By Haydn Gleed, ProWrestling.net Staffer (@haydngleed)
NXT UK TV
Taped July 19-20 in Plymouth, England at Plymouth Pavilions
Streamed August 28, 2019 on WWE Network
The awful music and video package started us off. The broadcast team of Vic Joseph and Nigel McGuiness instantly checked in and hyped NXT UK Takeover: Cardiff for Saturday and also Jordan Devlin against Kenny Williams in the main event on this show…
1. Ilja Draganov defeated Tyson T-Bone.
Gleed’s Ramblings: T-Bone was a good opponent for Draganov to get a bounce back victory after his loss to Kassius Ohno because while Tyson has been defined as an undercard wrestler in NXT UK, his size and power make him stand out as a tough wrestler. This was obviously nothing compared to the great Ohno against Draganov match, but it was designed for Ilja to regain his momentum and it certainly worked in that respect. My one criticism is that he should have possibly put Tyson away quicker, but that’s a slight nitpick.
A video package showing the feud between Toni Storm and Kay Lee Ray using a lot of the footage with already seen but condensed into a smaller package…
Gleed’s Ramblings: Great stuff that brought casual viewers up to speed with the personal nature of this feud, and built the match rightly as a huge deal.
Jack Gallagher was shown backstage. He asked whether he or American Kassius Ohno is the better British style wrestler. He said in their last match, the water was mudded because his foot was under the bottom rope so shouldn’t have lost. He said next week they will face each other again and we will find out who is the better wrestler…
2. Jospeh Conners defeated Oliver Carter.
Gleed’s Ramblings: Oliver Carter is a former professional soccer player and has wrestled predominantly on the European scene. There is a huge amount of hype around him but the crowd early on was brutal with no reaction. Yet as the match went on, they got into him, and that is a great sign for the young man from Switzerland. It’s too soon to really get a feel for how he will fit into NXT UK, but it was an encouraging start. Joseph Conners winning was somewhat of a surprise, but it didn’t hurt Carter too much that he lost in his debut yet it did a lot for Conners moving forward.
Vic Joseph narrated a full rundown of the card for Saturday.
Gleed’s Ramblings: Members will be hearing an exclusive audio preview tomorrow of the card for Saturday hosted by Darren Gutteridge and I, and we will also both be in attendance and recording an audio review of the show over the weekend.
A WWE.com exclusive was shown with Cesaro saying he’s going to be making a trip to Cardiff as he’s heard a lot about NXT UK. He said he will be going to Takeover to see things first hand and not just to watch, maybe more of a hands on approach…
A video package was shown of the feud between Piper Niven and Rhea Ripley and a graphic of “Johnny Saint’s Twitter page” announcing Piper vs. Niven 2 will be next week (this will be recorded in Cardiff and I will be staggered if we don’t get a surprise NXT UK debut/TV return by a certain Welsh lady).
3. Jordan Devlin defeated Kenny Williams.
Gleed’s Ramblings: This was a good match with a lot of near falls but I couldn’t shake the feeling that this match had nothing real on the line. Sure they had a confrontation last week and I appreciate that, but because these two have been bobbing around the lower to upper mid-card recently it felt like whoever won it ultimately wouldn’t matter. Still, an exhibition this was a good match and both will have come out of this impressive to the more casual audience who may have tuned in to catch up ready for Saturday.
A video package was shown detailing the feud between Walter and Tyler Bate for their match on Saturday. Again, no new footage was shown but was a good way to catch up with the feud ready for the weekend…
Zack Gibson and James Drake came out angry about the match being a three way on Saturday. Gibson questioned why they as tag team champions are being disadvantaged. The Gallus music hit and Gibson said the only thing worse would be those two little Welsh wipes coming out (that made me laugh far too much). Mark Andrews and Flash Morgan Webster came out. Gibson shouted, “Come on then, let’s have a party.” With that the show closed with all three teams brawling…
Gleed’s Ramblings: This was essentially a clip show for this Saturdays NXT UK Takeover with three original matches with the Takeover rejects. It wasn’t necessarily a bad show but if you watch every week, it was a bunch of video packages of footage you’ve already scene and three somewhat meaningless matches. It was an interesting choice to end the show with the tag team contenders brawling, and it says to me that the tag titles will be the only ones changing hands on Saturday. It will be one hell of a reaction if the “Welsh Wet Wipes” win the belts in their home town. With that being said, the three matches on the show weren’t awful. Ilja regained some momentum, there was a nice debut from Oliver Carter, and a good main event. It was definitely a show for people wanting to catch up ready for Saturday and yet somewhat missable if you are a regular viewer and you are short on time. My weekly audio review of this episode will be available for members later today.
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