2021 Ongoing MOTY List: Strong vs. Dragunov

24. Roderick Strong vs. Ilja Dragunov NXT 8/17

ER: What a great Roderick Strong performance in a gritty NXT opener, Strong throwing some of the best strikes in the entire WWE calendar year, busting Dragunov open and landing every shot square. Dragunov is an annoying hambone and Strong bloodies him up bad and keeps up the beating. Strong had several nasty knee strikes, maybe the best kneelifts in current wrestling. Dragunov throws his own big knees to Strong's midsection and I am perfectly fine with two guys deciding who can knee the other harder in the stomach or kidneys. Strong also throws blistering chops, and seeing a stiff chop battle between them feels almost novel in a world of forearm exchanges. Whenever Ilja would start to make one of his dumb faces or do one of his dumb flourishes, Strong would be there to shut it down. The best was Ilja going for his rope feint but getting punched through by a running Strong dropkick before he even got midway through the ropes. When Ilja gets busted open it's an awesome visual, as he starts leaking out of his head and dripping a ton of blood down Strong's back while fighting for some big launch angle German suplexes. I didn't love the finish, as Strong hit the nastiest strike of the match to reverse Ilja's torpedo headbutt and it had to get ignored for the sake of the finish. The timing on it was spectacular, with Strong nailing a flying knee right as Ilja has flown into his headbutt, and it looked so rough that it 100% should have been the finish. But Ilja is the guy in a big singles match at the next TakeOver, so he just gets up and hits the headbutt anyway. I didn't like that. Still, a great 12 minute TV war and most of the theater kid stuff neutralized. 

PAS: I am just one hundred percent in on Ilja at this point. Like I said in my Ringer piece, I think he has transcended the shittiness of his faces and is now just the Crispin Glover of pro wrestling. Strong doesn't have a lot of charisma, so is a great foil for an over actor like Ilja. It's like Pacino doing line readings with underacting Keanu Reeves in The Devil's Advocate. Strong brutalizes Ilja's chest, he has some great pale skin to get bruised up. His gross blood adds a lot to the match, and I loved how fast Ilja can move, he has real fast twitch explosion. I didn't mind the finish. Dragunov's whole thing is how much brutality he can absorb, and I don't mind him eating a huge shot and continuing forward. Forward is his only gear so if he isn't dead he is coming at you.

2021 MOTY MASTER LIST