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NXT UK TV THOUGHTS


RIPPA

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Did catch up to what I generally wanted from NXT UK.

The development of the women's division feels incredibly slow with only a handful or so having real character. I like Kay Lee Ray, but she is no Walter in terms of interesting. Feels like her reign should have been over months ago. The matches with Meiko & Piper were good, but neither felt like they hit the quality they could/should have. The build to the Meiko match  felt rushed with Meiko comign out of nowhere to get a shot at the title. Meanwhile Aoife Valkyire is undefeated and getting nothing for it. Jinny might be the best character in the division, but I constantly find her matches lacking. I find Nina Samuels poorly used. She is probably just below Jinny as a character but impresses more in the ring. Not sure why she came out the loser in a feud with Xia Brookside. I like Xia, but she isn't interesting as a personality and is possibly the weakest wrestler in the division ring wise. V/Piper should have been champ already.

WALTER is fantastic and makes the most out of his appearances be it promos, beatdown segments or matches. His match with Dragunov was fantastic and felt like something out of AJPW in the 90s. Even Nigel couldn't help but mention it. The match with A-Kid was pretty damn good as well. Dug the agility vs. power style. One thing I love about Walter is how he changes the finishes of his big matches so you never quite know what will end it.

On 3/13/2021 at 7:29 AM, RunningFromAmerica said:

Mastiff being a happy, smilin' jobber kind of sucks. I know Tyler Bate is still booked as somewhat of an 'Ace', but it still makes me sad.

I've never understood why they pushed Devlin or Coffey over Mastiff. He was better than both and more over than initially. Mastiff should have been one of the top 5 guys. 

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Finally caught up with everything once more.

Kay Lee/Meiko was greatness as expected. I want KLR to be forever champ, so good. I watched this one as it aired then had to go back to the previous two episodes before falling behind again but now fully caught up. Great to see Pretty Deadly finally become champs as well! Their first defense this past week was very good. Silly ending aside, superb match and Pretty Deadly have some killer double team moves. the Crossing Swords looked killer and should've been the finish. Also loved the leapfrog into DDT spot. My favorite team currently.

Looking forward to the KLR/Meiko tag next week. Kay Lee and Isla Dawn look great together, loved their backstage bits so far. Also been enjoying Jinny/Joseph Conners together. Enjoyed the build to and match of Devlin/Trent, good stuff there. 

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Tina Nicks, no sorry, Stevie Turner had an awesome synth-wave entrance theme. Since she's apparently been part of Tokyo Cyber Squad, that makes a bunch of sense, actually. In ring she was ok, I guess. Valkyrie must be the one to unseat KLR, eventually. There's no one else with any momentum.

...aaand just as I say it, Millie McKenzie returns!

Edited by Shartnado
Go , Emilia!
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3 hours ago, Shartnado said:

Tina Nicks, no sorry, Stevie Turner had an awesome synth-wave entrance theme. Since she's apparently been part of Tokyo Cyber Squad, that makes a bunch of sense, actually. In ring she was ok, I guess.

I assume this is Bobbi Tyler you are talking about? Neat if that she kept the cyber theme. Always thought she was the worst wrestler in the TCS so don't expect too much from her any time soon.

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Isn't it kind of weird that they are having two NXT UK Championship defenses within 24 hours and they don't even mention the respective other match on the respective other program?

I guess everyone knows that NXT UK is pre-taped and that WALTER will retain in both matches, but just from a kayfabe-perspective, shouldn't they address what happens, if Ciampa wins the belt?

Edited by The Z
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Prelude was an enjoyable hour of wrestling. 

Nice rounds match between Bate and Dar to kick things off. I like the use of Trent Seven and Sha Samuels as seconds. Sha is a lot of fun. Bate's match vs. A-Kid should be a good one. A-Kid's accent is weird, sounds a bit like Hector Bellerin's. I wonder if that's just from wrestling in the UK these last few years or if he partly grew up here. 

Women's tag match was enjoyable enough with McKenzie picking up a big win on her re-debut. Meiko just giving up on her cover attempt on KLR because Isla Dawn was about to get in the ring to break it up was dumb and Meiko looked naive doing it. Aoife Valkyrie's black feather taunt is actually quite a neat idea.

Gallus on the Noam Dar talkshow could be fun. I thought the iteration of this segment with Bate a few weeks back was really amusing. 

Main event was another great WALTER war. The match was definitely reminiscent of 90s All Japan as Nigel noted, comparing them to Hansen/Brody/Misawa/Kobashi. Love the way Walter leans right in on his pinfall attempts after the powerbomb a la Kawada. Rampage Brown put in a good showing and looked stronger than I thought he would in defeat. Feels more and more like Balor will be the one to beat Walter at the Dublin Takeover. Would be miles better if there's fans present but I'm guessing that's doubtful at this point.

Edited by Tuna Boss
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So Rampage Brown is Rampage Brown, and Sha Samuels is Ed Harvey Sha Samuels, but Ben Carter is Nathan Frazer and Millie McKenzie is called Emilia now (except it still says MM on her gear). I'm sure there's a logic to this somewhere.

They cut out the 3rd and 4th rounds on BT Sport. Bate went from 1-0 up and sailing to an easy victory, to having a terrible knee injury, because of adverts.

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To open the show with Wrestlemania clips, highlighting what current and former NXT UK wrestlers did on the Mania week shows (did Walter officially defend the NXT UK title twice in two days, on two continents?), and then cut to Saxon Huxley in the ring... not very auspicious, that.

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On 4/17/2021 at 5:49 AM, Hail Sabin said:

I was happy to see Isla Dawn pick up the win this week in a nice bait & switch. 

Yeah, messing with the Black Arts had to give her something. Looks like Millie isn't challenging for the title just yet. Valkyrie vs Satomura for the No 1 contendership should be something.

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I've never heard Yoghurt used as an insult, other than by Sam Gradwell on NXT UK. There was a guy on Big Brother one year (more than a decade ago, mind) who'd call himself a Yoghurt Top meaning he'd been foolish, but nobody understood what he meant by that.

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Maybe they finally realised how offensive it was, calling something "NXT UK Takeover Dublin".

But then again, no.

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On 4/20/2021 at 3:36 PM, Shartnado said:

Looks like Millie isn't challenging for the title just yet.

'Emilia' on the other hand......

I have to say though I do find this show at times....quite......low-rent. There's quite a few guys on this show....there was a time when guys of this ilk would be working as enhancement and getting their lunch eaten....now they're 'WWE Superstars' and it feels wrong to me. Now look, just in case one of those people is reading this...I'm not a complete miserable p***k, I know everybody worked hard and then some; they should obviously make the most of your opportunity and I wish them well. But am I supposed to care about this Teoman guy....who's ceiling tbh is probably being title defence fodder for A-Kid....hurting some guy debuting on the show who we have no reason to care about? And I know it's not easy coming up with new submissions....but doing a crossface as your big extra hurty submission....it's just low rent.

It's tough with no fans....and yeah they want to give people TV....but I still think they should give us a little bit more of the top guys and a few less....sorry children....ham-and-eggers.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Dragunov beats Mastiff by ref stoppage due to him elbowing Mastiff right on the nose and leaking blood all down his beard. Which on the one hand does play into Ilja's angle, but on the other hand, I can't see how that was the planned finish. What shall we do in the match? Oh, just break my nose two minutes in, that'll do for a finish.

And then the main event, Kenny Williams vs Amir Jordan in a Loser leaves NXT-UK match. A match where there's every possibility that it means 'Loser gets a proper job', rather than 'Loser moves to Florida and hangs around a warehouse while not being on TV'.

Edited by AxB
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Really loved the Satomura/Valkyrie match from 2 weeks back. Valkyrie looked her absolute best yet and came off like a legit title contender while Meiko delivers the greatness every time out.

Liked the build up last week to the women's contenders match coming up this week. Nice video packages on the participants. I like them all but nobody I think should end the reign of KLR. I'm assuming Mckenzie wins. Looking forward to that.

Amir/Williams seemed to escalate rather quickly from tag team break up to loser leaves town. 

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Mark Andrews, Morgan Webster and Dani Luna are now in a stable called Subculture. Hopefully someone responds by forming a rival stable called Domculture. 

Why you would have Heritage Rules matches, that were supposed to be inspired by classic World of Sport style, and then run shitty Sports Entertainment ref distraction finishes during them, I don't know. That's like serving Bangers and Mash, and then putting a load of bloody sprinkles and raspberry sauce all over it.

In other news, Meiko Satomura is good at having Wrestling matches.

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Ben Carter/Nathan Frazer still isn't British and as such having a UJ themed tron on NXT-UK is ludicrous. I hate him.

I remember first seeing Sha Samuels in a very early Kartel match. Had not found himself yet; he looked like Alex Shane's cousin. Glad he did, even if I come from the Best side.

Heritage Cup matches not without their issues, but broadly speaking I'll take what I can get.

 

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Nice bonus addition of Meiko to win the Gauntlet. Makes sense with none of the others seeming like championship ready, but kind of surprised since they already had KLR beat Meiko clean not long ago. I assume the rematch has Meiko going over. I never wanna see Kay Lee lose, but if it's going to happen, at least it will be to the best.

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I liked the little vignette on Aoife Valkyrie a lot. Going unbeaten until running in to Meiko, falling in a great match but coming back stronger from it should work well for her. Meiko/KLR II will be epic. I want KLR to reign forever but I think Meiko wins here, and now they have me totally down with Valkyrie eventually becoming champ next from there.

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