BRM Reviews the 5/22/2019 NXT UK

[Big Red Machine]

#1 CONTENDERSHIP QUALIFIER: Joseph Conners vs. Travis Banks- 5/10
The match was fine for the time it got. I really didn’t like Banks winning, simply because he is already established while Conners is not. A Conners victory here would have felt like it justified all of the time we spent with him squashing people and having minor feuds with other marginal characters over the past eight months or so. Conners losing to Banks here did just the opposite, cementing him as a low-midcarder, a tier below the guys who get more regular TV time, regardless of his relatively impressive winning percentage so far.

RADZIE INTERVIEWS TRAVIS BANKS- fine promo by Banks

NINA SAMUELS PROMO- good
I know I’ve said it before, but I like how the unique promo set-up and theater metaphors set her Nina apart from everyone else on the show.

MARK ANDREWS vs. NAOM DAR- no rating, good segment
They did stuff for a bit, then Dar faked a knee injury to get the win, moving this feud along nicely.

RADZIE INTERVIEWS THE GRIZZLED YOUNG VETERANS ABOUT BEING CALLED OUT BY MOUSTACHE MOUNTAIN- good
GYZ say that a bunch of people want title shots and it doesn’t matter how much fan support Moustache Mountain have; they don’t make the matches and the fans don’t make the matches. Johnny Saint makes the matches and they are the champions, so they have a say in making the matches. Nothing anyone else says matters.

RHEA RIPLEY PROMO- a good promo to build up to a match with Piper Niven

KASSIUS OHNO VISITS SID SCALA’S OFFICE- good
This was a follow-up to last week’s segment where Ohno demanded competition. Sid Scala tells him he’ll wrestle Jack Gallagher next week. Ohno put Gallagher over, but you could tell that despite his politeness, he really wasn’t about this.

WWE UK TITLE MATCH: WALTER(c) vs. Pete Dunne- 8/10
They had an awesome, hard-hitting match with some good spots playing off of their first match. WALTER won after interference by Fabian Aichner and Marcel Barthel. They left it ambiguous as to whether or not this was something WALTER had asked for or whether he just went with it when he realized what had happened, but the show ended with the three of them standing tall over Pete Dunne and doing the RingKampf pose, so whether or not WALTER set this up in advance (as opposed to Barthel forming the plan without telling WALTER) becomes mostly a moot point, as he seems more than happy to benefit from it, meaning it’s still a heel turn.


A very good episode of NXT UK, moving stories along, giving us an awesome main event, some great promos, and some solid angles. I’m very curious to see how Hunter handles this new stable. Will they be RingKampf-like in ethos, or something more like what you’d usually see in a mainstream non-Japanese wrestling promotion?