BRM Reviews the 5/29/2019 NXT UK

[Big Red Machine]

OPENING SEGMENT- mostly good, but...
Fabian Aichner, Marcel Barthel, & WALTER come out doing the RingKampf entrance. They talk about being the only ones able to “lead NXT UK in the right direction.” We get a “this mat is sacred” from WALTER and Barthel specifically referring to wrestling as a “sport.” They say that Dunne and British Strong Style failed to lead NXT YUK in the right direction so they did what they had to do. Also, their new name is Imperium. The fans booed them and chanted for Pete Dunne.
Pete Dunne came out to a big pop, which got even bigger when Moustache Mountain came out to join him and they marched down to the ring. A brawl erupted and the camera got knocked over on the apron and we got some black and white shots and static and a color test pattern and the camera was on its side as we saw referees running down to the ring and then we had to cut a commercial because the camera was dead, and when we came back, things had apparently been gotten under control and we were back to Nigel and Vic.
The promos and confrontation were good and the crowd was very hot for them, but the camera thing suffered from two problems. While the idea was cool, the “technical problems” effects they used were too polished and cheesy to feel believable. I can understand if you’re willing to use suspension of disbelief to give this one a pass, but I’m not going to in this case because the other- and much bigger- problem compounds this one into being something I can’t give a pass to.
If you’re the producer/director/whoever does this stuff and one camera stops working, the obvious thing to do is to cut to another camera, right? We KNOW NXT UK is not a one-camera shoot because in addition to this floor camera, they’ve got the hard-cam which they use all the time, so why didn’t they cut to that? Not using the obvious, nearly instinctive solution to give us a view of the action makes the “technical problems” of the first camera feel horribly contrived, which only exacerbated the way too controlled “technical problems” screen effects from the first camera.

RADZIE INTERVIEWS SID SCALA ABOUT WHAT JUST HAPPENED- He and Johnny Saint have decided to book a six-man tag for two weeks from now. Radzie nods in approval. I want to hit Radzie in the face.

CARLOS ROMO & A-KID vs. GALLUS (Mark Coffey & Wolfgang)- squash
Wolfgang getting the pin for his team may or may not wind up being important. Ditto for him going to attack the downed opponent after the match but Mark Coffey holding him back.

RADZIE INTERVIEWS XIA BROOKSIDE- good segment
Xia cuts a promo comparing Jinny and her new muscle Jazzy Gabert to Rhea Ripley before them; a big bully trying to get over at the expense of the smallest woman in the division. Isla Dawn emerged from a nearby room and came over to Xia and said she thought it was a disgrace that Xia was left out there to face both Jazzy and Jinny alone (Killer Kelly ran off rather than pick a fight with Jazzy), and offered to team with her, and they walked off together. Her actual wording was that they “made magic” together as opponents, because she’s a witch. Given Xia’s age and size, I’m a little worried that Isla is going to bring Xia to her house in the middle of the woods under the guise of “training” but when they get there she’s going to try to shove Xia in an oven.
One detail here I really liked was that not only could you actually see Isla walking across the hallway in the background, but she actually crossed the hallway and then had to double back. It made it feel like she actually came across this by accident rather than the usual wrestling fare (and especially WWE) where someone just walks into the frame. While both rely on the “he/she just happened to be there at the right time” plot convenience, doing it this way makes it feel less scripted because we get to see the person walking buy, minding his/her own business first, rather than {enter SETH ROLLINS: stage right}.

JOSEPH CONNERS SELFIE PROMO- He wants a match with Ilja Dragunov to determine who is the most intense and most physical competitor in NXT UK.

KASSIUS OHNO vs. JACK GALLAGHER- 7/10
A solid fourteen-minute wrestling match that Ohno won because the referee didn’t see Gallagher’s foot under the bottom rope and Ohno clandestinely removed it afterwards to prevent the ref from noticing it post-facto and restarting the match. Vic Joseph called Ohno to for claiming to embody the spirit of British wrestling better than any of the Brits here in NXT UK but clearly ignoring the traditional British wrestling value of sportsmanship.

PIPER NIVEN INTERVIEW- fine
This was more build to a match with Rhea Ripley. Based on her comments here, I had better see them actually fight soon.

NXT UK WOMEN’S TITLE MATCH: Toni Storm(c) vs. Nina Samuels- 6.5/10
At only eleven minutes, I found this disappointingly short. It’s a problem that I have found all of the non-TakeOver NXT UK Women’s Title matches to suffer from and I’d like to see it corrected. There was no reason for this to get less time than Ohno vs. Gallagher got. They did a decent job for the time they got, but this really didn’t feel like either a grudge match or a big-time title match, which it should have.


A very good groundwork-laying show from NXT UK, although the disappointing women’s title match is certainly a blemish on it. NXT UK continues to do a very good job of making sure to go off the air with at least one match advertised for the next week’s show that has me excited. What they now need to do is make sure those matches deliver on a higher level a little more often. Next week’s is the big four-way #1 contendership match they’ve been building to for a month, so hopefully that one doesn’t disappoint.