Jack Gallagher vs Drew Gulak
My two favourites in the division here. Enjoyed the opening
exchanges on the mat, managed to showcase how both guys are very close in
technique, but Gulak’s hot-headedness at Gallagher’s ways would cost him as he
ran headfirst into Jack’s traps. Loved the rolling crucifix, where they cycled
around the ring. Though it wasn’t portrayed as such by the commentary team, who
saw it as the two men battling for supremacy, it felt more like Gallagher
disorientating Gulak and trying to get the pin. Gulak gets a few nice moments,
starting with a nasty looking slam into the ropes. This gives him an opening by
hurting Gallagher’s neck, which briefly becomes his focus. I liked the way they
exchanged strikes, only a few blows, but treated as if they really hurt,
culminating with Gallagher’s bullet headbutt. This gives him the opening for
the corner dropkick to win. Criminally short, but what we got was great.
Lince Dorado vs Mustafa Ali
Very brief, and not anything exciting. Dorado does a
pre-match interview promising to do things you’ve never seen before, but
certainly here he does nothing to distinguish himself from any other generic
high flier. Ali had the better moments here, slinkily avoiding Dorado in the
corner to hit a big roundhouse kick and a rolling neckbreaker. Dorado’s offence
looks a bit milky and his handspring stunner is clunky. His big top rope rana
was pretty good though. The end sees Dorado hit an Asai moonsault to the floor
and it puts both guys out of commission for the double count out. Kinda makes
Dorado look like an idiot by putting himself out of action.
TJ Perkins vs Rich Swann
This was fine, but definitely the weakest main event of this
show so far. Felt the most inconsequential. The opening exchanges were quite
fun, liked Perkins showing some subtle frustration early on. Perkins’ slingshot
dropkick to the apron always looks nice, and Swann seemed to do a bit more
highflying than he has in previous weeks. His rolling thunder frogsplash looked
pretty good. I think being face vs face made this feel a bit more of an
exhibition and also affected the crowd reactions, so it was nice to see them
work in an injury to Swann’s leg to give the match a bit more story. He injures
it missing a moonsault to the floor and, following a sweet twisting pescado by
Perkins, it becomes the focal point of TJ’s attack. Swann makes a brief
comeback, but tries his leaping 450 like an idiot, causing his knee to buckle
on the first jump. This lets Perkins quickly lock in the kneebar for the tap.
Nothing particularly wrong with this, but not something you’ll remember for
long.
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