Last time in the last Best and Worst of NXT UK: It was a month ago, and not much was happening, and I took a break from doing these. But now they’re building in earnest toward TakeOver Blackpool, so it seems like a good time to jump back in. If you’d like to read previous installments of the Best and Worst of NXT UK, click right here. Follow With Spandex on Twitter and Facebook. You can also follow me on Twitter if you want.
And now, the Best and Worst of NXT UK from December 19, 2019.
Best: The Return Of Amir
Hey, Amir Jordan’s back from healing a shoulder injury! We can stop pretending that Kenny Williams is an exciting singles wrestler and focus on their tag team! As a longtime fan of dancing wrestlers, I obviously like Amir a lot. So I was happy to him him reunite with Kenny and get this win over the always-delightful Pretty Deadly. Considering how crowded the Tag Title Scene is at the moment, I doubt Williams and Jordan have anywhere to go from here, but I’m fight with them having recurring lower card matches for now.
Best: Trying To Make Eddie Dennis Happen
I thought about giving this a “Worst” just so there’d be a Worst on the card, but honestly I can’t do that to a Trent Seven segment. Currently I’m not very excited by the villainous return of Eddie Dennis, a former schoolteacher who pretty much looks like a schoolteacher no matter how many tattoos he gets or how he cuts his hair. I might actually be more into him as a heel if his character was a stern headmaster, always telling Tyler Bate to sit up straight and Flash Morgan Webster to spit out his gum.
But if anyone can make me care about Eddie, it’s Trent. Trent Seven is basically perfect in all ways except I wish he’d wear socks. So I’m up for this feud, let’s see how it goes.
Best: Three Women
This threeway feud for Women’s Championship, on the other hand, is between three women I unreservedly love. Kay Lee Ray is the villain, desperate to hang on to her Title. Piper Niven is the hero, proving herself worthy. And in between is Toni Storm. Ever since Kay Lee first showed up in NXT UK, they’ve made a point of talking about how she and Toni used to be best friends. That’s what enabled Ray to hurt her so badly in their title feud that she disappeared for months. But now that Storm’s being so unwelcoming to Niven, it will make a dark sort of sense if she ends up fully turning heel and siding with Kay Lee. Even without taking the next match into account, NXT UK is right up there with NXT Domestic in building women’s storylines, and way better than Raw or Smackdown.
Best: Jinny Alone
Jinny has a solo match against Amale, whose name I was disappointed to learn is apparently pronounced like it’s spelled, because I was reading it as sounding just like Amelie. She doesn’t really matter, though. She’s just here so Jinny can win a match clean, without Jazzy’s help. That’s something she’s been needing, especially with where things go after the match.
After winning, Jinny has Jazzy attack the defeated Amale. Jazzy does what she’s told at first, but when Jinny tells her to keep the violence up, Jazzy refuses and walks away. And that’s why we needed to be reminded that Jinny can actually wrestle — so we only expect Jazzy to almost certainly beat her in their now-inevitable match, instead of definitely murdering her with her big German hands.
In all seriousness, this split was a little abrupt, and I imagine we’ll get a scene or two of Jinny trying to make things right with Jazzy before their differences lead to violence. I think everybody in the NXT UK Universe (the UKayniverse) is ready for babyface Jazzy, and I’m happy we’re already on our way there.
Best: WALTER Is The Palpatine Of Wrestling
WALTER’s plans are beyond the understanding of mere mortal men who weren’t pieced together from corpses in Austrian windmill-labs. As he explains disdainfully to Radzi, he’s not concerned about his own title match. He’s much more interested in Alexander Wolfe decimating Ilja Dragunov in two weeks, because that victory will enable Imperium to crush Gallus once and for all. I’m sure that will go smoothly, because heels’ plans never go awry in wrestling.
Best: Dar Gets Bated, Devlin’s Bait
Tyler Bate with Noam Dar in the main event. Pretty much any Tyler Bate main event is going to be great wrestling, he’s long since proven that. Dar, little snot that he is, makes a particularly good opponent for him. Tyler has a very impressive physique by the way, but Noam’s torso looks like it was perfecting using CGI. It’s wild.
But even this excellent match is really just to set up Jordan Devlin coming out at the end, to build to his match with Tyler at Blackpool. Dar’s a solid foil for the Big Strong Boy, but Jordan’s his sworn nemesis. That’s going to be a solid TakeOver match.
That’s all for this installment. Join me after Christmas when Alexander Wolfe fights Ilja Dragunov, as the build to TakeOver: Blackpool heats up!
