NXT UK Worth Watching: OHNO! Gallagher! Webster! Coffey!

Flash Morgan Webster vs. Joe Coffey NXT UK 4/19 (Aired 5/8/19) (Ep. #41)

ER: I'm not sure why I wasn't expecting these two to have great chemistry, because I loved how they worked this match. I think this is Webster's best performance in NXT UK so far, and it makes the case for him being a better singles worker than tag worker. He was such a good ragdoll for Coffey but had offense that stood on its own, he knew when to work in that offense, and it always looked like something that would actually damage the larger Coffey. Coffey is good at neutralizing Webster, working holds and knocking him down with a shoulderblock, and Webster does cool things like actually try to trip Coffey on dropdowns. If I haven't mentioned Webster's dropdowns before, I love them as he always looks like he is trying to take a guy out at the ankles, and a wrestler who works a nice dropdown is a wrestler I'm going to like. 

I like Webster's upside down armdrag, and his enziguiri, senton, and dropkicks are sold appropriately by Coffey, who lays in some heavy uppercuts and a cool swinging butterfly suplex. The pace of this was great, as Coffey kept speed with Webster but left nice openings, and the quick early pace made Coffey's long full nelson work make some sense. Webster gets this great unhinged crossbody while Coffey is in the ropes, tipping Coffey to the floor while Webster goes flying down, and I love how fast Webster is to get back in to hit a tope con giro. One of the best things about Webster is that he never seems to expect a move to be sold if it doesn't hit squarely. His tope con giro looks great but also sends him crashing past Coffey, and the big move is handled appropriately and nobody tries to pretend Webster didn't go crashing down the entranceway. And I love how tidily the match wraps up, with Webster outquicking and looking for an upset, getting a moonsault and nice high knee, but then hitting knees in a flat out disgusting way on a swanton. Coffey just stuck those knees up and Webster landed on them like he was landing on a fence. Coffey folds him with a spear and waylays Webster with a lariat, and the lariat sends Webster spinning like he was bounced off the Blob at summer camp. This was 6 minutes and kicked ass the entire time, great way to kick off the #1 contender qualifying series. Can't say enough nice things about this match. 

Kassius Ohno vs. Jack Gallagher NXT UK 4/20 (Aired 5/29/19) (Ep. #44)

ER: This was actually the first NT UK match I ever watched, and it apparently took my favorite American wrestler fighting my favorite British wrestler to get me to finally check out the product 44 episodes in. Going back and watching it now that I have the context of the 43 NXT UK episodes that came before it, and I still think it's the best NXT UK match at this point in the series. In fact, I have Kassius Ohno being in the four best NXT UK matches through the first 44 episodes. I don't think that is an insult to NXT UK, that Ohno was able to come in and have matches better than anyone else on the roster. I think it's just something Ohno would be able to do on any roster in wrestling. I loved pretty much every single thing about this match. This felt like an homage to classic World of Sport, but at no point did any of this feel derivative. Lesser workers could have made this look like a minor league baseball stadium Al Snow match, all World of Sport equivalents to doing Stunners and People's Elbows. Instead, Ohno and Gallagher took classic World of Sport sequences and put their own twists on them. They played off familiar moments and gave them sudden right turns, successfully playing off our expectations and giving us something fresh out of something near and dear. 

I liked Gallagher going for Johnny Saint's old lady in the lake spot - a spot we started seeing a ton on the indies around 2003, when more indy workers had finally seen a Johnny Saint match - and Ohno just stomps Gallagher in the face instead of going through with the spot. Gallagher headstands in the corner like Nigel, Ohno takes the spot a direction I hadn't seen in other Gallagher matches. Ohno had this great attitude of being too smart to fall for Gallagher's tricks, and so Gallagher threw a couple of extra tricks at him.  The standing exchanges were as good as I was hoping they'd be, with my favorite being Gallagher trying to knee his way into Ohno's knee and elbow crooks to force leverage. Gallagher tying on a wristlock and then lifting his opposite grip side knee to force down Ohno by the elbow, or digging his knee into the back of Ohno's, that's the kind of thing I love to see. And when they broke out of the WoS homage it happened with an absolute bang, with Ohno bloodying up Gallagher's face with a "I'm done messing around" punch. 

Gallagher is smaller but can strike with the best of them, and once Ohno moves the match into punch territory, Gallagher is more than fine throwing hard elbows and a couple of his great headbutts. Ohno throws some of his greatest pump kicks in the biz, and I really only wish we had gotten the built up finish the boys had earned. Ohno hits a finisher worthy rolling elbow, landing Gallagher's leg well under the rope (and hanging off the apron), but the ref counts as normal (which is odd he wouldn't check the ropes as Gallagher was lying right next to them, feels a safe bet he would have had a limb breaking the plane) but Ohno amusingly swipes Gallagher's leg back into the ring. The look on Ohno's face as he swung Gallagher's leg back in without the ref seeing was enough to make me love that finish. Still, I really would have liked the ref to have noticed, and Gallagher to have slipped to the floor, continuing the match and giving Gallagher another break to come back. If we got a match restart and a small Gallagher comeback, there's a chance this reaches evergreen #1 NXT UK match. As is, it will just have to be "the best so far".

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