10 Best Wrestling Matches Of 2020
5. WALTER Vs. Ilja Dragunov - NXT UK, October 29
A match so perfect for the imperfect empty arena that it was almost better for the silence, WALTER and Ilja Dragunov recognised the inherent flaw in this new context and worked a disgusting war around it.
WALTER is a giant and a killer. Ilja Dragunov is not as big nor as strong, nor even as skilled.
He did not enter the match with a single physical or technical advantage. Deepening the plight of an inherently dramatic dynamic, he had no way of strategising against a behemoth who was no lumbering presence he could out-run or out-work. WALTER can explode across the ring with a dropkick at the end of a gruelling match because he is a tremendous athlete with an otherworldly stamina. Dragunov was f*cked.
The beauty of the match is that he recognised it and sold it. His animated face is perfect to register those disturbing chops and forearms to the neck.
But he never accepted it.
Emerging from a nauseating beat-down like he'd just underwent a full body chemical peel, his face snarled in pure determination only for those knees to buckle. The silence amplified the brutality, creating an almost harrowing scene, and the drama intensified when WALTER and Dragunov introduced the neck-f*cking big guns down the stretch. This was paced fabulously. Positioned so well, the suplexes felt transgressive more than excessive. Dragunov did this with no energising crowd support: just pure resolve.
This was a major achievement.