NXT UK 32

February 27, 2019 – Phoenix Arizona

Tyler Bate def. Jack Gallagher
Bate won in 9:43 after catching Gallagher with a roll up. I liked this more than their WWE UK Championship match two years ago. This saw Gallagher bait Bate into a mat-based contest, where Gallagher had the advantage. Then when Bate changed things up and demanded a striking contest, Gallagher had a way to outmatch Bate by targeting the leg he’d made sore. In the end, Bate was only able to win thanks to a desperation maneuver. If the crowd is going to be silent, this is a great kind of match to have because it doesn’t rely on their energy to fuel the action. I actually don’t understand why we don’t see more matches in this style on NXT UK, since it’s very much a British style. I think this sets things up nicely for a rematch. ***¼

At the new UK Performance Center, Jordan Devlin once again attacks Travis Banks. Then they hype Nina Samuels, and a graphic that says “5 Stars” across the screen. That’s false advertising. I try to clear that from my head to focus on Eddie Dennis saying that he isn’t deterred by his loss at Takeover and that he’s going to pick off the roster one by one.

WALTER def. Kassius Ohno
WALTER beat Ohno in 8:36 with a powerbomb. The story here was that Ohno felt that his mission to eliminate the shiny new wrestlers in NXT didn’t work, so he came to the UK to try to do the same there (WALTER being the newest member of the NXT UK roster). Welp, that didn’t work out. This match took a bit to get going, but once they started stiffing each other from every direction the crowd actually woke up for them. ***

Ligero responds to Joseph Conners’ promo on him from last week. He also exposes that Conners and Ohno have the exact same gimmick. That’s real bush league crap, fellas. Ligero and Conners will square off next week. So will Devlin and Banks, and that match will be Falls Count Anywhere rules.

Zack Gibson & James Drake def. Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch {NXT UK Tag Team Championship Match}
The Grizzled Young Vets won in 13:07 after hitting the Ticket to Mayhem on Burch. This was sort of a watered down version of the crazy Takeover tag team style match we usually see on… well, Takeover specials. A lot of that had to do with the crowd, as these matches are totally reliant on feedback. That said, the crowd got up for them a bit, and it was certainly entertaining (easily the best match of the episode). The champs had a fun fake tag spot early on, and the finishing stretch had a couple good near falls. It just didn’t feel like the height of what these four are capable of. ***½

While I’m really happy that this is the final episode in front of the Phoenix convention crowd, I have to say this was a more consistently good episode than we usually get out of this show. You got matches in three different styles that were all worth watching, and the whole thing was pretty short, which is always nice.