WWE UK Championship Tournament

[hammerva]

Well Dunne is well known by indie fans especially since he has gotten some work in PWG. You would think people would have heard of Mark Andrews since he worked in TNA for about 1 1/2 years but again it is TNA

 

Man that was a really fun match.

[rzombie1988]

Couldn't watch all of it but the final looked pretty good.

[Coffey]

What a tremendous, amazing & entertaining show. WWE took 16 people that I didn't know anything about and over the course of two days, made me care about who won & who lost, made me buy into false finishes & made me care about the storyline(s) of the tournament. Michael Cole was great. Dunne and Bate were great. Just good, old fashioned professional wrestling.

 

2017 has been awesome for being a wrestling fan so far.

[stro]

Impact only gets like 150K viewers per show. Xplosion doesn't even air in the US. Shouldn't be surprising people who don't actively follow the British scene or indies in general would have no idea who Mark Andrews is.

[KawadaSmile]

A 19 and a 23 year old just wrestled in the finals in a WWE produced show and both looked fucking great doing it.

Bate is going to be top tier material, really.

[stro]

Night 2 was certainly much better, but definitely not a great show by any means. I was very distracted by every match on the show having a momentum swinging spot on the floor in the first 2-3 minutes. Every match. Pacing and timing wise, they were almost all identical in lay out, just with the specific moves being different based on who was in the ring. Seemed like a really big oversight for EVERY match to be structured that way.

 

While initially modestly impressed with Dunne on night 1, I've now completely had my fill and don't need to see him again. Felt like I saw everything he could do and it was old hat by the second time I saw him. Impossible to take him seriously as this bad ass when he's petrified of old, retired, post-neck surgery Regal and has such a baby face full of acne. At the same time, I feel like he does the villain thing 1000% better than Marty Scurll, at least. You can't hype Mark Andrews up as this incredible high flyer and this his biggest high spot is a standing moonsault off the apron, which is then followed by a match where a 250 pound guy is doing moonsaults and swantons and his flips are more impressive.

 

End/Neville was a nice surprise, but then it was weird that Neville basically ate Tommy alive and had better looking strikes when Tommy is known specifically for his strikes. I'm not sure it did Tommy a lot of good to debut in a match where he got some offense, but mostly got easily handled.

 

Tyler Bate is dope. At 19, as good as he is, he's got a great future ahead of him. But he's TINY. Balor towered over him, and Balor is tiny himself. Coming out of this, Tyler Bate is the only guy I want to see more of. I never want to see Jordan Devlin or Trent Seven again in my life. The group they had is definitely not good enough for a weekly program right now.

 

Easily the worst part of the weekend was WWE encouraging and endorsing WE DESERVE IT chants.

[rzombie1988]

.

Tyler Bate is dope. At 19, as good as he is, he's got a great future ahead of him. But he's TINY. Balor towered over him, and Balor is tiny himself. Coming out of this, Tyler Bate is the only guy I want to see more of. I never want to see Jordan Devlin or Trent Seven again in my life. The group they had is definitely not good enough for a weekly program right now.

 

 

 

Agreed, Devlin legitimately looks like a 5 year old with a beard. Legit hope I never see him again.

 

I have no idea how they make a weekly show out of this group. That's going to be some slim pickings.

[stro]

 

.

Tyler Bate is dope. At 19, as good as he is, he's got a great future ahead of him. But he's TINY. Balor towered over him, and Balor is tiny himself. Coming out of this, Tyler Bate is the only guy I want to see more of. I never want to see Jordan Devlin or Trent Seven again in my life. The group they had is definitely not good enough for a weekly program right now.

 

 

Agreed, Devlin legitimately looks like a 5 year old with a beard. Legit hope I never see him again.

 

I have no idea how they make a weekly show out of this group. That's going to be some slim pickings.

 

 

Not to mention that he is everything bad about Balor but less interesting and with less polish.

[The Chief]

I enjoyed this tremendously. Pete Dunne looks like a skeevy shithead who would sell you crappy weed out of his 1998 Saturn. I enjoyed all of his performance and look forward to seeing more from him.

 

In the past 12 months we've seen Shinsuke Nakamura, AJ Styles, Chris Hero, Roddy Strong, Kota Ibushi, Austin Aries, Bill Goldberg, Zack Sabre Jr and Tajiri all wrestle on WWE Television. It's pretty surreal.

[Grimmas]

I thought the tournament was really good. Slow start, but it was set up for a great run. Dunne's semi and finals were both really great matches.

[Johnny Sorrow]

It's hilarious hearing Nigel being awesome on commentary after years of ROH Nigel where he clearly was hating life.

[Johnny Sorrow]

The Jesus stuff from the crowd during Saxton vs Gradwell was legit fantastic.

"Hey, Jesus..Ooh! Ahh! I wanna knooooow...will you be my God"

👍 Tremendous.

[WingedEagle]

Commentary was absolutely tremendous. Not that the words coming from his mouth didn't merit worst announcer votes all those years in the Observer awards, but Michael Cole calling wrestling rather than what's fed through his earpiece is terrific. Nigel was also phenomenal and hopefully there's a permanent spot in his future on NXT or Smackdown.

[stro]

I didn't think Cole was any better or worse than he normally is, but he's had this thing going back to the Tazz and Cole days of his version of "big match" calls being something like: Spot happens, "if you notice, X is holding his Y" type of John Madden obviousness that you'd literally have to be not watching not to notice. It's very distracting to me.

 

I don't recall anything about Nigel besides him saying Trent Seven got the Rainmaker from him.

[Cap]

I liked the show quite a bit. It was a nice little treat this weekend.

 

Night one was - as everyone has said - slow, but it did some of the groundwork stuff that made night two a lot better.

 

I wasn't a fan of Devlin, but he was the only guy that I sort of actively didn't care for. On the other hand I came away really liking Bate, Wolfgang, and Dunne. Bate's potential is so obvious, despite his size. Wolfgang was such an oddly endearing part of the tourney. He is big and athletic, but still comes across as more or less a wrestling fan that is kind of an underdog up against these more obviously athletic conventional guys. I really enjoyed him and glad he made it to the semis. Dunne had some really solid matches and was - to me - the most stand out from the gun. Everyone in the middle is someone I would be interested to see again. I was only really familiar with Burch and Andrews before. Seven didn't stand out as much as I thought he would, but I would like to see him again all the same.

 

I am probably bias on the commentary team. Cole seemed fine to me night one and then I read people talking about how he was better and he did seem a little happier, like he was having more fun than normal, but I may have been biased. I thought Nigel was really good for the most part, but I love me some Nigel. He misidentified some things a few times I believe that bothered me a little, but I generally thought he was charismatic and a net positive for the show.

 

Dunne's character work was sort of central to the weekend and isn't perfect, but it is on the right path. He reminds me a lot of a few arrogant shit-birds I went to school with that would just as soon punch you in the mouth than look at you. Him ducking and running from Regal didn't bother me at all. Regal is bigger, older, has a reputation, and always came at him fast. Dunne's gimmick is two fold. First and foremost he is a bully. Bully's (at least as a meaningful character in a story) are scared deep down and fold when confronted sometimes, especially if they are surprised. Second, he is tough, gritty, but young and dumb. He is unpredictable and dangerous, but not quite wise enough to maximize his skills. Sure, Dunne cowered away from Regal but he did well to level off and just smirk at him when Regal wasn't rushing him. He responds differently when he is controlling the situation and when others are controlling it and that is classic young bully stuff. He can go out threaten Regal, but he doesn't want any part of a fight one on one, because he is William Fucking Regal. Even if we know he can take Regal at this point and regal knows that, Dunne's a young bully who's entire personality is tied up in the tension between scared and fearless. His is a persona that has lots of room to logically grow.

 

End coming out was a markout moment, but I do wish that match was more competitive.

 

In all, and this was said a few posts back, it was just a nice little piece of old school wrestling. We were introduced to a lot of new guys and by the end of night two I was hooked in and the wins and loses mattered. They clearly have a lot of room to grow in terms of the characters being played and the story lines, but they left me wanting more.

[fakeplastictrees]

Over/Under on a Peter Gabriel lawsuit occurring? Surely, I am not the only person who hears "Sledgehammer" when listening to Tyler Bate's theme? If/When this actually becomes a show--I will 'pop in' on episodes. With Raw, Smackdown, NXT, 205, PPV, and NXT Takeover events--I do not know if I can honestly add anymore WWE into my life. With other wrestling promos and 'true' combat sports--its going to be a headache trying to fit this into the schedule.

[JNLister]

In case you didn't know, Sledgehammer is Bate's usual music on shows with less concern about rights issues. They didn't do a bad job all weekend picking/making generic music that captured the tone of the wrestler's "real" music.

[Coffey]

I'm surprised with as big as WWE is that they don't do more with music. Some of those old themes, either written by Johnson (I think that is his name) or Jimmy Hart, were pretty over & still inspire some nostalgia.

 

WWE have some bands that do some themes for some of the talent. But why do they not have more original music that they make & compose for their wrestlers that aren't just instrumental? Like, Samoa Joe's theme song, for example, is terrible. And, to me, it really takes away from his aura when he's coming out to what sounds like free domain music off of YouTube.

 

The best thing that ever happened to Mark Henry was getting the Three Six Mafia theme.

[Jimmy Redman]

I don't really know what you mean, CFO$ are awesome and generally all new themes are really good.

 

And like someone said, for this tourney they just tended to make versions of their existing themes or generic stuff, like the CWC, they're not necessarily going to keep those tunes permanently long term.

[Alucard]

I'm surprised with as big as WWE is that they don't do more with music. Some of those old themes, either written by Johnson (I think that is his name) or Jimmy Hart, were pretty over & still inspire some nostalgia.

 

WWE have some bands that do some themes for some of the talent. But why do they not have more original music that they make & compose for their wrestlers that aren't just instrumental? Like, Samoa Joe's theme song, for example, is terrible. And, to me, it really takes away from his aura when he's coming out to what sounds like free domain music off of YouTube.

 

The best thing that ever happened to Mark Henry was getting the Three Six Mafia theme.

 

Agreed. I miss the early 2000s way of some guys having themes from somewhat mainstream bands. Had some killer PPV themes then too.

[Ricky Jackson]

I thoroughly enjoyed the tournament. Some great talents, especially Pete Dunne, and a great crowd. Really well done

[stro]

 

I'm surprised with as big as WWE is that they don't do more with music. Some of those old themes, either written by Johnson (I think that is his name) or Jimmy Hart, were pretty over & still inspire some nostalgia.

 

WWE have some bands that do some themes for some of the talent. But why do they not have more original music that they make & compose for their wrestlers that aren't just instrumental? Like, Samoa Joe's theme song, for example, is terrible. And, to me, it really takes away from his aura when he's coming out to what sounds like free domain music off of YouTube.

 

The best thing that ever happened to Mark Henry was getting the Three Six Mafia theme.

 

Agreed. I miss the early 2000s way of some guys having themes from somewhat mainstream bands. Had some killer PPV themes then too.

 

 

Surely people aren't nostalgic for the days of Downing Pool and Saliva?

[ButchReedMark]

Yeah, the WWE RAWK MUSIC era of themes was fucking dire.

[Cap]

Yeah... those were dark times.

 

 

Maybe it is generational, but I have generally preferred entrance music that doesn't have vocals. There are a few exceptions to that rule, especially in the indys where it is a free for all, but not a ton.

[Parties]

Day One: Trent Seven-H.C. Dyer was a spirited opener. At first I thought Seven a little goofy for my taste in a way that I’d compare to Marty Skuril, but he had nice chops and lariats, and cool selling that I’d compare to Jim Duggan or someone in that ballpark. Jordan Devlin-Danny Burch had the wrong winner. Burch clearly outclassed Devlin the whole time and looks to have everything WWE would want with the clear exception of height. Very kinetic, exciting guy in-ring though. Two matches in this tournament feels like a 1993 episode of RAW in the best way possible, and give this crowd credit for coming out fired up. Saxon Huxley-Sam Gradwell didn’t hold my attention: an embryo vs. a Brendan Fraser character without much action. Roy Johnson-Pete Dunne was solid, after Dunne hadn’t impressed me in the couple matches of his I’d previously seen. Johnson had at least one nice power suplex, and Dunne’s got heel heat and a mastery of his character. Tyson T-Bone-Wolfgang was interesting. T-Bone’s punches sucked, but Wolfgang could really move and had a throwback vibe like some Scottish version of an ECW Pitbull. I’m pleasantly surprised that rather than just being a CWC redux, this is a tournament of bruisers. Joseph Conners-James Drake was the least interesting match of Day 1. Two identical looking guys doing a derivative Adam Cole 2X match that you could see in a number of American companies. Mark Andrews-Dan Moloney was a one-sided showcase for Andrews’ highspots, but I think it’s good to have at least one squash on shows like this. Plus his moves look cool and he’s over. Tyler Bate-Tucker was quite fun and the best match of the day: good to have one of these go long. Bate was the most impressive guy of the first round: clear star potential at age 19, and a throwback in an appealing way (albeit one with a sick Tiger Driver).

 

Day Two: Dunne-Gradwell saw both looking better than they did on Day 1, but this was still rightly a one-sided rout. Andrews-Conners put into perspective how small Andrews is: he felt like more of a goof here than he had the day prior. This improved as they went on, but I won’t be disappointed to see either guy exit the tournament. Seven-Wolfgang got it done. Wolfgang’s moonsault off the barricade was dumb/awesome, and I didn’t like Seven immediately shaking it off to hit a tope, but the ending was pretty savage and pleasantly surprising. Bate-Devlin felt quick and decisive, but Bate’s intensity and acclaim with the audience is the story of the tournament so far. Andrews-Dunne was the best either guy has looked thus far: Dunne has to sell more (and is excellent at it), while Andrews uses his flight as a projectile rather than breakdancing prior matches. Some of the highspots are overkill, and it seems odd to think you could catch an opponent mid-shooting star press while lying on your back, but there it is. Bate-Wolfgang is a cool pairing: early on Wolfgang’s chops and slams stood out, and the finish was great work from each. Neville-End was a very good showing for both: Neville’s shown he can wrestle like a heel, while End’s big dives and character moments got him over. Dunne-Bate was a tremendous conclusion, in which they paid off the heel’s injury angle while still allowing for a competitive match where the face shows grit. What a straight jab from Bate, and a hell of a finish. This is how you create a star (or maybe even two or three) in two days. I would much rather watch a show of these guys than the current Cruiserweight division. Would also agree that the Nigel/Cole team was very good, and that Cole hasn't sounded so motivated in years.

 

Best matches of the tournament:

1. Bate vs. Dunne (Final)
2. Bate vs. Tucker (Opening Round)
3. Bate vs. Wolfgang (Semi-Final)
4. Neville vs. End (Special Attraction)
5. Dunne vs. Andrews (Semi-Final)
6. Wolfgang vs. Seven (Quarter-Final)
7. Seven vs. Dyer (Opening Round)
8. Devlin vs. Burch (Opening Round)