Brian Kendrick's Ready to Close His Eyes, Now He's Ready to Close His Mind

Brian Kendrick/Tony Nese/Noam Dar vs. Rich Swann/Akira Tozawa/Jack Gallagher (WWE Raw 5/1/17) - VERY GOOD

ER: They could have done more with this, and it eventually felt like everybody was rushing to the finish, but the work within was plenty fun with some nice moments. The commercial break really hurt the flow as they had to spill all the heels to the floor for the "Gallagher's team is rolling!" moment. Post break and things finally settle into a real match, with Kendrick grounding Swann and punching him viciously in the back of the head. Swann and Tozawa hit stereo dives and the camera crew manages to miss both, and we finally get to the Kendick/Gallagher showdown I wanted the whole match. Gallagher levels him with a headbutt from the apron and Nese gets a good save, and I think Kendrick is going to get the win over Gallagher with the bully choke, until Tozawa hits a great shining wizard to knock Kendrick off. I'm a sucker for good saves in a match, they always go a long with with me. Nese continues to slowly improve (I really need to get back to 205 Live...do I? Is it good? I haven't even been checking results...), and while this needed more Kendrick and Gallagher, it was still a solid trios.

Brian Kendrick/Drew Gulak vs. Mustafa Ali/Jack Gallagher (WWE Raw 7/17/17) - FUN

ER: This is a pretty generous "FUN" designation as the match itself is barely over 2 minutes long. But there are no faults with the ringwork, and in fact there are a few nice gem moments, they just occur in an overall meaningless match. I like Gulak's "No Fly Zone" gimmick, dug him screaming in with an elbow to knock Ali off the apron, and everything surrounding his tag in to Kendrick is great, with Gulak taking a flying leap thanks to Gallagher, all the way to the floor, and Kendrick tagging in on his way down. My favorite stuff of the match was the bit of Kendrick preventing Gallagher from getting to Ali, and Gallagher blasts Kendrick with a great KO headbutt. Ali's inverted 450 is an insane spot, the whole time it always seems like he's definitely going to snap his neck on the ropes, quite the high wire act. Still, 140 seconds? Fuck out of here with that.

Brian Kendrick/Jack Gallagher vs. Mustafa Ali/Cedric Alexander (WWE Raw 10/9/17) - FUN

ER: Sheesh, it took them long enough to give us the skinny pants team of Kendrick & Gallagher. That only took 10 months. I think they complement each other nicely as a team as both are really good at selling offense. I especially liked Gallagher selling a Cedric kick, stumbling around in a truly wonderful stumble, to give Cedric enough time to tag in Ali. Kendrick still gives me an awesome Tarek the Great vibe, and I liked his standing crossface punches. Ali is super smooth even if I think some of his stuff hits too light sometimes, and the rolling neckbreaker is a little overly complicated, but I like the kind of sloppiness Kendrick brought to the finish. It made him look like he was to hit Ali with a shoot Sliced Bread.

Brian Kendrick/Jack Gallagher vs. Cedric Alexander/Rich Swann (WWE TLC 10/22/17) - GREAT

ER: Love the Gallagher/Kendrick team. They both lean into dropkicks and bump big, really the perfect opponents for these two. As I type that Kendrick leans chin first into a Cedric dropkick and flies to the floor. Kendrick is a guy who can really put over things we take for granted, like nice chops. Gallagher gets popped by a (nice) Swann punch from the apron, allowing Kendrick to yank Swann off the ropes and onto his face. Gallagher locks on a snug cravate, grabbing onto Swann's braids, and Nigel talks about his fine Burberry duds. Our heels do a fine job of cheating to cut off the ring, which ends when Kendrick charges Swann and takes a huge backdrop bump over the top to the floor. Kendrick not only yanks Cedric out of the ring to save Jack from a pin, but then catches a leaping Swann into a northern lights on the floor. Back in and Kendrick blasts Kendrick with a couple of great looking kicks and locks in the captains hook, which Swann breaks up with a freaking phoenix splash. Kendrick gets caught with a lumbar check and makes it look better than anybody but maybe Gallagher. I would've liked to see the heels get the win here, but we still got a quality tag, and probably Kendrick's best performance of the year.


COMPLETE & ACCURATE BRIAN KENDRICK 2014-PRESENT