bridge out of some matwork, and they work the kind of match where even a bodyslam feels like a finisher. Holland kept running into chops and a big kick, kept coming back with lariats to the neck, and I loved him powering through a WALTER sleeper to get him into a torture rack. He just kept going and growing, trying to put WALTER through the mat with a real ass overhead belly to belly suplex, big powerbomb, and an almost northern lights bomb. WALTER always comes off calm when he is starting to lose control, and appears to get more focused and tighten up his moveset. He doesn't take risks, throws in smart things like blocking a Holland lariat attempt, and just goes into this clubbing arms/sleeper mode. His uranage was great, and while I wish we hadn't gotten interference to lead to the finish, Holland quickly headbutting Wolfe out of the way only to eat a nasty high kick and lariat is a cool big man finish. So seriously, what other unseen matches are they sitting on?

PAS: Fun big boy punch out. This had more selling then most of your Big Japan matches in this style, more just two big dudes toughing it out than no-selling and making faces. Holland has real farm boy strength and looked great hoisting WALTER up for a monster belly to belly suplex. This wasn't a heavyweight jumping into a suplex, this was a big guy getting thrown. Great looking short headbutt by Holland, from a guy who definitely used that to drive a pint glass into someones cheek in Essex. I always like how WALTER breaks blood vessels and Holland was totally bruised up by the end of this, although he totally gave as much as he took. Short, simple, violent and effective wrestling.


2020 MOTY MASTER LIST
 

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2020 Ongoing MOTY List: Holland vs. Gargano

11. Ridge Holland vs. Johnny Gargano NXT 8/12 (Aired 8/19/20)

ER: This match kicked ass. Other than the joy of Pat McAfee's performance, this was easily better than anything from TakeOver XXX. I haven't enjoyed a Gargano match this much in nearly 2 years, and this was a surprisingly hard hitting style clash of a match. Ridge knocked Gargano around with strikes, including huge clubbing arms, and Gargano was tightening up elbows to Holland's head. Gargano had several fun ways of overcoming the size difference, good use of speed and cheating to make his few comebacks, working to make any headway for probably 3/4 of it. It's smart, as it's less Ridge selling Gargano's offense, and more things like Gargano sending him into the ringpost or making callbacks to that arm for the rest of the match. Both did fun arm stuff, with Holland always shaking out his arms (especially after a cool spot where Gargano dodged an uppercut so Holland uppercuts the rope) and Gargano shaking out his left arm a few times because his small forearm hurt after striking Holland's big head. There were big spills, like Gargano's tope, and both guys took some big bumps, like Holland's slow big man Jerry bump to the floor.

But the universe seemed like it wanted to turn Johnny Wrestling into Johnny Wheelchair. He took a Flair turnbuckle flip to the floor early, but went into the buckle neck first horizontally like he was doing his own variation on the Ray Stevens/John Nord corner bump. But this match really changes when Holland spikes Gargano into the mat on a powerslam. It happens over the break and we come back with Mauro doing quiet tragedy voice, but once they showed replays from a couple angles, yeah, no, that looked bad. You can pause it and see Gargano looking like the man in the warnings on the side of diving boards, just hitting that empty pool head first. The rest of the match felt really dramatic to me, as I kept expecting it to suddenly go home the way Owen/Austin did. But they milk it for a few more surprise kickouts and nearfalls. Gargano hitting a surprise superkick to buy him more recovery time, and Candice distracting Holland so Johnny can kick a ring rope into his nuts were both smart things for Gargano to do to get back into it, and I love Holland having the stones to go BACK to a powerslam. What a cool match, the kind of match that snuck up on me and left me wanting more.

PAS: I had no idea who or what a Ridge Holland was before watching this match, and I am all in. Beth Phoenix compares him to Rick Steiner on commentary, and he definitely has that brain damaged jock psycho vibe down. I thought he did a nice job selling the arm early, and the missed uppercut into the ropes was a nifty bit of limb work, totally looked like he threw it full force and jacked his bicep up. That botched powerslam looked exactly like the kind of thing Rick would throw on a random WCW Saturday Night jobber, and his other throws on the neck looked great too. I have no real problem with the finish, it was a clever nut shot, but I kind of wanted something bigger to bring down Holland. Gargano is way better in these kind of minor key matches than he is in some bloated TakeOver mess (I assume, there is no way I am watching an Adam Cole match unless he is against a punter).


2020 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Oney Lorcan is Still Here

Oney Lorcan vs. Santos Escobar 205 Live 7/2 (Aired 7/10/20)

ER: I had skimmed through Night 2 of NXT's Great American Bash before watching this, and was able to briskly get through the show because all of the big matches (Cole/Lee, Gargano/Scott) were just the worst kind of 50/50 move trading and anticipated missed offense so I didn't have to actually spend time watching them. It was brutal and I'm happy I decided not to gut it out. And right HERE is a cool match outside of the now cookie cutter brand match structure, happening the same week as that show, where Escobar takes a huge portion of the match without Lorcan looking down and out defeated. Lorcan had his arm wrapped because of his match with Thatcher, which Escobar goes right after, and even though Lorcan is still able to pepper in hard strikes he is clearly hesitant to throw those strikes due to his bad arm. It's an easy story and one they both work effectively. Lorcan tries to end things quick out of desperation but it quickly put on the defense because of his arm. The match benefits huge from not just dancing from spot to spot, but with both guys fighting back in between spots. The first half of this especially has hard little shots thrown in as spots are about to happen, making the whole match feel more like a fight. Escobar worked some mean stuff on Lorcan's arm, including a snap suplex trapping his arm, and a crossface sub while working a cravat. He runs Lorcan's arm into the ring post and hits a cruel splash on Oney's arm on the apron. Lorcan realizes he's going down so he might as well do his best to fight out of it, so goes for broke with big chops and a heavy uppercut and a nice whipping blockbuster. It ain't enough, and I like how Escobar caught him with a cool armbreaker when Lorcan was slowed due to using his arm, and loved how Lorcan died on that sword.


Oney Lorcan/Danny Burch/Mansoor vs. Chase Parker/Matt Martel/Tehuti Miles 205 Live 7/21 (Aired 7/24/20)

ER: This is the kind of quick paced 8 minute trios match they should have on TV every week, the kind of match where all six guys are given something cool to do. Ever-Rise have become favorites of mine, a total WCW Worldwide C team getting regular WWE TV time, but they're really smart about being in the right place, cheering each other loudly from the apron, getting shown up on armdrags, and stooging for babyface comebacks. They have a couple nice double teams, like Chase Parker's elbow after a Matt Martel drop toehold, or their Samoan drop/neckbreaker combo they do to Burch before Lorcan flattens them both with a dual blockbuster. This is the kind of team that never would have made a WWE roster even 10 years ago, and I'm really happy there's a place for them now. Tehuti is a great heel foil for all of the babyfaces, and I'm always a sucker for heels who don't really have offense. He knows right where to be to violently take Mansoor's slingshot DDT, has a perfect catch on Mansoor's excellent tornillo, gets folded over by a Burch German suplex, and then takes over with learned behavior after holding the ropes on a second Mansoor slingshot attempt. I love a heel who takes over a match by letting a babyface crash and burn on something that he scouted, then tries to win with a backslide. Lorcan's energy is always going to be something that stands out in an energetic match like this, and his double blockbuster came at the perfect moment. But this was a six person performance in the most fun way.


Oney Lorcan vs. Ridge Holland vs. Damian Priest NXT 7/29 (Aired 8/5/20)

ER: This is a weird match for Lorcan to be in, arguably the weirdest on paper match in his entire WWE run. Lorcan used to be used (and was great) in matches as the underdog against a larger bully. It was a good formula for him, but he hasn't been in that formula for a couple years now, instead being paired with workers more his size. He also feels out of place in the match from a storyline standpoint. He is a guy who loses singles matches to anyone larger than him. He wins tag matches half the time, and loses singles matches to larger opponents all of the time. It is established that he is never an easy win, so perhaps that is enough to justify having him in this match - I like seeing him as much as I can, so I don't totally care - and that feels like they're continuing to slowly work him up the card. If you view his WWE career as a whole it does look like a nice slow burn.

And the match is as cool and fun as those Lorcan/monster matches, although it would have played better as a Holland/Lorcan singles match. The weak parts of the match were all because of Priest. He is 2020 Edge. Edge mainlined late 90s flowery indy offense, and Priest wrestles like Edge reappropriating UWFI striking into a stupider overacting Edge style of UWFI. It's shitty as hell when he gets too into that mode, but it's undeniable that he is goofy strike combo terrible in-ring acting Edge. Luckily, that only affected the weak parts of the match, and most of the match was very strong. Three ways have been passé for far more years than they were relevant and novel, but there is still potential for excitement in layout, big cutoffs, and close nearfall saves. Lorcan is the one that gets disposed of, but he gets as many licks as anyone here. He crashes into both with a great tope con hilo, times he blockbuster excellently, throws hard uppercuts, builds to throwing some of his all time best flying uppercuts. He was sending his whole body crashing into Holland, and Holland was a really great brick wall to crash into. His strikes and shoulderblocks looked good, he had no problem leaning into things, and he annihilates Lorcan on a clothesline to kill a Lorcan run. Priest also has a mix of Edge offense in addition to his "If Edge Had Seen a Takada Comp Tape in 1997" strikes, but he actually does a lot of that better than Edge did his offense. I really liked his big sitout chokeslam here. If your offense has to be a dumb twist of an established move, at least actually looking like you can lift someone impressively helps things immensely. He does that. And even with Priest's chest punch kick combos awkwardly shoehorned in, this match smoked.

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