Best friends turned bitter enemies. It’s not Beauty and the Beast but is a tale as old as time. A mutually beneficial relationship eventually ends when one side decides they’re better off without the other. It’s the story behind our BBQs this coming Monday but also the story behind our main event segment just four days prior on NXT UK. So let’s get into ranking the last NXT UK before a holiday celebrating the reigning, defending, undisputed Revolutionary War winners!
Honorable Mention: Trent Seven. The UK’s Bad Grandpa was in front of the BT Sport Studio for the first time since taking out Bate 2 weeks ago. He called his low blow on Bate a work of art and claimed he never changed but Bate lost his killer instinct and will to do anything it took to win. He says the Studio was dead but now they have a record setting crowd and it’s because he’s on top of NXT UK by himself where he was meant to be. This leads to a “We want Tyler!” chant and Seven tells us he won’t come back and fight him to which the crowd chants “Yes he will!” Bate lost his fighting spirit and is a weak boy. Trent is British Strong Style. Trent is Moustache Mountain. As he walks off he jaws with the fans including one “fan” who gets especially heated and ends up jumping the rail. Security immediately steps in but Trent low blows the fan and then walks off saying “He jumped the rail!” This ending was clever with the fan jumping the rail to justify Trent touching him but still keeping Trent as the slimely heel. I just wish the promo itself was more memorable and the fan interaction felt a little more genuine. Though I’m not totally sure how I’d have done that. Maybe the fan jumps in the ring and tackles Trent as he’s giving his speech like the guy did with Bret at the Hall of Fame. I don’t know. But still a fun enough segment for what it was.
5. Oliver Carter. With Ashton Smith on the shelf and NXT UK being a branch of WWE TV you could easily expect them to treat Carter like he’s dead until Smith is back. But instead we got Carter sitting in the back and being flanked by Die Famile. Teoman told him Carter needs a family. Charlie Dempsey says it’s a dangerous place out there abd Rohan Raja says it’s in his best interest to join them. Carter doesn’t answer but looks conflicted as they walk off. This was great and should be a good way to keep Carter busy. If I could plan it out I’d have Carter face a heel with a numbers advantage like maybe Sha with Dar in his corner, and take a loss and really start to question himself. Then Die Famile could approach him again and he’s still not sure. He could then face Dar when Die Famile evens the odds for Carter and allows him to get a win. Carter maybe reluctantly teams with a Die Famile member to face Dar & Sha but when his side gets the win via the numbers game Carter decides he’d rather do it alone. Die Famile then jumps Carter and Carter faces and beats Raja, then Teoman before finally a singles clash with Dempsey. With the pacing of NXT UK that could easily fill 3 months of TV right there, if not more.
4. Kenny Williams. Sid Scala showed up to his office and found Williams who said he’d been there since last night. Scala reminded him the meeting was scheduled for 9 a.m. but “The Scum of the Earth” said he was ready to out the Masked Bozo. Scala cut him off and said he wasn’t there for that but to tell him he has a match next week against Tiger Turan who then walks in. Williams says he’s going to beat him, knock him out and then show that Turan is really his former partner Amir Jordan. Apparently Jordan and Williams had a “Loser Leaves NXT UK” match over a year ago before I was even watching NXT UK so it makes sense that I wouldn’t put 2 and 2 together but this does give me hope because I wasn’t impressed with Tiger Turan as a character and this just proves how long term NXT UK will go with their story telling.
3. Blair Davenport. In her first match in nearly 5 months (or so commentary said, I find that hard to believe unless time really is speeding by) Davenport returned to both the ring and win column when she defeated Angel Hayez with a Falcon Arrow. We were reminded that Hayez teamed with Amale against Alexander and Brookside recently and after the match Davenport said she was here to crush all of our hopes. That combination makes an Amale (The French Hope) match feel upcoming and that could be a fun clash to occupy the 2 without having to rush Blair back into the title picture.
2. Wolfgang. In our main event match of the evening the best member of Gallus took on everyone’s favorite East End Bookie Sha Samuels. Prior to the match we saw a segment with Dar and Sha confronting Mark Coffey during a training session. Mark said he knows he’d have beat Dar for the Heritage Cup if Sha wasn’t there and Sha decides to take that bet and give 100:1 odds on Mark. Sha takes off his hat and reveals he’s putting his own money on Dar because he’s that confident. A flood of trainees then start betting on Mark. Prior to Sha’s match commentary says the whole UK locker room took him up on the Heritage Cup odds for Coffey. Andy Shepherd says he even laid a few pounds on the bet to which Nigel hilariously replies “I thought no gambling was part of your parole agreement?!” A minute or two into the match Wolfgang get sent into the corner and clutches his arm. Dar on the outside throws up the X and Nigel claims the match is over before Shepherd reminds us Dar doesn’t have that authority. Sha spends most of the match working over the bad arm. Wolfgang hits his falling side senton at one point but when he tries to follow up with his twisting suplex his arm gives way and Sha is able to get the jump on him. Wolfgang hit his up and over corner crossbody but Dar distracted him and as he came off the top Sha was able to land a spinebuster but only got a 2 count out of it. Sha wrenched the arm of Wolfgang over the top rope sending him crashing to the canvas and tried for a frog splash but Wolfgang got the knees up (this was the one spot in the match that didn’t look great but commentary cleaned it up later on saying Wolfgang got himself out of the way rather than getting the knees up). Wolfgang hit his corner up and over crossbody again and kicked Dar off the apron this time before athletically front flipping over the rope and delivering his signature carrying spear for 3. Both of these guys are so much better than you’d think if you don’t follow this show regularly.
1. Emilia McKenzie. She lost to Fallon Henley but because Americans always defeat the British this wasn’t unexpected. Despite that this really was the Emilia McKenzie episode of NXT UK. Early in her match commentary openly questioned if McKenzie had the killer instinct in her as she went back and forth with Henley. McKenzie landed a swinging neckbreaker for 2 but Henley then landed a backslide and a roll-up each for a 2 of her own. McKenzie showed some ruthlessness when she locked Henley in a variation of the Million Dollar Dream and bent her back over her knee. Henley refused to tap and they exchanged shots before Emilia landed a back drop driver for 2. Fallon went up and over McKenzie in the corner but tweaked her knee which allowed Emilia to show she had the killer instinct after all as she immediately smelled blood and lunged at the bad leg and delivered back to back leg breakers over her thigh but Fallon was able to roll McKenzie over for a win. McKenzie looked dejected but this wasn’t the end of her night. Later we saw a clip from prior to the show of Sarry working out only to be confronted again by Eliza Alexander and Xia Brookside who said they’d teach Sarray a thing or 2. Meiko Satomura and McKenzie stepped in before things could really escalate and Satomura said if they want to step in the ring with her and…Sarray…and they’ll teach them a lesson. McKenzie furrowed her brow behind Meiko as she said it and said everything without saying a word. McKenzie constantly being overlooked and underappreciated by Satomura is a great story and I can’t wait for McKenzie to explode and let that vicious side out on The Final Boss.
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