NXT UK Championship Tournament First Round Marathon

Almost everything I review on here is on the WWE Network, with the rare exception for something that’s on DVD. This show is on WWE’s YouTube channel, and you can find it here.

June 22, 2018 – Winter Park, Florida

Jack Gallagher def. Drew Gulak {Opening Round Match}
Gulak may not be British, but his no-kneepad look sure gives him a European vibe. This was a tight little escalating match, that went from good chain wrestling to a nice exchange of strikes to a fun pin flurry to a brutal headbutt finish from Gallagher. *** 

June 22, 2018 – Donington Park, Leicestershire

That last match was at an NXT TV taping. The rest of the show takes place at the Download Festival, a British music festival. You could say that this lent NXT some indy punk cred, but for me it just linked the vibe of NXT to the vibe of Dragon Gate Infinity even more and I love that.

Travis Banks def. Ligero {Opening Round Match}
This was a decent enough match. Ligero had some trouble springing off the ropes, but they worked the gaffe into the match. Had they gotten on the same page earlier on, this would have been more memorable. **½

Dave Mastiff def. Kenny Williams {Opening Round Match}
This had a few really fun big man/little man moments, but it didn’t come together as a very good match and it probably shouldn’t have gone so long if the big man was going to win in the end. **¼

Flash Morgan Webster def. James Drake {Opening Round Match}
I was just outrageously bored for the first half of this match, and then they shocked me and turned this into something really exciting. Credit where it’s due because I love a pleasant surprise. ***

Zack Gibson def. Amir Jordan {Opening Round Match}
The crowd left them out to dry until Gibson went Alt-Right in his rhetoric. But if it take’s nasty xenophobia to get the crowd to cheer your opponent, you probably didn’t bring the goods in your match. *¾

Ashton Smith def. Joseph Connors {Opening Round Match}
I felt about this match the way I felt about the Webster vs. Drake match, except it wasn’t as good once it stopped being boring. They portrayed Smith as a big shot who had 205 Live Commissioner Drake Maverick’s seal of approval, but to me he seemed like any old dude with a lame late-WCW finisher. **

Jordan Devlin def. Tyson T-Bone {Opening Round Match}
Unlike previous matches, this one started strong and then lost steam. Devlin was on a banger of a winning streak going into this, so the result wasn’t really in doubt. His finisher is pretty lame, though. **

Joe Coffey def. Tucker {Opening Round Match}
Am I crazy or is Coffey the illegitimate son of Jim Neidhart? I was just starting to get into this when it ended. Coffey had better make it pretty far in the tournament to make up for the fact that I didn’t get a quality main event to make up for a slog of a show. **¼