At Vendetta 50, in 2018, Denis was saving his right arm for his match against Andrey Pushkar ( a more interesting opponent if you ask me )
Alas, the "fight" never happened. Andrey died in a car crash on his way to the airport right before the contest.
Could Denis have faced Larratt right-armed instead ? No idea. Maybe the suits and their paperwork would not allow it. Maybe common decensy factored in : having Devon immediately replace Pushkar just 5 days after his passing was bad taste. Notice the black armband that many competitors wore that night.
Regarding tonight's match, the outcome isn't exactly a shocker. Most industry experts ( fellow pro-competitors and the likes ) didn't see Denis winning this time around.
Still, Larratt absolutely destroyed him.
The thing that got really cringey and cheesy was Larrat's WWE beef with Denis. It all started when Cyplenkov, who had grown tired of Devon's shit-talking theatrics, asked Devon to come in dressed as a clown to the contest. That was the excuse Larratt was waiting for to go full Thunderdome on Denis, making fun of his health and life expectancy etc. ( dick move, Devon, dick move.)
The "clown controversy" was massively blown out of proportion due to cultural misinterpretations. That comment was never meant to be as disrespectful as it sounded. In Amercian English, calling someone a "clown" is obviously extremely offensive and unprofessional. In Russian, calling Larratt a clown was merely a way for Denis to make fun of his social media antics - he basically called him out for acting like a court jester/joker, instead of solely focusing on the athlete side of the equation. Denis always praised Larratt for his athletic excellence and made it clear that he took him very seriously.
Arm wrasslin' is serious business.....
