NXT UK Inclination 12/5/19 (Contract Negotiations)

By
Mark Blake

The British weather has got to me once again folks. I’m laid up in bed with a chest infection. Boohoo. But don’t feel bad for me. All that means is that I can watch lots of wrestling action! So let’s watch this week’s NXT UK!

Killer Kelly vs Toni Storm

A returning Toni Storm completely demolished Killer Kelly in this opening bout. This match – and I use that term lightly – lasted less than two minutes.

I will rant about the complete misuse of Kelly late on in my Blake’s Take, don’t worry.

I’m not against Toni coming back and squashing her first opponent. Her first match in NXT UK in months and she had to make an impression. Picking up the win with her Strong Zero.

Winner – Toni Storm

As Toni was celebrating, current NXT UK Women’s champion Kay Lee Ray rushed the ring and began beating down her long-time rival. Cue Piper Niven. She came down to make the save. Toni seemed a bit miffed that Piper was there. Maybe Toni didn’t need the help? Either way, Storm yelled at Piper and walked to the back.

Quick promo with SWSC. Flash Morgan Webster and Mark Andrews say that they actually agree with the Grizzled Young Veterans. Imperium and Gallus shouldn’t have got involved in their most recent matchup. They deserve the shot at the tag titles at next month’s NXT UK Takeover: Blackpool II.

Carrying on from the first match, we see Piper Niven and Toni Storm argue some more backstage. All Storm wants is the NXT UK Women’s Championship back, and Piper needs to stay out the way.

The Hunt vs The Outliers

The Outliers consist of Riddick Moss and Dorian Mak. Both men are in NXT and have made their way over to gain some exposure…..and hopefully, some more ring time as they weren’t really as polished as a lot of NXT teams are right now. They seemed to jaw jack with the crowd more than they actually performed decent wrestling in the ring. Not the greatest of first impressions.

In my eyes, there was never any doubt that Wild Boar and Primate aka The Hunt, would walk out the winners. As I alluded to above, The Outliers just aren’t ready for any TV, let alone NXT UK.

The finish came with The Hunt hitting double top rope headbutts on Mak. A so so match that highlighted The Outliers weaknesses and really didn’t do much for The Hunt either.

Winners – The Hunt

Jordan Devlin vs A-Kid

Oh yes! OH YES!! OH YES!!! Devlin is quickly becoming one of my favorite wrestlers to watch. I’ve seen him on the UK indy scene for a few years and he’s slowly got better. But he has really stepped up since the Cardiff Takeover.

A-Kid was also a major part of this match, obviously. And again, since he has joined NXT UK, he has come in and leaps and bounds too. And the pair of them put on one hell of a match here. It was that good that Tyler Bate even came out to watch…Ok, he actually came out to cheer on A-Kid but you get my drift.

The crowd was also as hyped as me here. Major support from them in this match. And it helped so much. The match swung back forth with both guys getting huge amounts of offense in. From high flying to technical submissions, they highlighted themselves so much and really put themselves in the shop window so to speak.

Devlin won this hard-hitting match with his Devil Inside finisher. The crowd rose to their feet and applauded, along with this reviewer. Seriously what a match!

Winner – Jordan Devlin

Promo time! Just a quick one with Jinny. She puts over (a lot) that everything is fine between herself and Jazzy.

El Ligero vs Joseph Connors vs Travis Banks

The last match must have lit a fire under these three men as this was a good match. I may sound surprised, and I was. I literally don’t rate Connors at all. But the three of them put on a hell of a match to actually show me that Connors can go when needed. Hopefully, this is a kick up the ass for him and he can kick on.

As for the match itself, for a triple threat, it wasn’t half bad. It’s not at Dunne/Dain/Priest levels, but it was an enjoyable match all the same. More highflying with some real gritty strong style set this match apart from everything else on this card. The spot where Banks legit punched Connor’s nose, mid-dive, is a sight to behold. Trust me.

From the beginning where Ligs and Banks double-teamed Connors as payback for interfering with their past matches in recent weeks, to the finish which was convoluted but worked in the context of the match, this was a fitting last match to end the show.

The finish? Banks and Ligs were trading strikes but Conners comes in and dumps Banks out the ring. Conners then hits his Don’t Look Down finisher to win the match and made me see that he does have talent after all. Let’s hope he doesn’t need to work multi-man matches to look this good again.

Winner – Joesph Connors

A rather brilliant promo here from Kassius Ohno. His evolution to this snarky, condescending character has been brilliantly played. Here he talks about why he came to NXT UK originally and how he is shedding his Knockout Artist persona to become the best British Wrestler…even though he’s not British! Honestly, I’m loving Ohno right now.

Time for our main event – a contract signing. Getting old school WWE vibes here. I’m waiting for a table to be knocked over and the fists to fly. Let’s see how this goes…

Sid Scala and Johnny Saint are running the show here as Joe Coffey and WALTER make their way out. Coffey reiterates that he wants WALTER for the United Kingdom Championship, while WALTER wanted Wolfgang and Mark Coffey to fight Imperium for the NXT UK Tag Titles. And for Ilja Dragunov to face off against The Axeman, Alexander Wolfe in a No DQ match.

Without hesitation, Gallus accepted their part of the challenge but they couldn’t speak for Dragunov. All of a sudden, Ilja’s music played and he came straight to the ring and accepted the No DQ match, giving Joe Coffey his title match. Which was made as the main event for Takeover: Blackpool II. Gallus would face off against Imperium for the tag titles next week, while the No DQ match would happen later down the line.

Happy with their result Gallus walked to the back. Dragunov hung around to stare down WALTER, setting up a future feud maybe? Only to get jumped by the rest of Imperium and powerbombed through the table. YES! Called it!

Imperium stood tall as the show faded to black

That was a show of two halves, wasn’t it? Up until the Devlin/A-Kid match, it felt slow and labored.

And as for that opener with Storm/ Kelly…seriously! Of all the people that could have been fed to Toni, they chose her? The girl is money if booked properly, which she totally isn’t. Why hype her return then make her lose every match since?! It drives me insane folks.

Rant over. From that Devlin/A-kid match onwards, the show was on fire. Two bloody good matches and a hot main event angle to close the show. I’ll take that every day of the week thank you very much.

Next week has Gallus vs Imperium for the NXT UK Tag Team Titles, which could be a barnstormer of a match if given time. So until next week my peeps….

Ta ta!

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR