WWE NXT UK recap for April 17, 2019: Tales from Axxess

A win is a win

Attempting to prove that the NXT UK Tag Team titles are “ssssssssoon” to be recognized as the most important in all of WWE, Grizzled Young Veterans get themselves counted out in the main event after declining to even put the titles on the line in the first place. Zack Gibson and James Drake clearly view Kenny Williams and Amir Jordan as unworthy challengers. Before the match even starts, Gibson is yelling about how a non-title match 4,000 miles from home is the closest Williams and Jordan will ever get to the titles. To the champs, this is nothing more than “an exhibition.”

Or so they have to keep telling themselves, because both Gibson and Drake get flustered throughout like teenage boys doing poorly at a video game. Drake in particular nearly has a conniption on multiple occasions, and needs Gibson — that guy we keep making fun of for yelling all the time— to keep him from making any costly, emotionally-driven mistakes. But, the momentum of the winning streak cannot be denied. Even with the Grizzled Young Veterans firmly in control the majority of the time, it feels like Williams and Jordan are never more than a few moves away extending their victorious ways.

They simply do not quit. While Williams is caught in a headlock for what feels like forever, Jordan is losing his mind begging for a tag, stomping on the apron, getting the crowd to chant “Kenny.” Williams breaks free for a few seconds, during which he’s able to knock Gibson off the apron, which is where the match finally turns. Drake wants to tag his partner in, except he’s down on the outside, grasping his busted-up ear. His absence distracts Drake long enough for Williams to make the 451-degrees Fahrenheit (233 Celsius) hot tag to Jordan.

Eventually, it’s the challengers hitting Drake with a wheelbarrow facebuster into a huge swanton bomb that would have been for a three-count, if Gibson didn’t pull Drake out of the ring at the last second. And then the champs up and leave. Drake starts to move like he’s going to blast back into the ring, but Gibson grabs his arm, preventing him. Your self-proclaimed “most important” champs in all of WWE get themselves counted out like cowards. They got shook. Four-thousand miles from home and they still can’t escape the merciless boos, the chants of “If you hate Gibson, shoes off,” the fear that they actually aren’t as good together as they think.

Meanwhile, in only a short amount of time as a pair, Williams and Jordan have become a legit tag team that is easy and fun to root for. Sure, it was a count-out victory, but “count-out” still has the word “count” in it, so you better believe this one counts. The winning streak continues. Get these men their title shot already.

(Extra note that can’t really go anywhere else: Nigel mentions a Williams chop being 1.21 gigawatts, but doesn’t get to finish the thought due to the flow of the match. But, Kenny Williams does have a Marty McFly in Back to the Future Part II — except he’s also the character 3-D from the first movie — vibe. Meanwhile, KUSHIDA just joined NXT, and also has his whole Back to the Future thing going on. Jordan is great, but we may need to break this streaking team up so Williams and KUSHIDA can become: Marty and Marty, The Hoverboard Experience. That is all. Moving on).