What You Missed From NXT UK TakeOver: BlackPool

While still in its infancy, recently completing its 12th week and 24th episode on WWE Network, NXT UK has done something that it took its American sibling several years to achieve: an absolutely massive TakeOver event.

The Empress Ballroom in Blackpool, England, hosted some of the most talented and youngest athletes signed to WWE. With the ability to air two episodes a week, NXT UK has brought an international audience up to speed on several feuds brewing on the UK indie scene for months and in one destructive case, almost 10 years.

The inaugural TakeOver event forewent a pre-show match, opting to showcase its commentary team instead. Vic Joseph and Nigel McGuinness broke down the five matches that we would be shown and how they came to be, such as the Joe Coffey and Pete Dunne feud that felt more like a war between competing crime families than a predetermined piece of television content and the Toni Storm-Rhea Ripley rematch from the finals of the NXT UK Women’s Championship tournament.

Speaking of tournament finals, the show opened with Mustache Mountain (Tyler Bate and Trent Seven) facing off against the yet unnamed team of James Drake and Zach Gibson to crown the inaugural NXT UK Tag Team Champions. A slow building and high impact match was the best way to get the crowd loud early and often as they traded a ton of offense leading Seven to split his head open, giving a visceral and concerning visual to anyone who wants to claim that wrestling is “fake.” The length and intensity of the bout was marked by Seven’s slowly deepening crimson hair. Gibson and Drake didn’t so much as beat Mustache Mountain as they outlasted them to become the first NXTUK Tag Team Champions.

The second match was supposed to be “The Irish Ace” Jordan Devlin vs. “The Kiwi Buzzsaw” Travis Banks. However, during the pre-show, Banks was blindsided by Devlin as he arrived to the arena. The brutal assault continued when Devlin – before the bell had a chance to ring – absolutely decimated Bank’s knees with the assistance of the steel steps. The match was then called off by brand manager and UK wrestling legend Johnny Saint.

Saint’s assistant Sid Scala then announced that they had a backup plan: Devlin vs. his trainer and current WWE Superstar Finn Balor.

Balor had understandably taken offense to Devlin’s constant assertion that he was the best Irish wrestler alive and jumped at the opportunity to knock the youngster down a peg. Devlin got a surprising amount of offense in, but was no match for the patented combo of sling blade into a Coup de Grâce from Balor. This tremendous match humbled Devlin, reestablished Balor as a legitimately great wrestler and extended one of the most entertaining feuds so far on NXT UK.

The third offering was my most anticipated match of the night as Dave Mastiff and Eddie Dennis squashed a 10-year feud which went all the way back to Dennis’ debut when he asked Mastiff for advice and was blown off. A little much? A tad obsessive? Sure. But definitely an entertaining and funny reason for Dennis’ absolute disdain for Mastiff. This no disqualification match was gruesome, albeit confined to the ring. The pin came after Mastiff put Dennis through a table in the corner of the ring mere minutes after suplexing him onto the steel ring steps in the middle of the ring.

Fourth up came the highly anticipated rematch of the NXT UK Women’s Title finals. Toni Storm, coming off the best year in her career as she became the inaugural PROGRESS Women’s Champion and winning the second Mae Young Classic, had been a bit absent on NXT UK TV in recent weeks. But the New Zealand native could not stomach the idea of missing out on this historic event, choosing to cash in her opportunity at the Women’s Title of her choice by challenging Rhea Ripley for her title.

In typical European fashion, there was a slow build to the frenetic pace of the finish where Toni Storm kicked out of the Riptide, marking her as the first of any competitor in NXT UK to do so. Storm then executed two Storm Zeroes following a series of hellish headbutts to become the new NXT UK Women’s Champion.

The main event saw Gallus leader Joe Coffey attempt to end the over 600-day reign of British Strong Style leader and WWE UK Champion Pete Dunne. After an extended sequence of submission attempts and reversals, Coffey jettisoned Dunne out of the ring, leading to a standing backsault from the ring steps over Coffey, to then be caught and driven into the ramp. Coffey garnered momentum, ragdolling Dunne across the ring before catching him in a sidewalk slam for a near fall. Dunne and Coffey traded control of the match for several moments, leading Coffey to put Dunne into a Boston Crab while repeatedly stomping on Dunne’s skull. Dunne momentarily broke the hold by finger tipping the bottom rope, leading into an admittedly ridiculous looking series of headbutts to the neck from both wrestlers.

The NXT UK Universe got heavily involved in the match, creating a wall of sound when Coffey kicked out of the Bitter End at two and three quarters. Dunne was then powerbombed onto the edge of the ring where steel meets wood, leading to a near count out of both competitors. Then there was a hellish bump from the top rope where Dunne had Coffey tied up in a standing clover leaf. Seeming to catch a second, er, probably seventh wind, both Dunne and Coffey came to face to face in the center of the ring before unloading on each other with a series of right hands.

A match that has already entered the conversation of 2019’s match of the year continued with Dunne reversing his own finisher into a piledriver, but unable to capitalize for a cover before Coffey rolled away. Coffey seemed to be setting up for a superplex of his own when, taking a moment to gloat over the status of his kingdom, he was jettisoned from the top rope into the barricade onto the floor.

Almost immediately following was the seventh near fall of the match, leading to Coffey again climbing to the top rope, followed in short order by Dunne, who brought both men out of the ring and onto the floor. They then both rolled back in to continue. Dunne then delivered a devastating forearm and Bitter End for the eighth near fall. Finally, Dunne rolled into a sitting wristlock and forced Coffey to tap out.

Dunne was stopped short in his celebration when Walter (a new, high-profile signing of NXT UK) arrived. Walter silently marched to the ring, delivered a superkick to the unassuming Coffey and stared down at the current WWE UK Champion.