Event: WWE NXT as part of Insomnia 63
Location: Birmingham NEC, The NEC Birmingham, Hall 11, Birmingham, West Midlands B40 1NT
Back before children, in the days when Mr Trips and I could drop everything and go out when we fancied, having alcoholic drinks without worrying about our heads the next day, we would go to wrestling shows in Wolverhampton, as my dear hubby was (and still is!) a huge fan. It was there that I first came across the names of Trent Seven, Tyler Bate, Pete Dunne, Dan Moloney and Dave Mastiff. Well all this came flooding back when we were invited along to review WWE NXT UK at Birmingham NEC.
Naturally my husband was very excited by this, so my amazing mother-in-law came over to look after the girls and we made sure we got there in plenty of time to find our seats and get a couple of (reasonably priced) drinks before the action started.
Mr Trips still goes to the shows in Wolverhampton when he can, so spent the drive and the wait for first bell (thats wrestling speak for the start of the first match) filling me in on the careers of the wrestlers we used to see and how they had moved up from wrestling in nightclubs in Wolverhampton to working for the biggest wrestling company in the world.
When we got to the hall where it was held, I was a bit taken aback. With the lights up and the crowd dispersed around the merchandise stands and the food and drink stalls, it was a little bit underwhelming, a ring and some seats….
but when the lights drop and the enthusiastic fans take to their seats and the music kicks in, the lights whirl and the announcer gets the crowd going, it soon feels like a big deal and you realise how great the set up actually is.
We had tickets for the final night in Birmingham, where the focus of the event was the finals of the UK NXT Womens champion. Scheduled ahead of us we had two semi finals between Rhea Ripley vs Dakota Kai and Jinny vs Toni Storm.
In fact the first match was the first semi-final. Dakatoa Kai took to the stage and bounced down to the ring to huge cheers, a massive smile on her face, high-fiving fans all the way down. Rhea Ripley was out next, a very confident smirk on her face as she eyed up the sparkly new championship belt at the top of the ramp before heading down to the ring, ignoring any fans reaching out for high-fives. She’s a bad guy or a “heel” as my husband informs me, whilst Dakota was a good guy or “face”. I can’t pretend to know lots about wrestling moves or techniques, but I was so impressed with the ladies in the ring, with their athleticism and skill in working with each other, and the crowd, to produce a great atmosphere and reaction. At the end of the match, Rhea Ripley was announced the winner and progressed to the final.
I can’t pretend to know lots about wrestling moves or techniques, but I was so impressed with the ladies in the ring, with their athleticism and skill in working with each other, and the crowd, to produce a great atmosphere and reaction. At the end of the match, Rhea Ripley was announced the winner and progressed to the final.
We were there from 7pm to 10:30pm and there were twelve matches in total. This was a taping for the NXT UK TV show, so there was no break or interval and the matches came thick and fast. We had singles matches between Dave Mastiff and Tyson T-Bone, two huge men. We cheered loudly for Dave Mastiff as he’s from the local area my husband grew up in.
My favourite of the evening was Amir Jordan who was part of a tag-team with Kenny Williams. Amir came out to some remixed traditional indian music and danced down to the ring with a huge smile on his face, the crowd really getting into it with him. Sadly he and Kenny lost to Zack Gibson and James Drake who were boo’ed to the rafters by the crowd. Local lad Dan Moloney took on El Ligero. My husband tells me that Dan has only just come back from a severe shoulder injury that should have kept him out for longer, but looking at him that night, it didn’t look like he had any problems with his fitness at all.
The night previous there had been the quarter finals for the Womens NXT UK Championship, and tonight we had a tag team match involving the unsuccessful wrestlers from those matches. Xia Brookside from Liverpool teamed up with Coventry’s Millie McKenzie, combined age, just 37! Xia is 19 and Millie turned 18 this year. They were up against Charlie Morgan and Portuguese wrestler, Killer Kelly. Being a local girl and having worked and trained in the local independent promotions meant that Millie got a huge reaction from the crowd, and soon shouts of “Suplex her Millie” (a suplex is a wrestling move, and what Millie is known for, I am informed) rang out around the ring. Millie and Xia overcame the mean looking Kelly and Charlie and celebrated with the fans on their way back to the back
Another local wrestler is Pete Dunne, the UK Champion who is from Chelmsley Wood (just round the corner from the NEC). He was in action against Irish wrestler Jordan Devlin. Again, I don’t know much about the moves, but this match had the crowd on the edge of their seats, everybody standing to see the breathtaking moves that on some occasions bought them crashing to the outside of the ring, a fall of some 5 feet or so, which looked like it would really hurt when they were landing flat on their backs or heads. I may have yelped for them a few times. Pete Dunne eventually beat Jordan Devlin, in what my husband says was the best match of the night.
The second womens semi-final was between the dastardly Jinny and the huge fan-favourite Toni Storm. The crowd aimed lots of good-natured teasing at Jinny who wore an expression like she would rather be anywhere else than in front of these people. Toni is a larger than life character that bounds to the ring, full of confidence and vigour. Toni was victorious over Jinny giving us a final of Rhea Ripley vs Toni Storm for our last match of the night.
Before the final we had another hugely popular local wrestler to see: Tyler Bate. Tyler is from Dudley and wears the Black Country flag proudly on his trunks. He got a HUGE reaction from the crowd. They obviously love him and it is easy to see why. He was up against Joe Coffey, a terrifyingly huge man from Scotland who was accompanied to the ring by his brother Mark and their friend Wolfgang. Tyler isn’t a big guy, only around 5 foot 6 but he is SO strong, lifting his much larger opponent onto his back to spin him around, much to the delight of the fans. When it looked like Tyler was about to win the match, Mark and Wolfgang jumped into the ring to break it up and Tyler won by disqualification. However this meant he was on his own against these three, until his friends Trent Seven and Pete Dunne came shooting down the entrance ramp to help him out, and fought them off. This apparently sets up a big match for another taping, with the Coffey brothers and Wolfgang vs Tyler, Trent and Pete who are collectively known as British Strong Style. This match got Mr Trips very excited as he is huge fans of all three guys from the Midlands, having followed their careers for a number of years now.
Last match of the evening was Toni Storm Vs Rhea Ripley.
As this match hasn’t aired on TV yet, I won’t go into the results as they could be construed as spoilers for people who may wish to wait until it is on the WWE Network. What I can say is that by this time, I was fully invested in the outcome and was on the edge of my chair watching the amazing athletes in the ring as they fought for the big prize promised to them.
The night ended with all of the wrestlers coming out to the ramp to show respect to the winner as she collected her new championship belt. The belt was presented by one of the biggest superstars that WWE have ever produced, Triple H, who had made the journey over from the states to oversee the tour.
All in all, WWE do the best family friendly wrestling on the planet. Mr Trips and I had a great time, and will be looking to see if we can see ourselves when these matches get shown on TV. Here’s our only selfie of the night – with an instagram filter of cat ears. Ha!
Here’s our only selfie of the night – with an instagram filter of cat ears. Ha!
If you have any wrestling fans in the family and you get the chance to see WWE on any of their tours or shows here in the UK I would strongly recommend it.
There were quite a few children around the age of 7-12 in the audience and it was nice to see that the audience respected this and didn’t shout obscenities or act inappropriately.
For those who follow my social media accounts you will have seen that I had a competition to win two tickets to the show. My competition winner kindly sent me a photo of himself meeting Toni Storm outside, after the show. Definitely a happy winner.
So please do make sure you enter my competitions. There are plenty more due to be announced over the next couple of weeks, including BBC Winter Good Food Show, Grand Designs Live and a few more.
Disclaimer: We were gifted tickets in return for an honest review.