I exhausted all of my words gushing over this week’s episode so let’s get right into this week’s Power Rankings!
Honorable Mention: Moustache Mountain, Ashton Carter & Oliver Smith and Danny Jones & Josh Morrell. Bate & Seven may be from England but they welched on their promise last week to give Smith & Carter a rematch. They said they’d instead let them earn it by having two singles matches instead. I like Moustache Mountain being more heel-ish here and that they didn’t just go the Champions’ Contenders match road which I DESPISE on the main roster. Bate will face Carter which is cool because they’re the smaller, faster paced of their teams and while not formally announced it’s assumed Seven will face Smith which makes sense with their promo before their first clash when they mentioned Seven being such an influence on Smith. Danny Jones and Josh Morrell make it for having a good showing in a relatively quick match with Symbiosis. Jones has looked good in losses before and I hope he starts getting more time. This was the first I’ve seen of Morrell but he impressed me with his quickness and agility. Their highlight was Morrell standing on Jones’ shoulders in the corner, Jones stepping more towards the middle of the ring and then Morrell nailing a sweet looking Spiral Tap off his partner. I hope they get to become a more steady team, they showed a lot of potential.
5. Wolfgang. The lone good member of Gallus came into Sid Scala’s office asking for a match that can get him to the next level. As Scala was in the middle of an annoucement when Wolfgang came in he finished it by saying Wolfgang would get his wish when he faces NXT 2.0’s Roderick Strong next week. I don’t want Diamond Mine broken up but if there’s an informal trade of A-Kid for the “Messiah of the Back Breaker” that feels like a fairly even swap that will give both guys a lot of fresh, fun match-ups while giving the younger guy with more upside the bigger stage. Everyone wins. Even Wolfgang.
4. Noam Dar. He lost the first fall to Joe Coffey but won the following two via roll-up in the third round and Nova Roller in the fifth to retain his Heritage Cup Championship. Seeing as to how this was a match involving the street thug Coffey brothers don’t expect many exciting moves to recap. The one highlight was Coffey and Dar brawling outside at the end of round 4 and having to be pulled back to their corners which I can’t recall seeing in prior Cup matches. And I’m always a sucker for Sha having the flask when he seconds Dar rather than the water bottle every other second uses.
3. Wild Boar. After terrifying that truck driver and getting my hopes up that he might be the Yeti the last two weeks Wild Boar returned with a chair in hand and beat down both members of Symbiosis & Eddie Dennis to avenge Dennis tossing him in the trash one year ago. I haven’t seen much of Wild Boar but they’ve sold me on him getting his hands on Dennis. He looks like a smaller, wilder (pun absolutely intended) version of Wolfgang. I’m excited to see what he can do.
2. A-Kid. He and Charlie Dempsey kicked off the show in an empty BT Sports Studio but these 2 deserve a packed NFL stadium and a WrestleMania stage one day. They’re two of the brightest young stars in wrestling and should be shining brighter in a different sky. After the news of him coming stateside to NXT 2.0 was broken this week one can only think this might have been at least a temporary swan song for him on the WWE’s best brand and if it was this was a heck of a way to go out. He took the loss but not for a lack of effort. He and Dempsey literally went hold for hold and if not for Rohan Raja who knows how this could have ended?!
1. Charlie Dempsey. You might be tired of hearing me beat the “He’s a phenom” drum for ole Chucky D but I’m smashing it like John Bonham. I’ve said since the first time I saw he and Dempsey that these are two guys who make me like a style of wrestling I never liked before and tonight just reaffirmed that. There were so many clever, creative and fresh holds and reversals that I can’t even begin to list them all. However, one of the must see ones was Dempsey bridging out of a hold and A-Kid then literally standing on a bridging Dempsey who remained absolutely unphased. It was such a badass spot and just reminded me that the series finale of pro wrestling needs to end with Hook v. Dempsey. Dempsey also had a beautifully brutal spot where he locked in Cattle Mutilation and without ever letting go circled his bridged body 360° clockwise to wretch in the hold that much more. The end of this battle finally came after Rohan Raja came over the barricade (initially Dempsey said he didn’t need Die Famile, this was between him and A-Kid) and shoved Kid back first into the ring post on the floor before tossing him back in so Dempsey could lock in his nasty looking modified bow & arrow neck choke/leg lock combo. Give me a best of 7 with these guys ASAP!
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