NXT UK Worth Watching: Wolfgang! Gallus! Wild Boar! WALTER! Primate!

Wolfgang/Mark Coffey vs. Wild Boar/Primate NXT UK 6/14 (Aired 6/19/19) (Ep. #47)

ER: Great hard hitting sprint, both teams have a strength at building quick in and out tags that are majority killer and not any longer than they need to be. This started with The Hunt running wild and hitting a pair of dives and Boar hits some sentons, and you can see a strength of Coffey and Wolfgang is getting into position for all of The Hunt's attacks, cutting off in nicely timed spots, but also setting up small comeback moments (like Mark taking a big bump off the apron after getting hit by Boar, only for Wolfgang to cut him off), and I like the simple ways Gallus grounds Boar, with stomps and a full nelson and quick tags. It was all building to a big Primate hot tag (which honestly should have been hotter, and gone on at least a couple beats longer), but Mark and Wolfgang are good at getting good height on things like backdrops, and I did love how quickly Mark turned to tables by just running Boar into the ring steps with a double leg. The assisted powerslam/kick finish felt like it came a bit too quick, but I liked the work in the match that got us to that point. It ended up being a nice Gallus showcase, and I was a bit surprised how "down the ladder" it made The Hunt come off, but could be easily explained by "good teams beat good teams" and that's fine. They were working at a pace that easily could have allowed for another 6 minutes of strong tag wrestling, and I hope they get the chance to have that match. 

WALTER vs. Travis Banks NXT UK 6/15 (Aired 6/26/19) (Ep. #48)

ER: WALTER is so good at being a territory Ric Flair, in his specific territory. He almost always towers over every one of his challengers, but that doesn't mean that he would have to actually be good at believably selling for his small opponents, doesn't mean that he would have to ever get good at integrating his small opponents' offense into a match. But he is really great at showing vulnerability, and it's matches like these that highlight how good he can be at showing just the right amount of it. Travis Banks doesn't necessarily have offense that looks like it would be too damaging to WALTER, but it's worked into the match at such a time, and sold so excellently by WALTER, that you get the sense the WALTER *could* be surprised with an upset. WALTER is of course savage here, throwing full weight behind everything he hits Banks with, and my favorite moment came early when WALTER just grabbed a kicking and resisting Banks and plopped him on the top rope, as if he were a Long Island security detail removing Low Ki from a venue. 

WALTER lays Banks across the turnbuckle and then just climbs up to stand on his neck, until Banks falls hard to the floor. Banks did not seem like someone who should even be challenging WALTER in that moment, so it was impressive when he starting landing leg kicks and WALTER started feeling them. WALTER's selling was really what put this onto the next level, as he was great at realistically occupying himself by lightly limping, showing his knee buckle, stopping briefly to make sure the injury wasn't worse, the tiniest little things to give Banks enough time to get to his next attack. There was a good nearfall when Banks hit a nasty double stomp off the top, felt like Toyota really driving her heels into Kong. And Banks' tope really sent his weight all the way into WALTER, and I love when an undersized man throws himself as hard as he can into a tope. Also, it felt like WALTER appropriately sold that tope, and it made sense that even with that nice dive WALTER was still able to finish things 30 seconds later. NXT UK is maybe the only brand under the WWE banner that seems to understand that nothing needs to be 50-50, and there are plenty of engaging ways to craft high quality and/or interesting matches at 75-25. 

Wolfgang/Joe Coffey/Mark Coffey vs. Wild Boar/Primate/Dave Mastiff NXT UK 6/16 (Aired 7/10/19) (Ep. #50)

ER: Trios continue to be an underutilized match style on NXT UK, and here's another one that shows what an asset they can be to the program. I also like that this is just six bruisers, just gathering them all in one place. NXT UK men's division is definitely divided up between fast guys who want to hit their spot sequences (and some very good at it) and guys that just want to crash into each other, and this match just throws six of the crashers in together. This was a real nice Gallus showcase, shows how well they work together and the slightly different things they all bring. I really like Wolfgang, a wrestler who does a ton of cool things but nothing overly flashy. He might be the only guy in wrestling to still fling themselves into the mat on an Irish whip, and I love it, it's like Mitch Williams falling off the mound to throw harder. Wolfgang has some cool tackles, a nice diving lariat, the perfect glue guy for Gallus. Wild Boar is a great hot tag, comes in with an awesome log roll trip, then a great senton and an awesome spear in the corner. Gallus separates him from his boys and I dug all of Gallus controlling Boar, all building to a big Mastiff hot tag. Gallus are good at control, and arguably better at feeding for comebacks, especially Mark Coffey. Coffey is intentionally in the ring when Mastiff runs wild, because nobody was going to take a higher backdrop than Mark. Mastiff hits an awesome Finlay roll into Wolfgang with Mark on his shoulders, hits a German on Mark, headbutt to Joe, cannonball to Mark, and then we get stereo dives from The Hunt. It was a great finishing stretch, and I had no clue who was going to take it, as all were very good at hitting something cool and then getting taken out. Joe wound up leveling Boar with a lariat after Wolfgang took out Mastiff, and yes I'm going to need more trios matches. We've seen some good trios with bruisers, let's see a flier trios!

COMPLETE GUIDE TO NXT UK