NXT UK Worth Watching: Wolfgang! Mark Coffey! Grizzled Young Vets!

Wolfgang/Mark Coffey vs. Flash Morgan Webster/Mark Andrews NXT UK 10/4 (Aired 10/17/19) (Ep. #64)

ER: This was a fun main event tag title change, that felt like it should have been better but served as a fantastic Wolfgang showcase. Wolfgang has been perhaps the biggest discovery of this NXT UK project. I already knew Ohno had a lot of great matches in NXGT UK, it's made me a much bigger fan of Noam Dar and Jordan Devlin, but mainly it's shown how many genuinely cool talents there are kind of just hiding in plain sight in NXT UK. This match is an excellent reference point to show someone why Wolfgang is a top 5 guy in NXT UK, and a frontrunner for "the best wrestler under WWE contract that nobody knows about". I think both these teams are capable of a better match, but Wolfgang and the way he based for Webster, really made this stand out. Wolfgang has great offense, but is a wonderful base for juniors. He catches ranas with  aplomb, and adds extra touches to them like nobody else. Webster gets to break out all of his low arcing hurricanranas with such a strong base, peaking with Webster swinging around the ringpost to catch a rana that sends Wolfgang skidding an extra five feet across the floor. 

Gallus are a great tag team, both excellent at getting into position for flyer offense. Plenty of tough guy teams can be tough guys, but only the best are able to give plausible openings to smaller teams. Coffey is good at occupying time while waiting for a springboard or flip, doing things like selling his mouth or jaw to stagger into place. Wolfgang takes so many bumps in between kicking so many asses, with his most incredible being an assisted poison rana that could not have spiked him more vertically. Guys that can suspend physics while they bump are eminently watchable, but how many of them also have devastating powerslams and cross bodies and clotheslines and throw their full weight into Irish whips. Webster and Andrews do some fun Rock n Roll Express double teams and fly in circles when get run over, but always looked like they could retain their still new belts. The enziguiri powerslam finish Gallus used to win the belts felt like a cool powerhouse 90s team finish. Excited to see them roll the rematch back.

 

James Drake/Zack Gibson vs. Ashton Smith/Oliver Carter NXT UK 10/4 (Aired 10/24/19) (Ep. #65)

ER: This felt like a great hot tag match that you'd randomly come across on a WCW Saturday Night. It's one of James Drake's best NXT UK performances, a crazed Dynamite Kid acolyte determined to bump big for everything while throwing his big offense just as stiff as he gets. Smith and Carter are a great babyface team and make great dance partners for this kind of quick hard hitting match with Grizzled Young Vets. GYF's act works best at its tightest, when they can show off their actual good timing, and this is a damn tight match with some exquisitely timed moments. Carter works like a crisper 1988 Owen Hart with great moonsaults, big bumps (here there's a great one flying off the apron from a sharp Drake dropkick) and firm hitting offense. Carter takes advantage of his relative size and works a more satisfying version of the "fast tall guy who spins maybe too much" that has run rampant these past few years. Drake really busts his ass through the entire match, filling a huge share of the ring time with activity, and all of his punctuated kicks land with a crack. Smith has a big hot tag where he steamrolls Drake, hits a huge spinning blue thunder bomb and big dive, all with great energy and connection. The finish was a bit sudden and could have been built into something much bigger, but these kind of hot tags are always a pleaser, and literally every team on this roster is capable of this fun style. 

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