By Haydn Gleed, Prowrestling.net Staffer (@haydngleed)
NXT UK Hits
Opening round matches for the NXT UK Women’s Championship: Dakota Kai vs. Nina Samuels and Jinny vs. Millie Mckenzie won’t win any match of the year awards, and arguably they won’t win any match of the night awards either, but the matches provided a solid opening to the women’s tournament. Both matches and winners showed a portion of what they can do. My favourite performer of the four was 18 year-old Millie McKenzie, who looks like she has a hell of a lot of potential. Being trained by Pete Dunne and Travis Banks will give you a great foundation, but there looks to be a ton of natural talent as well.
Tyson T-Bone and Dave Mastiff feud: Please don’t think this is an endorsement of T-Bone in any way, as he remains one of my least favourite wrestlers on the brand, but a feud between the two biggest men on NXT UK will stand out. Both men dominated their squash matches and I’m surprised to find myself looking forward to a feud involving Tyson T-Bone for the first time as a singles competitor.
Trent Seven vs. Zach Gibson: Not on par with some of the truly brilliant main events we’ve had seen since the beginning of NXT UK, but certainly the best match from the latest doubleheader by a long shot. The match felt a bit slow to begin with but built up well. I don’t really mind the screwy finish as it gave James Drake a much needed boost by rubbing some heel heat from the ultra detested Zach Gibson, who helped him win the match. Clearly, setting up a feud between Moustache Mountain and the Grizzled Young Veterans, which has been done on the UK Independents, was a lot of fun.
Interlinked Storylines: With the Coffey Brothers and Wolfgang attacking Moustache Mountain after the main event, they have now inserted themselves into yet another feud. I’m loving the fact that over the last couple of shows they have created issues between so many different characters and it’s not one feud with a single focus, there’s multiple reasons for future matches for multiple individuals with a built in back story. Darren Gutteridge and I discuss the pitfalls of this in our latest Dot Net Members’ audio review, which was an interesting discussion, and I certainly agree with his tale of caution regarding this approach. For the time being, though, I’m enjoying the well booked storyline aspects of the show.
NXT UK Misses
Bad Green Screen: I’ve made peace with the fact that the announcers are not in the building calling the matches live. It’s not what I would do, but I can’t think of a good reason why they can’t record the voiceovers in post production except that it’s against my own personal preference. With that being said, if you are going to have the announcers stand in front of a green screen when they are shown on camera, at least make an effort to make it look like they are not recording a bad karaoke video from a cheap ’90s shopping mall booth.
Ligero speaks: This will continue to be a Miss as long as WWE continue to let the mysterious luchador talk. What made him so successful on the UK independent scene is the mystique around him, so not only do they have the man cutting average sounding promos, but Jordan Devlin even mocked him on a previous show for being a guy from Leeds wearing a mask and a cape. I would have forgiven that if Ligero had responded in a logical way, but instead they had him give a random introduction style speech where he described his wrestling style as a hybrid of things. I’m not enjoying the way they are using (El) Ligero at all.
Dot Net Members have access to the weekly NXT UK audio reviews hosted by Haydn Gleed and Darren Gutteridge. For more information, visit PWMembership.net. If you wish to get in touch with Haydn, do so via twitter (see above) or via email haydn.gleed@gmail.com
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