By Haydn Gleed, ProWrestling.net Staffer (@haydngleed)
NXT UK TV
Taped in London, England at BT Sport Studios
Streamed September 17, 2020 on WWE Network
Gleed’s Ramblings: I hope you are all keeping well. It’s been a weird six months since the last time I did one of these, but let’s see what NXT UK serves up to us during these strange times.
Shots were shown of an empty arena with Shawn Michaels and Triple H talking about how the wrestlers and fans have been itching for the return of NXT UK. Clips were shown of the wrestlers cutting promos at home as well as wrestlers having press pictures taken all over London (Travis Banks or Ligero were not shown to be on the roster anymore)…
The “arena” is just simply a ring in the middle of a dark room with a light show going on. However, they have new theme music for NXT UK which is God of War by Wargasm. Nigel McGuinness and Andy Shepherd were on the call….
Gleed’s Ramblings: For those wondering where this is being filmed, it’s on the complex that was created on the London 2012 Olympic site. I’ve attended a comedy TV show filmed there and it’s a very modern studio so I’m somewhat disappointed that it essentially looks like the WWE Performance Centre.
Sid Scala was mid-ring and welcomed us back to NXT UK. Scala was about to announce the beginning of the Heritage Cup, however Ilja Dragunov’s music interrupted. Ilja made his unique hyped up entrance before climbing in the ring. He climbed up on the turnbuckle and tried to conduct the invisible crowd to his music. Ilja apologized to Sid for interrupting but he’s been waiting and caged for six months.
Noam Dar in turn interrupted and told Ilja that he doesn’t need a fight he needs anger management. He started to throw insults at the Russian before Dragunov hit a suicide dive. He threw Noam in the ring and the two men battled before referee’s pulled them apart. Scala announced Dragunov vs. Dar as the main event.
Gleed’s Ramblings: Usually, WWE wouldn’t bother explaining how they can start a show without a main event in mind, but Sid said during his announcement that he’s going to move things around for this weeks show and have this as the main event. It’s just a small subtle thing, but it makes a hell of a difference for the ability to suspend disbelief as a viewer.
1. NXT UK Tag Team Champions Wolfgang and Mark Coffey vs. Kenny Williams and Amir Jordan in a non-title match. The duo that make up two-thirds of Gallus won with their double team finisher (Coffey hits a scissor kick to the back of the head and Wolfgang hits a running slam).
Wolfgang and Mark Coffey defeated Kenny Williams and Amir Jordan in a non-title match.
Mark Andrews and Flash Morgan Webster came to the ringside area and were followed by The Hunt, Pretty Deadly, Oliver Carter and Ashton Smith…
Gleed’s Ramblings: An okay match with an expected result. The teams that came out at the end with the exception of Flash Morgan Webster and Mark Andrews haven’t really been spotlighted in NXT UK, so I hope they spend a bit of time building these teams up and not just throw them all into the championship mix immediately. No Zack Gibson or James Drake? Kinda weird.
Saxon Huxley cut a promo backstage pressed up against a fence and told everyone that he’s been locked up and they made a mistake letting him out. He said next week he will unleash a flood…
NXT UK Women’s Champion Kay Lee Ray made her way to the ring with microphone in hand. The announcers there will be a championship match between Kay Lee Ray and Piper Niven on next week’s show…
Kay Lee talked about how it’s a time to rejoice that we are back and that she is back in the ring. She said she can’t rejoice as she has to step into the ring with Piper Niven. She talked about how long they go back and how they redefined women’s wrestling in the UK and next week we will find out why she is a little bit better than her.
This brought out Piper, who said all she seems to do is talk talk talk. She said here’s a crazy idea since she seems to wanna talk so much why don’t she tell everyone the truth. Why don’t you tell everyone how many times she’s beaten Kay Lee Ray in Japan and the UK and how she has Kay Lee Ray’s number. Kay Lee said if that’s what you want to believe then so be it, but next week she will prove to the world that she is better than Piper. Ray went to attack Niven, but Piper blocked the shot…
Gleed’s Ramblings: Decent enough hype for next week’s championship match and, as they mentioned, they have history together, including a history of having great matches. Let’s see how it pans out.
Video packages were shown on Isla Dawn and Aoife Valkyrie with highlights of them in action. We had a graphic that showed that Dawn vs Valkyrie is next… Ring entrances for the Dawn vs. Valkyrie match took place…
Gleed’s Ramblings: Dawn still does exactly the same entrance as always. It is just so choreographed and identical each week that it could be programmed into a robot. Hey, that could be the answer to this whole world situation!? On the other hand Valkyrie’s entrance is still a great visual and even more so in a controlled studio setting.
2. Aoife Valkyrie vs. Isla Dawn. Valkyrie hit her scissor kick off the top rope onto Isla Dawn for the victory…
Aoife Valkyrie defeated Isla Dawn.
Gleed’s Ramblings: They are spending time this week reintroducing everyone to the main players in the tag team division and the women’s division so far. Between this match and the promo in the previous segment, the women’s division is by far more impressive. I continue to eat crow when it comes to Isla Dawn, as she has improved tremendously during the NXT UK era despite having an awful entrance. Valkyrie was positioned pre-Covid as the next big challenger to the women’s championship so the outcome was never in doubt, but this was a fun match to watch.
The video from last week with Sid Scala announcing the Heritage Cup Rules tournament. They showed video packages and statistics on each of the competitors, who will be A-Kid, Dave Mastiff, Noam Dar, Flash Morgan Webster, Joseph Conners (*yawn*), Alexander Wolfe, Trent Seven and a wildcard entrant (Zack Gibson?)….
Gleed’s Ramblings: For those who haven’t read about this, it’s essentially going to be an eight man tournament with “Heritage Cup rules”. What this basically means is that there will be six rounds of three minutes per match with a two out of three fall system. Therefore if someone gets two falls through either pinfall, submission or count-out within the six rounds the match is over and they are the winner. If it goes to all six rounds then the winner will be whomever is winning on falls at that point. I don’t believe they have stated what happens in the event of a one fall each finish. If there is a KO or someone is disqualified, then the match is also over immediately. It sounds like an interesting concept, and I’m more than happy to give it a go, but I’m not sure it sounds like something that is for me and will also unfortunately bring back memories of TNA’s similar concept back in the day fairly or unfairly. If Trent Seven wins this, you will hear the explosion of England based ProWrestling.net contributor Darren Gutteridge’s head from anywhere in the United States.
A graphic showed that Pete Dunne would be on the show to draw the matchups for the Heritage Cup. They also further hyped the women’s championship match for next week…
3. Ilja Dragunov vs. Noam Dar Dragunov won with his Torpedo Moscow finisher after Alexander Wolfe’s interference backfired…
Ilja Dragunov beat Noam Dar.
The show went off the air with Walter and Ilja Dragunov standing off with the Russian in the ring and the Austrian in the aisle…
Gleed’s Ramblings: The best thing about an empty arena is you don’t have obnoxious fans chanting “ONE FALL” after the announcer says it. On a more serious note, this was a really good match, as one would expect from these two. With Dragunov about to challenge Walter for the NXT UK Championship in a month’s time in Dublin, the winner of this match was not really in doubt. However, with Noam being in the Heritage Cup I was expecting some kind of shenanigans, which we did with Alexander Wolfe. I assume this means that at some point Noam Dar and Wolfe will clash in the Heritage Cup.
Overall it was great to watch some original NXT UK content and this show was designed more as a reminder of who is in each division rather than developing long or short term storylines. A decent return. My audio review of this episode will be available for Dot Net Members shortly.
Be the first to comment