BRM Reviews the WWE UK Championship Special (awesome)

[Big Red Machine]

WWE UK Championship Special- (5/19/2017 but taped on 5/7/2017)- Norwich, UK

So is this the first episode of a weekly TV show or just a random special? It was filed under “WWE Network Exclusives” rather than in the list of weekly shows where you would find NXT and 205 Live.

OPENING VIDEO PACKAGE- they started by putting over all of the positive effects the UK Title tournament had on the careers of everyone involved and how much they all want that title. They had these guys all dressed up in suits and they all looked ridiculous. Then again, most of them would have looked ridiculous in anything due to the sheer ridiculousness of their haircuts.

WOLFGANG vs. JOSEPH CONNORS- 7/10
Connors tries to bring the big man down by working over his ribs but Wolfgang hangs in there, makes his comeback, and wins.

TJ PERKINS & BRIAN KENDRICK vs. DAN MOLONEY & RICH SWANN- 6.75/10
Standard babyface vs. heel stuff.

CHARLY INTERVIEWS TRENT SEVEN LAST NIGHT- his shoulder was injured by Wolfgang during their match. He says he will still be able to compete. Then Pete Dunne stopped by to attack his arm. J.R. and Nigel then pushed the idea that Dunne is cheating scumbag and he will continue to do these sorts of dastardly things unless he faces some sort of repercussions.

#1 CONTENDERSHIP MATCH: Trent Seven vs. Pete Dunne- 8.5/10
The story of this match was obviously Seven’s injured arm, and they did an excellent job of telling it, using every trick in the book from Seven spending the beginning of the match keeping it away from done to Seven hitting strikes with his left arm instead of his right at times to hitting moves with the arm but being unable to follow up due to the pain, all in addition to the usual working over of the body part. In addition to this, there were a couple of crazy bumps as well. AWESOME match.

WWE UK TITLE MATCH: Tyler Bate(c) vs. Mark Andrews- 9/10
The story here was Bate dominating with his wrestling and striking skills while Andrews was forced to try to create quick openings to take advantage of with his superior athleticism. There were one or two spots that were a little too contrived for my liking, but the pacing was excellent and things built very well. Go watch this match.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- good
Pete Dunne attacks Bate but William Regal comes out to break it up and we get a stare-down between the champion and his challenger on Saturday.

This was one hell of a little show from WWE with quite the one-two punch at the top. It only runs one hour and forty minutes so you have absolutely no excuse not to find the time to watch it.

[XIV]

JR: "What is a wanker?"

Lucky this was on the network, because you cannot say that word on British terrestrial television pre-watershed.

So my negatives regarding the show are as follows...

- What I did not like was the fact that JR & Nigel McGuiness were green screened into it a couple of times. You could tell that they weren't actually at the event and it just felt like a cheap thing for WWE to do.

- I also didn't like the TJP & Brian Kendrick spot where TJP had Kendrick's arm. That whole 30 seconds felt stupid to me because why wouldn't Kendrick just say "you got the wrong guy, it's me, Spanky"?. Also, I can;t get behind Dan Maloney. I just can't. Don't know why.

- For me, Joseph Connors and Wolfgang still feel miles off where Bate, Dunne & Seven currently are. So when it was stated that Wolfgang now has to be considered as back in the title picture, my brain instantly disagreed.

- Also, why do British wrestlers hate kneepads?

Now, I'm going for the positives.

- It was a very good show, and great for a British Wrestling Fan, because hopefully the quality will entice enough fans for WWE to pull a full trigger on a long term schedule.

- Pete Dunne is a very good heel. He makes you hate him. His facial expressions, attitude, his hair, his acne scarred face, and even his walk. It automatically makes me want his opponent(s) to win.

- I love the Pete Dunne / William Regal dynamic. Because it's being written well. William Regal knows what Pete Dunne is like and what he's going to do. Now whether it's an accident or not, but at the same time, it's presented almost like William Regal is the only person who can prevent Dunne from doing things, whether that's Dunne being an afraid of authority heel or the fact it's a fear of Regal is open to interpretation. Either way, I'm glad they've got Regal involved in this and I love that dynamic, and I hope it's building to some bigger angle. (obviously I doubt a Dunne v Regal match, but some angle at least).

- Can we talk about Tyler Bate? He is a great performer. Sadly if he was ever to be placed in WWE's main roster he'd only be in the Cruiserweight scene and I feel that would cost him dearly. But he's got a great charisma, he's grown some more hair and a bit of a beard so now he looks more like a genuine threat. We love Bop & Bang. And his whole performance is just brilliant. I do love Tyler Bate. As a side note, if WWE were to take Bate onto main roster, take him with Trent Seven with their Moustache Mountain tag team. They're brilliant together.

I hope WWE looks to pad out the roster a little bit more now, because at the moment their whole show is designed around Bate, Seven, Dunne, Andrews, Connors & Wolfgang. It takes more than 6 guys to make a show. The matches will be very stale very quick unless you find more talent. And there's plenty out there.

Also, in order to garner some mainsteam attention, have bigger named British Wrestlers turn up on the occasion. They were already in Europe when filming this, so why not involve a guy like Sheamus or Neville? I'd love to see Neville against Mark Andrews or Sheamus against Trent Seven.

[Big Red Machine]

- I also didn't like the TJP & Brian Kendrick spot where TJP had Kendrick's arm. That whole 30 seconds felt stupid to me because why wouldn't Kendrick just say "you got the wrong guy, it's me, Spanky"?

Yeah, I hate it, too. The Addiction used to do it when they were heels in ROH and it would drive me nuts. It's just another example of comedy finding its way into wrestling in inappropriate ways

- Also, why do British wrestlers hate kneepads?

I've heard it's a cultural thing stemming back form the Battle of Agincourt.