WWE NXT UK recap for April 24, 2019: Tales from Axxess, Pt. 2

Future developments

A few developments occurred outside the ring this week in service of setting up future events, so let’s quickly run them down.

Most immediately, all of Jordan Devlin’s talk over not caring about a Dunne-WALTER rematch and how he deserves to be in the title picture pays off … almost. It’ll be The Irish Ace versus The Ring General next week, at Axxess, in a non-title match.

Now obviously, a win over WALTER would be enormous for Devlin’s stock in NXT UK, but the fact that the match is taking place outside of space-and-time and without the title on the line is disappointing. Devlin seems to be teetering between face and heel with his recent promos, coming across as legitimately deserving of a title shot while still saying he doesn’t care much about the fans or anyone but himself. Also, Devlin is so much smaller than WALTER that he can’t help but be the underdog, so that should be an interesting dynamic next week.

Piper Niven is approached to give further thoughts on Rhea Ripley. She calls Ripley a bully and says she has no time for bullies. Unlike when Xia Brookside called Ripley a bully and we were like “Xia WYD,” it works in this case as it’s entirely believable that Niven can beat Ripley down. Still, it’s kind of strange that they (various NXT UK personalities) keep selling Niven’s run thus far on the brand as “incredibly impressive” when she’s had exactly one match. Not to say that Niven isn’t or won’t be awesome, just slow that roll a bit.

Fabian Aichner and Marcel Barthel cut a promo on how Axxess is dumb because there are opportunities for fans to buy replica title belts and to take photos pretending they are in an actual wrestling ring. This is a serious affront to the Wrestlefascists, because to them of course, the mat is sacred. These guys need to relax.

The Hunt continues. Remember The Hunt? They only re-debuted a few weeks ago, and now they’re set to come back again. Glad to see they weren’t let go. Tag teams!

And speaking of tag teams, Grizzled Young Veterans — the stupendous, most wonderful locker room leaders ever — throw the gear of Kenny Williams and Amir Jordan into the hall. They think Williams and Jordan — who again, are on a several match winning streak, including beating GYV just last week — aren’t deserving of changing with all the other “real” wrestlers, or something. These two are delusional. They love acting like people respect us as leaders when literally no one has been shown on camera respecting them ever. Give Williams and Jordan their title shot, cowards! If you hate Gibson, shoes off.

That’ll do it. We’ve got one more week of these Axxess shows to go before NXT UK is back to being a normal pre-taped wrestling show. Hit those comments down below to let us know your thoughts on anything that happened this week, but especially if you know how Ligero breathes in that mask.