Before I start, I’d like to say that I ABSOLUTELY love the NXT UK belts. They are the most beautiful belts that the WWE have ever produced, and I am extremely pissed that they are letting those belts go–it’s a damn shame. Also, I didn’t care at all about any of the vignettes that played throughout this show. The Perez/Jade story is boring, Quincy Elliott is just NXT’s lesser version of Sonny Kiss and Diamond Mine has been done for weeks now. The only hope I have is I hope Roderick Strong is pushed on the main roster well, like he was before the Undisputed Era broke up.
NXT North American Championship Match: Carmelo Hayes (w/ Trick Williams) vs Ricochet
This was the match of the night for me. I love Ricochet and have since before he debuted in NXT, and Carmelo Hayes really won me over with his performance. Both wrestlers are amazing and really put on a showcase for the audience. The only problem I had with this match was the finish. I get that they wanted both wrestlers to end the match looking strong, but I can’t stand screwy finishes. For me, it took away from what was a 4.5 or 5 out of 5 match.
…and thus began the garbage that was the rest of this PVP…
NXT and NXT UK Unification Match: The Creed Brothers vs Brooks Jensen and Josh Briggs vs Gallus vs Pretty Deadly
This match died, for me, the moment Gallus was kicked from the match. Gallus being kicked was the only way that the ending of this match could make any sense. Gallus are and have been built as a dominating force in not only NXT UK, but in pro wrestling period, and you essentially have the belts won by what is the pre-cursor to MMM (Maxim Male Models)? This was just bad, and the match didn’t help to make Pretty Deadly look any better.
NXT and NXT UK Women’s Unification Match: Mandy Rose vs Meiko Satomura vs Blair Davenport
When they showed Mandy Rose driving to the arena for the match, I knew she was going to win this match, and I was pissed. Meiko Satomura and Blair Davenport have a legacy of violence and excellence that has followed them from Stardom, WCW, WWF, and so on and so forth. They have proven their wrestling prowess time and time again in the ring, and are among the greats to step foot in the squared circle. There is no way in this world that Mandy Rose should have defeated either one of them legitimately. I get that Meiko is a trainer as well as an in-ring talent. I get that it may be time for her to step back from in-ring competition to focus more on bringing up the next generation of female wrestlers, but frankly, if it was me, I would have put the belt on Blair Davenport, if Meiko wasn’t going to win. That way, if Triple H is going to run NXT, he could have started off the Third Era of NXT with a solid, competent champion, who can bring forth top-notch matches….not someone who has to constantly adjust her gear throughout the match, thus taking away from the immersion of the action. Also, as a long-time fan of pro wrestling, there’s no way that Meiko or Davenport could lose to Rose without some interference or trickeration.
NXT Women’s Tag Team Match: Katana Chance and Kayden Carter vs Doudrop and Nikki A.S.H.
This match was wholly unnecessary. It didn’t need to happen, because the women’s tag division is basically dead on NXT 2.0, and is frankly on life support on the main roster. I really wish they would just give Piper Niven her name back, and send Nikki back to the “crossroads” of Sanity. Those versions of these two women would have murdered their opponents in this match. I also wish that both WWE, NXT and frankly AEW would give the women’s divisions of their respective promotions for care, because in my opinion, as someone who has watched professional wrestling for more than 30 years, I’ve seen the heights of where women’s wrestling can be, and this ain’t it. Instead, we got a match that wasn’t very entertaining and with minutes that could have gone to another match…like the Ricochet/Hayes match.
NXT and NXT UK Unification Match: Tyler Bate vs Bron Breakker
I was really hoping that Tyler Bate would win this match, because he is by far a better wrestler than Breakker (not saying that Breakker isn’t a good wrestler, but Bate is on another level), so as with the rest of the results for the night, the win went to the US NXT Champion. Sad….very sad on the whole. Though both wrestlers tried to bring about a good match, the end just pretty much killed this match for me.
On the whole, this PVP gets a 2 out of 5 for me, and it was solely based on the Ricochet/Hayes match. The rest of this PVP was a throwaway for me, and frankly, it saddens me to see how far NXT has fallen in its 2.0 incarnation.
