BRM Reviews the 1/27/2022 NXT UK (GREAT!)

[Big Red Machine]

DIE FAMILIE (Teoman, Rohan Raja, & Charlie Dempsey) vs. Gallus- 6.75/10
Heels win mostly cleanly. Dempsey has now choked out two members of Gallus (Wolfgang here, and I don’t actually remember who the first one was), so I assume he’ll wind up with a singles match against the third at some point soon.

TAG TEAM #1 CONTENDERSHIP TOURNAMENT FINALS VIDEO PACKAGE- fine

JINNY vs. AMELE- 5.5/10
Jinny won with her feet on the ropes, which is a fine first finish for this feud.

MEIKO SATOMURA WILL DEFEND THE TITLE AGAINST BLAIR DAVENPORT IN A “JAPANESE STREET FIGHT” NEXT WEEK- They had a video package for this. It was good.

DIE FAMILIE INTERRUPT NATHAN FRASIER’S INTERVIEW- If Frasier is actually in their locker room, then he’s in the wrong. They called Frasier a loser for losing to WALTER. Frasier says that Teoman is only keeping the others around for his own benefit.

FALLS COUNT ANYWHERE IN THE EMPTY ARENA MATCH FOR THE NXT UK TITLE: Ilja Dragunov(c) vs. Jordan Devlin- 8.25/10
I loved that Devlin- who suggested this kind of random stipulation with a weird justification that is exactly the sort of thing a heel like him shouldn’t believe in- no crowd will mean that Ilja can’t draw strength from the support of the crowd- very clearly had a plan ready for this match type. It changes odd, slightly out of character behavior, into something completely in character.
This was a brutal weapons match that really stood out to me as an example of how to have a creative match without it ever feeling like you’re just doing things to set up whacky spots in a wrestling match. The finish was thought out very well, although the execution probably wasn’t as good as they were hoping for. They told a few little stories throughout, which I liked, but unfortunately, one of those stories was some damage to Ilja’s eye… which only seemed to flare up at the correct dramatic time, and Ilja’s selling of it crossed the line into overacting. I think Ilja usually straddles that line pretty well and it works for him, but this was too far on the wrong side of it for my taste.

A great episode of NXT UK, mostly on the strength of the main event.