This week’s NXT UK was all about this weekend’s World’s Collide, as we got two qualifying matches for a Cruiserweight title shot.
We start our latest stretch of NXT UK shows from York’s Barbican centre with a cold open… commentary comes from Tom Phillips and Aiden English. Aiden’s filling in for Nigel, having done some commentary last summer… they’re keeping it vaguely British on commentary, even if it’s in name only!
Sid Scala and Johnny Saint are in the ring, waiting for Imperium. Sid calls NXT UK the fastest growing brand in WWE history for a cheap pop. That hot air is so he can present WALTER with the new NXT UK title… they’ve rebranded the title, and it’s so they can take off the WWE logo and replace it with the NXT one. WALTER doesn’t exactly look thrilled. Especially when the crowd chanted “you deserve it”. Perhaps don’t take your belt anywhere near Logan Square Auditorium…
WALTER tries to rescue it, saying he’s bringing new honour to a belt that’s not been diluted by Tyler Bate or Pete Dunne. He calls the belt the greatest prize in all of European wrestling, which makes me sad they didn’t bring THAT back. It turns into a promo on the Undisputed Era, and now York are cheering Imperium. Weren’t they defacto bad guys two weeks ago?
Shouty music and Aiden English in a wind tunnel presents Worlds Collide this Saturday night.
Ligero vs. Jordan Devlin
The winner of this gets added to the four-way at Worlds Collide.
Ligero launches out at Devlin, windmilling punches to send him into the corner before a lucha roll into a seatbelt cradle nearly ended things. Devlin eventually gets going with the Air Jordan uranage and standing moonsault combo, before he finally took off his ring jacket, calling the jacket “more important” than Ligero. The pair head outside, where Ligero’s attempt to rebound off the ropes earned him a superkick. A back suplex back inside’s good for a two-count for Devlin, which he followed up with a forearm to the lower back as he was having his way with the masked man. Devlin continues to stand on Ligero’s head, using his boot to force Ligero to the floor, before Ligero finally found a way back in, landing a jawbreaker.
Recuperating in the corner, Ligero is able to leap over Devlin en route to a superkick, before a clothesline turned the tables. He even sidesteps a slingshot cutter, and hits one of his own that almost caused the upset as we got chants of “Yorkshire Libre”. I’m so not used to the weekly show having an active crowd. Ligero looks for a C4L, but Devlin escapes and hits a standing Spanish Fly for a near-fall. Chants of “you are not Finn Balor” are astute to say the least, as Devlin looked to put Ligero away, only to get caught with a forearm to the kidneys before a half nelson suplex flipped Ligero inside out. Devlin tries a moonsault, but stops himself landing in the boots of Ligero and almost gets rolled-up… in response, Devlin’s next roll-up has his feet on the ropes, before a Devlinside’s caught as Ligero hit a pumphandle facebuster… then a Mexican Wave for a near-fall!
Another C4L attempt from Ligero’s aborted as Devlin got out of the way, eventually responding with a slingshot cutter before pulling Ligero into a Devlinside for the win. This took a while to get going for me, but in the end it was a fun little TV match that “the right man won”. Don’t count on him coming back from Texas with some gold though… ***¼
Backstage, Radzi’s interviewing Kay Lee Ray about her Worlds Collide match with Mia Yim. Kay Lee’s bragging about her Takeover win, then blew off Radzi wishing her luck. WALTER and Imperium interrupt the wrap-up, and of all people, Flash Morgan Webster and Mark Andrews interrupt. They have to zoom back to fit everyone in… and show the scaffold for the backdrop as my feed dropped.
Eddie Dennis speaks next week…
Finn Balor speaks now though. He’s got a pre-tape talking about Ilja Dragunov, who he faces on Saturday. Balor puts over Ilja as someone who believes he should be in the big time, and this promo alone made me want to see the match.
Josh Morrell vs. Ilja Dragunov
Hey, it’s the guy everyone thought was KENTA that one time! Nowadays, he’s closer to a Danny Duggan…
Meanwhile, Ilja has a new entrance video, that’s nothing like his wXw one. Good. Separation from the past helps to get rid of those ties. At the bell, Dragunov ragdolls Morrell, and rolls him in a front chancery as Morrell escaped a wristlock with cartwheels. He’s quickly stopped as Ilja motioned his way, before Morrell looked for something… and ran into a leaping kick. Morrell tries again, throwing uppercuts in the corner, before Ilja returned fire with a leaping knee and the Ode to Konstantin clothesline. A pumphandle powerbomb impressively dumps Josh, before Torpedo Moscau completed the squash. Thanks for coming, Josh! **
Ilja gets the mic afterwards tells us that he’s a man of few words, so his words are chosen carefully. He addresses Finn Balor, but gets interrupted by Gallus, as Joe Coffey wants some time alone with him. Joe’s soliloquy is all about him losing to WALTER, and he puts some of the blame on Ilja’s involvement… and after Ilja’s gotten through Balor, he’s got a date with Joe Coffey.
Backstage, Marcel Barthel and Fabien Aichner approach Johnny Saint and Sid Scala. Aichner wants a match with Webster and Andrews, and Johnny’s impressed with the idea. Except it’ll be a trios match: Barthel, Aichner and Wolfe vs. Webster, Andrews and a TBA next week. Also next week: The Hunt vs. Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch!
Travis Banks vs. The Brian Kendrick
This is for the last spot in that NXT Cruiserweight title match on Saturday…
Kendrick’s not in any rush to get going, and he’s quickly taken outside by a dropkick from Banks… but Travis is hung in the ropes, before he came back with an apron PK as Kendrick tries to recover. Back inside, Banks grounds Kendrick with a chinbar, ending when Kendrick backs into the corner… and Kendrick makes the most of the environment as he smashed Banks’ hand into the ring post, before dragging the webbing between the fingers on the ropes. Banks beats the count-out, but Kendrick stays on the hands, stomping on them before working a wristlock on Banks, torquing away on the fingers for extra effect. Eventually Banks got free and landed a forearm to buy him time, before he tripped Kendrick into the corner, following up with some dropkicks.
A running cannonball connects in the corner, but he can’t cover Kendrick, who rolls outside… and into the path of a low-pe that almost went south. Banks drags Kendrick back inside, and after another dropkick and a stomp, continued to build up steam. A short Kiwi Krusher dumps Kendrick, who again rolls outside to save himself… another low-pe followed, but Kendrick swats him away, then suplexed Banks to the floor. Banks is dragged into the aisle as Kendrick looked for a count-out… which didn’t come as Banks returned into a Captain’s Hook… which he escaped from. Another Kiwi Krusher’s blocked as a leg lariat from Kendrick looked to keep the former PROGRESS champion in trouble. A desperation Slice of Heaven’s swatted away as Kendrick nearly wins with Sliced Bread #2…
In the end though, some misdirection allowed Banks to hit a Slice of Heaven, then a Kiwi Krusher for the win. Not a fan of the sudden “hit two moves and win” finale, but hey, it was what it was. A solid TV main event, but again, I don’t expect a new belt to be linked to this show after the weekend. ***
We close on a video package for Worlds Collide, briefly touching on all the big matches, but focusing on Imperium vs. Undisputed Era to end things on…
Going in, this week’s show looked supremely loaded on paper, although the announced Killer Kelly vs. Jazzy Gabert match ended up not even being taped – with Gabert revealing that she’d been injured in a car accident the prior week, then chose not resign with WWE after this past weekend’s tapings. My issue though, is that they didn’t even acknowledge it here. No mention of it not happening, no segment to explain it away… not even a phantom beatdown. It’s not a major storyline, but leaving any storyline threads dangling when you’re only running an hour a week just demonstrates a lack of care. Why should fans get invested in all of the storylines if they’re liable to be dropped at no notice? They didn’t even edit the match graphic out of the replay of last week’s show that aired before this…
Apart from that, with the matches on the card building for Saturday, they did a better job hyping Worlds Collide than they did on the last regular weekly show before Takeover: Blackpool. Which speaks volumes, doesn’t it?