I’d have a clever intro related to St. Patrick’s Day but I used up all my words on my honorable mention list so here’s this week’s rankings!
Honorable Mention: Isla Dawn, A-Kid, Wild Boar, Sha Samuels and Kenny Williams. Dawn has a good oackage where they flash backed to Satomura’s debut win over her and they both talked about how she’s changed and Isla ended by saying it was going to be a new Dawn. A-Kid gets the spot for sticking around when I didn’t expect it and recruiting Saxon Huxley for his tag match with Die Famile. There was a funny call-back to A-Kid trying to refine Huxley when Kid asked if he remembered him and Huxley went off on his “The rain in Spain…” stuff before finally saying “Falls mainly on the plain” and “Yes!” to A-Kid’s request to be his partner. Wild Boar cut a great dark, gritty, film like promo where he looked terrifying and said he held Eddie Dennis personally responsible for all the hell and torture he endured the last year and he’d put it all on Dennis. This lead to Dennis in Scala’s office later with Symbiosis claiming he’s more of a manager now and Boar should instead face T-Bone or even his former partner Primate. Scala said he’d make a call. Sha gets it for setting up yet another great odds board for Dar v. Mark Coffey that included;
Coffey Junior No Show: 5/2
Mark Coffey to Win: 1090/1
Joe makes it about him: 1/3
Then he took a bet from somebody who called in wanting Coffey and he told them to put their house and kid’s college fund on him. He and Dar then laughed about the killing they were going to make. The Joe odds were funny as there was a hint of Noel and Liam Gallagher like tension for a second when Mark told Joe he got the match. But Joe ultimately seemed happy for Mark. Williams makes it because he tried to laugh off a note on his locker that said “You’ve made a lot of enemies cockroach” by saying he knew that but then he jumped when a random nobody closed a locker behind him.
5. Emilia McKenzie. Meiko Satomura’s top student got another notch in the win column when she took out Nina Samuels with a spear. McKenzie overcame Samuels nefarious tactics and targeting of the hair and still managed the W.
4. Aleah James. My favorite woman in NXT UK was back in action this week defeating Stevie Turner with an O’Connor roll and a back bridge. This wasn’t very long or eventful but a win for James is much appreciated.
3. Roderick Strong. His main event clash with Wolfgang never quite hit that second gear you’d expect from these 2. I’ve grown to be a big Wolfgang fan but this was not his best showing. Long story short; Wolfgang worked over the arm most of the match while Roddy, unsurprisingly, attacked the back. Wolfgang’s best chance came when he hit his up and over corner splash, followed by a double axe handle from the top and a standing powerslam but it only got a 2 count. Strong won after leap frogging a spear attempt and hitting a flash knee for 3. The real story here came after the match when Strong, sans Bivens (to the dismay of the UK crowd who chanted for him) grabbed a mic and said he’s here for a good time not a long time. He wants the big money fights and the biggest one is with Ilja Dragunov. The ball is now in his court. As lukewarm as this match was I’m sure that will be a blast!
2. Tyler Bate. It’s incredible to me that Bate just turned 25 but is a veteran with 5 years of WWE experience under his belt already. He showed again tonight that he can really do it all and he’s as close to a finished product as any 25 year old can be. He leaned more toward the heel side of the equation in his clash with Carter but never really went to the dark side. He had an impressive showing and may have gotten the win after knocking Carter from the top with a big punch to the face but once again a distraction from Seven cost him when Seven ans Ashton Smith got into it on the outside allowing Carter a second to recover and granting him the ability to land the backslide for the win. My favorite part here was that as Trent and Smith were jostling at ringside Seven’s towel again ended up in the ring. Unlike the Moustache Mountain feud this time the towel itself didn’t cost Bate the match directly but I do appreciate the common thread of it whenever things are going to get murky for the “big strong boy”. After the match Trent took the blame and was talking to Bate in the corner. I thought for sure the Seven heel turn was coming prior to their title win and it’s feeling even more inevitable now but I do question how long they may take to get there. NXT UK does a good job of drawing out feuds and stories.
1. Oliver Carter. Last week on Rampage my #1 spot went to Marq Quen for having one heck of a singles match in the show opener against a hot young accomplished singles star despite being more entrenched as a tag guy. Well this week you could just copy and paste Carter in that place. He and Bate had a really fun, fast paced, action packed match to start the show and welcome fans back into the BT Sport Studio. It was filled with reversals and counters and both guys looked better for it. Carter hit a scissors kick for 2, a full nelson backbreaker for 2 and then had a beautiful sequence with Bate where he hit a rolling wheel kick that sent Bate into the ropes, Bate then hit one of his own, Bate tried to follow up with a clothesline but Carter ducked, sprung off the ropes for a moonsault but Bate avoided it and hit his rope catch lariat turning Oliver inside out. Smith then countered a Tyler Driver 97 into a hurricanrana for 2 before finally getting the win a few minutes later when he countered a diving uppercut and turned it into a backslide for 3. Commentary sold it as a major upset win as he took out the only triple crown champ in NXT UK history and it felt important. This brand is shockingly deep for a 1 hour show. They alreasy have guys like Charlie Dempsey and Nathan Frazer who can easily hold the UK title but now we can add Carter to that list as somebody I can see getting to that spot down the road. If he gets there we’ll look back at this as his breakout match.
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