NXT UK premiere results: Pete Dunne vs. Noam Dar
By Markus Gronemann for F4WOnline.com
Some background on the writer: “I’ve been following wrestling in Europe ever since I first saw the likes of Fit Finlay, Tony St. Clair, Franz Schuhmann and, yes, even Otto Wanz of the olf CWA at the famous “Heumarkt” back in 1994 and have been a regular for wXw in Germany since 2010 where I first got to enjoy many of the fine men and women now part of this roster. I’ll do my best to keep these reports both informative and entertaining and am looking forward to any feedback or thoughts on both the reviews and NXT UK in general on Twitter.”
We open up with a very nice montage of some of the highlights from WWE’s past in the UK with clips from SummerSlam 1992 in Wembley, including Lennox Lewis coming to the ring with the British flag, interspersed with clips of some of the current NXT stars and with Triple H announcing the start of the NXT UK brand.
Joseph Vic and Nigel McGuinness welcome us and inform us about tonight’s main event which will see WWE UK champion Pete Dunne defending his title against Noam Dar, who made his surprise return from injury at the United Kingdom Championship Tournament at the Royal Albert Hall back in June.
We go to the ring for our very first match (remember this kids, as it may become the answer to a trivia question one day). The Cambride Corn Exchange looks small but very cool and the taping looked quite a bit darker than other WWE products, giving the show a sort of an individual, underground character right away. It reminded me of one of the early Raws from the Manhattan Center back in the day with a very intimate setting.
Joe Coffey (w/ Mark Coffey) pinned Mark Andrews (7:38)
As both competitors enter the squared circle, we take a look back at the UK Championship Tournament at Royal Albert Hall from June 19 where the Coffey Brothers attacked the three non-winners of a no. 1 contender’s four-way for the WWE UK title after that match had concluded. The men in question were Mark Andrews, Flash Morgan Webster, and Travis Banks.
The Coffey Brothers are two massive dudes from Scotland and have been around for almost 10 years and have been regulars for ICW, who, of course, have a working relationship with WWE. Andrews also is a veteran of 11 years and has competed all over the world like for PROGRESS, Impact, and ATTACK Pro, Pete Dunne’s UK promotion.
Coffey tried to use his strengh to immobilize the smaller Andrews, but he managed to repeatedly flip out of some armlocks until Coffey overpowered him. Andrews hit some armdrags and a great-looking springboard huricanrana. Coffey hit a mean pounce, a seemingly very European kind of body check as it’s also a popular tool for other Euro big men such as Avalanche and Dante, the former tag team partner of Aleister Black. Coffey continued to show his brute strength by grabbing Mandrews by the neck, spinning him around a few times just for the heck of it, and hitting a butterfly suplex.
Nigel mentions that Joe actually was Kurt Angle’s opponent at the latter’s last singles match for ICW back in 2016. While Mark distracted the ref, Joe takes Andrews out with a stiff clothesline, forcing him out of the ring. Back in the ring, Mandrews channeled his best inner football (soccer to the non Euros) player and slid under a clothesline attempt on his knees and hit a quick enzuigiri, followed by a very cool combination of some double knees in the corner, a lucha roll-up, double foot stomp and a standing, twisting moonsault for a near-fall.
Coffey quickly recovered and launched himself at Andrews with a running/diving headbutt into the corner, followed by a quick powerslam that almost got him the win. He went for a vertical suplex, but Andrews countered it into the Stuntdog Millionaire, before hitting the top rope. Mark pulled his brother to ringside and assumed safety, but Andrews hit a big moonsault on both of them. Andrews, grasping at victory, went to the top again but Mark once more proved to be a major distraction as he grabbed at hs leg, leading to a Joe overhead belly-to-belly from the middle rope and a brutal lariat for the pin.
This was a very fun mean guy/quick guy match that showcased the strengths of both guys. Post-match, the Coffeys went to attack Andrews, but Flash Morgan Webster came out with his helmet in hand for the save.
Next, we saw Mustache Mountain (Trent Seven and Tyler Bate) entering the arena with their gear bags, followed by a non-UK WWE Shop commercial.
Next was a video package on Eddie Dennis, who told us he was longtime friends with the likes of Andrews and Dunne and how, when they all started out together, it wasn’t about wrestling in front of thousands but who had the best stories to tell. He closed by saying he had some good stories.
Mustache Mountain promo
The “Big Strong Bois” came out to a great ovation and lots of chants once they got in the ring. Trent Seven thanked Cambridge and, channeling his inner Tony Schiavone, called this day the greatest day in British wrestling history which was, of course a lie, as everyone knows that day will be the day that Big Daddy finally gets voted into the Observer Hall of Fame. Of course, he meant everybody witnessing the birth of NXT UK which, granted, is a pretty big deal. He said how at the sold out Royal Albert Hall, he and Tyler Bate won the NXT tag team titles and while they may no longer be the champs, Triple H mentioned the NXT UK tag team titles and wondered if there even were any teams in NXT UK beside themselves.
Seven said that Bate was the youngest ever WWE UK champion and Bate, to a good pop, joked how maybe Seven could become the oldest. Seven said that they want opposition and how the people in the back should buddy up and find a partner so that they’d get some challengers. He closed by saying that this was their NXT UK.
We saw Dunne backstage, preparing for his match with Dar later on. This was followed by a quick video package on Dave Mastiff, who called himself the best heavyweight wrestler in the world today. He said he was read to show the world what he was made of.
We got a SmackDown UK tour promo for shows this coming November, followed by Vic and Nigel back in the studio, talking about the return of Dar. We saw Dar warm up for his match backstage as well.
Dave Mastiff pinned Sid Scala (1:58)
“Savvy” Sid Scala has been around since 2013 and was, among others, trained by NXT Performance Center coach Robbie Brookside and Johnny Kidd. He wrestled for IPW:UK and PROGRESS and a bunch of smaller UK indies. Mastiff is actually a veteran of the scene, debuting in 2002 and has been wrestling for PROGRESS, IPW:UK, RevPro, ICW, wXw, and Preston City Wrestling among many others in Europe. He also originally was part of the new World of Sport promotion for their New Year’s Eve show last year.
Scala was not very savvy here as this was mostly an impressive squash. Crowd chanted “Mastiff’s gonna kill you” right from the get-go and, well, they were just about right. Scala tried some forearms, which were nonchalantly no-sold by the 23 stone (which Nigel was nice enough to explain were 322 lbs and I am nice enough to explain are 146 kilogram for any non-UK Euro readers) beast. Mastiff smashed him into a corner, threw him halfway across the ring and smashed his elbow into the side of Scala’s neck just for the heck of it.
Scala made the mistake of trying a comeback, only to get shot down by a shotgun dropkick by the big man. He picked Scala up from the map for an impressive deadlift release German suplex and then hit a cannonball in the corner to pick up the win in just under two minutes.
We got an Evolution promo but no mention the NXT UK women’s title would be defended there, probably because it hasn’t been introduced on this show yet. We also were informed that “Dusted” by the Astroid Boys was the opening theme for NXT UK.
Nina Samuels was interviewed backstage before her match. She wants to win the NXT UK women’s title (which is the first and I believe the only time it was mentioned here) and wants to do so at the expense of Toni Storm.
Toni Storm pinned Nina Samuels (4:10)
Samuels was wearing pink and black which we were told was as a tribute to Bret Hart. She debuted in 2014 and has been wrestling for Pro-Wrestling EVE, PROGRESS, RevPro, and Preston City Wrestling among others. Storm technically made her debut at age 13 for IPWA in Australia before moving in with her grandmother in the UK to improve her wrestling. She also spent a few months with then-boyfriend Tyler Bate to train at the wXw Academy in Germany in 2016, before getting into Stardom in Japan where she honed her skills even more and even held the SWA and the World of Stardom title. She also collected women’s world titles in PROGRESS and wXw and was/is part of both editions of the WWE Mae Young Classic. She also is a huge fan of Mötley Crüe if you’re not enamored with her enough at this point.
Storm lost no time and went straight for a side headlock takeover, which Nina countered into a headlock of her own, but Toni, in a display of athleticism, spun and bridged out of it. They traded some strikes but Storm once more prevailed with some palm strikes, slaps, and a spin kick to the midsection, but crashed face-first into the corner. Samuels applied a unique looking chin bar, leaning into Storm’s neck and pulling her chin with the other hand.
She followed it up with a tilt-a-whirl-backbreaker, which didn’t quite look crisp. Storm came back from that with a beautiful snap German suplex, a running hip attack into the corner, and the Storm Zero (a Celtic Cross into a neckbreaker onto her knee) for the win in just 4:10. I guess she wasn’t allowed to hit the Strong Zero, her usual snap piledriver finish.
We had a promo for Raw in Manchester this November, advertising a bunch of matches that will probably not happen, but also Ronda Rousey’s UK television debut. We will also see Tyler Bate take on Wolfgang in the main event next week.
NXT UK Champion Pete Dunne pinned Noam Dar (11:35)
Johnny Saint, the NXT UK General manager, is in the ring for the main event. A fun fact as told by Jim Smallman of PROGRESS during his stand-up show during wXw’s World tag Team League weekend recently: Johnny Saint, age 77, lives in a mean part of England that has a big heroin problem and lots of shady characters on the streets. He still goes for a run every morning and when asked by Smallman if he ever got mugged, he replied “No, but I am very much looking forward to the day somebody tries.” What a beautiful man!
Dar, of course, has been in WWE for a few years now, appearing in the Cruiserweight Classic back in 2016, and in 205 Live. Before that, he was a regular with ICW, Preston City, Premier British Wrestling, and British Championship Wrestling among others. Dunne, at only 24, has been wrestling since he was nine, runs his own promotion, and has been wrestling on a regular basis for PROGRESS, Fight Club: Pro, RevPro, wXw, OTT, ICW, and pretty much ever other major European promotion as well as PWG and other U.S. indies, Michinoku Pro in Japan, and MCW in Australia. He’s won titles in PROGRESS, OTT, wXw, and of course, WWE’s UK title, which he has held for almost 17 months now.
Both men are in the ring to big “Bruiserweight” chants for Dunne, but then again people would chant “Dar-Dar-Dar Dar-Da-Dar-Dar-Da-Dar” to the sound of the Imperial March from Star Wars later on. When the ref held the belt up, Dunne threw his coat at Dar as he is wont to do. Dunne taunted Dar with his own “pinky finger” gesture. The crowd sang happy birthday to Dar, who turned 25 that day.
They started out with a roundabout to get into position for a backslide, which Dar eventually got. A hard clothesline by Dunne turned the Israeli-Scot inside out and the Bruiserweight stepped into a mean submission, half surfboard, half a way to bend some of Dar’s fingers, which would be a repeated theme here. Dunne ran into the corner and looked for a back flip off the top/middle ropes, but Dar scouted him well and clipped his knee, forcing Dunne to crash and burn. Dunne recovered and hit his Ex-Plex and succeeded wih his back flip out of the corner on the second try, but Dar kept targeting his knee and hit a nice German suplex.
Dunne hit a nice Liger-Bomb-style sitdown power bomb for a two count but went on to twist Dar’s nose. It came down to Dar repeatedly working over Dunne’s knee while Dunne was looking to attack and bend Dar’s fingers every chance he got. The were fighting on the apron when Dar hit a sick-looking release snap fisherman’s suplex, which catapulted Dunn onto the apron and Dar to ringside. They both were exhausted and only made it back to the ring at nine to a dramatic pop. Dunne once again snapped Dar’s fingers but he come back with a European uppercut, thrown with the other arm.
They did a cool exchange of submission with Dunne going for a triangle, which Dar countered into a half crab. Dunne reversed that into an armbar attempt, but Dar turned that into an ankle lock which Dunne turned into a pinfall attempt. They both went for a stiff forearm and both men went down. Dunne got a standing double-wristlock, but Dar reversed it and once more took out Dunne’s knee. Dunne tried for the Bitter End, but Dar got a kneebar on and had Dunne at the verge of defeat, but the Bruiserweight reached the ropes. Dunne then bent Dar’s pinky finger to a sick degree and bent a few more fingers and stepped on them before hitting the Bitter End for the pin in 11:35.
Post match, Dunne offered his hand but when Dar was about to grab it, he pulled it away and gave Dar his own pinky finger salute which Dar did back and the show went off the air.
**********
All in all, this was a pretty fun first episode and a great showcase for Joe Coffey, Mark Andrews, Dave Mastiff, Noam Dar and of course, Pete Dunne. The women’s match was good but very short and Toni Storm can do a lot more when she’s in with the right opponent and has enough time to deliver. I’m very much looking forward to next week and am very curious how this brand develops for WWE and how it might change the European wrestling landscape. Also, it will be interesting to see how NXT and NXT UK talent will interact in the future and if UK talent will be a part of TakeOvers in the future or if they even get their own TakeOver style event at any point.