NXT UK 64

October 3, 2019 – Cardiff, Wales

Piper Niven def. Isla Dawn
I really like when Dawn stays in her lane during a match, focuses on matwork, and then does something fun like hit a surprising side suplex on Niven. When she doesn’t try to go to fast and so things she can’t do, she does a really good job. Niven is super reliable and was unsurprisingly good here. She won with a Falcoln Arrow in 7:10. ***

Ilja Dragunov is not medically cleared to wrestle. Alexander Wolfe approaches him to flirt and offer to take his place in a match against Saxon Huxley. He also suggests that Dragunov should join Imperium. Also the Hunt will wrestle next week. Then, Niven says she wants a title shot, but she’s attacked by Jinny and Jazzy Gabert. The tag match this is leading to has me quite excited, but its a Gabert vs. Nivens singles match next week that comes first. 

Alexander Wolfe def. Saxon Huxley
Wolfe won with a Ligerbomb in 7:09. I’m torn on this one, because I’m annoyed that Huxley got any offense but also his comeback was the only interesting part of this boring squash. *¾

Ashton Smith is being interviewed about his bad wrestling record when the Grizzled Young Veterans come up and rip on the fact that anyone would interview him at all. Smith brings up that they’ve lost their last two matches. He says he has more friends than the GYV, so he’s going to grab one and see what happens. 

Jack Starz vs. Mike Bird never happens because why would that match ever happen on air, and also because Gallus beat up Starz before the match. Apparently Bird is something of a legend in the Welsch wrestling scene, and he was the trainer of the current NXT UK tag champs. So Gallus beats him up. Flash Morgan Webster and Mark Andrews try to make the save but Joe Coffey chases them out and and attacks before the champs even have a chance to fight. I LOVE the way Gallus fights the way real thugs would fight, attacking in the middle of a sentence (rather than waiting for a dramatic line to end), and attacking an opponent while he’s running out (rather than letting said opponent get the drop on his allies before running out). 

Kay Lee Ray def. Tegan Nox
Well, that was dope. It took a bit for them to get the crowd into it, but once the match started focusing on Nox possibly having reinjured her leg things really took off. I loved the finish, where after a hardfought comeback, Nox went for a Shining Wizard on the apron and ended up hitting the post. After that a Gory Special was enough to put her down at 13:28. Color me impressed. KLR goes over but Nox looked plenty strong. I could see them sticking with this feud despite the loss. ***½