With WWE NXT UK TakeOver: Blackpool concluded, it’s time to look back on what happened and assess the damage, praise the positives and talk about what went down.
Per usual, at the end of this post, you’ll see my regular Smack Talk Pay-Per-Viewpoint post-show podcast, which reviews the event in more detail, but for those who want a more condensed version of my thoughts, I present to you my “quicker than a hiccup” reaction to the different parts of the evening:
NXT UK Tag Team Championship Match: Moustache Mountain vs. Grizzled Young Veterans — The second-best, if not the best match of the evening, which wasn’t all that surprising to me, given the history that Moustache Mountain has of putting on great performances. I wasn’t too shocked with the ending, but the near-falls kept getting me on the edge of my seat, so that definitely translates to a success. Bate’s deceptively strong and so good. That suicide dive was cool. Nice shooting star press on the outside. Big fan.
Jordan Devlin vs. Travis Banks — If they would have just gone with this match, I think it would have been good, but it wouldn’t have felt special enough. I doubt it would have moved any meters. Attacking Banks at first wasn’t doing anything for me until the swerve…
Jordan Devlin vs. Finn Balor — Admittedly, I liked the switch-up more than I liked the match itself. The idea of bringing out Finn Balor for this did feel special, and you can tell the audience loved it, too. They had a good match and I really can’t complain.
No Disqualification Match: Dave Mastiff vs. Eddie Dennis — This is where things fell short for me. Save for the impressive strength from Dennis picking up Mastiff twice (or maybe three times, but I only remember twice) I saw nothing in this match that was beyond the norm. This felt like your average No DQ “Street Fight” affair on Raw or SmackDown. They kept to the traditional 4/5 weapons (no ladders) and when they do that, it falls flat. Chair shots to the stomach and back, kendo sticks (so sick of those), blah blah blah. Even though it wasn’t bad, this did nothing for me.
NXT UK Women’s Championship Match: Rhea Ripley (c) vs. Toni Storm — The match itself left much to the imagination and wasn’t as good as I was hoping it would be, but I enjoyed the segment overall, if not just because I was invested in wanting to see Storm win the title. That was the most important aspect of this whole affair and they told that story well enough, so I’ll give it a thumbs up, even if I feel like it’ll be hyped up more than it should be. The moment was great, the match was just okay.
United Kingdom Championship Match: Pete Dunne (c) vs. Joe Coffey — I went into this thinking Coffey wasn’t a “main event” guy, so to speak, but he played his part and the two of them put on one hell of a match. It went a tad too long, by maybe 5 minutes, but I still thoroughly enjoyed it, and I was biting my nails a few times at some possible endings. Very happy Dunne retained, and I’m excited to see what the future has in store for this title, Dunne’s feud with Walter, and the NXT UK brand as a whole, which means they did their jobs.
For more opinions on the show as a whole, check out the latest edition of the Smark Out Moment wrestling podcast SMACK TALK as the panel reviews NXT UK TakeOver: Blackpool with our immediate reactions following the event before the dust has fully settled.
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