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NXT UK TV THOUGHTS


RIPPA

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Trying to catch up on the shows for Takeover on Sunday and some things:

Remember when people were so pissed that Jordan Devlin was in the original NXT UK title tournament and said he was nothing that a Finn Balor ripoff.  Well now he is a main eventer caliber talent in the promotion.  I have yet to see him in a bad match and his match against Pete Dunne was great, 

I really can't figure out what they see in Eddie Dennis.  If he was 4 inches shorter he would a lower card guy for me.  He is very average in the ring and wrestles nothing like a monster that they are trying to portray

Except for Gallus, Jordan Devlin, and maybe Grizzled Young Vets the heel side is really weak to me. I really enjoy the Wild Boar guy but don't see a push from him.   Meanwhile the babyface side is extremely strong even with lower level guys like Amir Jordan.  Maybe using more guys like NXT will help that

Rhea Ripley is the closest thing to Becky Lynch in the NXT roster in terms of attitude. Like I have said many times she is a much much better Pete Dunne than Pete Dunne right now.   Hell I would put her on the main NXT roster she has progressed so much  

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I'm thinking they show WALTER in the crowd at TakeOver and they pair him up with the European Union Marcel Bartel and Fabian Aichner as WWE's own version of Ringkampf which would be great. They would be a great trio of heels to work opposite British Strong Style.

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10 minutes ago, hammerva said:

Remember when people were so pissed that Jordan Devlin was in the original NXT UK title tournament and said he was nothing that a Finn Balor ripoff.  Well now he is a main eventer caliber talent in the promotion.  I have yet to see him in a bad match and his match against Pete Dunne was great,  

I just don't find him all that interesting. He is better than he was then, but still somehow does nothing for me.

10 minutes ago, hammerva said:

I really can't figure out what they see in Eddie Dennis.  If he was 4 inches shorter he would a lower card guy for me.  He is very average in the ring and wrestles nothing like a monster that they are trying to portray

Dennis comes across as trying too hard for me. He is big, but I don't think his looks works for a monster and he is definitely far too average in the ring.

11 minutes ago, hammerva said:

Except for Gallus, Jordan Devlin, and maybe Grizzled Young Vets the heel side is really weak to me. I really enjoy the Wild Boar guy but don't see a push from him.   Meanwhile the babyface side is extremely strong even with lower level guys like Amir Jordan.  Maybe using more guys like NXT will help that 

I thought Noam Dar made a good creep on 205Live. I think they would be better off using him as that on NXT UK.

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Strong contender for the most pointless complaint I've ever made on this board, and maybe it's my imagination, but it kind of seems like almost everyone on this show has a similar look. Some combination of long hair/beard (maybe shaved on the sides) or pompadour/slicked back hair (maybe a mustache). I'm having trouble getting into a lot of these guys as characters because I can't differentiate them from one another.

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15 hours ago, Eivion said:

Dennis comes across as trying too hard for me. He is big, but I don't think his looks works for a monster and he is definitely far too average in the ring.

Eddie Dennis makes me feel like JR. I want to tell him to work more like a big man and to build up his upper body and develop more of a mystique. He's the same size as Scott Hall and it really doesn't feel like it.

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2 hours ago, Godfrey said:

Eddie Dennis makes me feel like JR. I want to tell him to work more like a big man and to build up his upper body and develop more of a mystique. He's the same size as Scott Hall and it really doesn't feel like it.

I get and pretty much agree. The shorts in particular feel weird. He'd be better off wearing pants or tights (long or short)

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I think the complaint about characters standing out is a legit one.  But it’ll take some time for the UK brand to build an identity for them to exist in.  For instance a WWF Hogan shines in a spotlight much differently than he does in a WCW spotlight.  Eventually, I’m pretty confident it’ll sort itself over time.  

 

In short its early.

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Digging the way they're using WALTER so far based off the taping spoilers- he isn't a face or a heel, he's Galactus. He's an unstoppable force of nature, and there's nothing you can do about it.

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21 minutes ago, Pete said:

Digging the way they're using WALTER so far based off the taping spoilers- he isn't a face or a heel, he's Galactus. He's an unstoppable force of nature, and there's nothing you can do about it.

Spot on assessment, Pete.  As much as I like Pete Dunne, I'd be perfectly okay with WALTER taking his title and having Pete in a prolonged feud to get his title back. I think you can still work with Pete as a tweener, despite a title chase usually casting the chaser in a more sympathetic role; I think Pete has enough basically nasty moves to prevent drifting into a pure babyface role. If the crowd is being too supportive , just roll out the ol' "joint manipulation" spot, which is a wonderfully heelish stunt that makes perfect sense in the context of a match and Pete seems positively giddy when he gets to use it. 

Now as for the narrative that seems to have caught on that Rhea Ripley is doing Pete Dunne better than Pete Dunne, this is the sort of thing that I would expect to come from Alvarez or a couple of likely lads that post here and in the MMA folder. The simple facts are this: Pete Dunne has elevated himself to the point that he is arguably a top five worker in the world. Rhea Ripley is a talented young lady who shows lots of promise. She has come a long way very quickly and her work as a heel is quite convincing, but to even imply that she's on the same level as Dunne  is so silly as to really not merit discussion. Pete Dunne isn't really even a heel,  he's simply a hard bastard in the Harley Race mode; he comes to win matches and titles and woe to those that happen to get in his way; he's going to fuck them up, that's just what he does. NXT and NXT-UK have done an absolutely stellar job in their presentation of Dunne as neither heel nor face, and the folks that aren't able to discern this are sadly, rather a bit thick]

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I appreciate you being able to make that point without saying the words "Johnny Valentine" once, @OSJ. A wordsmith indeed!

I don't know that anyone really believes their own hyperbole when they say Ripley is doing a better Dunne than Dunne (feel free to jump in and correct me), just going a bit over the top praising someone who developed a great heel character seemingly out of nowhere. There are some saying they noticed her as early as the first MYC, but the general consensus seemed to be "meh" at that point. She's certainly very good now and they're clearly high on her, but she's still got a long way to go.

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That European Union match against Mark Andrews and Flash Morgan Webster from this week's episode is a neat little TV match worth watching.

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14 hours ago, Edwin said:

That European Union match against Mark Andrews and Flash Morgan Webster from this week's episode is a neat little TV match worth watching.

Yeah, that was a really fun main event and if not for the tag title match I'd argue that it should have been on Takeover.  I'm hoping EU sticks around and WALTER forms a version of Ring Kampf with them.  That would be absolutely tremendous.  I also really liked Isla/Jinny and Ligero/Huxley.  It seems after watching Takeover I'll be sticking with the weekly shows and this was a pretty good one to start off with.

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Dunne isn’t doing this sort of thing. He’s a competitive sadist who hurts people because he can/is better, whereas Ripley does so because she’s a bully who desperately needs to feel she’s better. She’s what happens when the edgelord hardcore kid is also the jock. (Aside: This rules though, and it’s hard to say Foley doesn’t deserve it.)

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What. The. Fuck.

Anyway, I'm going back through all of NXT UK. I started watching it, fell off, watched the Takeover, and then decided to go back and watch everything. It's a really tight show, much more so than OG NXT I think. There still aren't any early storylines that are that great or anything, but I dig the in ring action.

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