June 26, 2018 – RBKC, London
This is more or less a Takeover show, though they’re using the yellow ropes instead of the white.
Ligero def. Mike Hitchman
This was a dark match but you can watch it on WWE’s YouTube channel. Ligero went out in the first round at the Download Festival, and I’ve never seen Hitchman before. He reminds me of the villain from Too Many Cooks. Meh, this was fine, but ultimately as useless as the dark match from the night before. **
Tyler Bate & Trent Seven def. Roderick Strong & Kyle O’Reilly {NXT Tag Team Championship Match}
The Undisputed Era is making a case for being the best tag team in NXT history with this run it’s on. A hot crowd (and probably also Bate’s monstrous thighs) made this feel special in addition to being incredibly fast paced and action packed. No Sick Kick though, which is disappointing because I named that move. ****½
Charlie Morgan def. Killer Kelly
This was very amateurish, as every move was telegraphed and could be seen coming before it happened. But then Kelly is pretty new to the game. Not sure what Morgan’s excuse is. *¾
Noam Dar def. Mark Andrews, Travis Banks, and Flash Morgan Webster {Fatal Four Way Number One Contender’s Match}
This was scheduled to be a triple threat match, but Johnny Saint adds 205 Live wrestler Dar (returning from injury after 6 months) at the last minute so it can be a “four man fatal match.” Oh I hope we get more phrases like that from Saint going forward. Winner gets a shot at the UK title, presumably at the NXT UK tapings. Banks is still taped up from the night before. There was some cool biz here, like everyone trying to keep Andrews from tapping out when Banks had him in a submission. Sure, Andrews could have verbally submitted, but I’ll just pretend that’s not the case because I liked the segment. The rest of the match was a little spotty, but it was fun. After the match, the Coffey Brothers run out and attack everyone. ***¼
Adam Cole def. Wolfgang {NXT North American Championship Match}
Wolfgang wants revenge for the time that the Undisputed Era attacked him after his UK title match in NXT. This was pretty good. Wolfgang is a definite step below the British Strong Style guys, but he kept up with Cole just fine to put on a match worthy of the top of the midcard. After the match, Cole bums me out by squandering an opportunity to turn the crowd against him by teasing but refusing to do the Bay Bay deal. That’s the difference between an I-need-to-be-cool heel like Cole and a real heel like Tommaso Ciampa. ***¼
Ricochet & Amsterdam Black def. EC3 & Velveteen Dream
This is only the second tag team match that Black has been involved in since debuting in NXT in early 2017. Dream got tripped up by EC3 in the middle of this thing, and then walked out on him at the end, leading to the finish. This had a lot of potential, and a few sequences were really stellar, but it was filled with house show nonsense that made it hard for me to dial in. ***
Shayna Baszler def. Toni Storm {NXT Women’s Championship Match}
At what point can you start saying you’ve won titles all over the world? Storm has been a champion in the UK, Germany, Japan and Australia (where she’s from). That’s nothing to thumb your nose at, but is it all over the world if you’ve never held a title in the western hemisphere? This was on par with Storm’s Mae Young Classic semifinal from last year, as she performs quite well in a big match environment. She also plays a really sympathetic babyface, which was a nice contrast to her role in the MYC match against Kairi Sane. They even found a relatively interesting way to do a count out finish. ***½
Pete Dunne def. Zack Gibson {WWE United Kingdom Championship Match}
I love how fucking British these guys look. I love less some of the hyper-cooperative indy bullshit that made its way into this match. But then I love the way they beat the piss out of each other, and how hot the crowd still was at the end of two nights of crazy wrestling. On top of that, Gibson is an excellent heel, screaming in Dunne’s face to tap during his submission, and Dunne had me thinking he’d give up a few times. ****