By Haydn Gleed, ProWrestling.net Staffer (@haydngleed)
NXT UK TV
Taped March 6-7, 2020 in Coventry, England at Coventry Skydome Arena
Streamed April 2, 2020 on WWE Network
A video was shown highlighting the big battle royal tonight with different competitors having soundbites as to why they think they will win the battle royal…
Gleed’s Ramblings: Unfortunately, the fake rugby player Ridge Holland is going to be in it so that’s taken my interest away from it slightly. In all seriousness, a very well put together video package and realistically there are 8 people I can see who would fit the profile as being the winner. I’m still sticking with Ilja Dragunov.
The bad music and video opened the show and we were back in the lovely city of Coventry. Andy Shepherd and Nigel McGuinness checked in on commentary and continued to hype the battle royal…
1. Kay Lee Ray and Jinny defeated Piper Niven and Dani Luna. Android Jinny did her emotionless choreographed sub routine stuck in a processing loop………sorry I mean usual entrance. The match started with Dani Luna trying to attack Ray, but Viper held her back, telling her to not let Kay Lee get in her head. A great play on the story and this continued throughout. Jinny took a cheap shot at Dani Luna, which forced Luna into the Gory Bomb from Ray. Android Jinny performed her programming until the enddowhile command……..sorry her after match routine.
Gleed’s Ramblings: Seriously, Dani Luna is the female version of Pete Dunne and I reckon if 2020 is not her year, then 2021 will certainly be the year she explodes in a big way. She stood out in this match from both an ability and storytelling perspective and didn’t look out of place in the ring with the current titans in the NXT UK women’s division.
Next week will be a recap of the very start of NXT UK in Blackpool.
Gleed’s Ramblings: I guess they are out of material, will be interesting to see what happens over the coming weeks.
A video package hyped Gallus further…
Gleed’s Ramblings: That’s great but what is the groups direction? They are just spinning their wheels at the moment with all three.
2. Xia Brookside defeated Amale. Xia won by hitting her Broken Wings finisher.
Gleed’s Ramblings: Amale is an OK talent, but I don’t really see her rising above the jobber to the stars position in NXT UK. Brookside has had a bit of a stop/start push, but she’s clearly ready to be involved in a more competitive feud with a top talent. Let’s see what 2020 brings. Andy Shepherd keeps yelling “What a maneuver!” and it’s doing my head in.
Rules for the battle royal were shown………standard battle royal. Each person had a televised entrance…
3. A 20-man Battle Royal to become No. 1 contender to the NXT UK Championship. The competitors were Amir Jordan, Kenny Williams, Tyson “T-Bone”, Saxon Huxley, Alexander Wolfe, Jordan Devlin, Travis Banks, Ligero, Ilja Dragunov, Joe Coffey, Dave Mastiff, Kassius Ohno, Oliver Carter, Ashton Smith, Ridge Holland (*sigh*), Flash Morgan Webster, Trent Seven, Tyler Bate, A-Kid, and Noam Dar.
Order Of Eliminations and Major Moments
1. Seventeen of the guys focused on the three big men. Kassius Ohno tried to join in with the other 17, but this resulted in everyone eliminating him. Of course it was Ridge Holland who had the final throw over the top of Kassius, so naturally it looked botched.
2. Saxon Huxley eliminated Kenny Williams.
3. Joe Coffey eliminated Flash Morgan Webster.
4. Amir Jordan eliminated Saxon Huxley.
Gleed’s Ramblings: I’m assuming this leads to a feud between Saxon Huxley and Tyson T-Bone against Kenny Williams and Amir Jordan….yay?!
In a Kofi Kingston style spot, A-Kid was thrown over the top rope and landed on the eliminated Saxon Huxley. He somehow managed to get Saxon to conveniently walk towards the ring and was able to continue in the match.
Gleed’s Ramblings: Very contrived, not very believable but entertaining nevertheless. Also, the crowd loved it.
5. Travis Banks eliminated Tyson T-Bone.
6. Dave Mastiff eliminated Travis Banks.
7. Dave Mastiff eliminated Amir Jordan.
Gleed’s Ramblings: Ligero and Dave Mastiff fought while somewhere Dot Net contributor Darren Gutteridge quietly weeped.
8. Ridge Holland eliminated Ashton Smith.
9. Ridge Holland eliminated Oliver Carter.
Gleed’s Ramblings: Seriously, Ridge seemed to have no regard for either man’s wellbeing while he was eliminating them.
10. Dave Mastiff eliminated Ligero.
Gleed’s Ramblings: Dot Net contributor Darren Gutteridge’s weep became a full blown trickle of tears.
Noam Dar rolled out of the ring under the bottom rope and hid.
Gleed’s Ramblings: That is so unique haven’t seen that before. Sigh.
11. Ilja Dragunov and Joe Coffey eliminated Ridge Holland after Joseph Conners had distracted the fake rugby player.
Trent Seven and Tyler Bate both performed the spinning fireman carry, because we knew it was only a matter time he stole parts of Bate’s gimmick. They fought with each other to a good reaction.
12. Joe Coffey eliminated Trent Seven.
13. Jordan Devlin eliminated A-Kid.
Devlin had a minute of hitting some impressive moves on everyone. Dar snuck in from behind and…
14. Noam Dar eliminated Jordan Devlin.
Gleed’s Ramblings: There was no mention of NXT UK Takeover: Dublin. Every time they were about to mention, they had the awful post-recorded commentary.
15. All five remaining guys eliminated Dave Mastiff.
16. Tyler Bate eliminated Noam Dar.
The final four were Tyler Bate, Alexander Wolfe, Ilja Dragunov and Joe Coffey. They took a breather in each of the corner before Joe Coffey shouted, “Who wants it, eh?”
17. Ilja Dragunov inadvertently eliminated Joe Coffey when Alexander Wolfe threw him into Coffey on the apron.
18. Ilja Dragunov eliminated Alexander Wolfe.
19. Ilja Dragunov eliminated Tyler Bate.
Ilja Dragunov won the 20 man battle royal to become No. 1 contender to the NXT UK Championship.
Gleed’s Ramblings: When you consider that most of these guys would never have been in a battle royal of this size, this was quite impressive. There were a number of times the action was a bit slow but they got Ridge Holland out of there quickly, so that made me happy. They also didn’t ignore previous issues between people or stories involving multiple people within the NXT UK and that was refreshing to see i.e. two people who had hated each other a month ago weren’t working together.
When the action got to the last four the action picked up nicely. When it got down to Bate and Dragunov, the action was off the charts. I want more of this. I’ve been talking about Dragunov being the guy to finally dethrone Walter and I still think he will, but it’s disappointing that it won’t be at a Takeover in front of an audience. We will see what they do. The rest of the show was what it was, but with the battle Royal taking up 75 percent of the show, there wasn’t much else too it apart from the fact that Dani Luna is going to be huge.
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