United Kingdom Championship Special

May 18, 2017 – Norwich, Norfolk

This show is kind of a bummer. It was meant to be part of a two-night taping for the hyped WWE UK weekly show that was to air on the WWE Network, but WWE couldn’t get the brand together and just dumped this in this form instead. It makes me very worried about the plausibility of NXT UK actually ever airing as a TV show. For reference sake, here are some matches that were taped that never aired: Mark Andrews vs. James Drake; Saxon Huxley & Akira Tozawa vs. The Brian Kendrick & Tony Nese; Pete Dunne vs. Sam Gradwell; TJ Perkins vs. Rich Swann; Tyson T-Bone vs. Dan Moloney; Trent Seven vs. Wolfgang; Tyler Bate vs. Joseph Conners; T-Bone vs. Saxon Huxley; Tozawa vs. Nese. I’m not really that bummed about missing most of those matches, but Tozawaaaaaaa.

Funny update from Brad in 2019: two of the aforementioned matches have been up on WWE’s YouTube channel this whole time, so I’m going to review those before I get to the show on the Network.

Pete Dunne def. Sam Gradwell
You can watch this match here. It looked like Dunne was going to steamroll Gradwell on his way to his big title match at Takeover: Chicago, but Gradwell gave him a bit of trouble in the middle of the match here. This was certainly a lesser Dunne match. It wasn’t bad, and they certainly laid in a few gnarly shots on each other, but it didn’t capture the crowd’s attention with good reason. Dunne go the win with the Bitter End. **¾

Trent Seven def. Wolfgang
This match is available here. I found it oddly satisfying to see Seven get his win back from Wolfgang after his loss in the tournament months earlier. These two have really nice chemistry. The crowd was behind both of them and it gave the match a nice energy. The finish was kind of lame, as Wolfgang had Seven on the run and then Seven just blocked the Howling and hit the Birminghammer for the win even though his arm had been injured. ***

Wolfgang def. Joseph Conners
The rest of these matches are on the actual WWE Network special. This was a good back and forth match, but I always expect Wolfgang to show more personality in his WWE matches than he does. I really don’t expect much from Connors. ***

The Brian Kendrick & TJP def. Dan Maloney & Rich Swann
This lost a little steam at the end, but it had enough cute comedy and tag team shenanigans to keep me entertained for ten or so minutes. ***

Pete Dunne def. Trent Seven {Number One Contender’s Match}
This is for a shot at the United Kingdom Championship. They’d announced the winner on NXT TV two weeks ago, which is pretty fucking annoying if you ask me. Get your house in order on the WWE Network! On night one (in a match we’ll never see because of this taping debacle (shows what I know)) Wolfgang injured Seven’s arm, and then in the back Dunne slammed it against a wall. I’m getting the feeling that the crowd isn’t sufficiently mic’d, because this match was pretty nutty and they felt a little subdued for what they were watching. In any case, this was damn good, and I just wish they’d aired it before they announced the result a week and a half ago. ***¾

Tyler Bate def. Mark Andrews {WWE United Kingdom Championship Match}
It can’t be worse than their PROGRESS match, right? Right, it wasn’t. It was a lot better, mostly because both guys actually sold the big moves they hit on each other. Was that so hard? The issue with these two is that they’re being given a ton of time in the main event, and while they’re keeping the action consistent and exciting, they’re not actually telling any kind of compelling story. That flies just fine in a ten minute match, but at twenty-five minutes you have to give us something more. That’s the reason the fans weren’t losing their minds while Bate was setting up for the final Tyler Driver, and that’s why a match like this is good but won’t stand the test of time. ***½

After the match, Dunne comes out and attacks Andrews on his way to the ring. William Regal storms out to make sure Dunne doesn’t attack Bate. Bate and Dunne stare each other down while Nigel McGuinness says one of the dumbest things on commentary that I’ve ever heard, “[At Takeover] we will either see a new, or the same, WWE United Kingdom Champion.” And that’s the line that closes the show. Were you nervous because you were working with Jim Ross here? Get it together, man.