WWE Big 3: Lorcan, Gallagher, Gulak 5/10-5/16/20

Jack Gallagher vs. Isaiah Scott NXT 5/13

ER: I'm not sure why all the matches in this NXT cruiserweight tournament are only getting 4 minutes, but perhaps I got too used to 20 minute long 205 matches. They...do know that there's a middle ground between those match lengths, right? The shorter length on this one at least makes sense, with Nese jumping Scott before the bell and running him ribs first into the ring steps. Scott did a nice job of selling a nagging rib over the short runtime, and I dug how we got a plausible finish right off the bell when Gallagher just plastering Scott with his running corner dropkick. Not only was it one of Gallagher's finest, but with the way Scott fell he was able to just get his boot on the ropes, instead of a silly dramatic 2.9 kickout. And the rest of this was all about Gallagher punching Scott's body with strikes, aiming several kicks to those ribs, included some doozies while Scott was seated on the apron. We built to a great moment where Gallagher missed a second big dropkick in the corner, then eating a great Killshot kick to the side of the head. I thought for sure that Scott was winning after that, after Gallagher flopped nose first to the mat. But I was mighty pleased when Gallagher hopped up and grabbed a guillotine, and then got to win with a roaring elbow. Scott sold it like he got hit with a Gallagher roaring elbow.


5. Drew Gulak vs. Daniel Bryan WWE Smackdown 5/15

ER: Just keep giving these two time, and I'm confident they'll keep pumping out a fresh new match every single time. Gulak and Bryan are real artists, have a wealth of talent and influences to build fresh matches from, and after already having the best match of 2020 they now also have the best Smackdown match of 2020 (and there have been some cool contenders). This is the kind of technical wrestling I'm not certain even a crowd of drunk bikers could shit on, and it's still unfathomable to me that Gulak and Bryan are doing some of their greatest all time matwork on WWE programming, making it clearly the best WWE matwork we've seen. The opening couple moments of rolling was some time capsule stuff, not one second of the rolling feeling performative, counters that actually felt like legitimate counters, contact that felt real. Guys being allowed to stretch out matwork is possibly the only blessing of the empty arena era. I almost thought they were going the flash tapout route early, when Bryan locked in one of his most snug Yes Locks I can remember, looking like he wanted to bend Gulak's nose to his ear. But Gulak made the ropes, and then I thought they were going flash tapout when Gulak locked in one of his most snug Gu-locks with him actually yanking Bryan's beard to lock it in tighter!

Gulak is really cool on control, drops a nice belly to back suplex, nice cradle, and a Michinoku driver with him dropping to his knees. It looked like something I remember Regal doing to Benoit. Bryan starts plotting his comeback throughout Gulak's control, setting up attacks on Gulak's knee that pay off the longer things go. Bryan has a cruel dragon screw, but Gulak stepping out of a dragon screw attempt was even cooler, but then Bryan snapping tendons with a counterclockwise dragon screw was impossibly cool. I love the subtle way Gulak sold a kneebreaker, and Bryan going back to that kneebreaker and using it in a trap leg German was a killer payoff. Love these two working go behind sequences early, paying that off late when Bryan runs Gulak into the ropes with a waistlock and skips him across the ring like a stone with a quick German. The finish stretch is as class as you'd expect from these two left to their own, with Gulak breaking out a big powerbomb and some clean and believable cradle reversals, but of course Bryan goes shies away from the reversed Yes Lock and just attacks that knee with a heel hook. More brilliant work from these two, seriously among the best of their respectively impressive careers.

PAS: What a swan song for Gulak, I mean this is as great a final performance as I can remember, and the fact he was able to orchestrate his last WWE match so he could go 14 minutes of hard mat work with his idol is amazing. What a triumph for the Catch Point movement. Loved all the cools spots worked around the tight headlock with Bryan nailing him with shinbreakers, it built really well towards everything. The trap leg german, the dragon screws and the killer finish. I just finished Jon Snowden's incredible Shamrock biography, so I especially appreciated the match ending with the Pancrase dueling leglocks. Bryan and Gulak clearly used the pandemic as an opportunity to work matches which might kill a WWE crowd, and it was such a pleasure to see. I can't imagine Gulak getting a chance to do this in AEW, so bizarrely his best chance to continue this kind of output is actually to re-sign with the WWE. What a world.


10. Jack Gallagher vs. Tony Nese 205 Live 5/15

ER: What a colossal performance from Gallagher, up there with his excellent performance in last month's match against Oney Lorcan. This is maybe even more impressive, if we consider the abilities of his dance partner in each match. I wouldn't say this was an entire one man show, as Nese has actually improved his game a lot over the past year, and there were cool things he added here. There were also things he did that could have taken away from a match with a lesser opponent, and those things are where Gallagher showed some real merit. The whole thing was built around some really great body shots, with Gallagher landing hard closed fists with both hands, and Nese showing off a really killer short left that kept landing in the same spot, like Nese was trying to cause a gallbladder malfunction. Jack gets a couple different reversals into ground and pound, and I love how Gallagher's ground and pound isn't just forearms striking forearms, instead mixing up shots and leading his opponent.

When Nese takes over, that's where Gallagher shines in a very different way, as he's maybe the only person I've seen who makes Nese's DDR kick/legsweep combo look interesting, actually occupying himself by selling the strikes in between rather than just standing there like a doof waiting for the next dance step. Nese even drops him on a backbreaker and Gallagher manages to salvage that, instead focusing on selling damage from prior strikes. Now as I said, it wasn't all bad with Nese, as I really dug his rolling dropdown to take out Gallagher's legs near the ropes, I liked his Macho Man leaping neck snap to the floor/moonsault combo (with Gallagher's selling making Nese's quick timing on the spot work well), he has a thrust directly into Gallagher's throat that is maybe the nastiest strike I've ever seen Nese throw, and at one point Nese grabs Gallagher in a grounded headlock that squished Gallagher's face so tight that it looked like Gallagher was having a bad peanut allergy reaction. Gallagher was great at switching from throwing hard kicks and more body shots, and I love him mixing up his headbutt strike by throwing it at Nese's weakened body instead of how he usually throws it. I've said before how great it is that Gallagher doesn't use his signature offense the same way every match, always mixing up order and not using everything he has in every match, and making it all mean different things by the way he incorporates it into a match. Also, it rules that Jack got to win two TV matches this week with a roaring elbow.

PAS: Probably the best Tony Nese match I can remember, and it wasn't 100% Gallagher (maybe 85%). I can tolerate some backflips if you are going punch someone right in the throat, and Nese was swinging some ham hocks into Gallagher's ribs. I am digging new ground and pound Jack, it is really cool that he is showing off other sides of his game now, and stiff violence is what works in silent arenas. Cutting off Nese's knee strike with that running headbutt was a spot of the year candidate and Gallagher has mastered making that headbutt look devastating. They really should just slot Gallagher right into Gulak's spot as Bryan's running buddy.


2020 MOTY MASTER LIST