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
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