The best of both worlds come a head, as NXT and NXT UK face off at WWE Worlds Collide. The four men who own the yard on NXT American side, NXT Champion Adam Cole, Bobby Fish, Kyle O’Reilly & Roderick Strong, collectively known as The Undisputed Era face off against the soldiers of NXT UK’s most dangerous faction IMPERIUM, consisting of Alexander Wolfe, Fabian Aichner, Marcel Barthel and the Ring General, NXT UK’s Champion, WALTER. The NXT Championship currently held by Rhea Ripley will also be defended, as she faces off against long time friend and foe, Toni Storm. NXT Cruiserweight Champion, Angel Garza, will also be defending his title, but he will be facing three opponents from NXT and NXT UK, as Garza defends against Isaiah
“Swerve” Scott, “The Kiwi Buzzsaw” Travis Banksand “The Irish Ace” Jordan Devlin. Rounding out the card is a dream tag team match between NXT’s #DIY (Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa) and NXT UK’s Moustache Mountain (Tyler Bate & Trent Seven), and Finn Balor facing off against Ilja Dragunov.
+ The Undisputed Era (Adam Cole, Roderick Strong, Kyle O’Reilly & Bobby Fish) vs IMPERIUM (WALTER, Alexander Wolfe, Gabian Aichner & Marcel Barthel): I don’t think you all understand how much I love seeing WALTER slap the soul of someone’s body on live TV. Wolfe got rocked early by a wayward kick and was taken out of the match, but the remaining three IMPERIUM soldiers didn’t miss a beat. Surprisingly, the crowd was split between the UE and WALTER, and that made for an incredible atmosphere. O’Reilly is one of the best in the world, and he manages to shine even brighter than the beloved Adam Cole. This was a great main event, leaving aside the unfortunate Wolfe situation
+ #DIY (Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa) vs Moustache Mountain (Tyler Bate & Trent Seven): despite seemingly being very choreographed, mostly in terms of ‘mirror’ spots or callbacks to the past, this was still pretty damned good. I loved that Ciampa was not entirely back to his old self, and instead incorporated his new, rougher character. Gargano has not missed a step in these big matches, and both those Moustache Mountain boys are great when they are together. This was full of back and forth moments, and it was never entirely clear who was going to come out on top
+ Angel Garza (c) vs Isaiah “Swerve” Scott Jordan Devlin vs Travis Banks (NXT Cruiserweight Championship): this was great. All four guys are good in different kinds of ways, with Devlin and Garza in particular being the standouts. I like Banks, and I would say he is underrated in the new wave of ‘everybody is a good wrestler’ that we are, happily, in the middle of. Swerve was the real disappointment here, but I’m not sure if that was by design or otherwise. This didn’t feel like a standard WWE four way, and that made for a great showing
– Rhea Ripley (c) vs Toni Storm (NXT Championship): I don’t know what happened here, but this was not good. Neither woman looked entirely comfortable, and either through accident or poor acting, Rhea looked out of it at several points. I like both these women, but this wasn’t a good showing for either of them
– Finn Balor vs Ilja Dragunov: this was good, but a few really wonky moments between the two stopped it from being great. The crowd was wildly behind the bad guy in Balor, and frankly that just made Dragunov look even worse. This never clicked for me in the way I thought it might when the match up was announced
Should you watch this event: As expected, the big matches on this show were fine despite there not being any real storylines going in. The Undisputed/IMPERIUM main event is a must see for a fan of either team, as well the DIY/Moustache Mountain and NXT Cruiserweight Fatal 4-Way.
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