411’s NXT UK Review 01.17.19 (Ep. 26)

OFFICIAL RESULTS

Ligero defeated Saxton Huxley @ 6:08 via pin [**]
Jinny defeated Isla Dawn @6:42 via pin [***]
Fabian Aichner & Marcel Barthel defeated Mark Andrews & Flash Morgan Webster @10:17 via pin [***1/2]

Ligero vs. Saxton Huxley: The pre-Takeover crowd was hyped to see Ligero, probably because of his new cool candy pink and orange tights and mask! Well, that buzz doesn’t help Ligero much in the early going as his quickness advantage is negated by Huxley’s size and strength. Locked in with a double-arm self-chinlock by Huxley, Ligero has to power out of the hold without any of the juice from the audience who seem to have surprisingly zoned out only a couple minutes into the match. A flurry of kicks from Ligero brought the crowd back a bit, and a top-rope missile dropkick gets them clapping in rhythm. This leads to a quick flurry of moves by Ligero, including a stunner and his version of a spinning DDT: the C4L (Crazy 4 Ligero). Ligero defeated Saxton Huxley @ 6:08 via pin [**] A basic match that seemed to be here to pump up the crowd before the big show, which in that regard felt like a moderate success.

Isla Dawn vs. Jinny: The lanky Jinny comes out pretty viciously, using her reach for a striking advantage and driving Dawn’s head into her knee in a particularly brutal attack. Dawn next gets the upper hand with a hammer-lock, utilizing her strength and technical knowledge to control the more strike-heavy offence of Jinny. A break to the outside let the cunning Jinny regroup and return with a hurricanrana that let her take control with an abdominal stretch and eventually a Cobra Clutch. They proceed to trade moves and holds in faster succession, as you can feel the crescendo of the match heading towards a conclusion, but with both feeling pretty evenly damaged. But when Dawn tries to go to the top rope, Jinny kicks out her legs, leaving Dawn prone on the top and susceptible to a driving X-factor for the win. Jinny defeated Isla Dawn @6:42 via pin [***] While almost as short as the previous match, this one squeezed in a wide array of moves and submissions, making the outcome much less predictable until that final move.

We get a quick iPhone self-camera promo by Travis Banks, challenging Travis Banks to a match with Jordan Devlin. This is later confirmed as the main event for next week’s episode.

Mark Andrews & Flash Morgan Webster vs. Fabian Aichner & Marcel Barthel: The team of Webster and Andrews are Cruiserweights to the heavyweight (middleweight?) size and power of Aicher and Barthel. And so the bigger team does the wise thing and isolates Webster in their corner, in a protracted hot-tag sequence for Andrews to come in and unleash his high octane offence. A fancy standing assisted 360 splash by Webster boosting Andrews for a pin attempt on Aichner was a nice highlight. This only incurs the wrath of the violent Europeans, who start unloading combination moves on Andrews. There was a kind of rocket launcher by Barthel throwing Andrews off the top rope into a caught vertical suplex position by Aichner who then hits a brainbuster for a near-fall. This sends the match into a closing stretch of back-and-forth action, that sees Aichner take out Andrews with on the outside with a callback to the moment that started the rivalry between these teams, and then a spinning back-elbow off the top by Barthel into a power-bomb on Webster by Aichner that finishes this one off. Fabian Aichner & Marcel Bathel defeated Mark Andrews & Flash Morgan Webster @10:17 via pin [***1/2] A pretty good tag team match that highlighted many of the strengths of both teams, yet specifically anchored by the always exceptional Andrews and quickly-rising to prominence Aichner.

– End scene.

– Get well soon Larry.

7.0

The final score: review Good

The 411

As far as NXT UK goes, this one did the job despite using warm-up matches taped prior to last weekend's Takeover - Blackpool special. There was a good escalation in match quality, which is a simple but logical and appreciated formula in professional wrestling TV production. As well, the variety on display was nice: a speed vs. power match, a more balanced back-and-forth, and a modern tag team mayhem sprint. While you're not getting the A-listers of this division here, a solid episode all around.