It’s the most wonderful time of the year…
Yes, it’s Voices of Wrestling Secret Santa time again, everyone. The brainchild of JR Goldberg (@wrestlingbubble), VOW Secret Santa sees all participating website contributors give their fellow contributors, the greatest gift of all: wrestling matches!
VOW Secret Santa Archives: voicesofwrestling.com/category/vow-latest/columns/vow-secret-santa/
Mikey Nicholls vs Taylor King
August 28, 2021
EPW
Reviewed by Tyler Forness (@TheRealForno)
Gifted by Kevin Chiat (@kevinchiat)
I have very limited exposure to Australia’s pro wrestling scene. Mikey Nicholls is one wrestler I have had some exposure to. His work as Nick Miller as a part of TM61 in NXT was something that I enjoyed. It felt like that team was underutilized and having discussions with others about TMDK it feels like that is the consensus. His New Japan work left something to be desired, but he felt out of place more than anything. Taylor King is a wrestler I have never seen before. He looks like an indie guy who hasn’t been able to fully commit to wrestling full time yet. His body type reminds me of 2018 Ethan Page. It’s evident from the start that he’s better than Page in the ring.
This match feels like two equals fighting for the top prize in the company. They start exchanging head locks in the middle of ring and it quickly turns into a strike exchange. This is my kind of wrestling. Two guys just laying into each other. Throughout the match, neither man is able to fully gain control over the other. The turning point of the match came after Nicholls hit a death valley driver in the middle of the ring.
After a failed pin attempt, Nicholls goes to opposite corners. In one, he takes off the bottom turnbuckle pad and he took the top off of the top one. This would play into the finish. Right after this, King gains control and hits his finisher, which is essentially the One Winged Angel, except King called it the Achy Brakey Neck, which is an all-time great finisher name. Nicholls kicks out at 2.75 and King decides to take it to the top rope. Nicholls’ second, Amber, grabs his leg, distracting him. The ref goes to keep Amber out of it and King misses an avalanche senton. Nicholls picks him up, slams his head into the exposed turnbuckle twice with the ref distracted, hits his finisher and gets the win to retain his title.
Overall, this was a nice title defense between two guys who were fighting for the top prize in EPW. I personally hated the distraction type finish, but I might have hated it less if I were a follower of the promotion. The commentary made it seem like this was relatively normal.within storyline so I won’t punish the wrestlers. ***½. As for who gifted this match to me, we don’t have a ton of individuals who are well versed in Australia, so I will go with the resident expert Dr. Kevin Chiat.
