I was pumped for “Clash at the Castle” since it was announced, and one of the reasons was because I was hoping that “NXT-UK” would get some shine. Now, don't get me wrong, I wasn't thinking that this big stadium show would (or should) be built around the UK roster, but I was hoping for *something*. Maybe Walter issues an open challenge, only for Tyler Bate to accept; or maybe have Dragunov issue an open challenge, which is answered by Butch. Maybe have “Sub-Culture” (both of whom are Welsh, with Andrews literally being BORN IN CARDIFF) as a mystery team in a four-way match for the Usos' titles. Or at the very least, do a Battle Royal. Something. Anything. (And, yes, I know that injuries, releases, and the sudden closure of the brand would have changed some of those proposed ideas, this is just the kind of stuff that I've been hoping for over the last few months.)
If they didn't want to do that, we could have gotten a stand-alone “TakeOver”. I mean, I'm very much looking forward to “Worlds Collide”, but the fact that it's happening in Orlando instead of Cardiff feels like a missed opportunity. Not to mention that closing NXT-UK and firing most of the roster just two weeks before this big UK event was pretty cold-blooded.
So what do you think? Should they have used “Clash at the Castle” to shine a little light on NXT-UK (or at least, on the “survivors” that didn't get cut, like Bate and Meiko), or was the brand just too small and unpopular that it wouldn't have been worth it?
It would have been pointless. NXT UK's only purpose was to kill off the ITV project before it could get started, and it already accomplished that. No one in the UK even watched the show and moving them over to NXT 2.0 and using that to bolster the roster is a much better use of the talent in the long term.