June 25, 2018 – RBKC, London
Amir Jordan def. Joseph Connors
This was a dark match but you can watch it on WWE’s YouTube channel. These two both lost in the first round at the Download Festival in what were probably the two worst matches of the round. Not that the competition was all that fierce. I did not expect Jordan to win here, so the finished raised my eyebrows. I don’t like Connors so it’s cool with me. The match was just fine. **¼
Zack Gibson def. Jack Gallagher {Quarterfinal Match}
This was crazy long for a first round match. They weren’t really able to get into a groove or get the crowd engaged consistently. Chanting “this is awesome” at the very end does not an attentive crowd make. It wasn’t bad, just too long. **¾
Joe Coffey def. Dave Mastiff {Quarterfinal Match}
About himself Coffey says, “I was the top, I was the dominant, and I was the alpha male competitor in the UK.” This guy is clearly talking about sex. The commentators spent the entire match reading Coffey’s resume and pretty much ignoring Mastiff despite the big man controlling most of the thing. Anyway, the match was as good as I was ready to expect from a scary dominant a human M&M. Coffey also gets interviewed in the ring, so they were hoping to make everyone think he’d win the thing. ***
Flash Gordon Webster def. Jordan Devlin {Quarterfinal Match}
I still hate Devlin. The crowd was really happy to see him lose here. They did a bit of cool, lucha-inspired stuff here, but it was mostly disjointed. Devlin was decidedly less irritating here than he was last year, but I’m glad he got knocked out of the tournament too. **½
Travis Banks def. Ashton Smith {Quarterfinal Match}
You’d think this was a Japanese crowd given how silent they are when something remarkable isn’t happening. These two didn’t do much to overcome the silence. **
Toni Storm def. Killer Kelly & Isla Dawn {Number One Contender’s Triple Threat Match}
This was short and inoffensive. I wish they’d just done Storm vs. Kelly, as Dawn barely factored into this at all. Baszler and Storm stare each other down after the match. **
Triple H comes out to announce that WWE is going to give the UK more, after he admits that he said the same thing last year and nothing happened (he didn’t say nothing happened, it was implied). He introduces the General Manager (but doesn’t say of what) Johnny Saint. Mauro Ranallo says he’s the General Manager of WWE UK. Then Johnny Saint says it’s NXT UK. Triple H says there will be a women’s division and a tag team division. He also announces the first four sets of TV tapings. As of this writing (three months later), two of those tapings have happened and nothing has aired yet.
Zack Gibson def. Flash Morgan Webster {Semifinal Match}
This was short, but the most strictly enjoyable match of the tournament so far. Webster was outclassed from the beginning, but he had a few great hope spots. The suplex on the floor was nasty, and I loved that despite beating the count back in, Webster was wide open to be caught in the Shankly Gates. ***
Travis Banks def. Joe Coffey {Semifinal Match}
Coffey is selling cartoonishly before the match. Of course, he didn’t consistently sell throughout the match, but it did give him an out when he lost. This felt like it went on forever, even though it was less than ten minutes long. It’s boring to keep complaining about it, but this crowd is weak. Coffey attacks Banks after the match. Banks sure can scream. **¾
Pete Dunne, Trent Seven & Tyler Bate def. Kyle O’Reilly, Adam Cole & Roderick Strong
The gap between the work done in this match and in every other match on this show is pretty glaring. Does this mean NXT UK is going to be a slog? I don’t know. What I do know is that this was really wild stuff that finally got the fans off their asses and really blew the roof off the place .It reminded me a lot of the Dragon Gate six-man tags that were so popular (and rightly so) a decade ago. Oh my god I can’t believe that was over ten years ago. ****¼ .
Shawn Michaels comes out with short hair looking like a weirdo. I’d been hoping he’d cut his hair since 2002, but maybe I was wrong. He says that 1991 was before most of the crowd was born, and I think about killing myself. He says he wrestled the first WWE match in the building when they came that year (sort of true, there was a dark match that preceded his match). And that’s kind of it, he doesn’t really have anything important to say. Probably just sent out there to cool the crowd down a little bit before the main event.
Zack Gibson def. Travis Banks {Number One Contender’s Match}
Banks is bandaged up because of the Coffey attack. And hey, they let him actually do some cool biz here! I really liked this. They got the crowd on board down the stretch, but honestly it was kicking ass most of the way through. They found interesting ways to get themselves in and out of the ring, and Banks’s finisher off of the barricade was really something to behold. I hope he’s a big part of NXT UK. And Gibson is quite good as a main event bastard. ***¾