NXT UK is OK.
The 11/28 Part 1 show might’ve been the best overall yet, as it was pretty much straight wrestling with matches that mostly delivered capped off by an excellent main event.
In the last two weeks, the NXT UK Women’s Title Tournament concluded and Pete Dunne defended his UK Title against Jordan Devlin. The Coffey Boys and Wolfgang were still being rascals. And though there’s a lot of place-setting, nothing has really happened yet and the ultra-formula in-ring style all over the show is concerning.
Pete Dunne vs. Jordan Devlin for the UK Title from NXT UK 11 was the peak of this group, while Tyler Bate vs. Joe Coffey and the NXT UK Women’s Title Tournament Finals were both fun matches kind of worth watching.
Oh, and I think Vic Joseph might’ve coined “NXT UK Universe” on the Dunne/Devlin episode.
NXT UK 9 (11/21/18)
Rhea Ripley is 22 but has Pete Dunne Syndrome where she has the aura of a grizzled veteran. Her UK Women’s Title Tournament Quarter Final match with Xia Brookside was alright – the rana catch into the buckle bomb was very nice and Xia has this thing where she’s all colorful and little and there’s your hook man. She kept kicking out of stuff until she couldn’t. Nice.
Eddie Dennis squashed Jack Starz and Dennis remains a scary tall dude. If he wasn’t tall, he’s Mac from It’s Always Sunny. But good for him, he’s tall.
Love the Wild Boar, the camera work on him charging to the ring was awesome. He had a fun match with Mark Andrews that I might be overrating because I like Wild Boar so much.
He drops a fat boy senton on the apron which is the only acceptable apron spot. He also kind of adorably completely catches Andrews on a moonsault to the floor, though it makes the impact of the dive look like crap.
Toni Storm vs. Isla Dawn was not good – Isla did a beatdown that was practically easy-going then Toni hit 3 moves and won.
Ligero vs. Jordan Devlin was a match of fine wrestlers that aren’t quite compelling TV main event sports entertainers. But the fine wrestling was fine – when Ligero’s flying stuff hits it hits and Devlin is a guy that feels like he’s always getting better. There was a sweet near fall off of Ligero’s splash and they even got themselves a This is Awesome chant. This is like a a few of the standout UK matches – it’s kinda good and the crowd digs it, but it feels like it’s missing something to be like “yeah this is all working.”
NXT UK 10 (11/21/18)
Rhea Ripley vs. Dakota Kai in the NXT UK Women’s Title Tournament Semi Final was a battle of everybody’s strengths – Rhea dished out a beating and Dakota did underdog stuff. Very much enjoyed Riley putting Kai on the turnbuckle, patting her on the head, and getting a kick to the face. There were a lot of head kicks and physicality and the finish felt like the end of a fight.
Mark Andrews & Flash Morgan Webster vs. Joseph Conners & Saxon Huxley was not great, but if I’m being honest main roster WWE could use more matches like this where lower-tier guys get aa showcase.
Aaaaand Conners turned on Huxley.
It kills me that I cannot rain acclaim on BOMBER Dave Mastiff vs. Tyson T-Bone but here we are. It was a decent big boy match but not the total hoss war I needed.
I just learned that Toni Storm and Jinny have only been working for 3 years and honestly that’s incredible. Their match was solid – it was another Storm match with her selling and it was no Baszler match but a lot better than the Dawn match as Jinny will beat some ass. There was some good back-and-forth near the end, highlighted by a crazy head drop facebuster off the second rope and Toni’s foot-on-the-rope pin escape off Jinny’s koppou kick.
NXT UK 11 (11/28/18)
This is the aforementioned show that might be the best so far. I need another set of eyes on this stuff though.
Xia Brookside & Millie McKenzie vs. Killer Kelly & Charlie Morgan was OK. I like all four of these guys’ potential, I’m just not confident NXT UK is the place to develop that potential. Xia is spunky and I dig Billie’s young AJPW fan thing. Morgan can do a mean wristlock headstand, while Killer Kelly is such a straightforward entity that I feel compelled to just enjoy everything she is doing.
I liked Ashton Smith vs. Eddie Dennis. Smith is a classic generic indy guy but has those often-mentioned “tools” necessary to be good at wrestling. Dennis meanwhile mostly wrestles as his creepy character would wrestle and I like that.
Joseph Conners vs. Saxon Huxley deserves props as these guys cut the shit and started brawling right away. It ended up a pretty cool match – of course it had a chinlock but they kept it rough around the edges and made a good go at an intense brawl. If this feud had more than a week build it might be Really Good as opposed to merely… Good.
Pete Dunne had another great NXT UK Title match which is a little redundant at this point. There’s something to be said for young Peter embracing the darker aspects of the annoying overkill era of wrestling (c’mon man no reverse ranas you’re better than this), but he and Jordan Devlin still brought it. It was a pair of cranky dudes stretching and hitting each other hard within the confinements of modern day indy madness.
There were Spanish Fly’s and reverse ranas and triangle choke counters of moonsaults, but there was also a spot where Devlin went for a standing moonsault, missed, and Dunne stepped on his hand to keep him from moving, then stomped on his hand a bunch. I thought Devlin simply rolling away from a cover after Dunne countered his quebrada with an elbow (!) was just marvelous. It all built to a wild, dramtic, overwhelmingly wild finish until Dunne bent Devlin’s hand into a tapout. Heck of a wrestling match.
NXT UK 12 (11/28/18)
Tyler Bate vs. Joe Coffey was the first time I went OK maybe the Joe Coffey thing makes sense. Bate doesn’t get a tone of airtime but you forget sometimes the guy can really deliver too. They got time and kept it high energy for pretty much all of it. Bate entering the ring, throwing his dukes up, and just throwing jabs as the bell rang was an excellent start to a wrestling match. And I’ve seen a lot of them but he deadlift airplane spin on big Joe was impressive.
Pete Dunne saving his boys from The Coffey Brothers & Wolfgang was a sweet little angle.
Ligero vs. Dan Maloney was not great TV.
Zack Gibson & James Drake vs. Amir Jordan & Kenny Williams was a match of milestones: Amir dance, chinlock, chinlock, Gibson being a dick, chinlock, hot tag, the end. If anything, James Drake has finally been slightly defined and that’s a plus.
The NXT UK Women’s Title Tournament Finals took place in the form of Toni Storm vs. Rhea Ripley and it wasn’t some banger but it was a simple solid match with a simple solid finish. Rhea worked over Toni’s back after a back body drop on the apron which was a nice setup, and Rhea is a suitably aggressive back worker over. Then Storm couldn’t lift Rhea for the Storm Zero, so Rhea hit the Riptide and won.
I did find myself confused by badass Rhea Ripley being emotional over her championship win and hugging Triple H and Johnny Saint and whatnot. That seemed like a dumb thing to air on the WWE Network.
