Well, the tournament is officially over after yesterday with Zack Gibson winning the thing. Now, it's time for the title match against Pete Dunne. Plus, WWE is billing this as a glorified NXT TakeOver show with NXT talent performing in London. I'm anxious to see all of this plus any clues for the new NXT UK brand. Like yesterday, I'm going to just post my live thoughts as the show goes on. So, here we go...
- A recap of yesterday's show plays at the start of the show with a discussion of NXT being involved and a preview of tonight's championship match. The NXT theme and opening video even play us in... and Mauro and Nigel go over the card to start the show.
1) NXT Tag Team Championship Match
Mustache Mountain (Seven and Bate) vs. The Undisputed Era (O'Reilly and Strong) (c)
- O'Reilly playing Air Guitar on the championship belt is one of the funniest heel things in wrestling today.
- No ADAM COLE BAY BAY at ringside.
- NXT ring ropes and attire are up tonight. So, this is definitely an NXT show (UK or otherwise).
- Good back and forth match up to this point (about 5 minutes) with Mustache Mountain doing some crowd pleasing moves and the Undisputed Era playing up their heel work.
- Crowd is singing and doing their thing again. This is going to be another fun show.
- Incredible hot tag offense by Tyler Bate. This guy's only in his very early 20s?!
- Folks, I have never seen this: O'Reilly had a sleeper on Bate. Bate picks up Strong for a German suplex and nails it while O'Reilly is on his back!!! Unreal!
- Some great tag team wrestling here folks. The Undisputed Era are money in big time matches, and Mustache Mountain is more than doing their fair share in this match work wise.
- WOW!!!! NEW CHAMPIONS! MUSTACHE MOUNTAIN WINS! WHAT A MATCH! (I'm sorry, folks. That deserved all caps. Great match. Go out of your way to see this.)
Johnny Saint, the NXT UK GM, makes an announcement for a #1 Contenders match for the UK Championship which will take place tonight.
2) Killer Kelly vs. Charlie Morgan
- NXT UK Women's Division match apparently.
- Slow pace and back and forth stalemate wrestling. I'm not a fan of the slower style of women's wrestling I've seen on both these shows. But at the same time, I think these women can at least wrestle compared to SOME of the others on WWE TV today. (And I choose to be vague in that description.)
- Killer Kelly is getting to show more of what she can do in this match. Good solid wrestling moves in spots.
- Morgan gets the win with a surprise rollup despite not doing much in the match. Skippable match.
Mauro and Nigel run down the card.
- I'm supposed to again describe Extreme Rules in 30 seconds. I'll do it again in 5. The gimmick show before SummerSlam.
3) #1 Contenders Triple Threat Match for UK Championship
Mark Andrews vs. Travis Banks vs. Flash Morgan Webster
- Travis Banks was yesterday's tournament MVP in my opinion. So, I'm anxious to see how well he does in this. Actually, after having seen enough of Andrews' work before and Flash Morgan yesterday, this should be a really good match.
- NXT GM Johnny Saint comes out before the match and changes it to a Fatal 4 Way Match with NOAM DAR entering the match. Where's ALICIA FOOOOOOOOOOOOX at? Lol. (I know the answer, folks. That happened back when I was still watching 205 Live a long, long, long, long, long time ago)
New #3) Fatal 4 Way Match for the #1 Contendership for the UK Championship
Andrews vs. Morgan vs. Banks vs. Dar
- Good solid action thus far. Banks is selling an arm. Looks to me that Andrews has hurt his knee and is on the apron. Never mind. He just dove on the other three on the outside. Good selling. He had me buying into it.
- Great submission sequence involving all 4 men where Andrews was being tortured and almost tapped but didn't thanks to Morgan stopping his arm.
- Dar snaps Banks' arm off the top rope and comes in to nail Banks with a spinning kick to get the win.
- The Coffey brothers (Darn it guys! Stop making me think of coffee!!!!!) run in to beat up everyone except Dar who walks off.
So far this show feels like a definite launching point for the NXT UK brand. Good work thus far.
- Wolfgang gets interviewed. He says "I have no frigging chance of winning this match. But I'm on TV. So, yeah me!" (Ok, it was the generic "I'm going to get revenge and win" interview)
4) NXT North American Championship
Wolfgang vs. Adam Cole (c) BAY BAY!!!!
- Adam Cole BAY BAY is over in English as well as it is in American English. Lol.
- Wolfgang getting booed against Adam Cole (BAY BAY). So much for European bias from this crowd.
- Adam Cole continues to show the type of charisma, storytelling mastery, and wrestling ability that will get him over, I hope, with Vince McMahon once he gets a look at him. I just hope Vince doesn't look at Cole for just one second and say "You look like a rat! Damn it, pal! Your gimmick is going to be looking for cheese!" "I'm ADAM COLE BAY BAY!" "I'm VINCE MCMAHON, DAMN IT!"
- Seriously, Wolfgang is an ok wrestler. But Adam Cole is selling his butt off here for him.
Winner: (say it with me) ADAM COLE BAY BAY!!!!!
After the match, the crowd yells "Adam Cole BAY BAY" along with Cole. As he goes to slide out of the ring, the crowd says "ONE MORE TIME... ONE MORE TIME." Cole gets a smile on his face. Typically a heel would just flip off the audience or shove them off. But if you are a heel that loves getting yourself over, who are you to deny the fans? So, he comes in, gets the crowd riled up, and does it one last time. Cool moment.
5) Aleister Black and Ricochet vs. EC3 and Velveteen Dream
- Good response for the Velveteen Dream! Crowd yells along with EC3's "Top 1%" chorus. Dream lies on the barricade waving at Ricochet as he poses in the crowd.
- Good mind games being played by both teams early on.
- Dream is so good beyond his years. He can be the next big thing in wrestling.
- Seemed like there was some sort of issue with Dream falling off the ropes trying to do a move. He tagged in EC3 quickly and was notably limping and holding his leg. He still continued to work through whatever it was, including getting a close nearfall on Black.
- Dream refused to tag back into the match and leaves EC3 to fend for himself. He eats Black Mass as soon as he turns around and... Fade to Black for this match.
- Ricochet hands the title off to Black which gets a moment for the announcers to hypothesize about a possible Black-Ricochet match.
- Good NXT TV-quality match with some programs being set up for the future.
- Toni Storm is interviewed. She says "Well, I'm here to collect a paycheck. I have no chance of winning the American NXT Women's Championship. But I'll hopefully have a good time doing the job for an American MMA fighter turned wrestler."
6) NXT Women's Championship
Toni Storm vs. Shayna Baszler (c)
- Baszler again works her style of match here: focusing more on submission moves and stomping at a person's ligaments. I wish I could be higher on the match, but Storm showed me little to nothing yesterday. And Baszler is not in any serious jeopardy of losing this title.
- Toni is milking a leg injury but able to hit a German suplex. I know. Wrestling, folks.
- Baszler hits a gutbuster suplex from the middle rope for a 2.
- As I said yesterday, Mauro Ranallo is again selling the match for all it is worth in his commentary.
- Baszler wins by putting her submission hold on in the ring and, once Storm makes the ropes, reapplying it on the outside and running back inside to get the countout win.
Serviceable match.
- After a replay of the match plays, Baszler comes back in and reapplies the submission again on Storm.
7) WWE UK Championship Match
Zack Gibson vs. Pete Dunne (c)
- I wonder how deep the indentions are on the leather after a year of Pete Dunne biting into the UK Championship during all those entrances.
- Crowd immediately trying to get into Gibson's head with the singing "If you hate Gibson, stand up. If you hate Gibson, stand up."
- Gibson working on the forearm trying to set up for his finisher early on in the match.
- "If you hate Gibson, shoe's off!" "If you hate Gibson, shoe's off!" And people in the crowd are literally taking their shoes off!
- Pete Dunne is an amazing wrestler we don't get to see enough on NXT.
- Gibson eats an terrible looking X-Plex on the ramp! Ouch!
- GIBSON KICKS OUT OF BITTER END!!!!
- Gibson gets the submission in on Dunne, but Dunne quickly gets to the ropes.
- "SIT DOWN NIGEL! SIT DOWN NIGEL!" Even Nigel isn't immune from heckling from this crowd.
- Top Rope Twisting Suplex from Gibson only gets 2.
- Forearm submission locked back in. Great drama! Dunne gets back to the ropes.
- Gibson stomping Dunne in the back of the head on the ropes. Now slapping Dunne. Dunne wakes up and snaps Gibson's fingers.
- Dunne hits Bitter End again! 1-2-3!!!!!!
Great match. I don't know if I'd put it on the level of the match with Bate last year, but it was still an excellent showcase for both men. You should definitely make it a point to see this match.
The new roster for NXT UK comes out after the match on the ramp. Triple H says "This is NXT" and we're done.
Overall, this was a better show than the first night in my opinion. The main event and the opening tag team match are must-see matches. I'm anxious to see where the NXT UK brand goes and how it will be available for us in the United States to see.
Until next time, take care of yourselves and spread some awesomeness.
- A recap of yesterday's show plays at the start of the show with a discussion of NXT being involved and a preview of tonight's championship match. The NXT theme and opening video even play us in... and Mauro and Nigel go over the card to start the show.
1) NXT Tag Team Championship Match
Mustache Mountain (Seven and Bate) vs. The Undisputed Era (O'Reilly and Strong) (c)
- O'Reilly playing Air Guitar on the championship belt is one of the funniest heel things in wrestling today.
- No ADAM COLE BAY BAY at ringside.
- NXT ring ropes and attire are up tonight. So, this is definitely an NXT show (UK or otherwise).
- Good back and forth match up to this point (about 5 minutes) with Mustache Mountain doing some crowd pleasing moves and the Undisputed Era playing up their heel work.
- Crowd is singing and doing their thing again. This is going to be another fun show.
- Incredible hot tag offense by Tyler Bate. This guy's only in his very early 20s?!
- Folks, I have never seen this: O'Reilly had a sleeper on Bate. Bate picks up Strong for a German suplex and nails it while O'Reilly is on his back!!! Unreal!
- Some great tag team wrestling here folks. The Undisputed Era are money in big time matches, and Mustache Mountain is more than doing their fair share in this match work wise.
- WOW!!!! NEW CHAMPIONS! MUSTACHE MOUNTAIN WINS! WHAT A MATCH! (I'm sorry, folks. That deserved all caps. Great match. Go out of your way to see this.)
Johnny Saint, the NXT UK GM, makes an announcement for a #1 Contenders match for the UK Championship which will take place tonight.
2) Killer Kelly vs. Charlie Morgan
- NXT UK Women's Division match apparently.
- Slow pace and back and forth stalemate wrestling. I'm not a fan of the slower style of women's wrestling I've seen on both these shows. But at the same time, I think these women can at least wrestle compared to SOME of the others on WWE TV today. (And I choose to be vague in that description.)
- Killer Kelly is getting to show more of what she can do in this match. Good solid wrestling moves in spots.
- Morgan gets the win with a surprise rollup despite not doing much in the match. Skippable match.
Mauro and Nigel run down the card.
- I'm supposed to again describe Extreme Rules in 30 seconds. I'll do it again in 5. The gimmick show before SummerSlam.
3) #1 Contenders Triple Threat Match for UK Championship
Mark Andrews vs. Travis Banks vs. Flash Morgan Webster
- Travis Banks was yesterday's tournament MVP in my opinion. So, I'm anxious to see how well he does in this. Actually, after having seen enough of Andrews' work before and Flash Morgan yesterday, this should be a really good match.
- NXT GM Johnny Saint comes out before the match and changes it to a Fatal 4 Way Match with NOAM DAR entering the match. Where's ALICIA FOOOOOOOOOOOOX at? Lol. (I know the answer, folks. That happened back when I was still watching 205 Live a long, long, long, long, long time ago)
New #3) Fatal 4 Way Match for the #1 Contendership for the UK Championship
Andrews vs. Morgan vs. Banks vs. Dar
- Good solid action thus far. Banks is selling an arm. Looks to me that Andrews has hurt his knee and is on the apron. Never mind. He just dove on the other three on the outside. Good selling. He had me buying into it.
- Great submission sequence involving all 4 men where Andrews was being tortured and almost tapped but didn't thanks to Morgan stopping his arm.
- Dar snaps Banks' arm off the top rope and comes in to nail Banks with a spinning kick to get the win.
- The Coffey brothers (Darn it guys! Stop making me think of coffee!!!!!) run in to beat up everyone except Dar who walks off.
So far this show feels like a definite launching point for the NXT UK brand. Good work thus far.
- Wolfgang gets interviewed. He says "I have no frigging chance of winning this match. But I'm on TV. So, yeah me!" (Ok, it was the generic "I'm going to get revenge and win" interview)
4) NXT North American Championship
Wolfgang vs. Adam Cole (c) BAY BAY!!!!
- Adam Cole BAY BAY is over in English as well as it is in American English. Lol.
- Wolfgang getting booed against Adam Cole (BAY BAY). So much for European bias from this crowd.
- Adam Cole continues to show the type of charisma, storytelling mastery, and wrestling ability that will get him over, I hope, with Vince McMahon once he gets a look at him. I just hope Vince doesn't look at Cole for just one second and say "You look like a rat! Damn it, pal! Your gimmick is going to be looking for cheese!" "I'm ADAM COLE BAY BAY!" "I'm VINCE MCMAHON, DAMN IT!"
- Seriously, Wolfgang is an ok wrestler. But Adam Cole is selling his butt off here for him.
Winner: (say it with me) ADAM COLE BAY BAY!!!!!
After the match, the crowd yells "Adam Cole BAY BAY" along with Cole. As he goes to slide out of the ring, the crowd says "ONE MORE TIME... ONE MORE TIME." Cole gets a smile on his face. Typically a heel would just flip off the audience or shove them off. But if you are a heel that loves getting yourself over, who are you to deny the fans? So, he comes in, gets the crowd riled up, and does it one last time. Cool moment.
5) Aleister Black and Ricochet vs. EC3 and Velveteen Dream
- Good response for the Velveteen Dream! Crowd yells along with EC3's "Top 1%" chorus. Dream lies on the barricade waving at Ricochet as he poses in the crowd.
- Good mind games being played by both teams early on.
- Dream is so good beyond his years. He can be the next big thing in wrestling.
- Seemed like there was some sort of issue with Dream falling off the ropes trying to do a move. He tagged in EC3 quickly and was notably limping and holding his leg. He still continued to work through whatever it was, including getting a close nearfall on Black.
- Dream refused to tag back into the match and leaves EC3 to fend for himself. He eats Black Mass as soon as he turns around and... Fade to Black for this match.
- Ricochet hands the title off to Black which gets a moment for the announcers to hypothesize about a possible Black-Ricochet match.
- Good NXT TV-quality match with some programs being set up for the future.
- Toni Storm is interviewed. She says "Well, I'm here to collect a paycheck. I have no chance of winning the American NXT Women's Championship. But I'll hopefully have a good time doing the job for an American MMA fighter turned wrestler."
6) NXT Women's Championship
Toni Storm vs. Shayna Baszler (c)
- Baszler again works her style of match here: focusing more on submission moves and stomping at a person's ligaments. I wish I could be higher on the match, but Storm showed me little to nothing yesterday. And Baszler is not in any serious jeopardy of losing this title.
- Toni is milking a leg injury but able to hit a German suplex. I know. Wrestling, folks.
- Baszler hits a gutbuster suplex from the middle rope for a 2.
- As I said yesterday, Mauro Ranallo is again selling the match for all it is worth in his commentary.
- Baszler wins by putting her submission hold on in the ring and, once Storm makes the ropes, reapplying it on the outside and running back inside to get the countout win.
Serviceable match.
- After a replay of the match plays, Baszler comes back in and reapplies the submission again on Storm.
7) WWE UK Championship Match
Zack Gibson vs. Pete Dunne (c)
- I wonder how deep the indentions are on the leather after a year of Pete Dunne biting into the UK Championship during all those entrances.
- Crowd immediately trying to get into Gibson's head with the singing "If you hate Gibson, stand up. If you hate Gibson, stand up."
- Gibson working on the forearm trying to set up for his finisher early on in the match.
- "If you hate Gibson, shoe's off!" "If you hate Gibson, shoe's off!" And people in the crowd are literally taking their shoes off!
- Pete Dunne is an amazing wrestler we don't get to see enough on NXT.
- Gibson eats an terrible looking X-Plex on the ramp! Ouch!
- GIBSON KICKS OUT OF BITTER END!!!!
- Gibson gets the submission in on Dunne, but Dunne quickly gets to the ropes.
- "SIT DOWN NIGEL! SIT DOWN NIGEL!" Even Nigel isn't immune from heckling from this crowd.
- Top Rope Twisting Suplex from Gibson only gets 2.
- Forearm submission locked back in. Great drama! Dunne gets back to the ropes.
- Gibson stomping Dunne in the back of the head on the ropes. Now slapping Dunne. Dunne wakes up and snaps Gibson's fingers.
- Dunne hits Bitter End again! 1-2-3!!!!!!
Great match. I don't know if I'd put it on the level of the match with Bate last year, but it was still an excellent showcase for both men. You should definitely make it a point to see this match.
The new roster for NXT UK comes out after the match on the ramp. Triple H says "This is NXT" and we're done.
Overall, this was a better show than the first night in my opinion. The main event and the opening tag team match are must-see matches. I'm anxious to see where the NXT UK brand goes and how it will be available for us in the United States to see.
Until next time, take care of yourselves and spread some awesomeness.
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