Away from more than solid in-ring performances, the most recent United Kingdom Championship Special was a far cry from being as exciting the first. Why were Rich Swann, TJ Perkins and Brian Kendrick on the show? Could the WWE not have gotten three more UK chaps to play catch for 15 minutes? Or is the talent pool in the UK that shallow? The answers to those questions are yes, the WWE could have planned this much better and no, the UK is swimming with wonderful talent. Something went wrong here. This felt like an elongated episode of NXT. UK fans deserve better.
Matches:
Joseph Conners vs. Wolfgang: Connors was vicious throughout working on Wolfgang’s ribs. However, “The Regulator†fought back and won with his Senton Bomb variation, The Howling.
Dan Moloney and Rich Swann vs. TJ Perkins and Brian Kendrick: Why? This match was a waste. Moloney got some hometown cheers, but he’s still mega green. The WWE veterans carried this one as Kendrick got the win with the Bully Choke.
Trent Seven vs. Progress Wrestling Champion Pete Dunne: Excellent match that told a story. Dunne worked on Seven’s already injured arm and Seven was unable to use his famed Seven-Star Lariat. After various strikes and submission attempts, Dunne softened up Seven enough and got the win with his Pump-Handle F5 variation, The Bitter End.
WWE United Kingdom Champion Tyler Bate vs. Mark Andrews: Another solid match, but one that Bate was never in any jeopardy of losing. Now with coarser facial hair and a tattoo on his arm, Bate looks a bit different than the 19-year-old babyface that won the title. Regardless, he still worked hard and played the role accordingly, winning with his Tyler Driver ’97.
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports.
Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders.
His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023.
Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief.
Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale.
Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.
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