BRM Reviews the 7/21/2022 NXT UK

[Big Red Machine]

We opened with a video package of the Mark Coffey’s Heritage Cup win. Nigel McGuinness suggested that Sha Samuels might have had to go to Tony D’Angelo for help paying off his gambling debts from Noam Dar’s loss. I hope that becomes a storyline.

ISLA DAWN vs. FALLON HENLEY- 4.5/10
Nigel described Fallon Henley as a “country girl” who is “cute and sweet, but doesn’t mind to get down and dirty.” It was as if he had suddenly become possessed by the announcer from Wrestlicious.
Isla won clean in a match that went longer than I expected.

EARLIER THIS WEEK, SARRAY CONFRONTED MEIKO SATOMURA, ASKING FOR A TITLE MATCH AGAIN- good
The important thing here is that Sarray didn’t go up to Meiko and say “so… am I getting a title match or not?” Meiko happened to be walking behind an interview Sarray was doing, and so Sarray brought it up again. Meiko agreed.

EARLIER THIS WEEK, AMALE WAS ASKED ABOUT BLAIR DAVENPORT’S COMMENTARY ON HER MATCH, SO SHE WENT TO FIND HER- bad
Davenport once again got the best of Amele verbally, while Amele essentially confirmed Davenport’s portrayal of her as someone who throws temper tantrums when she gets upset.

JOSH MORRELL vs. DAVE MASTIFF- 6/10
Mastiff won cleanly, but Morrell got to look strong in defeat. Jack Starz is injured and they desperately need challengers for Ilja, so starting to building Mastiff up here is a good idea, and having Morrell win last week before taking this loss makes him looking strong in defeat feel a less like a platitude, as well as giving Mastiff’s win a bit more cache.

VIDEO OF SHA SAMUELS HAVING TO PAY HIS DEBTS- dumb cartoon bullsh*t, including sound effects. Then they managed to make it worse by revealing that even the f*cking commissioner is betting on the matches.

EARLIER THIS WEEK, BRIGGS & JENSEN WERE OBNOXIOUS GOOFS WHILE DOING A PHOTO-SHOOT- The interviewer asked them about giving Mark Andrews & Wild Boar a title shot. They agreed. They are painfully one-dimensional.

NINA SAMUELS vs. EMILIA MCKENZIE- 5.25/10
Millie wins clean.

SID-DOWN WITH ILJA DRGANOV & WOLFGANG- good

Next week’s show has the tag title match, the NXT UK Title match, and Amele vs. Davenport.

SAM GRADWELL vs. TRENT SEVEN- 7/10
The fans chanting “WE WANT TYLER!” is good for the overall story, but probably doesn’t feel so great if you’re Sam Gradwell.
Seven worked over Gradwell’s surgically repaired knee, and then cheated to win with a low blow after having tempted Gradwell to attack him with the knee brace he had ripped off. The announcers hit on one of my pet peeves, which was talking about a heretofore unmentioned friendship between these two, which they clearly never brought up before because it would have been inconvenient to mention that consummate babyface Trent Seven was friends with obnoxious heel Sam Gradwell… but now, of course, we can bring it up because we want to point out what a scumbag Seven is for having gone after the injured knee of someone who he considered his friend. This sort of thing makes everything on the show feel less real by essentially admitting that there is a layer of reality that isn’t what you have seen on your TV that we can ignore until it’s convenient for us to no longer ignore it, and you’re supposed to then take it as the same level of “real” as the “show” reality that we usually plaster over it.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- good
Seven went to injure Gradwell some more, but Tyler Bate made his big return to make the save. Seven ran away.


Another decent episode of NXT UK.