NXT UK Worth Watching: The Start of a Complete Guide

Noam Dar vs. Pete Dunne NXT UK 7/28 (Aired 10/17/18) (Ep. #1)

ER: Strong title match to main event their first TV episode. Dar is someone I feel made a lot of improvements in the time between his 205 Live stint and the start of NXT UK. I disliked him on 205 but enjoy him more often than not in his post 205 work. He played underdog against Dunne here, leaning into all of Dunne's stiff elbow strikes and standing lariats (and one real monster of a running clothesline early in the match) while trying to catch Dunne whenever Dunne went too far. Dunne gets it in him to do too much offense sometimes (and go too over the top with finger breaks), so I loved when Dar took his knees out and tripped him during a rope run, and I loved even more when he kicked Dunne right in the shins when Dunne hopped to the middle turnbuckle. Dar's selling was smart, appropriately selling finger damage as it was happening, kicking Dunne in the head on the apron after the shock wore off then hitting a fisherman's buster; or, the excellent triangle spot where Dunne worked over Dar's fingers while in the triangle, and Dar had the presence of mind to put a stop to that by quickly holding down Dunne's shoulders for a pin, then rolling through to an ankle lock when Dunne was forced to kick out. Dar catching the kneebar was a good moment too, building to a suitably dramatic rope break. I wish Dunne was a bit more interesting about going back on offense (he tends to just stand up and go back to it), but his strikes play big and Dar was a great foil for his high end offense.


Wild Boar Mike Hitchman vs. Ligero NXT UK 7/29 (Aired 10/24/18) (Ep. #2)

ER: What a fun 5 minute sprint. I think this project is going to wind up with me putting more words about Wild Boar out on the internet than we currently have. He's a guy I liked enough to start this NXT UK project in the first place, and it's cool to say he was fully formed from his arrival on the Network. They work a fast flyer vs. wrecking ball match, which is fun to see from a 170 lb. tiny flier and a 5'6" wrecking ball. Boar is like an even MORE compact Taz, and he is a little wrecking ball. He's like Dick Togo working as Otis. Ligero is a guy who I think is better the more grounded he stays, as he has too good a clothesline to think he needs to do a bad standing moonsault. I recently watched a Taka Michinoku/Dick Togo Raw match of similar length, and this is a better version of that match. Ligero doesn't have the grace of Michinoku, not close, but Wild Boar hits him harder with strikes and flying offense than Togo hit Taka. Ligero hits a rana as smooth as any I've seen Taka throw, and Boar is a great base (he should be, he has an incredibly low center of gravity). Boar hits a super impactful spear in the corner, a great and unexpected pop up powerbomb, and looks like he just murders Ligero with a cannonball. It looked like his full closest-man-to-actual-size-and-impact-of-real-cannonball, and Ligero looked like he absorbed it all with his face. Ligero came off tougher to me for the rest of the match because he can clearly take a beating. If I wasn't viewing Boar as Togo enough, it should also be noted that Wild Boar has a very good standing senton, and he uses it here. The match has satisfying nearfalls, and Ligero makes the finish violent enough to work, kicking out Boar's leg with a hard mule kick to the knee, then running him up the ropes with one of the best tornado DDTs I've seen.


COMPLETE GUIDE TO NXT UK