BRM Reviews the (second) 1/2/2019 NXT UK

[Big Red Machine]

DEONNA PURRAZZO vs. TONI STORM- 6.75/10
A very good match for the time it got (9:47). Toni was her usual awesome babyface self, selling Deonna’s work on her arm very well but still being able to make the comeback and get the win. Rhea Ripley came out to have a stare-down with Toni in advance of their NXT UK Women’s Title match in a week and a half at TakeOver: Blackpool.

RADZIE INTERVIEWS JOHNNY SAINT & SID SCALA- Moustache Mountain’s opponents to crown the first-ever NXT UK Tag Team Champions at TakeOver will be decided next week when the Grizzled Young Veterans take on Mark Andrews & “Flash” Morgan Webster.

“WILD BOAR” MIKE HITCHMAN vs. JOSH MORRELL- 4/10

JOSEPH CONNERS PROMO- great!
He’s basically doing the same thing Kassius Ohno is doing in NXT, complete with the “new toys” line. My guess is that that’s going to become one of Hunter’s go-to phrases.

TRAVIS BANKS PROMO- GREAT!
He responds to Jordan Devlin calling him out by accepting the challenge to a match.

FABIAN AICHNER & MARCEL BARTHEL ARE UNHAPPY AT NOT BEING PUT IN THE TAG TITLE TOURNAMENT SEMIFINAL- They yell at Sid Scala. He says they haven’t earned that spot, and tells them that if they try to interfere in next week’s match, they’ll be fired from NXT UK. This was good.

EDDIE DENNIS vs. DAVE MASTIFF- 4/10
They did some stuff, then got an odd DQ. Yes, they both put their hands on the referee, but I’m not sure why the referee was yelling at them, and neither was anyone else. They kept fighting and had to be separated by referees. That didn’t work very well, so Johnny Saint came out and used his authoritative presence to get them to stop fighting. He told them they could have a no DQs match at TakeOver: Blackpool. This was certainly a necessary step to get them to the no DQs match they wanted to get to, but it would have been a lot better if they had come up with a way of doing the DQ that didn’t look so stupid.

Gallus vs. British Strong Style has been signed for next week.

WWE UK TITLE MATCH CONTRACT SIGNING- A great promo by Joe Coffey and a good angle to get heat, but I have to ask where the hell Moustache Mountain were that they didn’t come out to help Pete Dunne?

A decent show from NXT UK. It was pretty meh inside the ring, but the build for TakeOver: Blackpool moved along relatively well, we got some big match announcements, and they’re starting to put things in place (Aichner & Barthel, Joseph Conners) for after TakeOver as well.