NXT UK results: Tag Team Championship four-way elimination match
This week’s show was taped Wednesday at BT Sports Studios in London, England.
The show opened with a recap of last week’s “retirement promo” by Trent Seven and his subsequent sneak attack on former partner and best friend, Tyler Bate.
Smith & Carter in-ring segment
NXT UK Tag Team Champions Ashton Smith & Oliver Carter walked to the ring. Smith was wearing a brace on his right knee.
Smith talked about how he watched the finish of their title-winning match over and over and was amazed every time by the reaction the fans gave them. In the beginning of his NXT UK career, he had trouble winning matches and at times felt like no one had come to the shows to see him wrestle. That all changed when Carter joined the brand, they started teaming, and he finally saw light at the end of the tunnel.
That made it even harder to say what he was going to say next: he ruptured his MCL in that match and therefore had to vacate the titles. He apologized to Carter and told him that he was rooting for him to succeed in the singles division while he was away and would always have his back. Carter told him it was fine and not to worry. Smith vowed to be back and win the titles again. They then called out Sid Scala and relinquished the championship belts to him.
This brought out Die Familie who said they had not been pinned in the triple threat match for the titles and demanded the belts to be handed over. This brought out Josh Briggs & Brooks Jensen who originally were scheduled to challenge Smith & Carter on this show. Next out were Mark Haskins & Wild Boar as well as Dave Mastiff & Jack Starz.
Scala then announced a four-way elimination match for the vacant titles in the main event of tonight’s show.
– Ahead of her match with Nina Samuels on the show, NXT’s Sarray visited with Meiko Satomura backstage. The champion welcomed her and they talked in Japanese. Satomura then turned to Emilia McKenzie and told her that Sarray wasn’t their only visitor as McKenzie will face Fallon Henley next week. Satomura hoped to see some fighting spirit.
– Sha Samuels was backstage and talked to Scala, asking him to overturn the decision of last week’s tag team match against Wolfgang and Damon Kemp. He said Wolfgang had used a scarf, which was a foreign object and the decision stands. Samuels started berating Wolfgang, who conveniently walked up behind him. They had words and Wolfgang offered a wager, so it looks like those two will meet again.
Isla Dawn beat Myla Grace (5:05)
They traded pinfall attempts early until Grace outsmarted Dawn, who came back by dropping Grace throat-first across the top rope. Dawn looked to get a submission victory, but Grace held her own and kept hitting moves.
Grace eventually missed a crossbody off the top, allowing Dawn to hit a head kick and a half nelson slam for the pinfall victory.
– Tyler Bate is taking a leave of absence after last week’s attack by Trent Seven.
– A video looked at Tiger Turan stalking Kenny Williams over the past few weeks.
– Noam Dar entered Scala’s office with the NXT UK Heritage Cup. He put it down on Scala’a desk and told him that he had beaten everybody that had challenged him and thought it was time to put the trophy on his mantlepiece and go for bigger challenges. Scala started to protest and Dar suggested one final farewell match in a stadium in front of thousands of fans, chanting “Please don’t go.” He told the bewildered Scala to get on it and demanded double pay for the match.
Sarray beat Nina Samuels (5:35)
Sarray started with a roll-up and immediately transitioned into a half crab, sending Samuels scrambling for the ropes. Sarray was on offense until Samuels caught her off a crossbody and hit a backbreaker.
Samuels illegally worked over Sarray in the ropes and continued dominating. Sarray came back with another roll-up, forearms, and a dropkick to Samuels’ knee. She eventually hit a basement dropkick on Samuels in the ropes and pinned her after an overhead exploder suplex.
– Blair Davenport will return from injury next week.
– Xia Brookside and Eliza Alexander harassed Sarray as she came backstage. They backed her against a wall, until Meiko Satomura power walked into the frame and they backed off. Satomura talked to Sarray in Japanese.
– Trent Seven will address the “NXT UK Universe” next week.
In an elimination match, Brooks Jensen & Josh Briggs beat Dave Mastiff & Jack Starz, Mark Andrews & Wild Boar, and Die Familie (Teoman & Rohan Raja) to win the vacant NXT UK Tag Team titles (18:15)
All participants were in the ring as the show returned from break. Wild Boar dropped the black contact lens look.
Haskins and Starz started out with some technical wrestling, until Raja blind tagged in. Jensen and Board had a longer encounter next and Jensen hit a huge powerslam. Briggs and Jensen went for some double team action until Teoman came in and beat up on Boar.
Die Familie took turns working over Boar until he finally made the tag to Mastiff. Mastiff and Starz double-teamed Teoman for a while. Mastiff held Teoman up for a vertical suplex for a long time and then threw him down.
Briggs and Mastiff faced off next until Die Familie interfered and got thrown to ringside for their troubles. The two big men threw everyone else off the apron as well and faced off but quickly got attacked by Teoman and Raja again.
Haskins briefly stopped him and hit a shooting star press off the top to the outside on everyone for good measure. Some quick action with Wild Boar and Jack Starz followed next. Andrews almost had Starz pinned after another shooting star, but Mastiff narrowly saved him.
Seconds later, Starz pinned Haskins after a small package at the 9:35 mark, eliminating Haskins and Wild Boar from the match.
Die Familie immediately attacked Starz, including Charlie Dempsey hitting an uppercut at the outside as the referee was distracted. Dave Mastiff was in next and beat down both Jensen and Briggs while Dempsey hit another suplex on Starz on the outside. Rohan Raja used the confusion to hit Seek & Destroy on Mastiff and eliminate both he and Starz at 12:14.
Die Familie stomped away at Briggs until Jensen made the save. Die Familie used some nefarious team tactics to cut Jensen down to size. Finally, stereo hot tags were made and Briggs ran wild on Raja and Teoman. Dempsey got on the apron, allowing Raja to hit a backstabber on Briggs followed by an assisted power slam that looked like it might lead to a finish. Jensen made the save once more.
Teoman locked in the crossface on Briggs who eventually managed to turn the move into a pin for a near fall. He back body dropped Teoman about 20 feet into the air and tagged in Jensen. The two big men hit stereo big boots on Teoman and Dempsey on the apron and hit an ugly incarnation of a high/low on Raja to score the final elimination and become the new NXT UK Tag Team Champions.
Henley came out to celebrate with them after the match as they posed with the belts.
Final Thoughts:
The main event was a lot of fun as Brooks & Jensen did not look out of place and had some charm as the two giants. Smith’s injury is unfortunate as he and Carter never even got to have one title defense. I hope he will be back soon and I could see Carter get mixed up with some of the more prominent names on the roster. He is really good and they certainly need someone who can work after all the recent departures towards NXT 2.0.
Sarray also looked good in her show debut while Dawn vs. Grace mostly was just there.
The backstage segments really spiced the show up as well.
Next week:
- Emilia McKenzie vs. Fallon Henley
- Blair Davenport returns
- Trent Seven promo