BRM Reviews the 10/24/2018 NXT UK

[Big Red Machine]

EL LIGERO vs. MIKE HITCHMAN- 4.75/10
Decent big-man vs. little-man stuff.

DAKOTA KAI VIDEO PACKAGE- total propaganda. Those of us who have been watching NXT know that Dakota is a pathetic loser whose usual response to fear is to soil herself.

KILLER KELLY vs. DAKOTA KAI- 4.5/10
I was already on the fence with this show because they hadn’t really done much on the first episode to make me interested, and now they’re jobbing Killer Kelly out to Dakota Kai? You’re on thin ice, NXT UK! You hear me? THIN. ICE.
The match was decent for the time it got, although the supposed “Captain of Team Kick” threw kicks that still didn’t look good even on an edited show.

DAKOTA KAI INTERVIEW- Basically the same interview Moustache Mountain did last week but with less rah-rah and substituting the word “women’s” for “tag team.”

EDDIE DENNIS VIDEO- He’s quite bitter that he wasn’t as successful as his friends Pete Dunne and Mark Andrews were earlier on in their careers.

ZACK GIBSON PROMO- Mostly great
He started off complaining about not being fresh for his UK Title match against Pete Dunne back at NXT UK Championship, but then seemed to change his story to the reason he lost being that the fans were all booing him. He said he deserved a title shot more than guys who have been given one like Noam Dar.
He then started to bury Dar so Dar came out. Gibson seemed perfectly happy to fight, but before Dar could get to the ring, Johnny Saint came out and told them “don’t even think about it.” He then ordered both them to “come to my office. Right now. IN MY OFFICE. RIGHT NOW.” I thought this made the wrestlers look like schoolchildren being disciplined by the principal, which is never a good look.

ASHTON SMITH VIDEO PACKAGE- fine, I guess. A lot these NXT UK video packages have felt a little too short to be effective.

TRAVIS BANKS INTERVIEW- He’s going after the Coffey Brothers for attacking him at NXT UK Championship. He might want to go after his charisma first, because it seems to have escaped him. This barely sounded like the same guy who was the top babyface in PROGRESS last year.

ASHTON SMITH vs. TUCKER- 4/10
Another short match. I don’t feel like I saw Smith do anything more interesting or show any more personality here than he did in his short video package.

DANNY BURCH VIDEO PACKAGE- decent
He debuts on NXT UK next week.

TYLER BATE vs. WOLFGANG- 7.5/10
A great main event, but one that once again doesn’t leave me particularly interested or excited for next week. I thought Bate winning was something of a mistake, as we have already seen Dunne vs. Bate a million times in WWE (not that the matches weren’t all fantastic, but it’s time for something else), and last week’s show made it clear that Bate is destined for the tag team division (which will almost certainly be built around Moustache Mountain and the Coffey Brothers) so why not give Wolfgang an elevating win here to thrust his name into the UK Title picture?

This was a decent show from NXT UK, but for the most part it was uninteresting. The wrestling was fine, but that’s it, and they only did one or two things to get me interested in future matches, and we still have zero matches announced for next week that aren’t Danny Burch’s debut (in what will almost certainly be him squashing someone). There is a tremendous amount of talent in NXT UK, but they really haven’t done a good job of getting me interested in what that talent is doing.