BRM Reviews the 12/10/2020 NXT UK

[Big Red Machine]

JORDAN DEVLIN PROMO- fine
He’s the real Cruiserweight Champion and will be defending his title in an open challenge every time he wrestles.
Apparently it has already been decided that Oliver Carter will be getting this title shot, because we cut backstage to a camera that was on him getting warmed up while Ashton Smith gave him a pep talk.

NXT CRUISERWEIGHT TITLE MATCH: Jordan Devlin(c) vs. Oliver Carter- 4.25/10
Devin won clean in six and a half minutes.

JINNY INTERVIEW- fine
She’s angry at Piper Niven for attacking her last week. She says she will strike when Piper least expects it and calls Piper a “wild animal.”

NOAM DAR’S SUPERNOVA SESSIONS, WITH SPECIAL GUEST A-KID- fine
Dar was entertaining and A-Kid was appropriately not willing to play Dar’s games, but I really didn’t care for this segment. I think that’s because I don’t really care for the wrestler-hosted talk show format (though in this case at least Dar did have a reason to want to stir things up between himself and A-Kid, as opposed to some heel randomly deciding to stick his nose in someone else’s business just to move the plot along).
Tyler Bate wound up coming out and Dar tried to stir up trouble between him and A-Kid, but A-Kid was happy to defend his title against Bate, and Dar said he’d go talk to Johnny Saint for them, then jumped in front of them to take credit for everything. This was an interesting way to turn the trope on its head, but you can’t do that all of the time, so I doubt I will be excited the next time they announce a Supernova Sessions.

EDDIE DENNIS & THE HUNT TRY TO CONVINCE SID SCALA TO NAME THE HUNT AS #1 CONTENDERS- didn’t like it
Dennis did use some logic, but the real plan here was intimidation. I’d have been fine with this if the Hunt hadn’t been acting like total animals. Primate was sniffing Sid Scala and Wild Boar was snarling and grunting. It was weird. Isn’t part of the reason this betrayal was so dastardly that Boar and Webster had been friends for fifteen years? I just don’t see Flash Morgan Webster with this fancy suits being friends with someone who comes across as more animal than human.

XIA BROOKSIDE vs. ISLA DAWN- 2.75/10
Stuff happened. The finish saw a peon roll some suitcases out to ringside and Nina Samuels appear on the TitanTron to tell Xia that Brooksides are only worthy of carrying her bags. This distracted Xia, who was hit with Isla Dawn’s finisher and pinned. This was Isla’s first win anywhere since the end of January (when she beat, coincidentally, Nina Samuels).

We learned during the previous match that Tyler Bate vs. A-Kid for the Heritage Cup is tonight’s main event... meaning that they went on the air without a main event signed. That’s very unlike NXT UK.

SAXON HUXLEY ANGRILY STUMBLES THROUGH A SID SCALA INTERVIEW EARLIER THIS WEEK- bad
It turns out he attacked some random people in the trainer’s room. This caveman Saxon Huxley gimmick is atrocious, and Huxley has such a jobber to the stars stink on him that they should just stop trying with him at this point. It’s not NXT UK isn’t loaded with talent.

NXT UK HERITAGE CUP MATCH: A-Kid(c) vs. Tyler Bate- 6.75/10
Don’t cut away from the action to show us the damn trophy! Save that for between rounds or a double-down.
This was a very good, friendly, technical match. I liked that they put A-Kid down early and had him have to make the desperate comeback. They did a great job of using the rounds system to play into that, as the ticking clock felt like even more of a threat because instead of having to survive for nine minutes (or however long it was), Bate only had to survive for three minutes three times.

This was an okay episode of NXT UK. Hopefully they don’t finish the year in a rut after they’ve been so great for so much of it (or at least the time they’ve been running).