NXT UK results: Pete Dunne vs. Danny Burch title match

Episode five (taped July 29 at Cambridge Corn Exchange in Cambridge, England)

Quick recap —

Pete Dunne defended his WWE United Kingdom Championship against Danny Burch in a hard-hitting strong-style affair that may have been the best match on NXT UK yet. The Coffey Brothers and Wolfgang took out Ashton Smith before his match, setting up a six-men tag team match in the main event next week against Smith, Flash Morgan Webster & Mark Andrews.

Eddie Dennis made his debut and looked good against Sid Scala, Ligero defeated James Drake in a fun match, and Dave Mastiff continues to look like a monster, squashing Damien Weir in under 90 seconds.

Full rundown —

The show opened up with a graphic of our main event: Pete Dunne defending his WWE UK title against Danny Burch. We then went straight to our first match.

“Bomber” Dave Mastiff pinned Damien Weir after a cannonball in 1:27

Weir is better known as Chief Deputy Dunne on the UK scene and often competes in a tag team, the Anti-Fun Police. He started out in 2010 and is a regular with Attack! Pro, Kamikaze Pro, Southside Wrestling, IPW:UK, PROGRESS, RevPro, and others. He’s also the current IPW:UK Tag Team Champion with Los Federales Santos Jr. and the current Kamikaze Pro Tag Team Champion in a mixed tag team with Millie McKenzie.

Mastiff beat his NXT UK record of disposing of Sid Scala on the first episode by 31 seconds here. Weir tried hitting a body press right away, but just bounced off the “Bomber.” Mastiff hit a senton, an impressive looking deadlift vertical suplex into a slam, dragged Weir into the corner, hit a cannonball, and picked up the victory.

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Nigel McGuinness and Vic Joseph recapped Wolfgang joining the Coffey Brothers last week after his match with Mark Andrews and beating down Andrews and Flash Morgan Webster. We were promised a statement by the new trio later on.

There was a short highlight video on Ligero while he talked about being from Leeds and wearing a mask to stand out. This was followed by a video on James Drake, who said he had traveled around the world to make sure he became an elite sports entertainer and how he was a completely different man now. He was focused more than ever and if anyone stood in his way, he would go through them.

After a WWE Network promo, we got another video on Jinny. She said that she was the fashionista of NXT UK and had more money than all other wrestlers combined. Well, good for her, she might be able to give Brock Lesnar a few tips then.

We also saw Danny Burch warm up for his main event match.

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Ligero defeated James Drake in 5:48 after a springboard DDT

Drake started training at 14 and made his debut in 2010. He teamed with Axl Rage as The Blackpool Blonds and Blond Jovi early on. He currently teams with Zack Gibson as the Grizzled Young Veterans, mostly in PROGRESS and Future Shock Wrestling. They’ve held the Tag Team titles in both promotions before.

Drake competed for All Star Wrestling earlier in his career on a regular basis and was a regular for Grand Pro Wrestling as well. He’s also known as “Mr. Mayhem” — and we were being told he adopted more of a “grit your teeth” mentality recently. He might consider asking Pete Dunne about wearing a mouth guard then.

They started off with a good old-fashioned lock up, jockeying for position early on. Fans chanted “He’s got his own face on his ass” at Ligero, who has a picture of his mask on the back of his trunks.

Drake took things to the mat with a smooth headlock takeover. Ligero hit a spinning heel kick and eventually threw Drake to ringside. Back in the ring, Ligero hit a Code Red Bomb for a near fall and after trading some reversals, followed it up with a springboard spinning DDT off the middle rope for the victory in a good match.

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Radzi Chinyanganya interviewed Toni Storm backstage and asked her how she prepared for Dakota Kai, as the two will meet in the next episode. She said that she went into the match with the intention to win. Well, duh! She said Kai and her had similar goals, as far as the NXT UK Women’s Championship is concerned, but that it was just not going to happen for Kai.

Kai showed up and interrupted the interview, stating that she respects everything Storm has done, but as good as she was going to be, Kai was just going to be a little bit better. Storm replied that in that case, the best woman may win. They shook hands on it.

An Ashton Smith video aired. He talked about how there wasn’t a person that he couldn’t beat.

Zack Gibson did a short promo, announcing that he would be back to face the debuting Amir Jordan on the next episode and was soon to be Number One.

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Ashton Smith vs. an unannounced opponent never took place

Smith came out for a match, but we never found out who he was supposed to face. He was wiped out by the Coffey Brothers and Wolfgang, who unceremoniously threw him to the back. Joe Coffey was on the mic and said that since Royal Albert Hall, they have been imposing their will on anyone and everyone, no one liked them and they didn’t care.

At Royal Albert Hall, Joe Coffey had an epiphany, he liked surrounding himself with people who had the same mentality, whether it was blood or someone who took pride in doing things his way, like Wolfgang. He said the mantra for this brand was “We are NXT UK,” but he believes that there’s a hierarchy and if you’re not on their level, they will dispose of your weakness. There would be no more British Strong Style and certainly no more “big strong bois” in the future.

Joe closed by saying “No one likes us, we don’t care, from now on, it’s a pack mentality, divide and conquer, this is our kingdom!”

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A graphic said that Eddie Dennis would debut next.

Flash Morgan Webster and Mark Andrews were backstage in front of NXT UK General Manager Johnny Saint’s office and said they’ve had problems with the Coffeys for a long time now, now they got Wolfgang involved and they were sure that the Coffeys also had attacked Travis Banks. Ashton Smith showed up and wanted to join them in seeing Saint.

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Eddie Dennis defeated Sid Scala in 3:30 with the Next Stop Driver

“The Pride of Wales,” Eddie Dennis stands 6’5″ and started wrestling 10 years ago. A teacher by trade, he went on to become the youngest headmaster in the UK at the time, but left his position to wrestle full-time. He started out with Pete Dunne and Mark Andrews, but focused on his original career while they had some more international success earlier on.

A regular in PROGRESS, RevPro, Attack! Pro, Kamikaze Pro, Pro Wrestling Chaos, and others, Dennis is a former ATTACK! and ATTACK! 24/7 Champion, as well as a former PROGRESS Tag Team Champion with Mark Andrews as FSU (Friends Stand United or F**k S**t Up).

Dennis started strong, kicking his smaller opponent and had him in a cravat, from which he hit some vicious knees. He hit a knee drop for a near fall, but Scala kicked out. Scala came back with some offense, hitting a few slaps and a high crossbody, but couldn’t keep Dennis down for the pin. Dennis hit a buckle bomb and the Next Stop Driver for the quick victory.

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We saw Pete Dunne walking to the ring backstage, followed by a WWE Story Time ad.

A graphic announced Toni Storm vs. Dakota Kai for next week. There also was a tweet by Johnny Saint, announcing a six-man tag team match for our main event of the next episode, pitting the Coffey Brothers & Wolfgang against Mark Andrews, Flash Morgan Webster & Ashton Smith.

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WWE United Kingdom Champion Pete Dunne defeated Danny Burch in 16:14 by submission to retain his title

This was a stiff, hard-hitting, strong-style match that also had a lot of submissions and overall told a great story. Burch was portrayed as the grizzled veteran last week who suffered numerous setbacks throughout his career and now finally was on his way to win his first major title from the young up-and-comer, who wrestles a similar style as the one he helped establish over the past 15 years.

They locked up and traded submissions attempts early, but neither man could get the clear advantage. Dunne hit a stiff kick on an early exchange, and received retribution in the form of a hard slap to the neck a few seconds later. Dunne started working on Burch’s fingers and wrist early on, which would be an ongoing story of the match.

Burch hit a nice overhead toss in the early minutes and also took Dunne down brutally from a leapfrog attempt. Dunne rolled to ringside, checked a kick by Burch, and pulled him to the outside, where he hit an X-Plex to the apron that looked like no fun at all. Dunne continued working the arm and Burch came back with an enzuigiri and a missile dropkick from the middle rope for a near fall.

Dunne came back with a stiff forearm that knocked the veteran halfway across the ring. Dunne did his backflip off the middle rope off a reversal, hit a kick to Burch’s jaw, and then jumped on his left arm from the middle ropes, causing further damage. They spilled to ringside and Dunne slammed Burch’s hand on the ring steps, but missed a stomp, causing Burch to pull his feet out so Dunne took a face-first bump onto the steel, followed by a German suplex by Burch on the outside.

Back in the ring, Dunne went for a triangle but trapped the right arm instead of the left one he had been working on, causing Burch to power out and hit a buckle bomb. Burch went for a top rope German suplex, but Dunne managed to bend his fingers to escape, only for Burch to hit it anyway. Dunne tried flipping over in mid air, but still landed hard on his face and knees, which led to a near fall.

They had another striking battle, which Dunne ended by hitting an enzuigiri and an X-Plex. He immediately transitioned into an armbar. Burch countered out into a cross face, which Dunne managed to counter into a pinning attempt. Burch went for another German suplex, but this time Dunne managed to flip through it and hit a kick to the back of Burch’s head.

A lariat by Burch turned Dunne inside out, but Dunne came back with kicks and proceeded to stomp a mud hole into Burch. Dunne was signaling to end the match, but Burch suddenly popped up, hit a headbutt to Dunne’s shoulder, and his draping DDT that won him his last NXT UK match. Dunne kicked out at 2.9.

Burch locked in the crossface once more and even managed to roll back into the middle of the ring as Dunne was inching closer to the ropes. In desperation, Dunne gouged Burch’s face to finally break the hold and hit the Bitter End, but Burch kicked out of that one too, which got a big pop.

Dunne locked in a triangle, this time trapping the left arm. He rolled over on top of Burch’s head and proceeded to his finger-breaking spot and twisted the injured fingers and wrist with the triangle still locked in, forcing Burch to tap out.

Burch looked devastated but acknowledged Dunne on leaving the ring while the champ posed with his title as the show went off the air.