BRM Reviews the 5/19/2022 NXT UK (disappointing)

[Big Red Machine]

ANGEL HAYZE & AMELE vs. XIA BROOKESIDE & ELIZA ALEXANDER- 4.25/10
Heels win slightly dirty.

IVY NILE ASKS MEIKO SATOMURA FOR A TITLE SHOT- meh
She was all nice and respectful. This might be the first time I’ve heard her speak, and she has this nice, quiet voice that makes cutting a heel promo impossible. Meiko agrees to give her a title shot. I’m fine with this because the announcers last week made a point to remind us that Nile has been undefeated on American NXT, so this isn’t her getting a title shot after just one win.

NOAM DAR & SHA SAMUELS PROMO- annoying
Sha Samuels agrees to a match with Damon Kemp and says he will end him. Dar got them into some fancy party or something.

WINNER ADVANCES TO THE TAG TITLE TRIPLE THREAT MATCH: Dave Mastiff & Jack Starz vs. Die Familie (Teoman & Rohan Raja) (w/Charlie Dempsey)- 6/10
The story here was Die Familie having the numbers advantage. The finish saw Starz get distracted when Dempsey started smacking his leather jacket on the apron. I will grant NXT UK that they actually did spend some time establishing that that jacket- a gift from Mastiff that symbolically represents Starz graduation to being more than a jobber- is meaningful to Starz… but the idea of getting distracted because someone is smacking your jacket is just so lame that it makes Starz look like an idiot.

MILLIE MCKENZIE ATTACKS LASH LEGEND DURING AN INTERVIEW- decent
She was offended because Legend said that she just “carries Meiko’s bags.”

DURING THE BREAK, SID SCALA YELLED AT DIE FAMILIE FOR CHEATING- fine
He banned Teoman and Raja from ringside for Dempsey’s next match.

JOSH MORRELL vs. KENNY WILLIAMS- 5.5/10
The story here was Williams being distracted looking for Tiger Turan in the crowd. Several fans in masks spooked him. I liked that they still let Williams win here. Win or lose, the paranoia will still get across, so why have him lose when winning will benefit him more, and you’re not doing anything with Morrell? This is the sort of the mistake that the main roster makes that I am happy to see NXT UK avoiding.
The real Tiger Turn showed up on the ramp after the match.

EARLIER THIS WEEK, VON WAGNER WAS INTERVIEWED IN THE GYM- good
Wagner, has the raw abilities, but the best thing for him would be to get out of the scripted WWE/NXT environment. He has some charisma, but it almost seems to disappear the moment he launches into anything that feels scripted.
Sam Gradwell showed up and they had a shoving match, as they will be wrestling next week. People ran in quickly to stop this from escalating.

MOUSTACHE MOUNTAIN INTERVIEW FROM EARLIER TODAY- bad
Trent started off slightly heelish. Then, just when it seemed like Tyler was going to bring up his issues with Trent’s behavior, he instead brought up the fact that “we don’t have to be pinned or submitted to lose our titles because this is a Triple Threat match.” It felt like instead of doing something for the story, they felt the need to explain a stipulation that everyone watching NXT UK already knows (if this were Raw or Smackdown you could have someone new tuning in just from flipping channels. Not so on a streaming service).

MARK ANDREWS’ INTERVIEW ABOUT THE MAIN EVENT IS INTERRUPTED BY KENNY WILLIAMS WALKING THROUGH- They had a minor confrontation reminding us of their feud.

DOG COLLAR MATCH WITH SYMBIOSIS BARRED FROM RINGSIDE: Eddie Dennis vs. Wild Boar- 6.75/10
This was very disappointing. They brought the necessary rage and they used the gimmick well, but it just didn’t feel like a main event. I’m not one of those people who needs blood in grudge matches or gimmick matches, but this one really would have benefitted from it. These are undercard guys and this is a match that has been over a year in the making. Blood would have helped it stand out a bit.
In addition to feeling kind of bland, I had two other big problems with this match. Being barred from ringside didn’t stop Symbiosis from interfering. I really hate this “well, it’s a no DQs match so what can we do?” If someone is barred from ringside, them coming to ringside should be a DQ. That stipulation should create an exception in the normal rules. Even worse, right before this match in the above-mentioned interview with Mark Andrews, Andrews said he would be “watching this match very closely,” and yet he never came out to help. Boar was able to win anyway, that doesn’t mean that Mandrews wasn’t a bad friend (assuming he didn’t get jumped backstage by Williams).

Boar getting the win is the right choice here unless you’re going to stop using the guy… but I would personally argue that the right choice would be let Dennis win and just stop using the stupid Boar gimmick. It’s goofy, and as I’ve noted over the past month or so, ever cutting a babyface revenge promo, he sounds like a heel. Let him come back under a hood with a different name, and give Dennis some credibility with a clean win.

This was a disappointing episode of NXT UK. I’ve talked about what happened on the show, but biggest issue here was the lack of any kind of follow-up to Jordan Devlin having to leave NXT UK after last week’s loss. You spent MONTHS building to that match, then don’t follow up in any way the next week? Really?