NXT UK results: Women’s title tournament begins
Episode eight (taped August 25 at the NEC Arena in Birmingham, England)
Quick recap:
Zack Gibson defeated Trent Seven with help of his Grizzled Young Veterans partner in crime, James Drake, in a very good main event. Wolfgang and the Coffey brothers then attacked Seven and Tyler Bate afterwards.
Dakota Kai and Jinny advanced in the NXT UK Women’s Championship tournament, beating Nina Samuels and Millie McKenzie respectively. Tyson T-Bone made his NXT UK debut and won a quick squash, only to be one-upped by Dave Mastiff, who continues to run roughshod.
Ligero will battle Jordan Devlin next week, and we will probably see Toni Storm vs. Isla Dawn and Rhea Ripley vs. Xia Brookside in the women’s championship tournament.
Full rundown:
There was a cold open with clips from all the participants in the NXT UK Women’s Championship tournament that gave a bit of background on all of the participants. After the opening sequence, Nigel McGuinness and Vic Joseph welcomed us and looked back at the announcement of the tournament from the last episode.
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NXT UK Women’s title tournament first round match: Dakota Kai defeated Nina Samuels in 4:38 with the Kairopractor to advance to the semifinals
Samuels started off right away with a vicious knee, but Kai came back with a running kick. Samuels pushed Kai’s upper body between the top and middle ropes and bent her backwards, then hit a running dropkick while Kai was still caught in that specific predicament. She then proceeded to stretch her arms backwards and locked Kai in a Gori Special, which Kai eventually managed to escape from and turn into a roll-up.
They got caught up in a striking battle, which Kai got the better of. Kai ran wild, hitting a running dropkick, a face wash kick, and eventually another running kick, all onto Samuels who was in the corner.
Kai then hit the Kairopractor for the win and will face the winner of the Rhea Ripley/Xia Brookside match.
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A graphic announced that Tyson T-Bone would make his debut next, and another informed us that Dave Mastiff would be in action as well.
An Interview with Mark Andrews (conducted by Radzi Chinyanganya) aired. Andrews said that he has a new focus, after his program with the Coffey Brothers ended. He stated that he was the most exciting guy in NXT UK, that he could do things that no one else could, and that he wanted a title around his waist.
Flash Morgan Webster showed up and said he wanted some gold too and proposed the two of them team in the tournament to determine the NXT UK Tag Team Champions. Andrews contemplated that and said that Webster had a good point.
After a promo for the season finale of WWE Ride Along, there was another interview with Ashton Smith. He was asked what was next and said that you have to consider how to handle defeat, do you go home and cry or — at that point, Eddie Dennis interrupted the interview and told Smith to watch his match next week to get some tips.
Smith got all thoughtful and told the interviewer that maybe he would watch Dennis’ match.
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Tyson T-Bone defeated Jake Constantino in 2:01 with a punch and a lariat
T-Bone is an 11-year veteran and was trained by Robbie Brookside and Todd Smith (Hanson of the War Raiders) as well as Killer Kowalski. He is a regular with Preston City Wrestling, Southside Wrestling Entertainment, Grand Pro Wrestling, and Future Shock and has appeared in PROGRESS, RevPro, IPW:UK, and other promotions. He is a former three-time PCW Heavyweight Champion and teams with Rampage Brown as Team Single.
Constantino is a British MMA fighter with a 3-0 record who seemingly hasn’t done a lot on the UK scene, but lost to Andrade Cien Almas on SmackDown back in May when they taped in London.
T-Bone apparently has a tattoo of the Virgin Mary on his arm, to apologize for every punch that connects. She had quite a bit of apologizing to do here, as he punched Constantino in the face right away. He proceeded to beat the crap out of Constantino, who took a Bret-Hart-style chest bump into the corner, after which T-Bone mauled him from behind with a Vader-style running double overhead chop. He then hit a Saito suplex, a hard right, and a lariat to pick up the victory.
Post-match, T-Bone got on the mic and asked if this was a joke and if this was the best NXT UK had to offer. He concluded with “It’s a joke!” and threw the mic down, obviously disgusted with the competition. As he walked up the ramp, Dave Mastiff’s music hit and the big man made his way to the ring. The two competitors had words, Mastiff told him to watch him, and T-Bone obliged.
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Dave Mastiff defeated Dan Moloney in 1:20 with a cannonball into the corner
At 21, Moloney already is a five-year veteran of the ring and earned his merits in Southside Entertainment Wrestling, Fight Club: Pro, ATTACK Pro, and Kamikaze Pro, among others. He had under-one-day reigns as SWE Heavyweight Champion and as the ATTACK 24/7 Champion and also competes as Los Federales Santos Sr.
This was another Mastiff showcase, as the only offense Moloney got in were a few strikes right at the beginning of the match. And speaking of Vader, Mastiff actually wore a red-and-black singlet right out of Vader’s closet it seemed.
A whip-in attempt by Moloney went awry right away and Mastiff brutalized the young grappler with a standing dropkick, senton, headbutt, deadlift German suplex, and finally hit a merciful cannonball into the corner to put and end to the massacre of young Dan Moloney.
All of that was accompanied by “Mastiff’s gonna kill you” chants and happened under the watchful eyes of Tyson T-Bone, who looked partly impressed and partly interested to find out what a match with Mastiff might feel like. T-Bone left, with Mastiff screaming (presumably) mean things at him.
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We saw a split-screen of Trent Seven and Zack Gibson preparing for their upcoming match.
After a WWE Chronicle: Dean Ambrose trailer aired, Chinyanganya interviewed Sid Scala of all people. Scala was asked what he needed to change after his rough start in NXT UK.
Scala said he needs to get back to the drawing board, that he wants one more opportunity, and that he has the feeling the fans are losing faith in him. That would imply there had been faith in the beginning. Scala said he needs to sit down with Johnny Saint and ask for that opportunity.
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NXT UK Women’s title tournament first round match: Jinny defeated Millie McKenzie in 4:51 with a rolling axe kick to advance to the semifinals
Jinny, wrestling’s fashionista, started out in 2015 and trained under Jimmy Havoc at the PROGRESS Projo and was their first graduate. She actually has a bachelor’s degree in psychology, a background in marketing and sales, and a genuine love for fashion and has probably the most fashionable ring outfits, which she seemingly never wears twice either.
Jinny is a regular in PROGRESS, RevPro, wXw, OTT, Pro Wrestling: EVE, and other UK promotions. She is the current PROGRESS Women’s Champion and a former RevPro Undisputed British Women’s Champion. She has her own stable, the House of Couture, in PROGRESS and is also a member of the Schadenfreude stable in Fight Club: Pro, among some of Europe’s finest wrestlers.
At just 18 years of age, McKenzie already has two years of experience under her belt, having trained under Travis Banks and current WWE UK Champion Pete Dunne, who she actually held the Pro Wrestling Revolver Tag Team titles with. She also is one-half of the current Kamikaze Pro Tag Team Champions with Chief Deputy Dunne and a former Defiant Women’s Champion.
McKenzie is a regular in Fight Club: Pro, Attack Pro, Pro Wrestling: EVE, Defiant, PROGRESS, wXw, and RevProm, among many others and is known as the Millie Suplex Machine, as she uses a great variety of suplexes in her matches.
McKenzie countered out of a Jinny headlock, but she received a hard slap by the Fashionista. She came back with a dropkick and a kick to Jinny’s spine and hit a running European uppercut. Jinny came back with a flatliner into the turnbuckles and a chinbar. She went for a surfboard, but McKenzie quickly reached the ropes.
McKenzie came back with a great spear and picked Jinny up for a deadlift release German suplex, followed by another release German suplex. Jinny escaped the attempt for a third one and hit a Japanese arm drag that catapulted McKenzie into the turnbuckles once more. She then hit a rolling axe kick on McKenzie which she set up with a Rainmaker-style grab of the wrist for the victory.
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We took a look back at Jordan Devlin’s comments about Ligero last episode and saw a Ligero video, where he explained that early on he was told that his role would be to be thrown around by bigger guys and how he developed a hybrid style. Ligero vs. Devlin will happen next week.
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Zack Gibson defeated Trent Seven in 12:58 with a small package and some outside help by James Drake
Gibson came out and did a promo, doing his Liverpool’s number one and soon-to-be number one in NXT UK and the world shtick. He said that the Beatles conquered music and the Liverpool Football Club conquered…probably football — but he never got to tell us, as Seven came out at that point.
Gibson already had nuclear heat, as the fans chanted “Shoes off if you hate Gibson” with a passion. Probably half the crowd waved one of their shoes at Gibson.
Seven powered up from a wristlock at the start of the match, but quickly got trapped in a kneebar, which he escaped from. He hit some chops and Gibson fled to ringside and teased walking out, but Tyler Bate came out and made him reconsider.
Back in the ring, Seven was stopped by a double chop to the throat. Gibson started working Seven’s left arm and shoulder, going for a double wristlock and eventually hitting his Keylock Driver for a cover. He followed up with a seated Cobra Clutch variant and a straight arm suplex, right out of Robbie Brookside’s playbook. A chop and slap battle ensued and Seven hit a DDT for another cover.
Gibson came back with an enzuigiri in the corner, but a hard punch by Seven sent him over the top and to the outside. Seven followed with a suicide dive, a snap dragon suplex back in the ring, and a powerbomb. He then locked in a single leg Boston crab, but Gibson made the ropes. Gibson came back with a Saito suplex. They got into another slap and chop battle, until Gibson hit another double chop and followed it up with a clothesline.
Seven came back with a suplex into a slam for a near fall. Gibson went to the ropes and hit a jumping codebreaker and locked in the Shankly Gates. Seven struggled, but he eventually made the ropes. As he was down on the mat close to the apron, Bate reached in to grab his mentor’s hand in a show of moral support and earned a kick to the head by Gibson for that.
Seven hit the Seven Star lariat back in the ring, at which point James Drake came out and rammed Bate into the ring steps. Gibson attempted another Keylock Driver. Seven turned it into a roll-up and went for another single leg Boston crab, but Gibson rolled him up into a small package and Drake grabbed his hands from the outside for leverage, managing to hold Seven down for the pin.
As the heels walked down the ramp together and Bate entered the ring, Wolfgang and the Coffey brothers suddenly attacked Seven and Bate. The fans chanted for Pete Dunne, but he was nowhere to be found.
Mark Coffey and Wolfgang held Bate while Joe Coffey locked Seven into a single leg on his injured leg. They eventually released Bate, who was then taken out by a super stiff lariat that turned him inside out. The heels posed and the show went off the air.