NXT UK Episode #42 (8th May 2019)

For the first time ever, NXT UK comes to Glasgow Scotland. With the number of Scottish wrestlers on the roster, it’s about time. I attended both nights of taping from the Braehead arena, which is the arena WWE used to do shows in before the Hydro was built. Obviously, I will have different view of these episodes as I was there live, so, to give another view, I will be joined by my colleague Samuel Preston, who will be seeing them for the first time as they air on the network.

This week’s episode opens with a video of Sid Scala announcing there would be a series of matches over the next few weeks to qualify for a Fatal Four-Way match, to determine the Number One Contender for the NXT UK championship. On the night before the video, we had a dark match between Kassius Ohno and Oliver Carter. No prizes for guessing who won that one. Then we got this video and Scala actually got booed by the crowd. The Fatal Four-Way would be the running theme for the two nights, as we had the qualifying matches on the first night and the Fatal Four-Way itself on night two.

Sam’s thoughts: I quite like the fact that Scala mentions the winner will face either Dunne OR Walter, it’s a small but important inclusion. Scala has now set up a fascinating ongoing story arc for the next four weeks, a tournament style featuring eight wrestlers, which creates five interesting matchups with stakes, as well as tying in the huge Championship match between Walter and Dunne. I’m curious to see who will feature in the tournament, but also, where is Johnny Saint?

Another running theme was the crowd having some fun with ring announcer Andy Shepard. Every time he went to step through the ropes, the crowd went oooooh and cheered when he got in the ring. He looked confused the first couple of times, but soon started to play along. He said entering the ring has never been more nerve racking.

Moustache Mountain vs The Hunt

Early on, Boar forces Seven into his corner before tagging Primate. Seven chops accomplish nothing but anger Primate. Goes for the fake out, but Primate doesn’t budge. Hits Primate low and hits the DDT, followed by a suicide dive to both members of The Hunt on the outside. Boar grabs Seven’s leg when he goes to the top, allowing Primate to get an overhead belly to belly off the top. Bate gets knocked off the apron as Seven gets isolated.

Primate dives at Seven in the corner, but he avoids it and he’s able to make the tag. Bate gets the hot tag and he unloads with right hands on Boar. Hits an overhead release suplex followed by the Standing Shooting Star Press. Moustache Mountain hit a Powerbomb back suplex combo on Boar. They go for a tag team finisher, but Boar fights out and the Hunt catch Bate in the pop up into back suplex. They might have won, but Seven breaks up the pin. Double Pop and Bang, followed by the Clothesline Dragon Suplex combo to secure the win for Moustache Mountain.

Winner: Moustache Mountain

A strong opening tag match to kick us off this week. The crowd were so hot for Moustache Mountain, they were some of the most over people of the two nights. Crowds are usually most hot at the start of a show, but there was little noise made during the Ohno match which worried me. However, my worries were put to bed by the reaction for Moustache Mountain.

Something I thought at the time and having watched it back I feel the same, first off, Primate not flinching for the fake out is a cool spot. Secondlym Seven blatantly low blows Primate.

Sam’s thoughts: Solid opening tag match with very little down time. Wild Boar and Primate have a solid gimmick that makes them stand out, and despite not being an obvious tag team like Bate and Seven, I quite like that Wild Boar and Primate have the same yellow colourings on their knee pads and singlet/trunks, it helps sell them as a team more. Loved that Seven’s method of dealing with it was a chop to the ‘inner thigh’.

We see Amir Jordan backstage being aided to the trainer’s room. We didn’t see a lot of backstage segments over the two nights, but we saw this one as it would be important for later on.

Joe Coffey vs Flash Morgan Webster: Fatal 4-way Qualifier

A heroes welcome for Joe Coffey from the crowd. Everything he does gets cheered while everything Flash does gets booed. Flash takes Joe down with an armdrag and hits a standing inverted Senton, before going to the middle turnbuckle, but Joe grabs his leg, causing him to hit his back on the top turnbuckle. Joe continues the attack on the back, repeatedly sending Flash into the turnbuckle. He locks in a Full Nelson, which the crowd boos when Flash attempts to break out. He does get out of it, but Joe is able to immediately lock it back in to a huge cheer.

Flash counters the hold with a crucifix pin for 2. Flash Crossbodies Joe over the top rope and follows up with a tope to the outside. Back in the ring, Joe goes for All The Best, which is countered with a knee. Goes for a senton off the top but Joe gets the knees. Spear into the corner followed by All The Best For The Bells, allows Joe to advance.

Winner: Joe Coffey

Post-match, Gallus tried their best to be booed by the crowd as they chant “We are Gallus” & “It’s your Kingdom”. Joe refers to Webster as a helmet which causes the crowd to chant “He’s a helmet”. They let the crowd know they don’t care if the crowd cheer for them or not, as it’s their city. Wolfgang sends a message to Dave Mastiff that unlike New York, they won’t keep him away from him.

Poor Flash did not have an easy night. There was a moment that was edited out where Webster did a flip from the apron to the ring but stumbled a bit. The crowd immediately jump on him with chants of “You F***ed up”. Those chants were loud so I can see why they edited it out. He looked thrown off by the crowd reaction, which they incorporate into the story of the match. I was curious if they would edit the reaction for Joe, but as soon as the bell rang the crowd was loud. I remember the New York stuff hadn’t aired yet, so Wolfgang’s promo made no sense to me at the time.

Sam’s thoughts: Joe Coffey is a good choice for the first Qualification match, he’s been an integral part of the main event since the opening of NXT UK and put on a cracking Championship match against Pete Dunne at the first ever NXT UK Takeover. ‘Flash’ Morgan Webster is an interesting choice but he’s a popular member of the roster who has impressed in several singles matches. Coffey’s huge support from the crowd adds extra awesome context to his cries of “This Is My Kingdom”, and Webster was definitely thrown off during the match, wasting seconds where he would be looking at the crowd in surprise.

Gallus’ promo afterwards, to seemingly gain heat on themselves, failed quite a bit, as the crowd loved them regardless. Wolfgang’s mention of his match against Dave Mastiff next week should be an interesting hoss match.

Ilja Dragunov Vignette

Another Vignette plays hyping the debut of Ilja Dragunov. Similar to last weeks one, ending saying that he was coming next week. At the time of the taping we knew Dragunov had signed, but we hadn’t seen him debut yet, so when he showed up it was a huge surprise to us. I’ll talk more about that next week.

Sam’s thoughts: I’ve never seen Ilja Dragunov in action, but I have heard tremendous feedback about him, so I’m curious to see him in action next week.

Nina Samuels vs Kasey Owens

Samuels quickly forces Owens into the corner, putting the boots to her. Ties her up in the ropes, putting the foot in the back. Ref gets her to break cleanly, but then Samuels kicks the back. Owens fights out of a stretch and hits double knees in the corner. Samuels avoids a penalty kick and hits a tiltawhirl backbreaker. Fireman’s carry across the knee secures the win for Samuels.

Winner: Nina Samuels

In an interview post-match Samuels turns her attention to Toni Storm. She talks about how Storm abandoned her family to pursuit her dream. Wasn’t much to this match. Kasey Owens got a nice reception, being known to the Glasgow crowd as a former ICW women’s champion. The promo seemed out of nowhere. Pretty much telling us Samuels is the next in line for a Women’s title shot, something I wasn’t really thrilled about. She hasn’t made the best impression on me so far.

Sma’s thoughts: Kasey Owens gets a solid reaction from the crowd, and had a brief opportunity to show some ability, but this was nothing more than a squash match used to put Samuels over. You got to see her vicious and methodical nature, see her arrogance and her love of herself, but she still does nothing for me, I’ve yet to be impressed at any of her matches on the NXT UK brand. Her interview afterwards was probably the first time she got my attention, with her below-the-belt comments about Toni Storm abandoning her family, her arrogance and cruel nature coming across, so her interview skills are solid, but in-ring, still not impressed.

Kenny Williams & Noam Dar vs Grizzled Young Veterans for the NXT UK Tag Team Championships

Gibson tells the crowd that Amir Jordan is not able to compete, so there will be no tag title match. Williams comes out, saying there will be a match because he’s lucky to have other friends in Glasgow.

Dar & Williams take it to the champs, leading to all four men fighting around ringside. The Vets dropkick Williams off the apron and isolate Dar. They start targeting the previously injured knee. Dar tries to send Drake over the top, but Gibson catches him, allowing Drake to get back in and chop Dar’s leg. It looks like Dar’s going to finally tag Williams, only for Gibson to pull Williams off. Williams finally gets the tag, knocking Gibson off the apron and hits a Bulldog into the turnbuckle on Drake. Gibson tries to get involved, but Williams hits a springboard kick.

Dar locks in the knee bar on Gibson, but he manoeuvres himself to tag in Drake. Dar locks in the knee bar on Drake, while Williams has Gibson in the ankle lock. Gibson pushes Williams into Dar to break the holds. Gibson goes for the Codebreaker off the middle turnbuckle, Dar pushes Williams out the way to take the move. Williams hits the wheelbarrow facebuster for a close two count. Dar gets taken out, having his knee slammed into the post. Williams tires to fight against the two on one and is caught with the Grit Your Teeth dropkick. Helter Skelter followed by the 450 Splash allows the Vets to retain.

Winners: Grizzled Young Veterans

An excellent tag match but I think I enjoyed it more when I was there live, because of the shock of Dar’s returned. There were moments I thought they would actually change the titles. This was another example of how much better tag team wrestling in NXT & NXT UK are, compared to the main roster. Little things that the Vets do that add a lot and make sense.

They’ve changed the order of the main events, because Dunne vs Walter was taped mid-way, and this was the last match of the night. I think there are a couple reasons they did this, because since it’s taped, they can air it in whatever order they want. Secondly, it was so they could do the angle they did for the live crowd after the match. We had Gallus come out and look like they were going to join their fellow Scotsmen beating up the English heels. There was a stare down with the crowd chanting ICW, before Gallus stand with the Vets. Moustache Mountain came out to back up Williams & Dar. This led to an eight-man tag with the Vets and the Coffey Brother’s vs Moustache Mountain, Williams & Dar.

It was fun house show style match with a lot of brawling on the outside. Best moment by far was Bate Airplane Spinning Gibson all the way up the entrance way, disappearing backstage, and Gibson reappears walking back down, spinning Bate on his shoulder. Seven saves Bate and tries to get him back to the ring for a multi man spot, but Bate is too dizzy to walk. The face team won to send the crowd home happy, rather than end with the heels retaining. Everyone who was there seemed to enjoy it; I know I did.

Sam’s thoughts: Amir Jordan’s injury earlier in the night lead to another solid Zack Gibson promo, as he even refers to the crowd’s habit of removing their shoes if they hate him. Kenny Williams revealing his new tag team partner in Noam Dar was a solid moment, I do think Williams and Jordan come across too much as a joke team, whereas Williams and Dar come across as much more competitive. There was just enough suspension of disbelief that the crowd began to believe in Williams and Dar.

This was a fun main event and the chemistry was good between the four, I’d be open to a rematch, but I definitely think Williams and Dar make a better tag team than Williams and Jordan.

Overall a really good episode of NXT UK. The crowd was as loud as I remember them being. The in-ring action was solid with the Coffey match and the main event being particular highlights. As good as this episode was, there’s a lot more good stuff from these tapings to come.

Sam’s thoughts: This was a pretty solid episode overall, a solid opener, solid qualification match and a pretty good main event, with some story developments and hints towards upcoming episodes. I’m curious to see who else will feature in qualification matches over the next few weeks.

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