BRM Reviews the 1/2/2020 NXT UK

[Big Red Machine]

JOHNNY SAINT & SID SCALA ANNOUNCE TWO MORE MATCHES FOR TAKEOVER: BLACKPOOL II- As expected, we’re getting Tyler Bate vs. Jordan Devlin and Trent Seven vs. Eddie Dennis.

DAVE MASTIFF vs. KONA REEVES- 4/10
Reeves cut a heel promo on Mastiff to let everyone know who they were supposed to boo. Mastiff won clean after a short heat.

TONI STORM CALLS OUT PIPER NIVEN- awesome!
Toni calls out her good friend Piper to apologize for her recent behavior. Piper accepts the apology and everything is great… until Toni continues and says that her business with Kay Lee Ray is not finished, and so she is asking Piper, as a friend, to pull out of the NXT UK Women’s Title match at TakeOver: Blackpool II. She promises Piper the first title shot after she wins the title back, but Piper says that Toni should know how hard she has worked to get to where she is and thus she can’t give up an opportunity like the one she is getting at TakeOver: Blackpool II.
Piper turns to leave, but Toni grabs her by the shoulder… and Piper, acting on instinct, swings around and throws a headbutt that floors Toni. Piper tries to apologize and help Toni up but Toni starts throwing punches and soon we’ve got a brawl. Security runs out to break it u while Kay Lee Ray comes out to laugh at the whole situation.

KASSIUS OHNO vs. EL LIGERO- 4/10
Hero worked over El Ligero’s jaw and the win with a kind of cravate-crossface. He then cut a promo similar to the one he cut a few weeks ago vowing to return to a more British style to prove that he is the best British wrestler in NXT UK.

JOSEPH CONNERS INTERRUPTS A-KID’S PROMO- a good segment that should set up a future match

KASSIUS OHNO’S BRAGGING TO THE CAMERA IS INTERRUPTED BY DAVE MASTIFF- This, too, was a good segment to set up a future match. Mastiff told Ohno to come find him if he wanted to test himself against “a real British heavyweight.”

ASHTON SMITH & OLIVER CARTER vs. THE OUTLIERS (Dorian Mak & Riddick Moss)- 4/10
The Outliers were once again shown to be big and strong, but this time they lost via roll-up.

[i\]TAKEOVER: BLACK POOL II[/i] NXT UK TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH HYPE VIDEO- good

NO DISQUALIFICATIONS MATCH: Alexander Wolfe vs. Ilja Dragunov- 8/10
Ilja came out the crowd and attacked Wolfe while Wolfe was doing the Ringkampf pose on the stage… but the true genius of the way they made use of the usual Imperium entrance lighting so that we saw Ilja’s silhouette come flying out of the crowd and long this big shot on Wolfe. It was awesome, and whoever came up with it deserves an entire box of kudos.
From there they proceeded to have a very exciting and relatively creative weapons match. This is the match of Ilja’s NXT UK run o far that I think is the best display of what made Ilja a megastar in wXw.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- good
Aichner and Barthel came out and beat Ilja up after the match. WALTER came out onto the stage to watch but Joe Coffey snuck up behind him and nailed him with a lariat, then ran off when the rest of Imperium ran over to make the save.

A pretty darn good episode of NXT UK. And, for the first time since NXT debuted on USA, I am finally all caught up on NXT UK!