Last time in the last Best and Worst of NXT UK: Trent Seven faced WALTER and got power bombed to death as his reward for bravery, and six women got in the ring to work out some stuff. 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 July 31, 2019.
Best: Big Strong Angry Boy
First of all, after weeks and weeks, NXT UK has finally left the Download Festival! This show was shot inside a building, and it feels like coming home. The show opens with General Manager Johnny Saint and Assistant to the General Manager Sid Scala in the ring, talking about how great TakeOver Cardiff is going to be, a month from today. Then Imperium comes out, because as far as they’re concerned they run this show. WALTER starts talking about how there’s nobody good enough to face him for the UK Championship at TakeOver, because he’s already destroyed everyone. If you’ve ever watched wrestling before, you know a babyface’s music is about to hit, and sure enough it does.
It’s not just any music, it’s the Peter Gabriel-derived instrumental that means Tyler Bate is in the house. The last time we say Tyler he was being killed to death by WALTER, but everybody knows a big strong boy like him is going to recover pretty quickly. WALTER’s cronies run up to the stage, hoping to stop Bate before he can get to the ring, but Surprise! he’s already in the ring, attacking WALTER. A bunch of guys run out to stop the brawl, and management is like “There you go, WALTER. You have a TakeOver match now,” which WALTER doesn’t seem nearly as happy about as you might think. Tyler, though? Tyler’s thrilled. He’s ready for this.
Worst: And Now For Something That Doesn’t Matter
Nothing against Pretty Deadly. They’re fine, have a fun gimmick, and wear red pleather pants, so you really can’t go wrong with that. The problem is that Pretty Deadly aren’t here to have a real match with Gallus. They’re here to give Mark Coffey and Wolfgang something to do that makes them look kind of dominant, so afterward they can take the mic and demand a Tag Title Match against the Grizzled Young Veterans. And even that doesn’t really work, because nobody looks all that dominant from dominating a team that we knew were there to job from the moment they came out, no matter how cool their entrance is.
Now the title match between Gallus and the Grizzled Young Veterans on the other hand, that should actually be awesome. It’s heel vs heel, but these are two teams who pretty much hate everybody, so just because neither of them are heroic doesn’t mean they can’t be enemies.
Best: Still Here, Still Mad
Sure, this is also a jobber match, but I didn’t mind it so much. Rhea Ripley’s been gone for a few weeks, and she needs to demonstrate that she’s still the same violent asshole she was when we saw her last. Ombré-haired, compactly built Dani Luna is the perfect opponent to let Rhea provide that demonstration. Dani even gets in some solid strikes early in the match. She doesn’t really stand a chance, of course, but when her partner Danny Artemis eventually shows up, things could get interesting.
My favorite moment in this match is when Rhea has Dani down on the mat, just beating the hell out of her, and the ref tries to admonish her for it. Rhea responds by full-bore screaming at him. Not yelling, screaming. If a smaller, less powerful woman screamed like that, people might call it annoying. When Rhea Ripley does it, it’s terrifying. From there it’s dropkick, Riptide, Rhea wins. She’s back for real, and she’s going to start hunting for more prestigious opponents.
Best: History And Continuity, Wow
I really enjoyed this video package about Toni Storm’s friendship with Kay Lee Ray, and how it fell apart when KLR decided to come after Toni’s title. Even though not everybody watching NXT UK knew that these two have been real-life friends for years, I always enjoy seeing this kind of real-world continuity worked into pro wrestling storylines. We’ve still got a month until their big match in Cardiff, so as far as I’m concerned, make that character work feel as complex as possible.
As someone who writes about this show, and also a big Kay Lee Ray fan, I appreciated hearing Toni talk about her, because it cleared up the question of KLR’s first name. I refer to wrestlers by their first names a lot, because that’s just how we talk about wrestling, and I’ve never been entirely sure if I should call her Kay Lee or just Kay. Toni, her old friend and current enemy, calls her Kay Lee throughout, so that’s what I’m sticking with from here on.
Best: Sweaty Toothed Madmen
Earlier in the show, Jordan Devlin, chip on his shoulder as usual, gets in Sid Scala’s face to complain about Tyler Bate being given the title match against WALTER. Jordan’s lost to WALTER already, but he still thinks he should get a rematch, because that’s who he is. Sid turns him down, of course, but gives him another member of Imperium for the main event of today’s show: Alexande Wolfe. Wolfe isn’t as scary as WALTER, but he’s still pretty verdammt scary.
Early in the match, the German catches the Irishman in a wristlock and uses him like a mop, sliding Devlin around the ring on his back. It doesn’t look pleasant. Alexander Wolfe is just as chaotic now as when he was when he was in Sanity, except now his choices are much more methodical, thanks to the influence of Imperium. He still likes inflecting pain, but he’s thinking about the ways that this pain will make it easier for him to get a tap-out or a pin later. Jordan meanwhile, struggles to move the much heavier Wolfe around. More than once he tries to take the big German off his feet, but for the first several tries he can’t quite make it happen. Meanwhile, Wolfe is throwing Devlin around like it’s nothing.
After stomping Alexander’s head pretty good, Devlin manages to hit a Spanish Fly, and it really looks like he’s about to win. It’s a nearfall that feels surprising without seeming impossible, and I definitely had time to think “Wow, good win for Jordan!” before he turned out not to have pulled it off at all, when Wolf kicks out at about 2.7. There’s a bit more back and forth after that, but inevitably Wolfe hits a German suplex followed by a powerbomb, and that’s it for Jordan Devlin. He’s a good wrestler, but he’s no Tyler Bate.
That’s all for this installment. Join me next week, when Piper Niven and Xia Brookside team up against Jazzy Gabert and Jinny, while Bomber Dave Mastiff faces Joe Coffey in the main event.
