January 23, 2019 – Blackpool, Lancashire
Pete Dunne comes out to the ring to kick off the show. He boasts about NXT UK changing British wrestling and about how long he’s been champion. Gallus comes out so that Joe Coffey can threaten to take the title from him despite the loss at Takeover. Walter interrupts, getting a much smaller pop than he did the night before (IRL of course, in-universe this is taking place over two weeks later). Mark Coffey & Wolfgang try to attack. The champ and Walter fight them off, and then have a very awkward stare-down. That was not particularly well-executed, nor did it add anything to what we got at the end of Takeover.
Sid Scala makes (what I believe to be) the first on-air mention of the World’s Collide Tournament in Phoenix, Arizona, though he doesn’t describe what it will be (five NXT wrestlers vs. five from NXT UK vs. five from 205 Live). He says they’ll also take three episodes of NXT UK while in Phoenix. Zack Gibson & James Drake walk by, so Scala runs up to congratulate them on winning the tag titles. Gibson is still sore that nobody cared about them before they won the titles, so they’re not talking until next week.
Nina Samuels def.Lana Austin
Samuels sort of squashed Austin here. It was a squash in that it was only 4:11, but it was ineffective because this nobody Austin got in way too much offense. It also was not good. ¾*
Mustache Mountain is bummed that they lost at Takeover, but they’re ready to bounce back. Shortly after that, Toni Storm is really stoked to talk about the Mae Young Classic turning her into a badass who could overcome a back injury to win the women’s championship at Takeover. Shortly after that Mustache Mountain are booked into next week’s main event against the European Union.
Eddie Dennis def. Jamie Ahmed
Dennis won in 4:42 with the Next Stop Driver. Dennis gained a lot of good will from me with his Takeover match against Dave Mastiff, and maybe because of that he looked more comfortable in the ring here than he has against anyone not in a mini-Vader singlet. That didn’t make this squash interesting at all though, it just made Dennis more tolerable to watch in this dominant squash. N/A
Jordan Devlin dco. Travis Banks
This went to a double count out at 13:22. The middle of this match was very boring and the count out finish wasn’t convincing at all, which is a bummer because the beginning and final few minutes before the non-finish were a lot of fun. I really like when Jordan Devlin hits the Spanish fly from different angles throughout a match. I also liked seeing Banks channel Davey Richards, which caused Nigel McGuinness to channel Jimmy Bower on commentary. I also feel rather confident that they’ll have a better match soon, as the show ends with the two brawling until the screen fades to black. ***
This was a mixed bag of an episode, as it set up things I’m interested in seeing (a second Devlin vs. Banks match, Mustache Mountain vs. the EU), but didn’t execute all that well on the things that we saw during this show. I’m also not wild about them announcing that three episodes will be taped in Phoenix because I like pretending that these events occur from week to week. Oh well.
