The 2nd wrestler ranking for the NXT UK Guide! Our original 50 took us thru the first NXT UK TakeOver, this one adds in the next 26 episodes to our ranking sample. I was originally going to do new rankings per 25 episodes (as in "Top 50 for eps 1-25, Top 50 for eps 26-50, etc.") but I think it will be more valuable to just do a rolling, ongoing 50, with each subsequent 25 ep rankings combined into one big master ranking. It gives us a larger sample to draw from, and will be more interesting over time.
There have now been nearly 80 wrestlers who have worked at least one episode of NXT UK, but I think it's a more fun idea to keep the list as the NXT UK 50, instead of ranking every single person that has appeared. This means some familiar names will be left unranked, and will have to fight their way onto the 50, to earn their spot! That's more fun for me, and more valuable for the ongoing project. I'll again state that these rankings are based ONLY on matches from NXT UK. It does not factor in any matches any of these wrestlers had anywhere else, only on NXT UK. All wrestlers placement on the prior 50 will be listed in parentheses after their current ranking (a dash means they were previously unranked).
1 (-). Kassius Ohno
2 (1). Jordan Devlin
3 (9). Mark Coffey
4 (-). WALTER
5 (3). Wild Boar
6 (6). Wolfgang
7 (2). Dave Mastiff
8 (8). Jinny
9 (24). Fabian Aichner
10 (19). Joe Coffey
11 (4). Noam Dar
12 (5). Ligero
13 (29). Marcel Barthel
14 (7). James Drake
15 (13). Eddie Dennis
16 (12). Toni Storm
17 (18). Tyler Bate
18 (40). Travis Banks
19 (26). Flash Morgan Webster
20 (23). Mark Andrews
21 (20). Trent Seven
22 (10). Zack Gibson
23 (11). Tyson T-Bone
24 (22). Kenny Williams
25 (14). Rhea Ripley
26 (16). Isla Dawn
27 (-). Jack Gallagher
28 (15). Pete Dunne
29 (17). Saxon Huxley
30 (27). Joseph Conners
31 (35). Primate
32 (21). Ashton Smith
33 (-). Mansoor
34 (32). Nina Samuels
35 (25). Dakota Kai
36 (39). Amir Jordan
37 (28). Dan Moloney
38 (-). Mia Yim
39 (50). Killer Kelly
40 (30). Sam Gradwell
41 (36). Danny Burch
42 (38). Charlie Morgan
43 (31). Tucker
44 (47). Candy Floss
45 (48). Jack Starz
46 (37). Jamie Ahmed
47 (-). Kay Lee Ray
48 (33). Xia Brookside
49 (-). Alexander Wolfe
50 (-). Reina Gonzalez
This new ranking is highlighted by two big newcomers, Kassius Ohno and WALTER. Ohno came into NXT UK stating that he was a better British style wrestler than anyone on the roster, and well, yeah, that was pretty obvious. He worked six matches during the ranking period, and four of them are the best NXT UK matches we've seen through the first 50 episodes. Debuting him at #1 was not a difficult choice at all. WALTER was similar, though without as many excellent matches as Ohno, as he was an undeniable upgrade to the roster and lifted the quality of the in ring with frequent matches. All members of Imperium and Gallus made big leaps with increased TV time and consistent, quality work, and 5 of the 7 members of those stables make up my Top 10 (Wolfe debuted right at the end of the ranking period, so I would expect his placement to rise considerably over the next 25 episodes). Travis Banks was another guy who really jumped up the rankings, though I don't see him ever cracking the top 10. I was not impressed with him during the first 25 episodes, but the next 25 saw him holding up his end of some actual feuds (it also helps getting prominent singles matches with Ohno, WALTER, and Devlin, all guys in the Top 4).
A lot of the big drops in the rankings were due to workers no longer being featured. The women were featured far less in episodes 26-50 than they were in 1-25, with Toni Storm, Rhea Ripley, and Isla Dawn showing up in only 5 or less matches. There was increased ring time for Kay Lee Ray, Nina Samuels, Xia Brookside, and Piper Niven, but those four aren't as good as Jinny, Storm, Ripley, and Dawn, so that's a step down for me. Ligero didn't have the same kind of strong showings this ranking period, and Noam Dar continues to be a guy who would be ranked higher if he showed up more often (he was #4 based on only two matches, and he's still hovering just outside the Top 10 even with only 7 matches through 50 episodes), and both Grizzled Young Vets took steps backward in-ring in this second set. I'm not sure I even enjoyed any of their matches from episodes 26-50, so there was no way I could justify keeping them in the Top 10.
I don't look ahead to see what's coming from future episodes, so I can't really do an accurate predication of how the next rankings (after TakeOver: Blackpool II) will look, but I really like our established Top 10 right now.
Labels: NXT UK
5 Comments:
I am very surprised by how highly you rate Mark Coffey. Nothing that he has done has ever really stood out to me in either a positive or a negative way. He simply exists.
On the flipside, I am curious why Piper Niven isn't ranked at all? I'm not exactly a high vote on her but she is certainly better than Candy Floss and Kay Lee Ray. I don't recall her ever doing anything that bad to be below either of those two.
I think Mark Coffey is an excellent tag worker, knows how to construct a strong tag match around many different opponent types, makes his offense land hard, and it great at taking all kinds of offense. He works slightly different when he's working with his brother or working with Wolfgang, knows how to let their strengths shine while filling in other gaps.
My favorite Mark performances so far have been Mark/Wolfgang vs. Mustache Mountain (Ep. #21), Mark/Wolfgang vs. Ligero/Ashton Smith (Ep. #16), really dug his singles match vs. WALTER (Ep. #28), but also liked the Gallus tags against Andrews/Webster (Ep. #30), vs. The Hunt (Ep #47), even their squash against Pretty Deadly (Ep. #53). IMO he's often been the standout performer in these tags against literally every other babyface team that exists in NXT UK. If you pick out and watch a couple of these Mark Coffey matches I recommended, I'd happily watch a couple recommended Piper Niven matches.
So far Niven just has not impressed me in NXT UK. She's had 6 matches that I've seen and I think has looked like the weakest part of all of them. She can be a decent squash worker, but in competitive matches she doesn't take offense great and seems like the wrestling equivalent of "not listening in a conversation, just waiting for her turn to talk". I don't think she's great at integrating her offense into matches.
Comparatively, Candy Floss - while blatantly annoying and saccharine - is a compelling underdog who knows how to take a nice beating. I liked Candy in her match against Xia and in her Kay Lee match.
Thanks for that breakdown. I will re-watch some of those matches and keep on eye on Mark in particular.
I don't honestly have a recommendation with Niven (particularly with the small sample size in the episode you're up to so far) because I'm not a high vote on her myself, more just that I am a lower vote on some of the other people that are ranked. I mostly just like that she has a different look to the other women in the WWE, I just wish she made better use of it. I feel like she has a potential that she may not have ever live up to. I do think she is 'fine', though, and the only time her matches have stood out as bad to me it has been because of the opponent (more on that another day).
I can't get behind somebody like Candy Floss. Ultimately these people are supposed to be heading in to a fight and that is not a presentation I can get behind in that context - not to mention how obnoxious the whole thing is.
Kay Lee Ray has some really bad performances ahead of her in my view, but I'll let you get to those yourself before I comment.
I am looking forward to hearing your take on some of Tyler Bate's future matches as I have a lot more to say there and think he shows a lot of improvement over the course of his NXT UK run(unlike Dunne, who seems to just continuously regress to this very day). I also think that you'll really like Sam Gradwell once he makes his return in the Pandemic Era. A-Kid is another person who has fairly consistently surprised me by being much better than I expected.
If you don't mind skipping ahead (as you won't be up to it for quite a while - it only aired a few months ago) to check out a short match, I recommend watching Tyler Bate against William Regal's son Bailey Matthews. I thought Bailey looked excellent for a guy in only his 30th match. I look forward to seeing more from him in the future.
I'd love to hear any thoughts after watching some of the "Mark focused" matches. I approach my rankings by looking at all of the wrestlers and how well they did in their specific role. That would explain me having someone like Candy Floss over Ray, Xia, or Niven. Floss is supposed to get over heel wrestlers and really nothing more. She leans into offense, folds nasty on slams, feeds for opponent very well. She excels at her role. Niven might have a tougher role, as a babyface brought in at the same level as Toni Storm, and her in-ring in NXT UK so far doesn't make that case. I am also not buying Ray as a threat and have yet to be really impressed by her, even though I know there are people who rate her.
There are several people on the list (especially Tyson T-Bone and Gradwell, whom you mentioned) who I would have much higher if they were actually getting TV time. T-Bone especially feels like a top 10 guy but he's just hardly featured at this point, which is a shame. On a roster of heels all acting like legit tough guys, I don't think any of them project as "tough" as he does.
I enjoy T-Bone as well and totally agree with everything you said about him.
Another guy who I think shows a lot of improvement once you hit the pandemic era is Saxon Huxley. I have really enjoyed his work since the brand returned. Considering you already have him fairly high given his limited exposure I can imagine him ascending the rankings at some stage as well.
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