NXT UK 66

October 17, 2019 – Brentwood, Essex

Ilja Dragunov def. Saxon Huxley
Tom Phillips makes two jokes that bomb terribly on commentary before the first match even begins. I’m almost impressed. There’s also a guy in a weird costume in the front row that’s overwhelming the crowd with his singing voice. This is going to be a weird episode. This was pretty bad, as they couldn’t get on the same page and the crowd was only interested when they could make fun of Huxley’s resemblance to Christ. Alexander Wolfe came out to watch his crush in the ring, and grins as Dragunov wins with the Torpedo Moskau in 5:22. Dragunov goes to confront Wolfe after the match, but is met with Fabian Aichner & Marcel Barthel. They look to Wolfe and then ceremonially give Dragunov space as they take the ring for their match, then Wolfe escorts Dragunov to the back. I dig all of this. *¾ 

Marcel Barthel & Fabian Aichner def. Wild Boar & Primate
It’s hard not to compare this with the match that Imperium had the night before against Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch, which was a similar length but happened in front of a hotter crowd. The Hunt is fun, but their no One-Two pair. Still, this had its merits; it had good energy, one solid hope spot for the rabid babyfaces, and the right team going over. Imperium won at 7:54 with the European Bomb on Primate. ***

Last week, Piper Niven thanked Rhea Ripley for helping her against Jinny & Jazzy Gabert. They agree to team up because Ripley hates the double Js more than she hates Niven. 

Xia Brookside def. Nina Samuels
This was notably better than I expected, as Samuels never had the opportunity to bore and there were more than a couple interesting transitions in this match. Brookside won in 4:05 with a quick roll up. Good on ‘em. **½

A-Kid from Triple W – White Wolf Wrestling is coming soon. He did a job back in May to Gallus, but they’d probably prefer we not remember that. Later, we get a recap of the Trent Seven vs. Noam Dar feud. They’ll fight next week. So will Travis Banks and Ligero. 

Jordan Devlin comes out to the ring in his insanely skinny jeans to say that he’s not arrogant (as everyone is suggesting) because he can’t be arrogant if he’s actually as good as he says he is. He quickly shrugs off the feud he was supposed to have against Tyler Bate by saying that Bate is shook, and then rips on Dave Mastiff. Mastiff comes out and eats a sucker punch. Devlin tries to hit the Devlin Side but Mastiff pulls him to the mat and hits a senton. 

Mark Coffey & Wolfgang def. Flash Morgan Webster & Mark Andrews {NXT UK Tag Team Championship Match}
This crappy crowd hurt what they were going for here a lot. There were a lot of spots that were reliant on the fans making some noise, and they seemed almost principally opposed despite some really interesting things happening in the ring. Gallus won the match and the titles after an enziguiri/powerslam combo on Webster at 12:30. Seriously, screw these fans. They were fed a really nice power vs. flight match and just refused to eat. What a bunch of tools. ***½