Last time in the last Best and Worst of NXT UK: Kay Lee Ray sent Toni Storm a message, and Trent Seven cut the promo of his career. 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.
I really like doing these on Wednesday afternoon. Unfortunately, things have just been extra chaotic around here lately with our fearless leader ill, and that’s led to some delays. So bear with me through this late and possibly a bit abbreviated edition, and hopefully we’ll be back on track next week.
And now, the Best and Worst of NXT UK from July 17, 2019.
Worst: Zerquetschen
I know that matches like this are necessary. You’ve got a heel faction dominating the brand, so you need to show them being dominant, and not just WALTER. So Barthel and Aichner need to easily beat teams who can afford to take the loss, like delightful weirdos Saxton Huxley and Tyson T-Bone. I get what’s happening, and why, and I’ll even admit that it’s not a bad match. But as someone who always prefers the weirdos, none of that makes me enjoy watching the two Imperium guys easily beat people who I find way more entertaining that them. As far as Imperium goes, these two are the worst for this problem. I can get behind WALTER, childlike wrestling Frankenstein, and Alexander Wolfe, who used to be in my all-time favorite NXT faction and still carries some of that Chaos Energy. Aichner and Barthel are very good wrestlers, but they just seem like mean Europeans without a lot else going on.
Best: (Robert Altman, 1977)
On the other hand, this women’s storyline is full of pretty standard heel versus face tropes, but I like the performers involved enough to enjoy it anyway. On top of that, I’m always happy to see a secondary non-title women’s storyline get this much screen time on any WWE brand. Xia Brookside was excited to finally have a one-on-one match with Jinny so that she could hand out some comeuppance for all the trouble Jinny and Jazzy have been causing together. But of course she doesn’t really get that, because Jazzy’s still around. As small, slight women, Xia and Jinny look more evenly matched than either of them does against most other opponents. Their match has a lot of back and forth, and it really seems like it could go either way. Except it can’t because Jazzy Gabert’s at ringside, and all it takes is the ref looking away for a moment so that Jazzy can mess with Xia and help Jinny get a really shady-looking-pin.
Next week they’re adding Piper Niven, Toni Storm, and Kay Lee Ray to make a six-woman tag match, and I’d love nothing more than for Piper and Toni to keep the other heels busy while Xia gets some revenge on Jinny. Despite how things are going for her, this is a great storyline for getting Xia Brookside over. She’s a fantastic babyface, and it’s really easy to get behind her against the wicked cunning of Jinny and the brute strength of Jazzy Gabert. Come to think of it, this storyline is also doing great work in establishing that aforementioned cunning and strength for those characters.
Best: Old Friends Are The Toughest Foes
I’m always here for kayfabe acknowledgement of former indie wrestlers’ pre-WWE history. I was already on board for Kay Lee Ray versus Toni Storm, but it sure doesn’t hurt to see Toni speaking emotionally about her years of friendship with Kay Lee and her confusion at what an asshole her former best friend has become. And then for KLR to come out and no-sell the friendship, and just be as nasty as she’s been lately instead, that makes her seem so much colder. With all due respect to Rhea Ripley, this has quickly become my favorite NXT UK Women’s Championship feud to date.
I wrote above about how Xia Brookside and Jinny don’t always seem like a match for their opponents because of their slight builds, but somehow Kay Lee Ray doesn’t have that issue. She’s skinny, but she’s wiry and moves like some kind of nightmare creature. She also talks like she is completely sure she can kick just about anyone’s ass, and we’ve seen enough of her in the ring to know it’s true.
Best: Top Guys
This main event feels like a bit of a milestone in overcoming one of the obstacles I’ve had with NXT UK. I’ve written in this space before about how frustrating it is to watch random matches between talented guys who aren’t at or near the top of the card, and don’t have much in the way of storylines. I was into this, though. NXT UK treats Kassius Ohno like a star on a level that NXT Domestic never did, even if part of his heel character is acting like he’s a match bigger deal than he is. He’s in a unique position to elevate guys without a title entering into it. Mark Andrews is a bit of a star himself, as far as NXT UK midcarders go, and I like seeing these two in a main event spot.
Even more, I like how elegantly their match was built. Egotist Ohno disrespected Mark as a wrestler, and Mark had to prove him wrong. That’s it, that’s all you need. Even better, his victory was possibly the first time that I’ve been surprised when beat Kassius Ohno since his first few NXT matches. I don’t know if the idea of Ohno joining the UK roster was his idea or someone else’s, but this is absolutely the perfect place for him, and he’s doing great work in and out of the ring.
That’s all for this installment. Join me next week (hopefully on Wednesday), when Trent Seven takes on WALTER, Travis Banks faces Noam Dar, and Kay Lee Ray, Jinny, and Jazzy Gabert face Toni Storm, Piper Niven, and Xia Brookside in NTX UK’s first ever six-woman tag match.
