BRM Reviews the 12/12/2019 NXT UK (stop it with the f*ck finishes in main events!)

[Big Red Machine]

ISLA DAWN vs. KAY LEE RAY- 4/10
Kay Lee Ray worked the knee and got the win in about five minutes.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- good
Kay Lee Ray grabbed a mic and told everyone that she was in both Toni Storm and Piper Niven’s heads. Piper came out, completely calm and collected… and Toni Storm charged right by her and went after Kay Lee Ray. They had a short brawl which Toni was winning and set up for Strong Zero but Kay Lee Ray pushed her off and she pumped into Piper Niven, allowing Kay Lee Ray to escape. Piper and Toni had a shouting match, at which point Sid Scala came out and announced that Kay Lee Ray would be defending her title against both Piper and Toni at TakeOver.

JORDAN DEVLIN PRESENTS VIDEO- good
This time he showed a bunch of videos of Moustache Mountain as a whole and Tyler Bate in particular getting destroyed, then cut a promo on Tyler Bate.

JOE COFFEY INTERVIEW- bad
He is asked what it would mean to him to become the NXT UK Champion. He didn’t really give much of an answer. He just said a bunch of stuff about Gallus.

TRENT SEVEN vs. MICHAEL MAY- no rating, never happened
May was jumped by Eddie Dennis, who seemed to think he was doing Seven a favor.

RADZIE INTERVIEWS NOAM DAR- fine
Dar drags Radzie to Johnny Saints office to ask them who he will be wrestling at TakeOver and to tell them he’s taking a vacation until them. Sid Scala tells him not to go on vacation because he’s booked against Tyler Bate next week.

JACK STARZ vs. RIDGE HOLLAND- GREAT squash
I liked that instead of just Holland murdering Starz, they let Starz get this big burst of sustained offense in with Holland selling all of his strike but never leaving his feet, then hitting the huge POUNCE, hitting his finisher (“Northern Grit”) and getting the win. It breaks the monotony of the usual squash, which is key for those of us who are binge-watching this show to catch up in time for TakeOver.

AMIR JORDAN AND KENNY WILLIAMS AT THE PERFORMANCE CENTER- good
Jordan runs up to his partner to happily tell him that he is cleared to return to action and that he has gotten them booked in a tag match next week. Jordan wants to go back to dancing, but you can tell by the look on Williams’ face that he’s not happy about this one bit.

NXT UK TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: Gallus (Mark Coffey & Wolfgang)(c) vs. Imperium (Marcel Barthel & Fabian Aichner)- 7.5/10
The match was just starting to hit that next level when the Grizzled Young Veterans came out to steal the tag title belts. They were then attacked by Mark Andrews and “Flash” Morgan Webster. Their brawled spilled into the ring so we got YET ANOTHER DQ IN THE MAIN EVENT. Yes, I understand the symmetry. Yes, I realize that set up the authority figures coming out and announcing a four-way ladder match for the titles at TakeOver, but if you’re going to do such an annoying finish, DON’T MAKE THIS MATCH THE MAIN EVENT! This is the third time we’ve had a non-finish in the main event in the past six weeks (and all of them have involved Gallus and Imperium in some way).

This was a decent episode of NXT UK that would have been a lot better without such an annoying ending to the main event. It’s nice that the card for TakeOver: Blackpool II is starting to take shape and the card looks good, but learn how to do this sh*t without so many damn bad finishes!