NXT UK recap for May 29, 2019: Season Finales and New Beginnings

Imperium-ism

Opening the episode are the now-three biggest heels on the entire NXT UK brand. Yep, move aside, Gallus. Hit the bricks, Jordan Devlin. Slower traffic to the right, Grizzled Young Veterans. This territory now belongs to the New WALTER Order. Or should we say — yes we should, it’s officially their name — to Imperium.

In their almost-matching black jackets — Aichner and Barthel should consider upgrading to white lapels or nicknames on the backs of theirs — they take the ring to make a menacing, philosophical statement. Well, they try to at first, as with every exaggerated movement Marcel Barthel makes to speak, the crowd loudly boos or chants, “we want Dunne.” Once he does get the chance to speak though, it’s about what you’d expect given his and Fabian Aichner’s recent history: Wrestling, but make it fascism. Talk of leading us to a “better” NXT UK, of restoring honor to their professional sport, of being the new leaders — sorry GYV — the ones who truly hold the power.

Aichner takes over to say that Pete Dunne has taken the brand as far as he can, that British Strong Style’s time has expired, and re-asserts that they three in the ring are the only ones who can lead NXT UK in the right direction. Everyone else will fall in line, because they won’t get to choose whether or not they will.

Then WALTER takes the mic and you go, “Oh yeah, in this context, all his earlier promos really do line up with this ideology,” as the United Kingdom Champion declares the mat to be sacred and that we here at FanSided specifically need to come up with some new fake nicknames, because it’s not the Wrestlefascists nor the New WALTER Order, it’s Imperium.

Storming out to defend their honor comes Dunne, closely followed by Moustache Mountain. British Strong Style, back together again. They rush the ring and Imperium does not back down. It’s a brawl to end all brawls! Absolute anarchy! Bonkers battling! Complete chaos! Diabolical destruction! And so on.

At least, that’s what we’re led to believe, because fairly early on a “cameraman” takes a “spill,” causing his feed to “cut out,” triggering a “major technical malfunction,” meaning that instead of seeing the greatest fight in WWE history, we see an ad for the new season of Ride Along. When the show comes back, Vic and Nigel are like “CAN YOU EVEN BELIEVE THAT?” Radzy interviews Sid Scala backstage and is practically weeping over how to resolve the unmitigated carnage that just occurred in the ring.

It’s a truly bizarre creative decision to make, trying to make us believe that an epic fight occurred by having so-so actors tell us it did, rather than just showing us one between four of your top stars, and also Aichner and Barthel. At any rate, we’ll still be getting what should be a certified banger of a six-man tag out of it. British Strong Style versus Imperium, in two weeks!