Something something Walter murders Cole

Well. Toni Storm Vs. Rhea Ripley should be good, I guess? For the Women's NXT Championship.

This card looks dreadful to me though. Especially if you're not a fan of the wanna-be Shawn Michaels style of work. Like both factions in the main event are the shits. I would much rather have just had WALTER Vs. Cole. DIY/Mustache Mountain is going to be overly indulgent, masturbatory bullshit, guaranteed.

I'm actually really looking forward to this card even if it seems to be taking place in a vacuum where nothing that happens matters going forward on any show. 

If DIY vs. Bate/Seven is anything short of absolutely fantastic I'll be crushed.  Setting myself up for disappointment with expectations like that, but they have to be shooting for the moon.  Gargano's work over the last half decade is easily my favorite on this continent so I'm excited to see him back on a big stage.

Dragunov hasn't impressed me much outside of some pairings with Walter in WXW but he seems to have impressed in NXT UK thus far and will probably get an opportunity to look great tonight, especially if he's dropping the fall.

Ripley/Storm and the CW 4 way could both over-deliver as I'm usually impressed by how the company lays out multi-man matches and one with Garza, Scott and Devlin shouldn't fall that category, while Ripley & Storm have shown solid chemistry and are likely to fare well unless they're booked to go too long.  

Not a show that's going to cause me to rearrange my Saturday night plans, but there's no way I'm putting off a DIY tag for Adam Driver on SNL.  

 

 

Watching this show, even though I barely know the lineup and think both of the featured stables are awful. 

BTW, Bubba, there's no "When" in the name. Wishful thinking, perhaps?  I've never seen the WCW/AAA event of that name, but I've always wanted to. 

Still not sure why heel Prince Fin Balor still does the posing in his entrance designed to get the crowd to play along.  I mean I know it's because everyone in WWE needs to have an entrance like a video game character, but still.

Finn Balor vs. Draco Malfoy isn't bad so far, even though I'm not a huge Finn fan and I'm not familiar with Draco's work at all outside of Hogwarts. But he's obviously a real athlete, transitioning from Quidditch to wrestling with ease.

The problem with that match is the outcome was never in doubt. Made it hard to get really invested.

Also, this show is really missing Mauro. Hope his absence tonight means he's being saved for the Rumble tomorrow night. Mamma Mia!

Ilja Dragunov reminds me of Regular Sized Rudy from Bob’s Burgers, tbh.

8 minutes ago, Al said:

Ilja Dragunov reminds me of Regular Sized Rudy from Bob’s Burgers, tbh.

Haaaaaaa! That’s awesome. 

Can you imagine wanting to be a wrestler, training hard to make it a reality, getting signed by the biggest company and then having a feather on your tights? 

Admittedly, I do like Devlin & Garza. I think they have a lot of potential. But I'm not really feeling this 4-way. Just too many bodies. Everyone gets spots, then has to wait while their opponents get their spots. Doesn't feel like a fight at all. Hard to explain. 

8 minutes ago, Coffey said:

Admittedly, I do like Devlin & Garza. I think they have a lot of potential. But I'm not really feeling this 4-way. Just too many bodies. Everyone gets spots, then has to wait while their opponents get their spots. Doesn't feel like a fight at all. Hard to explain. 

Agreed.

It's rasslin' and movez, flipz and flopz, and zero charisma, character, or personality from anyone in this match. 

I guess I can no longer enjoy wrestling in a vacuum. I need a reason to care about the people in the ring, and this show has given me no reason to care about any of these guys or get invested in anything that's happening.

I don't care who wins, even though I am low-key rooting for Isiah "Swerve" Scott without really knowing why.

Update: Devlin won.

I dunno... When PWO was doing those Secret Santo match assignments, I loved the fuck out of random Kawada and Hansen matches, but I can't get into modern stuff the same way. 

Wasn't expecting Garza to lose the belt already, but I get the feeling this is a "give NXT UK a win that seems kinda important" move.

DIY vs. Moustache Mountain is the match I'm looking forward to the most.

It still seems weird to me that DIY are bros again so soon after spending years killing each other. 

DIY vs. Moustache Mountain was really fun but suffered from being an overlong "epic." A shorter, tighter runtime would've made it a better match. But that's a lost cause in modern day WWE/NXT. 

It's now 8:43. This show is slotted to go until 9:30. That means we can expect the main event to be an overlong, bloated, masturbatory wankfest. Oh yay!

Yeesh, Wolfe looked out of it.

Just now, Blehschmidt said:

Yeesh, Wolfe looked out of it.

Yeah, the announcers were all "not sure what his injury could be" when it seemed pretty clear he got KTFO from that kick.

40 minutes ago, sek69 said:

It still seems weird to me that DIY are bros again so soon after spending years killing each other. 

They're doing a reheat of the HHH and Shawn feud from the 2000s so they've got to do the big reunion too

I'm fairly certain I'd rather take an actual shotgun blast to the chest  before a chop from WALTER. 

Well that main event was certainly pretty damn good.

WALTER is a fucking star. That match was a great showcase for him.

Adam Cole, as little as he does for me personally, at least has a superstar moveset, nickname, and crowd connection. 

25 minutes ago, sek69 said:

Yeah, the announcers were all "not sure what his injury could be" when it seemed pretty clear he got KTFO from that kick.

Between that and Aichner limping at the end, Imperium took a beating in that one.

6 minutes ago, C.S. said:

WALTER is a fucking star. That match was a great showcase for him.

I feel like there is so much they could do with Walter beyond NXT UK, but I guess it will come down to if Walter wants too, since he seems pretty happy working indies and training guys on top of his minimal WWE work, and if they can get the right people behind that push if he were interested, cause I can see the Vince and Dunn types not getting it.

5 minutes ago, Blehschmidt said:

I feel like there is so much they could do with Walter beyond NXT UK, but I guess it will come down to if Walter wants too, since he seems pretty happy working indies and training guys on top of his minimal WWE work, and if they can get the right people behind that push if he were interested, cause I can see the Vince and Dunn types not getting it.

I thought I heard he doesn't want to leave the UK? I might be confusing him with someone else though.