Last week on the Best and Worst of NXT UK: Mark Andrews and Flash Morgan Webster took on their friends Moustache Mountain in the main event.
Click here to watch the show on WWE Network. 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 May 1, 2019.
Worst: Now It’s This Guy
Interestingly, Mansoor wrestled on both NXT UK and regular NXT this week. As Brandon said over in his recap, Mansoor’s loss to Dominik Dijakovic at Full Sail helped establish him as a legit part of the roster. Here in the UK division (as taped at Axxess in NYC), he’s not part of the roster at all, and his match against Travis Banks mostly felt like filler set up to give the Kiwi Buzzsaw a win against somebody who we all knew would lose. Still, Mansoor is a good wrestler at the end of the day, so it could have been a lot worse.
Best: Building Characters
Watching Xia Brookside’s backstage promo this week, I was initially confused as to why it seemed so immature and slightly off-kilter and YouTube-esque. Then I remembered that Xia is practically a child. She’s only 20, and barely looks that old. So actually, yes, let Xia be the blue-haired Post-Millennial she is, and don’t mess with it. Let youth be her gimmick while it can be.
Similarly, Nina Samuels’ video leaned way into her theatrical roots and campy “drama kid” pretensions, which honestly worked better for me than attempts to build her character have in the past. Broadly speaking, I’m all about character-building. Exaggerate who these people are, and then sell us on those exaggerated versions. Considering this episode aired on Beltaine, I was a little disappointed there wasn’t a segment of Isla Dawn burning someone alive in her giant wicker man, but maybe we’ll get that in time for Midsummer.
Best: Horse Girl, Hoss Fight
Speaking of established characters, imposing leather-clad cowgirl Reina Gonzales showed up to challenge Piper Niven, and it was lot of fun. I like seeing Piper fight somebody who doesn’t look tiny next to her, and Reina’s one of those performers who seems full of potential and hasn’t gotten to shine that much yet. The winner was no more in dispute than in the Banks/Mansoor match, but here it felt like Piper had to struggle a bit, which is important for a babyface with so much potential for absolute domination. We need to see how hard Piper fights when she has to fight hard, and this match showed us that. Of course, once Niven managed to get the upper hand in the match, she refused to let it go. She was all clotheslines, crossbodies, and sentons until she got the chance to hit the Michinoku driver for the pin. Piper was the star of this match, just like she’s on the road to becoming a star of this show, but Reina could be a star herself if they give her the chance.
Best: A Lonely Impulse Of Delight
Jordan Devlin might be a heel, but he’s not an idiot or a coward. He challenged Walter for the WWE UK Championship because he thinks he deserves it, but he knows Walter’s not a normal man. Walter’s a Wrestling Frankenstein Monster, and as far as we know the only way to defeat him is to lure him into a windmill and burn it down. With that being out of the question since this wasn’t a Falls Count Anywhere Match, all Devlin could do was sneak up on Walter, hit him a bunch, and then run away. Jordan knew that the worst thing that could happen was getting caught in Walter’s huge hands, and of course that’s exactly what those of us watching were all waiting for.
I know there’s a pre-NXT history between these two, but I haven’t seen any of that. What I can tell you is that they had great chemistry here, and even though I knew for sure who was winning (a common issue with this week’s matches), there were moments when they really had me believing that Devlin might pull out the upset victory. But of course it was just a matter of time until the big man hit the Irish Ace with a deadly lariat followed by a powerbomb and put him away. After the match Pete Dunne came out and demanded a rematch for his lost title, and Walter was simply deleted to have another tiny human to toy with.
That’s all for this week. Join me next time when Kenny Williams and Amir Jordan get their shot against the Grizzled Young Veterans for the NXT Tag Team Champioship.
