By Haydn Gleed, ProWrestling.net Staffer (@haydngleed)
NXT UK TV
Taped July 19-20 in Plymouth, England at Plymouth Pavilions
Aired August 14, 2019 on WWE Network
The show went straight into the opening video and the hideous music this week… Vic Joseph and Nigel McGuinness checked in and promoted a video package Walter’s training camp in Germany for later in the show…
1. Flash Morgan Webster (w/Mark Andrews) defeated Mark Coffey (w/Wolfgang). Flash won with an inside cradle.
Gleed’s Ramblings: The story of the match was Flash trying to show that himself and Mark Andrews are deserving of representing Wales at NXT Takeover Cardiff. Flash hasn’t really had the opportunity to show what he has due to injury and early NXT UK booking, but we saw flashes of what he can do here even though Mark Coffey’s brawling style isn’t the best opponent to do that against. With that being said, this was a decent match, but something was taken away from it because the outcome was somewhat obvious given the story they are telling. For longtime Progress fans, the referee was the “evil” ref Chris, who I didn’t know was working for NXT UK, so it was great seeing him again.
Toni Storm was backstage with Radzi, who asked her about Kay Lee Ray stating last week that she knows her better than anyone, In a moment that filled my heart with joy, Radzi used his unofficial catchphrase, “How does that make you feel” that NXT UK is finally going to Wales. Toni said Kay Lee says a lot of things, she stopped herself, and said sadly that at Takeover she will be ready for her. Strange promo…
A graphic showed “moments ago” with Jordan Devlin about to be interviewed when we heard a commotion around the corner. Rhea Ripley and Piper Niven were shown brawling against each other and were finally separated by the referees…
Gleed’s Ramblings: I loved this, the cameras didn’t just happen to be in the right place when a fight broke out, they were there to interview Devlin and had to rush around the corner to capture the fight. Great logical stuff.
Travis Banks and Kenny Williams were going to have a match when Noam Dar’s music hit and out he came to sit in on commentary…
2. Travis Banks defeated Kenny Williams. Banks won with with his Kiwi Crusher finisher.
Gleed’s Ramblings: A bittersweet match for me, as I would love Banks and Williams in a long term feud with a match at Takeover, but maybe that will happen in the future. I enjoyed this match a lot and both guys looked impressive, however this outcome was also predictable since Travis and Noam are building up a feud for Takeover. Noam was okay on commentary, and there were some fun lines with him using British and Scottish slang and confusing Vic Joseph. Dar was certainly acting obnoxious, which gives him some nice heat.
3. Nina Samuels defeated Isla Dawn. Samuels won the match by pinfall…
Gleed’s Ramblings: Meh. I feel like I’ve seen this match several times since the start of NXT UK under a year ago and it wasn’t anything special to shake that feeling. Although neither will be involved at NXT Takeover, the announcers did focus on the fact that they were competing to climb the ladder, so at least they gave the match some meaning. However neither of these ladies would excite me if they become a number one contender to whoever comes out of Takeover as champion. To end on a positive, I give both wrestlers credit, as they have improved a lot since their first NXT UK match.
Highlights aired of the match between Dave Mastiff and Joe Coffey from last week… Sid Scala and Johnny Saint reacted to what happened by saying after the events of last week that Coffey and Mastiff will have a rematch at NXT UK Takeover Cardiff. Saint announced it as a Last Man Standing match.
Gleed’s Ramblings: Johnny Saint makes me laugh for the wrong reasons.
A video was shown from Essen, Germany where Walter was training some academy students in a dojo. He was being harsh on them and gave them the opportunity to hit him, but he no-sold their strikes and chopped them down. He picked out one student, who he said reminds him of Tyler Bate, then beat the holy hell out of him. With a foot across one of his students, he looked into the camera and told Bate to meet him face to face next week on NXT UK if he’s man enough.
Gleed’s Ramblings: A strange and different style video. It was well shot and made Walter look like an a-hole.
4. Kassius Ohno defeated Ilja Dragunov.
Gleed’s Ramblings: I lost count during the show how many times they mentioned that Dragunov was undefeated, which should have been the first clue that this was going to happen. When I read the spoilers, I thought this was a strange decision, but I’m more understanding after watching the match. If you go out of your way to see any match on TV this week, find a way to watch this match. They told the story that Ohno was focusing on the right shoulder of Dragunov for the match and they put together a great performance with strong in-ring psychology. Although it was a surprise for Ilja to lose the undefeated streak so early on in his run, I felt that the NXT UK viewers finally got what Dragunov is all about. Prior to this match, he had been in some random squashes and he just came across as a bit of an intense goofball, but this match showed what he brings. The crowd were very quiet to start with, but they were on their feet and applauding by the end of the match.
Overall, a good show with perhaps the Samuels vs. Dawn match feeling somewhat out of place as well as the strange promo from Toni Storm that left me wondering what they were gong for. Although the first two matches were predictable, they were still enjoyable, and the main event was a great match with lots of drama. They also built the main event of Takeover with a unique video package and I’m looking forward to the face to face confrontation between Bate and Walter next week.
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