WWE Big 3: Lorcan, Gallagher, Gulak 4/12-4/25/20

Oney Lorcan vs. Aleister Black WWE Raw 4/13

ER: Lorcan is turning up on every damn show these days (Willing to die? Live in Tampa? Your ticket to the main roster starts now!) and I love how competitive this was. Black has been making quick work of guys lately and I am so very thankful that wasn't the case here. Lorcan was presented as Black's equal and that's alright by me. I expected this to go a couple minutes and it somehow took us through a commercial break, and I was into all of the headlocks we got to start. If a match has a moment where someone tries to push out of a headlock, but the headlocker holds on? I'm almost certain to like the match and what they're going for. Lorcan holds onto a couple of them here, and dishes some nice uppercuts and chops when they're apart. In some ways Black worked this like the underdog, going for schoolboys and bailing out of holds, and that felt like a cool nod to Lorcan's ability. Every time it looked like Black would pull away, hitting a quebrada, kicking Lorcan to the floor, kicking to get out of subs, Lorcan would fire back with something else. My favorite bit of home stretch Lorcan offense was a big damn lariat, love when a guy I'm sure is losing gets an awesome last gasp. I didn't love the final strike exchange that lead to the winning Black Mass, but loved that we got this as a serious match.


Jack Gallagher vs. El Hijo Del Fantasma WWE NXT 4/22

ER: This was a cool style clash, had a real "Hey these guys are both on the WCW roster and they randomly crossed paths on Thunder for 8 minutes" feel to it. It didn't really seem like it had a specific goal or story in mind, and that's what gave it that fun carefree WCW "go out there and do some cool stuff in the 6th quarter hour" vibe. This was Fantasma's TV debut and he needed a guy to show off his cool stuff against, and Gallagher is a cool guy to eat a few clotheslines, eat a plancha, fly out of the ring after taking a nice superkick, and then eat a big tope. I would have liked to see them work some conflicting matwork, Fantasma's lucha upbringing with Gallagher's violent twisting, and we didn't get that. WWE does not bring in luchadors to do flashy matwork, but I liked Gallagher routinely yanking Fantasma around by the mask, kicking him across the shoulderblades, and more mask yanking. Gallagher's big headbutt was the highlight of the match for me, that perfect Zidane arc that landed flush, and whenever I see something look that good I always just want it to be the finish. This was clearly going to be a Fantasma showcase, and that's cool, but I'd like to see them run this back without the need to get someone over in their debut.


Drew Gulak vs. Baron Corbin WWE Smackdown 4/24

ER: This was really cool. even though I obviously wanted a different result. This was a major change from the 2-3 minute matches Gulak was getting on Smackdown at the end of 2019, and really illustrates the important difference 3 extra minutes can make. It was tough to write about a 2 minute Gulak match against Braun, because what more can I say other than "Well it was cool the way Gulak hit that one punch before that truck ran over him and then also backed over him." A few extra competitive minutes takes the sting off a Gulak loss, and while it was a loss and it would have been cool to see him featured at Money in the Bank, this was not a clean win for Corbin. An optimist could argue that the tide was clearly turned for Gulak when Nakamura and Cesaro interfered, and that the match was professionally laid out. I thought Corbin had some cool stuff here that Gulak fed into really well, like that dope unrolling powerslam that spun Gulak into the mat, or the nicely pulled off Boss Man lariat around the ringpost (and for all the crap Corbin takes he's maybe the only guy I've seen post Boss Man who can pull that off without a hitch), the End of Days looked crushing, and he had some smaller things like a cool blocked strike that lead to a wicked kidney punch. Corbin as counter striker to Gulak would make for a great match.

But Gulak looked like his equal for much of this, and I loved how Corbin took a lot of Gulak's offense. We got some cool stuff on the floor with Gulak hitting a hard dropkick to send Corbin flying over the announce table, and Gulak hitting a leg whip that sent Corbin into the ring steps, and later flying off those ring steps with his nice diving lariat into Cesaro. I'm always going to be into a guy who utilizes parts of the ring and surrounding area, and Gulak is good at that. There were also a couple of strong Gulak nearfalls, including a convincing schoolboy and a great crossbody. And maybe the coolest part of the match was when Gulak's strikes really started landing, and he backed Corbin into the corner with a series of nasty forearm strikes to Corbin's chest, and the forearms all looked powerful enough to actually back up Corbin. Those forearms blossomed into bigger strikes and I loved the visual of Gulak having Corbin literally on the ropes. Silver lining: hopefully this loss and his strong presentation just lead to an actual cool match at MITB, as I'd rather see him in a cool singles than a big ladder match anyway.