NXT UK results: WALTER-Dragunov championship contract signing

After doing so for the untimely passing of Karsten Beck last week, I would like to dedicate my report to my grandmother, who sadly passed away at the age of 92 this week. Thankfully, she only had to suffer for a few days after living a heathy and happy life up until recently. She may also very well be the reason I encountered wrestling when I did as almost 29 years ago to the day, I spent a night at my grandparents’ apartment and zapped through the cable channels. I chanced upon wrestling (the 1991 Hogan/Warrior vs. Slaughter/Adnan/Mustafa SummerSlam main event), got hooked right away, and would subsequently spend each Friday night at my their apartment to watch WWF on German channel Tele 5 until we moved and finally got a dish. She would always stay up with me and watch along, including comforting me as I sobbed myself to sleep when the dastardly Undertaker cheated to beat Hulk Hogan a few months later at Survivor Series. She will be dearly missed.

Quick results:

  • The highlight of the show was the excellent main event angle with the contract signing for next week’s WALTER vs. Ilja Dragunov NXT UK title match. The whole affair was super intense and they had a brutal brawl afterwards.
  • Trent Seven advanced to the Heritage Cup semifinals, beating Kenny Williams.
  • Eddie Dennis pinned Oliver Carter, a setup for Dennis to call out Mark Andrews & Flash Morgan Webster for next week.
  • Nina Samuels pinned Amale and called out Piper Niven after the match.
  • After being suspended by WWE due to #SpeakingOut allegations, a Joe Coffey video promised he would return soon.

Show Recap:

Eddie Dennis pinned Oliver Carter (6:27)

Dennis last wrestled in January at the tapings following NXT UK TakeOver: Blackpool II. He returned in the first episode from this set of tapings and talked to Pretty Deadly after their match with the contents of this conversation still being a mystery.

Carter looked great here and got to show off his athleticism, taking a large portion of the match and countering out of a lot of Dennis’ offense. Dennis eventually won with the Severed Bridge (basically a Razor’s Edge).

After the match, Dennis told Carter to get out of his ring and go back to the tag division. He said, speaking of the tag division, it was a shame what happened to Flash Morgan Webster (who got attacked backstage recently). “We all know who did it. Who profited the most from Webster being out?” But, he would not say who it was. He invited Webster and Mark Andrews to a mediation next week, a confrontation was made official later in the show.

**********

– A Joe Coffey vignette aired. He has been absent during this latest set of tapings, likely due to allegations brought against him during the #SpeakingOut movement as he was suspended by WWE in early July. WWE has decided to use him again as the end of the video read that he would “return soon”.

– Speaking of wrestlers seemingly being re-established after #SpeakingOut allegations, Jordan Devlin will return to action next week after his promo last week.

– NXT UK will air at 4 PM ET/8 PM GMT next week due to Summer Time ending in Europe this Sunday while it goes on a few weeks longer in the U.S., shortening the time difference between the UK and the East Coast to four instead of five hours.

Nina Samuels pinned Amale (5:37)

This match was set up when Amale and Samuels tagged two weeks ago as Samuels decided to abandon her partner because she wasn’t getting all the spotlight to herself. Later in that episode, they also brawled during Kay Lee Ray’s State of the Union address.

Amale started out very aggressively and had the advantage at times, but Samuels used some cheap tactics to gain the advantage and worked over Amale’s arm and shoulder with submissions. At one point, Amale got a near fall with a Northern Lights suplex. Samuels eventually thwarted another attack by Amale and hit the Final Act (a rolling neckbreaker) for the pinfall victory.

After the match, Samuels was interviewed backstage. She said a two person act was not what the audience wanted and called out Piper Niven, telling her she would be watching.

Next up was the final opening round match of the Heritage Cup. As a refresher, the Cup is an approach at traditional British Wrestling with a special set of rules:

  • All matches consist of six three minute rounds with 20 second breaks between each round.
  • All matches are 2-out-of-3 falls.
  • Falls can be won by pinfall, submission, or countout.
  • Once a fall occurs, the round ends.
  • The match ends once a wrestler has won two falls.
  • In the event of a disqualification or countout, the match instantly ends without the need for two falls.
  • If all six rounds are completed, whomever is ahead on falls wins the match.

Heritage Cup opening round match: Trent Seven beat Kenny Williams in the fifth round, two falls to one

    They wrestled back and forth in the first round with neither man getting a clear advantage. Seven missed a crossbody as the round came to an end. Williams hit a sunset flip for a two count near the end of round two and Seven picked him up for either a power bomb or shoulderbreaker briefly after the round ended and was visibly upset when the referee told him to stop.

    With just three seconds left in round three, Trent hit the Seven Star Lariat and got a pin at 2:57 of the round. Williams got a pin at 0:37 of round four with a roll up after feigning a leap frog to tie Seven 1-1. Williams hit a stiff see-saw lariat early in round five for a near fall, followed by a DDT for another one.

    Seven came back with an Emerald Frosion for a near fall of his own. Seven then rolled through on an impressive springboard top rope hurricanrana by Williams to score the winning pin at 2:22 of round five for the victory. The two shook hands and hugged afterwards.

    Seven will face Dave Mastiff in the semifinals of the Heritage Cup while Noam Dar faces A-Kid in the other semifinal.

    – WALTER was seen walking through the backstage area with Alexander Wolfe. He told him to stay behind and they shook hands.

    NXT UK Champion WALTER and Ilja Dragunov contract signing

    WALTER and Dragunov will face off for WALTER’s title next week. This, of course, ended in a brawl, but with an intensity rarely seen in WWE these days.

    Both men came out and stood by the table and slowly got down in their chair, staring at each other while they signed the contract. WALTER declined to say anything when asked by Sid Scala. Dragunov, when asked, got up and started screaming “UNBESIEGBAR” (“unbeatable”, his catch phrase) but got slapped down hard mid-word. WALTER then ripped his shirt off and started turning the challenger’s chest into mincemeat with brutal chops.

    He went to power bomb Dragunov through the table, but he escaped and attacked, sending WALTER to ringside. Dragunov jumped onto him from the top rope to the outside, but WALTER chopped him out of mid-air, then power bombed him on the apron, followed by a stiff lariat. He then beat him down some more. “The Mad Russian” came back and they ended up going through the barricade together as officials scrambled to separate them.

    Dragunov then grabbed the title belt and threw it at WALTER as the show went of the air.

    This, the tag match from last week, and the promos and videos leading up to the match were probably the best build for any title match in WWE this year. Go out of your way to see the match next week as it promises to be a brutal, hard hitting affair.

    Next week:

    • WALTER defends the NXT UK Championship against Ilja Dragunov
    • NXT Cruiserweight Champion Jordan Devlin returns to action
    • Flash Morgan Webster & Mark Andrews confront Eddie Dennis