This was taped 6/19/19 at the Royal Albert Hall in London, England.
The NXT video is now being used – The Brand acts fast.
0. Ligero vs. Mike Hitchman
This match was aired on YouTube. Ligero is over. I was not expecting “Wild Boar” Mike Hitchman. I liked him a lot – a throwback look that shouldn’t be a throwback look because more wrestlers should look like him. Sells well in between stuff, moves well, wears a boar costume on his way to the ring – I am into this. He feels like what Sami Callihan should’ve tried to be before he got weird. A fine match, but I’m really all about this Hitchman fella. **1/2
1. NXT Tag Team Title: The Undisputed Era (Roderick Strong & Kyle O’Reilly) [c] vs. Moustache Mountain (Tyler Bate & Trent Seven)
Strong and O’Reilly are in a groove and it sure is swell to see what they can do when their opposition is super over. All these fellas have some excellent chemistry and it resulted in an epic wrestling match. It started well with Seven selling big, it got great once Bate got a hot tag, and it got beautiful as they headed home.
Seven has gotten way better at selling and is a much more expressive guy than last year, which worked when most of the match was him taking a beating. The beating was solid too – I could sense anger from the crowd when O’Reilly was laying in those palm strikes on Seven, and the VELOCITY of Roddy’s wrecking ball dropkick shattered my world.
Bate pulled off the hot tag like a pro – in between him not doing much all year, it’s easy to forget what an impressive wrestler he is – smooth, light on his feet, likable, STRONG. The deadlift German suplex to Roddy with O’Reilly on his back was inhuman. Great near falls towards the end too, gave me an All Japan mid-90s vibe – the break on the lariat/Dragon suplex should be studied in wrestling school.
O’Reilly and Bate just ripping each other up… beautiful. The Seven diving save for Bate… beautiful. Bate’s perfect koppou kick to take Roddy out… beautiful. The HEAT as Moustache Mountain set up their finish and the POP for the win – beautiful. ****1/4
Great call by Nigel too.
2. Charlie Morgan vs. Killer Kelly
None of this seemed completely ready for prime time, though Kelly can kick some ass and is a wrestler I like when she is doing that and not running through wrestling drills. Morgan’s willingness to just flop to the outside off that boot was wild. At some point, it might be good to see Killer Kelly be a killer. *1/2
Johnny Saint just casually deciding that he wanted to change the 3-way match was some business. The reaction to Noam Dar was mind-boggling after seeing him on 205 Live for the last year.
3. WWE U.K. Title #1 Contender Fatal 4-Way Match: Mark Andrews vs. Travis Banks vs. Flash Morgan Webster vs. Noam Dar
This was a crowd-pleasing multi-guy match highlighted by each guy doing what they do – Noam Dar being a shit, Mark Andrews flying around, Flash Webster flying around, Travis Banks doing kicks where he slaps his leg real hard. Noam Dar’s finish still looks like shit. **3/4
The Coffey Boys attack was neat – good way to intro a couple fellas.
4. NXT North American Title: Adam Cole [c] vs. Wolfgang
Sixteen men just battled for one shot at the WWE U.K. Title, while Wolfgang just waltzes back into WWE after six months with a shot at the North American Title. What’s going on here? This was a match between two wrestlers who don’t really do anything for me having a match that didn’t really do anything for me – go figure. Wolfgang’s beating, Cole being a default babyface – nothing really worked. At least everybody got to scream Adam Cole, Bay-Bay. **
5. Aleister Black & Ricochet vs. EC3 & Velveteen Dream
Velveteen Dream comes off like such a superstar, a guy where every movement of joints has thought behind it and exudes this Dream character, a guy who feels like a throwback to all that is great about the 80s combined with all that is great about the 00s, a guy who will wear a t-shirt under his t-shirt so that when he rips off his t-shirt he can still be wearing a t-shirt. There were a couple minutes of ugly awkwardness towards the end though and I think it all might’ve been Dream’s fault. Anyways – this was a solid tag with four great characters that hit all the right notes and had some very on-brand spectacular stuff from Ricochet. Dug the Black/Ricochet dueling sit spot and Dream getting the entire crowd on their feet for an elbow drop to the floor only to deny them the most. ***1/4
6. NXT Women’s Title: Shayna Baszler [c] vs. Toni Storm
All in on Baszler coming to the U.K. to punish a local and make the crowd really angry. Baszler is an excellent character wrestler and Storm’s Euro wrestling being able to match up against her until it didn’t was a fine story to tell. Storm’s selling was great too – her scream of pain after the stomp to her ankle had a feel of “WHY?” to it. Her making a comeback, refusing to lose, and still going for the win despite the fucked ankle was special stuff. The POP for when she rolled out of the sleeper was incredible. We need a rematch and the finish set one up well. ***3/4
7. WWE U.K. Title: Pete Dunne [c] vs. Zack Gibson
Pete Dunne is a GOD here, just having an a great title match with a guy I’m not completely sold on. His rise up with his dukes up after a beating in the corner was Hogan-esque in all the best possible ways. Not sure if Gibson got over enough over these 2 days for the home stretch to work as well as it could’ve though. The crowd was buying a possible title change after the Bitter End kickout, but it was less “oh shit he’s gonna win” and more “no seriously please don’t do this.” Gibson went after the arm, as he is to do, especially considering it’s worked for him three times. It resulted in Dunne cementing dramatic babyface selling on his list of skills. His bump on the lungblower was incredible too. Big Match Pete is one of our finest wrestlers. ***1/2
As with last year, Night 2 was a step up over Night 1. Heck of a show – excellent Tag Title and Women’s Title matches with a strong undercard and main event to round it out. Cole/Wolfgang and Morgan/Kelly were weak spots, but more outliers than anything that actually hurt the show. A fine introduction for this new brand of WWE sports entertainment. 8/10
