This week on NXT UK, the big stars take another backseat as the show retreats into buildup mode. We did get a British Rounds match, though!
The first mixed tag match in NXT UK history
Better known as Jack Starz's first main event on the show.
This week's main event was the hyped showdown between the team of Jinny and Joseph Conners (which they still haven't really fully explained) and the thrown-together team of Piper Niven and Jack Starz, aka Starz and Pipes. (Yes, that is the unofficial name Andy Shepherd is actually giving them.)
Nothing too special about the match itself—it's a mixed tag match still under WWE's rules on intergender tag team wrestling, meaning only the men can face the men and the women can face the women, and one tag means a tag for both. It's still a silly, unintuitive style that—although it provides some strategic depth (like the psychology of saving your partner with a tag)—just doesn't feel right. NXT UK won't be the brand that bucks the trend, but they did what they could.
Piper Niven and Jack Starz take the win over what should've been a highly coordinated unit in Jinny and Conners. Other than the victory, what does it really mean for Niven? Is she going to get another shot at Kay Lee Ray, who is now unstoppable in the women's division? Nobody knows just yet, but it's good to see Viper stay credible.
NXT UK 3/11/21 Grade: B+
Bits and pieces
- Like the idea of a British Rounds match just to feed the Heritage Cup Championship division. This feels like it was an obvious move, but it didn't occur to me that they could do this.
- Restarting the bi-monthly "Where is WALTER?" watch. We haven't seen him since January.
- I didn't think too much of Teoman's debut, but given his wXw pedigree I have no doubts about his skill. He just wasn't as well-regarded as Rampage Brown or Sha Samuels.
- Eddie Dennis is already cutting Wild Boar loose? They've barely just begun teaming together, and I've spoken before on how I wanted them to win the tag titles instead of Pretty Deadly. This is a big mistake—even though Wild Boar is fun to watch as a face, the Hunt has a lot of potential as a nice unit in the division.
- Not a fan of the Nathan Frazer name. I kind of get the need for a rebrand—even though Ben Carter has already built up a bit of a following under his real name—but couldn't they have picked a better name? It also doesn't help that it totally sounds random, without even a smattering of justification as to why he picked that name in particular. Give me something, like Nathan being his maternal grandfather's name or something.
*****
Romeo Moran (@roiswar) is the Editor-in-Chief of Smark Henry and one of the three hosts of the Wrestling-Wrestling Podcast. He gets by in this hard knock life through working in advertising. Smark Henry was his and Stan Sy's original vision of a watering hole for local wrestling fans. He roots for the undersized guys who hit hard, and he likes taking your wrestling questions over on his Curiouscat account.
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