Since the second annual WWE UK Championship tournament and the creation of the NXT UK brand, I’ve actually grown to enjoy the exploration of the UK wrestling scene. I think they did it fairly smart, building it mostly around UK Champion Pete Dunne, but bolstering it with a few recognizable names and faces like Tyler Bate and Toni Storm for recognition to the American fans, but then intermixing them with all the talent more native to the UK scene.
At first, it was almost like becoming a wrestling fan all over again, watching programming of a bunch of guys I’d never really seen or heard of before because I’m too filthy casual and American to pay attention to the UK scene, like Ligero, Travis Banks, Jinny, Isla Dawn, Mark Andrews and Flash Morgan Webster. But at the same time, it was kind of refreshing and there was something almost grass-roots charming about seeing something new to me that kept me watching the product, and I’ve grown to really enjoy the NXT UK brand; and seeing as I don’t have cable and watch RAW or Smackdown, two episodes of NXT UK a week helps fill the gaps for whenever I feel like watching wrestling, as opposed to a single episode of NXT each week.
I’ve enjoyed watching the cream of the UK pool rise and stand out like Jordan Devlin, and in true smark fashion, I’m appreciative of the sheer heat and reaction-evoking Zack Gibson, and really wonder just what he’s done in his career to be just such a rabid heat magnet to UK crowds. The women’s division still has a pretty large talent disparity, but is still young enough to be solely anchored by Toni Storm and Rhea Ripley, with the occasional cameo from Dakota Kai.
Needless to say, I was pleased and excited when they announced their first TakeOver event, with NXT UK TakeOver: Blackpool, and if they handled it like regular NXT handles their American TakeOver events, there was plenty of reason to be optimistic about it.
The card started off extremely good, with the finals of the NXT UK Tag Team Championship tournament, featuring Moustache Mountain versus Zack Gibson and James Drake. Tyler Bate is sneaky one of the most talented guys in the entire company, and I’ve already sung the praises of Zack Gibson. I had a suspicion that Gibson and Drake were going to win, and specifically with Trent Seven doing the job, because it’s abundantly clear that he’s basically the Kane of the UK, being the jobber to the stars that pretty much exists to do the job in order to protect all other participants. Plus, NXT UK has been operating on this modus operandi of having the heels win titles, to keep the chase alive for future draws.
I had mixed feelings about the surprise appearance of Finn Balor, especially since it came at the expense of Jordan Devlin, one of the few guys that had been carefully developed to this point. I get that Balor’s appearance brings easy views to the event as a whole, but I wish it didn’t have to be at the expense of the guy that has been a must-watch performer over the last two months, but at least the logic of him jobbing to a main roster guy doesn’t really hurt him too badly.
Dave Mastiff and Eddie Dennis was a classic pallet cleanser match. The two seemingly designated big guys of the brand going at it in a slow, boring oaf match, with Mastiff continuing his undefeated streak at the expense of Dennis, whom I’m not really convinced is going to be a major player in the brand long-term. But as for Mastiff, he’s inevitably going to get a title opportunity in the future, or get squashed by Walter shortly, but either way, I’m dubious or too WWE to imagine any scenario where a normal sized guy like Dunne is going to convincingly compete against monsters.
Toni Storm beating Rhea Ripley seemed somewhat predictable, but was still enjoyable nonetheless, because over the last two years, I’m obviously a Storm mark, and I’m always happy to see her achieve success. Plus, the UK roster doesn’t have the depth to really drag feuds out for too long, and it’s kind of refreshing to see that the brand doesn’t have much choice but to have fairly short feuds, thus keeping things inadvertently fresh for long-time wrestling fans like me.
Which brings us to the main event, featuring Pete Dunne versus Joe Coffey. Viewers would have had to have watched the UK Championship tournament to really see the seeds of the rise of Joe Coffey, as it was during the tournament did he join with his brother Mark, and beat the ever living shit out of Travis Banks, before carrying the feud into the early stages of the NXT UK tapings, where they picked up Wolfgang, formed Gallus, and grew into the main eventer for the first ever UK TakeOver.
Although the match went over 30 minutes, I can’t say that the match was particularly that great. There is a misconception that matches need more time to be good, and whereas that might work for matches like Kenny Omega vs. Kazuchika Okada, most certainly did not work between Pete Dunne and Joe Coffey.
Dunne has proven himself to be a fantastic worker over the last two years, but Coffey isn’t close to his level in terms of depth of arsenal or storytelling. The fact that the match saw both men hit signature moves three times, with the other kicking out of them three times goes to accomplish little else than invalidating their finishers, and the ending where Dunne gets his opponent to tap out to a combination triangle choke while stretching out their fingers is a weak ending that was actually already used before barely a month ago when Dunne beat Jordan Devlin in the exact same way.
Naturally, I knew something was amiss after the match when Joe Coffey was still lurking on the outside while Dunne clearly struggled to fill time and had to repeat his poses like six times, and in true NXT fashion, it wasn’t until the credits plate appeared on the screen did the inevitable BIG THING happen, and someone’s music hit, before this gigantic dude who apparently is a big indy guy in the UK scene named WALTER, whom I legitimately thought was Vladimir Koslov marched down to the ring to get in the grill of Pete Dunne.
And in true WWE fashion, despite the fact that Joe Coffey had been built up for the better part of the last seven months, they had no qualms with letting Walter ice him with a big boot while he tried to get in the ring, and completely derail any and all momentum he had going into the match, and from putting on a 34 minute performance. And for what, to set up whom Pete Dunne will be feuding with next?
Frankly, I’m not entirely sure what the WWE is doing keeping the UK Championship on Dunne for as long as they are; I feel like the first year or so was mostly out of neglect, but then they realized they stumbled into something with it. It’s like inadvertently, they wiped out the near-record reign of disgruntled former employee CM Punk, which is something the WWE loves to do when an egg goes bad, but if they don’t do something soon, and no disrespect for Dunne, but will they really want his name to be on that eternal echelon of longest title reigns in history?
Either way, NXT UK is putting themselves into a daunting position where it’s going to take an extraordinary talent to feel remotely worthy to dethrone Pete Dunne for the UK Championship. There’s no part of me that thinks that a Dave Mastiff or WALTER are going to be remotely as capable champions as Dunne is, and looking at the current roster, the only guys that can probably get some matches of the year with him are probably Tyler Bate and Jordan Deviln, and Devlin’s chance has been too fresh to dip into again just yet.
Overall, NXT UK TakeOver: Blackpool started off really good, but kind of went downhill from there. The ideas were good, but the main event went way too long, killed Gallus in the process, all to introduce an Indy guy that doesn’t have a good wrestler’s physique. I’d rather that they aired 1-2 of the dark matches that occurred, and had a shorter main event.
It’s still early to overcome, but it’s kind of proof that even across the pond, the WWE sometimes just can’t help being the WWE, even in another side of the globe.
