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WWE UK Championship Tournament- Day 1 (WWE Network Broadcast-6/25/18)

Welcome. Again, I'll be posting my live thoughts as I watch the UK Tournament. I have no idea who a lot of these wrestlers are. So, this is definitely an uninitiated American perspective on some of these British wrestlers. So here we go...

- Seeing The Royal Albert Hall brings back memories of seeing The British Bulldog win that battle royal back in 1991 (it's on the WWE Network now under the WWE Home Video collection).
- Mauro Ranallo and Nigel McGuinness are calling the show. And we already get a Mamma Mia chant. I'm going to like this show.

Quarter-Final Matches
1) Zack Gibson vs. Jack Gallagher
- Damn the architecture of Royal Albert Hall adds a lot to the atmosphere of the show.
- I'm getting the idea that Zack Gibson is someone I'm supposed to boo according to the audience. So... GO ZACK GIBSON!!!! Lol. Wasn't Gallagher playing a villain in 205 Live? I'm seriously asking. I haven't watched the show since Neville was champion.
- Good technical wrestling here and a nice abundance of European uppercuts. Of course, they're in Europe. So these are SUPER European uppercuts this week. But since Britain is pulling out of the EU, shouldn't they be "British uppercuts?" I'm getting a headache.
- Nice spot where Gallagher goes for a dropkick in the corner only for Gibson to catch him and deliver a Liger Bomb.
- This reminds me of the Cruiserweight Classic where talent is showing that they are much better wrestlers than they normally get to show on normal WWE programming. That's not a knock. It's just the nature of the business. 
- No. It's not awesome, crowd. It's good, not awesome. "This is Awesome" and "You deserve it" are so painfully overdone these days.
- Gibson wins with a submission in a GOOD match.

2) Joe Coffey vs. Dave Mastiff
- Coffey looks like Marty Scurll went to McDonald's and didn't leave for a month. Woop Woop!
- I'm not digging this match to be honest. Mauro and Nigel's commentary is what's carrying this for me.
- "MY GOODNESS! BELLY TO BELLY SUPLEX!"- See? Mauro is awesome. Even if the match is lukewarm at best, he can make it look better than it actually is. I can't remember the last time Michael Cole's commentary really added anything to a match.
- That Mastiff cannonball was off by a good couple feet even if Coffey had stayed in the corner.
- All this writing of Coffey is making me want to drink some coffee.
- Coffey wins. Thank God. Not a good match in my opinion. Just ok at best.

3) Flash Morgan Webster vs. Jordan Devlin
- Devlin was trained by Finn Balor. I guess he'll be losing on Raw every week before too long too.
- Flash Morgan Webster looks like a mix between John Lennon, John Morrison, and what I would imagine Shaggy from Scooby-Doo would look like as a human being.
- Devlin does look a lot like Finn Balor. If Balor ever decides to leave the company, I can see Vince go "Get that stunt Balor here." "His name is Devlin." "Damn it, pal. He's my new Balor. Balor Club is for everyone. Balor Club can BE anyone if I say so, damn it!"
- I love European crowds. They turn everything into a musical. So, if you have a girlfriend who wants to go to a magical musical place, forget Disney World. And forget Tahiti, Agent Coulson. Head to England! I'm sure parking tickets come in song there as well.
- Webster and Devlin are having a solid match, better than the Coffe/Mastiff match by a good bit. AVALANCHE SPANISH FLY! HOLY CRAP!!!! Ok. This is my favorite match of the show so far.
- WOW! Webster won! Did not see that coming. Good match here, worth seeing for the final 2 minutes of it alone.

4) Travis Banks vs. Ashton Smith
- WOOOO!!!! Even across the pond, respect for the Nature Boy can be found.
- Banks and Smith are having another solid match here as well. So far, it's been a good show with only the Coffey/Mastiff match being not worth my time.
- SUPERKICK!!!! Oh, it's not a Young Bucks match. Never mind.
- Banks is the Serena and Venus Williams of this tournament: He can't stop screaming.
- Banks wins in a good match with a Kiwi Crusher (Fisherman Buster).

NXT Women's Championship 3 Way #1 Contender's Match
5) Toni Storm vs. Killer Kelly vs. Isla Dawn
- Toni Storm looks like a Carmella cosplayer. Only I'm sure she's a better wrestler.
- Isla Dawn has ridiculously long hair, the kind you wouldn't blame a player for grabbing to tackle someone in the NFL.
- Decent match so far. Crowd is somewhat quiet for the first few moments, almost as if they don't care.
- Match never seemed to get out of first gear. Just an ok match overall. I was hoping for something more from a non-main-roster/UK Women's match. Toni Storm wins. Shayna's gonna break you.

- Explain Extreme Rules in 30 seconds? I don't need to. I can do it in 5. Roman wins. The end.

- Triple H is coming out, and the crowd is singing The King of Kings back to him. I told you: The UK is a magical place. I haven't been the biggest Triple H supporter ever, but God bless the man for giving us NXT. It's the fire that keeps WWE going even despite itself at times.
- Johnny Saint: The Man of 1,000 holds? I thought that was Dean Malenko. That's still 4 holds less than Chris Jericho knows. ARM BAR.
- We get the announcement of the NXT UK brand here, which broke last week when this show actually took place. This is cool. And I hope it actually leads to the end of 205 Live.

Semi-Final Matches
6) Flash Morgan Webster vs. Zack Gibson
- Zack Gibson again getting booed.
- Code of Honor recognized. Wait, wrong promotion.
- Webster attacking from the start with a flurry of offense.
- HOLY CRAP! Hard spinning suplex on the ramp by Gibson on Flash Morgan Webster.
- Webster makes it into the ring at 9 only to have to tap out to Gibson's finisher. Good quick semifinal match here.
Side Note: I'm anxious to see how the NXT UK brand goes in terms of what talent they can get to be on the brand? Will there be any talent switched from NXT to the UK brand? Will there be any cross-NXT promotions? If 205 Live comes to an end, what talent will be sent to the UK brand? Should be a fun couple months to see how this develops.

7) Travis Banks vs. Joe Coffey
- I'm not a fan of this tournament being taped. I think I'd enjoy it more if it were live. If given a choice, Live Wrestling to me will always trump taped wrestling.
- Coffey is having a better match against Banks than he did against Mastiff. Good solid match so far.
- Travis Banks was trained by Masato Tanaka? Hmm. I wonder how many tables he broke during his training. And Mauro was right: Tanaka vs. Awesome was an (pardon the pun) awesome series of matches in ECW.
- Good drama towards the end as both men are exhausted after all they've been through so far. Coffey with a cool looking springboard moonsault.
- BANKS win with a cradle. Very good match. My new favorite match of the night so far. Coffey attacks Banks after the match! HEEL TURN! HEEL TURN! HEEL TURN!

Six Man Tag
8) British Strong Style (Dunne, Seven, and Bate) vs. The Undisputed Era (O'Reilly, Strong, and Adam Cole BAY BAY)
- This should be a great match. I used to hate Bate, but his match against Dunne at last year's NXT Takeover Chicago changed my mind on him. Pete Dunne as the cornerstone of NXT UK should be awesome to see.
- The Undisputed Era could be huge in WWE if Vince plays the .... I'm not going to finish that thought. It's not going to happen. Enjoy them while you can everyone. I wish I were joking.
- The crowd is HOT for this match so far with Dunne working on Strong to get some payback for what happened at NXT TakeOver New Orleans.
- ADAM COLE BAY BAY! 
- Kyle O'Reilly again is so underrated in my opinion.
- Dunne and Strong at it again. Great match so far.
- Tyler Bate just did a Giant Swing on Strong while doing an Airplane Spin on Cole at the same time. Sick!!!
- Strong with a dropkick on Dunne while he was jumping off the top rope!
- BEST MATCH OF THE SHOW BY FAR.

Folks, this was an amazing match. Go out of your way to go watch this match (if nothing else on this show). It was NXT Takeover level awesome. Hot crowd, bell to bell action. If it were in the Tokyo Dome, it'd get 6 stars.

- SHAWN MICHAELS IS HERE!!!! It's still so weird to see him without the long hair. And the crowd is singing Sexy Boy!!!! Haha!!!!! Shawn put over how great the show (in particular the 6 man tag) was and the upcoming NXT UK brand.

UK Championship Tournament Finals
9) Travis Banks vs. Zack Gibson
- Clear face and heel in this match with Gibson being the guy the audience hates and Banks being the victim of a sneak attack only about a half hour ago.
- Good match with Banks trying to overcome the arm injury and working hard to try to topple the healthier Gibson. Energy was not nearly as high early on as it was in the earlier match as far as the crowd is concerned. But the more they worked, the more it seemed the crowd got invested into the story they were telling.
- Gibson locks in his submission, but Banks gets to the ropes being the only person to escape the hold tonight.
- Banks hits a double stomp on the outside from the apron and then hits a spinning kick from the middle rope to get a close two.
- Crowd definitely getting more and more involved after Gibson tries to use the ropes to win the match.
- Gibson locks in the submission one more time and gets Banks to tap out. Gibson wins the tournament and will face Pete Dunne tomorrow for the title. Very good tournament finals. I still think Banks vs. Coffey was the better match of the tournament itself, but I can easily see this getting the nod by someone else.

Good show overall. For those with limited time, just make sure you see the 6 Man Tag as that was electric from start to finish. It happens around the hour and a half mark, if I remember correctly.

I'll be back tomorrow to cover Night 2 of the UK Championship Tournament show. Until next time, take care of yourselves and spread some awesomeness.

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