This week's NXT UK gets back into rebuilding mode after Meiko Satomura finally won the NXT UK Women's Championship in the previous episode.
I just want things to mean something
A couple of weeks ago, I called for the revival of the United Kingdom Championship tournament because I felt like a lot of the guys often meandered around in slightly meaningless stories whenever WALTER became absent for one reason or another after a title defense. The United Kingdom Heritage Cup Championship was created to address this vacuum, but has now settled into a role where it's also not present enough while focusing on a few people on the upper midcard.
With not much going on, another tournament would be the best way to inject a little more meaning into the action in NXT UK. I was kind of proven right when the big triple threat between Joe Coffey, Rampage Brown, and Ilja Dragunov turned out to just be a challenge to find out who was the toughest bloke on the brand. I want to predict that the matchup has repercussions for the NXT UK Championship scene, and I want to fantasy-book this match into becoming a draw so that it'll be a fatal four-way with WALTER for the title, but Triple H and co. have their own plans for this brand, so I can't confidently predict anything.
It's a good thing, then, that this week's mixed tag main event between Jinny and Joseph Conners versus Flash Morgan Webster and Dani Luna of SUBCULTURE implied that it had repercussions for the NXT UK tag team division. SUBCULTURE won in a good match, and Mark Andrews joined them in the aftermath to stare down champions Pretty Deadly. At least we're moving somewhere.
But yes, I'm repeating the clarion call for another tournament, if not a clear indication of where WALTER and the NXT United Kingdom Championship is headed next. They really can't make us wait too long between these things, else the brand becomes perceived as a place where things don't really mean too much.
NXT UK 6/17/21 Grade: A
Bits and pieces
- I totally love Wolfgang's Buckshot Spear finisher. I've never seen that before, and it was the perfect way to cap off a solid hoss fight.
- The new Kenny Williams feels more like what Teoman is trying to go for. I believe Kenny as a methodical scumbag more than I do Teoman.
- Poor Rohit Raja can't get a win. Nathan Frazer continues to impress.
- How am I supposed to buy A-Kid being in Jordan Devlin's locker room as babyface behavior? They didn't even make any effort to have A-Kid question why someone like Devlin deserves his own locker room.
*****
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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