BRM Reviews the 9/17/2020 NXT UK

[Big Red Machine]

OPENING VIDEO- They were a little too self-indulgent with a lot of the “WE’RE BACK!” stuff, but I thought the little clips to reintroduce you to the wrestlers were a tremendous idea.

Andy Sheppard and Nigel McGuinness are your commentary team.

OPENING SEGMENT- fine
Sid Scala comes out to make an announcement. He is quickly interrupted by Ilja Dragunov, who is tried of waiting and wants to fight. Ilja delivered this message in the slightly unhinged manner that only he can make work as a babyface. Noam Dar came out and started to cut a promo on Ilja. Ilja apparently wasn’t kidding about being tired of waiting, because he interrupted Dar by diving onto him. I was very grateful for this because I, too, wanted to see some damn action already after seven minutes of video packages and talking.
They brawled while Sid Scala importantly yelled at them to stop. Scala finally just called for some referee to break them up, then told them he would “move some things around” and let them be tonight’s main event. I liked that they included that line, or else it would look like they went on the air for this big return show without a main event booked, as so often seems to happen in WWE.

KENNY WILLIAMS & AMIR JORDAN vs. GALLUS (Mark Coffey & Wolfgang)- 7/10
This was a GREAT big mean heels vs small, athletic babyfaces match, all without doing too much. They did an outstanding job at making all of the roll-ups feel like believable false finishes.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- fine, if a little cliched
“Flash” Morgan Webster & Mark Andrews, The Hunt, Pretty Deadly, and Ashton Smith & Oliver Carter all came out to ringside to let the tag champs know they were coming for the belts.

SAXTON HUXLEY PROMO- weird
In the six months since COVID, Huxley has gone stark raving mad. He talks in rhymes now, and hasn’t cut his hair or shaved his beard. Nigel translated for us that Huxley will be facing WALTER next week.

WOMEN’S TITLE SEGMENT- weak
Kay Lee Ray is defending the NXT UK Women’s Title against Piper Niven next week. She talks some trash and says that she’ll prove that she is better than Piper Niven. Piper came out and said (paraphrasing) “if you’re better than me, why have I beaten you a lot more than you’ve beaten me?” KLR said that she is a new Kay Lee Ray. Then she said “you should know better than to trust me,” completely telegraphing the fact that she was about to sneak-attack Niven, so of course Niven was ready for it and Kay Lee Ray had to back off. This felt like a segment that happened because the booker wanted these two to interact the week before their title match, but didn’t actually have anything constructive for these two to say or do.

AOIFE VALKYRIE vs. ISLA DAWN- 4.5/10
Each woman got a short video package before the commercial that preceded this match, both of which were so short and lacking any real substance as to have been almost pointless (and if this was any show other than the first show after a six-month lay-off, I would have said that they were completely pointless).
This was a good, solid, even wrestling match. Valkyrie wins with her top rope leg drop to a bent-over opponent again. I assume this must be going somewhere with Isla being unable to beat Valkyrie, or else they could have stuck any other woman in this spot.

HERITAGE CUP TOURNAMENT ANNOUNCEMENT-
6 3-minute rounds, 2 out of3 falls, falls can occur only by pinfall, submission, or knockout. I really hope that doesn’t result in being using weapons just because they can.
Also, there will be seven “unique contenders” and one “wild-card contender.” That makes no sense. Even if someone was going to be entered twice, then there would be six unique contenders, not seven, and if the wildcard isn’t one of the other seven, then he’s just an eighth unique contender.
In the tournament will be A-Kid, Dave Mastiff, Noam Dar, “Flash” Morgan Webster, Joseph Conners, Alexander Wolfe, Trent Seven, and… someone. Do they know that “wild card” is not a synonym for mystery?

They all had styles listed. Conners was “poacher.” I have no idea what that means. A-Kid’s style was “hybrid,” which really means that he just wrestles a bunch of styles (and he said as much in his little video package). Trent Seven’s tyle was listed as “BSS,” which is short for British Strong Style. If you’re going abbreviate Noam Dar’s style to “cruiser,” why not just list Seven’s style as “strong?” Also, what makes Dar’s cruiserweight style different from Webster’s “flyer?” My best guess is that it means that Dar does technical stuff, too, but if “technician” is its own style (and it is, because that’s what Wolfe was listed as), doesn’t that make Dar’s style just “hybrid” like A-Kid’s because he’s doing more than one of the styles?
You can say that I’m picking a nit, and perhaps I am, but my big point here is that if you want to do a tournament, just do a tournament. Don’t start ascribing “styles” to people in ways that are inconsistent. They’re not relevant to the tournament, so why even have them?

Next week we’ll have the “drawing” for the tournament. Apparently we need to have Pete Dunne here to do that for us. If you’ve got Pete Dunne on the show, why not BOOK HIM TO WRESTLE? I assume he will wind up being the eighth guy via some sort of ridiculousness.

NOAM DAR vs. ILJA DRAGUNOV- 7.25/10
This was a great “Ilja never gives up!” match. Dar worked over his arm and his knee and his head, but Ilja kept kicking out refusing to tap out. Alexander Wolfe came out and tried to distract Ilja (they were feuding when things topped six months ago) but Ilja kicked out of Dar’s roll-up. Wolfe got up on the apron but Noam Dar wound up accidentally bumping into him. Both of those two are in the Heritage Cup Tournament, so that should lead to something. Dar and Wolfe bumping into each other set up Ilja hitting Torpedo Moscow for the win.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- fine
WALTER came to have a stare-down with Ilja, who had won a title shot on the last show before the shut-down.


A good first episode back from NXT UK.

[Serujuunin]

Is Joseph Conners just Leo Kruger again? That’s what it feels like.

[Big Red Machine]

Is Joseph Conners just Leo Kruger again? That’s what it feels like.

I had not thought of this comparison before, but it feels pretty apt.

[Serujuunin]

Is Joseph Conners just Leo Kruger again? That’s what it feels like.

I had not thought of this comparison before, but it feels pretty apt.

I mean, I won’t necessarily complain, from what little I’ve seen from him he seems to be able to pull it off, and the character idea was solid enough. I’m curious to see how it turns out, and how close the two end up being.