NXT UK Worth Watching: Barthel! Aichner! Primate! Boar! Conners! Oliver Carter!

Marcel Barthel/Fabian Aichner vs. Primate/Wild Board NXT UK 7/19 (Aired 8/21/19) (Ep. #56)

ER: This felt pretty base level for these two teams, but base level for these teams means that two of my favorite teams had a good tag match. This is probably our best Primate showing so far, getting to slam into Aichner before biting at his ear, throwing a big waterwheel suplex, then taking a crazy late match spinebuster on the apron to separate him from Boar. But this also felt like Imperium really starting to gel as an actual team, with Aichner dropping big spinebusters and slams, and Barthel coming in to crank limbs and throw mean kicks. Wild Boar absorbed a lot of those cruel shots, really got pulverized by the spinebuster/penalty kick combo while fighting back in cool ways (loved his senton to a hands and knees Aichner). The couple minute finishing stretch was really exciting and kept ramping up, with Barthel and Primate taking big bumps to the floor, and Boar hitting his cannonball then missing a gnarly spear sternum first into the middle buckle. Barthel flips him and gives him a brutal running kick while Boar is tied in the ropes, he and Aichner sandwich him with another kick, Aichner plants Primate with the spinebuster on the apron, and the nice flying back elbow into another Aichner spinebuster is the finish. I could have easily seen another 5+ minutes of this, as these teams have the material to add some extra beats. But i'm a big fan of the 6-10 minute NXT UK TV window, and this hit all the marks. 

Joseph Conners vs. Oliver Carter NXT UK 7/20 (Aired 8/28/19) (Ep. #57)

ER: One of the strengths of NXT UK is how well they cycle their roster. There are some guys who deserve to be featured more (like Tyson T-Bone, or Jinny), but the brand is mostly great at staggering debuts and quietly churning through the roster, keeping match-ups fresh and always building to something new. This match is something they do really well, which is giving a nice debut to one guy, while rehabbing a forgotten member of the roster at the same time. Conners hasn't been featured in any way in at least two months, and Carter is a guy with decent size making his debut, and it turns the match into a fun battle of "I have no clue where either of these guys are in the roster hierarchy". Carter works like a stiff Kofi Kingston, and I think that's a very good thing. He lands heavy uppercuts, a nice standing dropkick, super hard clotheslines, nasty double stomp, big belly to belly, works a nice showcase for a debut. Conners gets his showcase by leaning into all of Carter's offense and making him seem like a potential force, taking big bumps to the floor and into the ropes, while being good at cutting of Carter's offense and hitting his own good suplexes and clotheslines and a nice neckbreaker. I actually like the idea of debuting a guy with a loss. It's become far more common for WWE to debut someone with a title win than debut them with a hard fought loss, and the latter is far more interesting. Carter didn't come off worse losing to Conners (who has lost to many people), but instead this came off as a "welcome to the bigger leagues" match that played to the strengths of both. 

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