By Haydn Gleed, ProWrestling.net Staffer (@haydngleed)
NXT UK TV
Taped January 17-18, 2020 in York, England at the York Barbican
Streamed February 13, 2020 on WWE Network
The usual opening video and music played to open the show (it’s time to change after nearly two years)… Tom Philips and Aiden English were on the call this week…
Aoife Valkyrie made her entrance for her debut. They used generic music, but the light show and entrance as a whole really stood out…
1. Aoife Valkyrie defeated Amale.
Gleed’s Ramblings: Aoife is from Ireland and I’ve heard a lot of buzz about her, but this was the first time I had seen her in action. From the little we got to see she looked very polished in the ring, but I question how much offence they gave the French non contracted Amale. Aoife was also guilty of one of my pet hates where she turned her back on her opponent to strike a pose, but they at least Aiden called her out on it on commentary. A decent enough performance and they clearly have high hopes for her.
Travis Banks was interviewed by Radzi(!), where he reminded Travis that although he lost at World’s Collide, it must have been one hell of an experience. Banks started to talk until Alexander Wolfe interrupted and said people are not talking about his failure they are talking about Imperium’s dominance. Travis asked Wolfe what it was like to ride on Walter’s coat tails. Wolfe warned him to watch his step and walked off. Radzi stood their nodding like one of those dogs in the back of the car. Bless him…
The really annoying pirate themed WrestleMania video played and we are 52 days away, folks…
2. Dave Mastiff defeated Saxon Huxley.
Gleed’s Ramblings: With Mastiff having a TV feud with Walter at the moment, and Saxon being a NXT UK contracted jobber, there was no jeopardy to this match. It was a decent enough match and Mastiff looked strong.
The unseen interviewer backstage (I shall call him “wishes he was Radzi”) tried to get a word with Toni Storm. He said we heard Kay Lee Ray issue a challenge but we didn’t get your response. She said funny you should ask, as she was knocking on Johnny Saint’s door. Toni said you’ve seen the challenge and she said “let’s do it”. Sid Scala tried to tell Toni that the match was dangerous but Toni wouldn’t budge. Both Sid and Johnny went into their room and came back out some seconds later with a contract. They said Kay Lee Ray’s already signed it. Toni snatched it and signed. Saint, who had been standing around looking like he was searching for his pudding, said there we go, it’s official…
The Grizzled Young Veterans came out for a promo. Once in the ring, and with the fans holding up their shoes, Zack Gibson grabbed the microphone. The crowd chanted “who are ya?” Zack said who am I? I am Liverpool’s number one Zack Gibson. This man is James Drake and together we are the Grizzled Young Veterans. He said their mission since day one is to be recognised as the best tag team of their generation. At NXT UK Takeover: Blackpool, they made history when they were the first NXT UK Tag Team Champions. He said they lined up every team domestically and abroad. That was until Johnny Saint stuck them in a match at NXT UK Takeover: Cardiff and they lost. They said their next opportunity was at Blackpool 2 where there was four teams. At this rate, he said the next opportunity will be with seven teams in a circus rules match.
Gibson continued by saying, it may have escaped your notice but we are making a splash in America where they have a real general manager in William Regal. He said that he recognises talents. He claimed that Regal recognises them as the soon to become the worlds number one tag team. He said now here we are in York, which is famous for absolutely nothing. The crowd started chanting Yorkshire and Gibson told Drake to ignore them. Tell me something special about York. James thought about it and shrugged. He said geographically, they are what The Hunt are to tag team wrestling. You are here, but if you wasn’t here no one would notice. He said that he’s looking at the crowd and they can see a lot of angry faces because they are in their suits not wrestling gear and they are disappointed. He said get your camera’s out as they are the number one tag team in Europe and soon to be the best tag team in the world.
Gleed’s Ramblings: A very well delivered promo from Gibson, as always. However, I’m not sure what it really accomplished. It did draw great heat from the crowd and it was entertaining but in terms of building towards something, it didn’t go anywhere.
Radzi was backstage promoting live shows and showed off the programme when Joseph Conners interrupted and asked where he was in the program?! He got in Radzi’s face (bastard!) and asked what happened when he faced Tyler’s prodigy A-Kid. He said he won and he will do the same against Bate next week…
3. Joe Coffey defeated Amir Jordan. Amir is from the local area so got a good reaction. After the match Coffey addressed Draganov and said he ain’t seen you kicking about here recently. He said Ilja owes him a debt and payment is due. He said he should be squared with the Gallus firm but he’s not. He turned his attention to his partners and said that Mark Coffey and Wolfgang will take care of Danny Birch and Oney Lorcan in the main event…
Gleed’s Ramblings: This was another match where the outcome was incredibly predictable with Coffey being in a feud with the hot Ilja Draganov. There was no way he was going to lose this match.
4. NXT UK Tag Team Champions Mark Coffey and Wolfgang defeated Danny Burch and Oney Lorcan in a non-title match.
Gleed’s Ramblings: The match was what it was, and it gave a bit more juice to Gallus but coming at the end of a night of highly predictable matches and pointless promos it dragged.
To say this was a maintenance show would be too kind. All of the matches were predictable and as a consequence didn’t really draw me into them. The main event had a little something about it as Burch and Lorcan had to win a match a few weeks ago to have the opportunity, but again they weren’t going to drop the titles to them unless they were moving to NXT UK. Zack Gibson’s promo was entertaining as usual but felt kind of pointless when you sat and thought about it, and the rest of the show was what it was. A very missable show.
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