With WWE Worlds Collide: NXT vs. NXT UK 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 Women’s Champion Kay Lee Ray vs. Mia Yim:
This was perfectly fine, especially for a pre-show match. I’m glad they decided to add this to the card, not just because it makes sense to feature the NXT UK women’s champion, but that it also resulted in the overall tally being 3-3.
But I can’t go nuts over this, as it was a pretty standard affair. It was just a match.
Finn Balor vs. Ilja Dragunov:
Rock solid. I enjoy Dragunov more when he’s up against people like Balor or Cesaro (from TakeOver: Cardiff) than when he’s wrestling the average member of the NXT UK roster as this feels significantly more special.
Balor and Dragunov had great chemistry together and both were rather evenly matched. Even in his loss, Dragunov, still looked strong. I’d definitely like to see another match between these two at some point.
NXT Cruiserweight Championship Fatal 4-Way Match: Angel Garza (c) vs. Isaiah “Swerve” Scott vs. Jordan Devlin vs. Travis Banks:
This was exactly what it needed to be in terms of the more frenetic pace and four guys bouncing off each other in the best way possible. Even though they aren’t four that I’m the most familiar with (as, let’s face it, Scott and Garza are new and Devlin and Banks only wrestle a few matches a year for NXT UK) it still stood out as a ton of fun.
I’m VERY surprised that not only did the title change hands, but that it was Devlin who won and Scott who took the pin. I went into this fully expecting Garza to retain by pinning Banks or, at most, Devlin, with Scott as the guy to protect. That just goes to show how wrong anyone, myself included, can be from time to time.
DIY vs. Moustache Mountain:
I don’t think we’re going to get another match this year that feels like this did. This was a lot of fun in a way that house show matches allow for people to goof around more and play around with their job that they wouldn’t normally do on a television episode, let alone a pay-per-view.
I actually enjoyed the start of the match even more than the rest of it, but that’s not to say that I wasn’t a big fan of that, just the same. You put Johnny Gargano, Tommaso Ciampa, Tyler Bate and Trent Seven in the ring together and you’re going to get a fun ride. They delivered, as expected, and I think this was placed perfectly on the card to counterbalance the Fatal 4-Way with a different type of fun.
NXT Women’s Championship Match: Rhea Ripley (c) vs. Toni Storm:
Unfortunately, this fell short of what I think Ripley and Storm are capable of. They’ve both had much better matches and I just wasn’t feeling this. By the time they started picking up the pace to get me invested, the match was over.
I had a bad feeling about this from the start. I think WWE altogether picked the wrong match. They should have gone with Ripley against Kay Lee Ray or a five-on-five elimination match. Storm vs. Ripley out of nowhere was just banking on them being bigger stars on their brands, but with no momentum.
Eight-Man Tag Team Match: The Undisputed ERA vs. Imperium:
Even with the unfortunate injury to Alexander Wolfe, this was a great main event. Kudos to all the superstars for pulling it off with one man down. Admittedly, I’m disappointed we didn’t get some better chops out of WALTER that echoed throughout the arena, but that knock on the match doesn’t counteract all the good they did.
More and more, I’m enjoying Fabian Aichner and Marcel Barthel, as well as Imperium as a whole. They’re really winning me over as one of my more favorite tag teams in all of WWE and this match helped boost them a bit more, too.
Hopefully, Wolfe is okay, and this goes a long way in giving all parties involved more fans and viewers for NXT and NXT UK. They deserve it, as while the build for this event was lackluster and some of the matches could have had better alternatives, I’d definitely be down for another Worlds Collide in the future.
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 WWE Worlds Collide: NXT vs. NXT UK with our immediate reactions following the event before the dust has fully settled.
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