January 12, 2020 – Blackpool, Lancashire
Eddie Dennis def. Trent Seven
I would never have expected this to be the opener. Dennis is being called the dragon now, and his dragon-style gear is pretty goofy for a guy of his size. It’s very bright and feels like something more appropriate for a Rey Mysterio type, or at the very least not a guy with an unpredictable psycho gimmick. NXT UK seems to be dead set on getting Dennis over as a big deal, which I don’t understand when you have guys like Dar who are way more interesting without a spot on this show. That said, Dennis performed well enough here, so we know he can be relied upon not to shit the bed in a big show setting. Seven’s ultimate underdog status helped too, as did the match’s brevity (not counting the Matt Riddle vs. Kassius Ohno “match,” this was the shortest match on a Takeover special in over two years). Seven hit Dennis with a Razor’s Edge to the floor (after the referee wouldn’t let him hit the move into an exposed turnbuckle) and then hit the Next Stop Driver for the win at 8:17. In the end, this felt like Seven getting squashed, which I hate. The match was fine, but really should have been the popcorn match and not the opener. **¾
Kay Lee Ray def. Piper Niven and Toni Storm {NXT UK Women’s Championship Triple Threat Match}
This is the first time this title has been defended since KLR won it in August, which is absurd. WALTER also hasn’t defended his title since August. You know what might make people more excited for the weekly NXT UK TV show? Well title defense every other month might do the trick! This was an improvement over the women’s match in Cardiff. Whereas there the story was stronger than the action, here they were able to integrate the story (of Storm’s wavering allegiance to her friendship with Niven and of KLR’s manipulation of both opponents) with some really nice action that rarely relied on shortcuts. It is annoying though that every triple threat match in NXT ends in the exact same way. Here, Storm hit a Frog Splash on Niven, and then KLR snuck in and hit a thrust kick on Storm before pinning Niven at 15:58. Give me a different finish! ***¼
Tyler Bate def. Jordan Devlin
It was clear from the opening moments that these two wanted to do something special here. And they accomplished it. Devlin was mean as all get out here, beating the piss out of Bate with fists, kicks, and headbutts at every opportunity. Bate had the crowd on his side, which is what drove him to victory because his typical offense wasn’t doing the trick. What I’m most impressed with is that all of the high-risk opportunities these guys took paid off. There was a moment when Devlin and Bate were up top, Devlin grabbed Bate by the neck and switched positions with him on the turnbuckle so that he could hit a Spanish Fly. That’s insane and I can[t believe they pulled it off and it almost seemed like a shot at Joe Coffey and Pete Dunne’s double gaffe last year. Bate won in 22:23 with a tornado DDT, the Tyler Driver ‘97, and a corkscrew senton. Phenomenal. In an alternate universe, Bate won the title in Cardiff and this was the main event of this show and it was completely acceptable as such. I really hope Devlin doesn’t get lost in the shuffle again after this. ****½
Mark Coffey & Wolfgang def. Marcel Barthel & Fabian Aichner, Zack Gibson & James Drake, and Flash Morgan Webster & Mark Andrews {NXT UK Tag Team Championship Ladder Match}
Gibson & Drake made me so happy early on here, when they opted to grab chairs instead of a ladder so they could beat everyone up before trying to win the match. That’s the kind of thing that’s missing in most ladder matches. From there it was spot-spot-spot-spot-spot nonstop, which is less novel but at least the spots were dope. They really didn’t take any time to breath here, so you never had time to do anything but be wowed by what you were seeing. It got a little silly near the end and it went a few minutes longer than it needed to, putting it on the level of the four team ladder match from Takeover: XXV. You do have to appreciate that when Flash Mandrews’ stereo table spot went wrong, they adjusted and hit a double drive onto Wolfgang for a wild visual. The finish was pretty cool, as Wolfgang speared Aichner through a table and Coffey knocked Barthel out of the ring onto everyone else before grabbing the belts at 24:59. ***¾
WALTER def. Joe Coffey {WWE United Kingdom Championship Match}
This was just the match it needed to be. Coffey came out of the gate strong and wild, showing WALTER how damaging he could be. When WALTER gained control, Coffey never begged off. He walked right into WALTER’s devastating offense and asked for more. WALTER spent more time on his back than you’d probably expect, but he never looked weak and generally maintained control throughout the match. I was skeptical that the crowd would get invested here, but every time Coffey was close to losing they willed him back to his feet. Also appropriate for this match was Alexander Wolfe and Ilja Dragunov getting involved after the referee got knocked out. Dragunov accidentally knocked Wolfe into Coffey, giving the title challenger a leg injury. All the madness played right into the gang leader brawl background of the match, and I have to say I liked it quite a bit. It furthers the elevation of Dragunov and gives him Coffey as a roadblock on his way to WALTER, I presume. The finish was a few minutes past the peak of the match, but that sacrifice at least made Coffey look very strong. WALTER made Coffey tap at 27:32 with a choke hold. ****
Imperium celebrate as the show begins to end, but then the Undisputed Era rushes in through the crowd to attack. Tune in next week when these teams fight at Worlds Collide. That was a great stinger.
From Diamond Ring Kensuke Office Changes. They emphasize that Nakajima beat Dragon Gate wrestler Kenichiro Arai 
From Dynamite 131. This is a qualifying match for the Owen Hart Foundation tournament. Joe debuted at ROH Supercard of Honor, saving Jonathan Gresham from Jay Lethal (whose soul searching apparently led him to turn heel) & Sonjay Dutt after the main event. And now that ROH and AEW are the same thing, that seems worth mentioning. Caster’s pre-match rap was cute. This was real squashy, with Joe needing only two minutes to put Caster down with the Muscle Buster at 2:52. Lethal & Dutt pop up on the big screens and Lethal says he’d been trying to get a hold of Joe during his difficult soul searching time, and Joe never picked up. They have a present for Joe next week. N/A
From Dynamite 132. Jay Lethal & Sonjay Dutt were in the front row cheering on Joe. Sarcastically, probably, as they brawled with Joe at ROH Supercard of Honor XV. 
From Rampage 39. 
From Dynamite 137. 
From Dynamite 138. This is a 
From Double or Nothing. 
From PWF York Cougar Football Fundraiser. I didn't know that this match happened until over a month after the fact. This started out as a non-title match, but we'll get to why I've listed it as a title match in a moment. FTR have Mick Foley in their corner while their opponents have Bill Behrens. I’ve never actually seen Behrens do an on-camera gig before. He's holding a tennis racket, presumably as an Umaga to Jim Cornette. But it's confusing because there was actually a tennis player named Bill Behrens. They announce this match as having a 20-minute time limit. Only 11 minutes in, they say there are three minutes remaining. Until then, this was as run-of-the-mill as a modern FTR match gets. But the announcement snapped everyone out of their heat-on-Wheeler funk and forced them to go for desperate pins. They announce ten seconds remaining a couple of times, but no one can get the roll up pin they're looking for. The 20-minute time limit expires at 1
From NXT UK 183. McGuinness started by essentially saying that Fraser is going to pee or poo himself during the match. Unnecessary. Had Shawn Michaels been game to have a good match against Vader, this is what it would have looked like. Actually, a more appropriate and modern analogue is Brock Lesnar vs. Seth Rollins from SummerSlam. Much like that match, Frazer used quick strikes and avoided his larger opponent’s signature big move to stay alive. Here it was the powerbomb whereas there it was suplexes. Here, Frazer also successfully damaged WALTER’s knee, which slowed the big man down and made it hard for WALTER to hit the powerbomb. Unfortunately for Frazer, WALTER was able to bide his time and clothesline Frazer’s legs out from under him. An inevitable powerbomb followed and won the match for WALTER at 14:02. I hate to say this because I’m happy that he’s healthier, but the way WALTER has slimmed down has taken some of the magic away from his aura. At least for me it has. That said, dude can clearly still go as well as ever in the ring. ****
From NXT 659. Strong was feeling it here, which is thanks in large part to the crowd being maniacally loud from the get go I’m sure. His whole game was fast and devastating stick and move attacks. That worked pretty well, as WALTER was dazed from time to time. But as with all good WALTER matches (which is pretty much all WALTER matches), everything WALTER does is devastating here so it takes very little for him to take back control. And eventually he did just that and hit the powerbomb for the win at 9:46 (shown of 12:18). After the match, WALTER gets on the microphone and says that his name is Gunther now. I did not think WALTER would be a victim of the renaming curse this far into his run. What will they rename Strong?! ***¾
From NXT UK 185. Andy Shepherd helpfully announces from inside the ring that the reason for the stipulation is that the feud has gotten so violent that it wouldn’t be safe to have fans around. Devlin says during the match that it’s because he thinks Dragunov could only muster the energy to win if he had the crowd behind him. I like that explanation a lot more. The only real reason I could think of to do this without fans is that there was a scheduling conflict with one of the wrestlers for the regular TV taping date and they needed to get this thing filmed. We just had such a long stretch of empty arena NXT UK episodes that I can’t imagine anyone was dying to get another taste of it. This aired the day after Adam Cole vs. Orange Cassidy in a match that was also no disqualification and falls count anywhere, and this served up everything I felt was missing from that match. Now you might say, “Brad, Cassidy is not the same kind of character as Devlin or Dragunov, how could you expect the same level of violence or intensity?” To that I say, when Cassidy started his match by breaking his own sunglasses and rapidly punching Cole, he was indicating that level of violence and/or intensity. And instead the match was mostly wacky. Anyway, this was not wacky. It was stiff and intense and featured weapons that made sense and spots the didn’t take forever to set up. Dragunov got in trouble when his eye injury acted up. Devlin took control and beat the crap out of him. I wasn’t wild about how meek Dragunov was when Devlin was zip tying his hands, but I did like that in the end it turned out to be an error on Devlin’s part anyway because Dragunov’s finisher requires no hands. And indeed, a bound Dragunov jumped off the steel steps (which had been brought into the ring) and hit the Torpedo Moskau on Devlin for the win at 21:43. NXT UK is still sneaking in these dope matches that no one is watching. Y’all should watch them. ****¼ 
From AAA Triplemania Regia. FTR come out with Vickie Guerrero. This was supposed to be explained at an earlier AAA taping but FTR and Guerrero all missed them. AAA is notorious for having this kind of luck/being incompetent lately. FTR is also wearing Eddie Guerrero tribute tights, with American flags on one side and flames on the other, I suppose to pay homage to his Gringos Locos and Latino Heat gimmicks. This match mostly sucked, but one cool spot saw FTR tie Pentagon’s mask to the ropes and force him to unmask with his hands over his face to stop them from climbing the ladder. That would have been a very meaningful moment to lead up to the Lucha Brothers winning the titles back, but unfortunately instead it led into nothing. He just got his mask back and the match continued on in its lame, derivative way. At one point, Pentagon was the only man standing, but instead of climbing the ladder he grabbed a table from the floor. So the titles mean enough to him that he’d unmask to stop his opponents from winning, but not enough for him to get the titles when he had a clear path to do it? Vickie powered Pentagon, causing him to voluntarily jump through the table and Harwood grabbed the belts at 12:12. This was abysmal. *
From AEW Full Gear. Silver was hamming it up a lot more here than he was the year before in New York. That said, this had stronger just-a-match vibes than the aforementioned match. After Silver ripped out Cassidy’s pockets, Cassidy turned up the heat and these guys put on a middle of the row undercard match. Not bad by any means, but nothing memorable either. Cassidy hit the Beach Break rather out of nowhere for the win at 9:42. **¾ 
From the second Honor Reigns Supreme. The commentators sold this as Gresham getting a big shot against a top ROH guy after being an also-ran in the Television Championship division for a while. This was terrific. Both guys did a fantastic job selling their respective targeted limbs, and Gresham in particular played the role of the tenacious underdog perfectly. He didn’t just watch to see where Lethal would have trouble executing his finisher because of the damage he’d done to the former ROH Champion’s arm, he pressed the assault whenever he could, taking out the arm to make sure the Lethal Injection would never come. But what he couldn’t do was stop Lethal from battering his knee and ultimately winning with a Figure 4 Leglock at 17:54. ****¼ 
From the second Masters of the Craft. Columbus has way more Gresham fans than Concord did. That’s a neat little advancement to the plot, innit? They both went after the same limbs that earned them dividends in their previous match. And then they went ahead and built an incredible match out of that story. At first it seemed as though Lethal wasn’t going to be able to get Gresham’s leg to give out. But about halfway through the match, Gresham’s knee was in trouble. Gresham was able to escape the leglock this time by using the momentum of Lethal pulling him away from the ropes to shift to an armbar. But Gresham’s focus on the arm bit him in the ass. Lethal went for the Lethal Injection and collapsed again, but when Gresham went for a roll up after that Lethal cut back on it for the win at 18:27. This is one of the best American examples that I've seen of a match building on the match that came before. Rather than try to outdo the maneuvers from their first meeting for the sake of a big crowd reaction, they adjust their game plans in logical ways that, to me, were just as exciting. I think this match is slept on, by virtue of the fact that I’ve never heard anything about it before watching it. ****½ 
From ROH Wrestling 364. In real life, 
From Death Before Dishonor XVII. Gresham and Lethal had been teaming, but Gresham grew frustrated and started heeling. Ultimately, he turned on Lethal. It took them a little while to get there, but once they got into a groove this was exactly what I wanted from this match. It was back to their old tricks, with Lethal targeting the leg to set up for the Figure 4 Leglock and Gresham targeting the arm to block the Lethal Injection and set up for his Octopus. In the end, Lethal tried the cutback trick that worked for him in Columbus, but Gresham countered to a pin and then put on the gnarliest Octopus for his first win over Lethal at 17:20. This is the best kind of wrestling series. And none of it felt stale because it was a year after they’d wrestled last and because they found ways to energize the old tropes. And that’s not to mention Gresham busting out what I can only describe as a sumo-style assault. Gresham and Lethal make up after the match. ****
From ROH Wrestling 500. During the pandemic, ROH made the most of their empty arena shows by kicking them off with a tournament to crown a champion for the revived Pure Championship. Gresham won the tournament, and this was his fourth defense of the title. Lethal and Gresham were still allies here. In an interesting move, the other match on this milestone episode was two other partners fighting in Jay and Mark Briscoe. They cut to a commercial break about six minutes in, though the action didn’t get beyond (admittedly fast-moving) mat wrestling until the 10-minute mark. That had me thinking this was going to go long, but things took a different turn. Both guys had abused the other’s shoulders, and Lethal used that to his advantage best. He forced Gresham to use his first rope break to stop a pin, and his second to escape a crab. Then, he used the failed Lethal Injection to bait Gresham into a crossface, forcing the champ to use his final rope break. But he made the mistake of giving Gresham a breather and was quickly caught in a head scissor takedown giving Gresham the winning pin at 14:06 (shown of 16:40). For an empty arena match, this held my attention. It was totally different than their previous matches while still using a couple elements from the rivalry to elevate it just a bit. Not essential viewing, but if you’re working your way through their series you shouldn’t skip it. ***¼ 
