Welp safe to say that Sunday and Monday will be dedicated to watching NJPW Royal Quest and AEW's All Out Show. When it comes to UK Takeover: Cardiff I was so happy with damn Show and people better invest in watching NXT UK Weekly like I am every week so you enjoy it further after this Show.
Dar/Banks. Truly a thrown together Match outside of Dar talking shit on Twitter, and it had me liking Dar way more than Banks. It's funny how the commentating crew talked about how Banks never really was able to perform for the NXT UK Crowd and this was his really first shot. Welp he got that chance and I was highly disappointed in him during this Match. Not to say the guys weren't working hard out there, just felt Banks didn't come to play like he should have in such a moment. It makes me wonder does WWE have any plans seriously to push Banks on the Brand, because when he loss I was first chuckling my ass off, and then wondering is Banks just a good hand guy rather than a seriously contender for anything with them.
Cesaro/Ilja Dragunov. Even though I would of loved to see Cesaro come out first and then Ilja as his opponent I loved this Match. Hard hitting and competitive match where Cesaro came of like a complete star and Dragunov lost nothing in the loss. That is how you showcase two talents and both come off looking great going forward. The 40 Swing Rotation and Running Uppercut from Cesaro in this Match was beautiful and some of my favorite spots from this one.
NXT UK Tag Title Match. Easily the best thing from the Takeover Show by this point. Don't let WWE fool you into thinking this was some grand plan, because Mandrews and Webster have barely tagged on TV Shows, and after this Match they might be kicking themselves as to why we didn't push this Team sooner. This was really great overall, with Mark Andrews & Flash Morgan Webster being great babyfaces, and the crowd being really into their possible title win and reacting huge to them finally overcoming and winning. There were some really great teases and near falls down the stretch and the title change was the right call. Gallus were fine here as the bullies, but were really the afterthought in the match. But this actually came off much better than I had anticipated. Hopefully, we get a Grizzled Young Veterans vs. new champions match soon.
Last Man Standing Match: Mastiff vs. Joe Coffey. Going into this Match I wasn't high at all for Mastiff. I just don't see anything special about him, but the guy turned me around after this one. Joe Coffey on the other hand I believe is fantastic and I would love to see him win the big one down the road. I wanna know though the Turnbuckle breaking apart, a spot planned or did it really happen on accident? Oh well still the guys were able to recover from that and had a fun brawl because of it. The hate between these two were felt going back Months in the making and both guys did their thing here with the right guy winning.
UK Women’s Title Match. I gotta say I was disappointed in this Match greatly and it sucks because I've seen these two have a knock out, drag out type of Match and I didn't get that feeling here at all. Maybe it's due to them thinking too much out there or what, but that isn't the type of performance I expected to see. KLR winning though it was needed, Storm has held that Title for quite awhile and it needed to be reset I feel. I don't know who will stop her maybe Tegan Nox or maybe Xia Brookside down the road who knows. I don't think Storm is done with KLR though just yet.
WALTER vs Bate. 45 minutes of perfection. I might need to see their Match in Progress again[and get back into it in general]but damn this was so good. They had a great angle coming into this match, and just kept it simple to play off of that. They did callbacks to the Bate injury angle, WALTER was the perfect bully bate an equally amazing resilient babyfaces. Bate with odes to Dunne & Seven, who WALTER brutalized and beat, were beautiful little touches that really added to the story and match as a whole. The work was absolutely top notch, the drama spectacular, and the crowd was amazing and added a ton to this. The closing stretch was scintillating, dramatic, and really out it over the top for me. This was everything I wanted and more as they delivered a certified MOTY contender I feel.
Tyler Bate gotta be the strongest wrestler of all time fuck it, I'm making that call right now. That performance was just insane, I really thought he was winning when he just kept coming back and I wasn't even gonna be mad bc that was the best superman performance in all of fuckin' wrestling history. I thought WALTER would win going into it, but holy shit Bate came out of that match looking better than anyone. That may have been the match of the year so far, too early for me to make that call right now as I just finished it but as of right now i'm still just blown away by what I watched.