You learn something new everyday. While researching for a throw away line I was going to open this with I learned that the 12 days of Christmas is in reference to Christmas and the following 11 days and not the 12 days before it. Joke ruined. So here’s your rankings for this week’s NXT U.K. You can’t return or exchange them but you can and should re-gift them!
Honorable Mention: Symbiosis and Blair Davenport. We got the reveal of a mini-tournament to crown the next contenders to Moustache Mountain starting in January with Symbiosis v. Smith and Carter and Die Familia v. Mastiff and Starz. Symbiosis spoke about the language of a new year and ended with the line “If you keep throwing us to the wolves we’ll eventually come back leading the pack” Davenport hyped up the match with Satomura in 3 weeks via a video package and had a great line about Meiko being the final boss but their match ending in a “Flawless victory” for Davenport. She needs to hope Meiko doesn’t hit her with a fatality after the clash though.
5: Jordan Devlin: There was a film worthy package on Devlin that he voiced over where he talked about wearing an ice mask while doing his morning crunches (he can do 1,000!) if he feels puffy. He mentioned that his penthouse overlooked his city of Dublin and all the little people below. He drives fast with the top down because he loves how it looks with the wind in his hair. And the little people worship him because he’s more than Dragunov ever will be. These were all paired with visuals of him doing what he discussed down to him signing autographs and obnoxiously fake laughing with them in slow motion only to turn away from them with a look of utter disgust. It ended with him tossing his champagne off a balcony saying he doesn’t need the approval of the people like Ilja, he only needs himself. The camera work and production between this, Die Familia and Gallus the last few weeks has gotten so much darker but better looking. So fitting of a movie. I’d love to see that style implemented more stateside. Devlin is just a pure cocky Hollywood jerk and I look forward to Dragunov knocking him down a peg.
4: Kenny Williams: After Danny Jones refused Williams’ request to leave the match and go find Mark Andrews Williams made relatively short work out of Andrews’ student turned trainer at his school. The “Scum of the Earth” channeled his anger over Andrews’ music playing mid-match and costing him a loss to Huxley into a beating of Jones that only finally ended after not 1 but 2 Bad Lucks hit on Jones. Like I’ve said in the past the little things make Williams great! After the first Bad Luck he laid on his stomach with his head propped up by his hands kicking his lower legs back and forth like a kiddy school girl on the phone with her first boyfriend while asking the crowd “Do you want 1 more?!” Then he held his hand over his eyes during the pin staring down the camera with the “searching” motion indicating his desire to find Andrews. After the match was over Williams got his wish as he left Andrews’ locker room twirling Andrews’ jacket saying “Help! Help! There’s been a terrible accident! I found him!” as cameras followed to reveal Andrews on the floor holding his arm asking for a doctor.
3: Nathan Frazer: Frazer is a staggering 0-5 in his last 5 matches but he continues to look like a star despite that. Despite the loss this was another great showcase of his skills as he worked over the ribs of A-Kid and flipped around like a lunatic for the better part of 5 rounds. After an early roll-up gave him the lead Frazer fought through a fired up A-Kid to land a slingblade followed by a Final Cut for just 2. He also showed off his strength and agility landing a backflip powerslam in the 5th round before being caught in the omoplata and being forced to tap. At still just 23 years of age his time is coming soon and thinking far down the line I’d love to see him be the guy who takes the NXT U.K. Championship from Charlie Dempsey.
2: A-Kid: With the #1 conenders tournament finishing up a while ago there has been a severe lack of Heritage Cup rules matches lately and I’ve been sorely missing them. So it was nice to see A-Kid and Frazer clash in the main event to crown the next contender to Dar’s Heritage Cup. A-Kid might was caught off guard in round 2 when Frazer flipped through a roll-up for the first fall but being in that hole lit a fire under A-Kid who came roaring back nearly tying the score with a Fujiwara armbar in round 3 as Frazer was saved by the bell. Round 4 saw Kid get his first fall when he landed a savage but bautiful German suplex sliding through the middle and top rope followed by a flying superkick. He looked to be on the verge of a loss in round 5 but managed to snatch Frazer in an omoplata for the tap and the win.
1: Charlie Dempsey: We opened the night with a match weeks in the making as the next big star in wrestling, Hook before Hook was cool, Charlie Dempsey got to put that dastardly Joe Coffey to sleep! Was this Dempsey’s best showing so far? No. But I’m putting that blame squarely on the shoulders of Joe Coffey who I find extremely dull and boring. Dempsey did as Dempsey does and worked over, of all body parts, the nose at points in this match which was just brilliant! While I’m personally sure he didn’t need them Dempsey did get some help from Die Familia here as Teoman & Raja pulled him out of the ring late in the match to safety. When Gallus came out to even the odds Dempsey took advantage of the staredown grabbing Joe behind his Gallus mates’ backs and sending him in to the stairs before throwing him back in the ring before locking on the Dragon Sleeper and sending Joe Coffey to an early slumber. Despite being hamstrung by both Gallus and Die Familia, neither of which I’m bery high on, Dempsey continues to show he is a star in the making and the one who should eventually dethrone Dragunov.
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