WWE NXT UK results: Tyler Bate vs. Wolfgang
By Markus Gronemann for F4WOnline.com
Show Overview:
Ligero, “Wild Boar” Mike Hitchman, Dakota Kai, Killer Kelly, Ashton Smith, Tucker, Tyler Bate, and Wolfgang all made their regular NXT in-ring UK debuts. Ligero got to show his athleticism and experience in a quick match while the women only scratched at the surface of showing what they are capable off. Smith looked fine and Bate and Wolfgang had a very good main event match, built around their respective sizes.
We also had a strong promo by Zack Gibson, leading to a match with Noam Dar next week. The UK women’s title keeps getting teased but nothing specific is being announced. In all, we had just under 24 minutes of wrestling on this 60 minute show, which might get better once the tapings get into a regular groove and the undercard matches are being given more than five minutes.
Note that the show was taped on July 28-29 at the Cambridge Corn Exchange in Cambridge/Cambridgeshire, UK. The first match was taped on the second day of tapings while all other matches were from the first day.
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Show Recap:
Nigel McGuiness and Vic Joseph introduce the show and hype us up for our main event: the “Big Strong Boi” Tyler Bate taking on the howling Scotsman, Wolfgang.
Ligero pinned “Wild Boar” Mike Hitchman in 4:52 with a springboard tornado DDT
Ligero was beloved by the fans and was wearing a horned mask with a Union Jack design. The veteran from Leeds has been around since 2003 and is only 33 now, having wrestled for pretty much every European under the sun: PROGRESS, RevPro, ICW, IPW:UK, Southside, Defiant, All-Star Wrestling… you name it, he’s been there. We were told that in 2016, he had 288 matches and wrestled for “200 different promotions” in 17 countries (well, maybe take that one with a grain of salt). But, he probably legit is one of the most experienced journeyman wrestlers in Europe in the past 20 years.
Hitchman, from South Wales, is no newbie either, having been around since 2009, he’s been a regular for ICW, ATTACK! Pro, Dragon Pro Wrestling, and Pro Wrestling Chaos, among others. He also is the current ATTACK! Champion, beating out Morgan Webster, who he also is teaming with as The 198 and currently holds the Dragon Pro tag team titles with. His entrance gear also sports teeth and other body parts from boars, so he looks bad-ass. We are told he lost his own teeth breaking up a bar fight between four other dudes.
“The Boar” attacked right away, but Liegero escaped and hit a beautiful huracanrana, standing moonsault, and missile dropkick from the middle rope. Hitchman came back with an exploder and kind of a GTS without using a knee but just the mat to break Ligero’s fall. An inverted Tumbleweed by “The Boar” got him a near fall as did a pop-up power bomb. In the end, Ligero jumped over a corner charge, hit a stiff kick to Hitchman’s knee and a nice looking springboard tornado DDT for the win in just under five minutes. Both looked good here and I can see Ligero being a hit with fans seeing him for the first time and especially being marketable to kids as the never-say-die underdog in a kind of El Generico kind of role.
Before the next match, we got short video packages on Daktoa Kai and Killer Kelly. Dakota’s package focused on her past appearances in NXT and the Mae Young Classic, her quick style, and hard strikes. Kelly also got a short introduction, also based around her striking ability.
There also was a promo for the next round of NXT UK tapings at the Olympia in Liverpool on November 24-25. Moustache Mountain, Toni Storm, Zack Gibson, Mark Andrews and Pete Dunne were announced, so I guess we’ll find out more about how tight WWE and wXw really are, as Storm is scheduled to wrestle Melanie Gray for the wXw Women’s title at Broken Rules XVIII in Dresden on November 17 and as reported in the August 13 edition of the Observer, talent isn’t allowed on any shows up to seven days prior to WWE tapings.
Dakota Kai defeated Killer Kelly in 4:11 with a sunset flip/inverted backstabber
The fans adored Kai, who sat on the barrier and slapped hands with fans during her entrance. She can be considered almost a veteran as she started out 10 years ago with Impact Pro Wrestling in her native New Zealand and Pro Wrestling Australia before making her way to the U.S. with SHIMMER and SHINE before wrestling with Stardom and Sendai girls in Japan and PROGRESS in the UK. She also was part of the Mae Young Classic and has been a regular on NXT since June of last year.
Kelly, on the other hand, has come really far, really fast. A graphic designer by trade, she started out in her native Portugal in 2016 and mostly wrestled men as there weren’t many female trainees around. While she trained some martial arts and MMA, she basically was a rookie and when she first came to Germany to train at the wXw Academy in early 2017 for a week and was so enamored by the experience that she and her then-boyfriend RAFA moved to Germany full-time in October of 2017. She was part of the tournament to crown the wXw women’s champion during the fall and a number of injuries and other circumstances led to her actually becoming the first-ever champion one day before Christmas Eve.
By early 2018, she had debuted for PROGRESS, Pro Wrestling EVE, and RevPro. While she lost the wXw title to Toni Storm in January, WWE came calling and she took part in the UK Championship Tournament back in June, was in this year’s Mae Young Classic, and is now a roster of NXT UK.
Nigel told us that Dakota follows other New Zealand wrestlers such as the Bushwackers, Tony Garea, and Pat O’Connor. The announcers also mentioned how she had suffered an injury at the hands of NXT’s Shayna Baszler. They started with an intense lock up sequence before Dakota did a cool sequence in the corner, jumping out of a charging Kelly’s way, landing on the ropes and horizontally spinning down into a roll up before she went for a quick takedown and a double foot stomp.
Kelly showed some of her striking ability with a number of kicks, big boots, and some nice ground and pound from the mount. She applied a surfboard into a dragon sleeper and Dakota ate the mat after she tried to counter out of it. Daktoa then countered a German suplex attempt into a roll up, but Kelly hit her with a stiff release German on the second try. For the finishing sequence, Dakota hit two stiff facewasher kicks into the corner, and then hit a cool looking sunset flip into an inverted backstabber for the pin. This was a good match but way too short as both of these women are able to do more when given the chance.
Radzi Chinyanganya conducted a post-match interview with Dakota who said that nothing compared to wrestling before the UK fans and that she wants the NXT UK women’s title.
Vic and Nigel take us back to the Royal Albert Hall in June where Zack Gibson beat Travis Banks for a shot at Pete Dunne’s WWE UK title. We also got another WWE Shop commercial.
We got another Eddie Dennis video package where he again talked about coming up with Pete Dunne and Mark Andrews, but him being older than them, and while he had to make money and had a career as the principal of an elite boy’s school, Dunne and Andrews lived at home and got to live their dreams of becoming wrestlers, going to the U.S. and Japan. Then in January of 2017, he watched them perform for WWE the first time without him and how they lived their collective dream without him and how they thought that made him feel.
Zack Gibson in-ring segment
Gibson came out to massive boos. He said that soon he would be the world’s no. 1 and more importantly, NXT UK’s no. 1. He beat Flash Morgan Webster, Jack Gallagher, and Travis Banks to win a title shot and with no rest and no time to prepare, faced Dunne and took him to his limit. He said that a fresh Zack Gibson can beat a fresh Pete Dunne on any night, but it wasn’t just him versus Pete, it was him versus Pete and the fans, who put him off every chance they got.
The officals didn’t give him the rematch he deserved, but gave a title shot to Noam Dar, who let the title slip “through his poor dislocated fingers”. He told Dunne that the next time they face, things will be very different, that he is the future, and will lead the brand into the future as he has the face to build a brand around. He said that Dar was an embarrassment in the Cruiserweight Classic, on 205 Live and in NXT UK and when you search for Dar on the Internet, you find him doing one of his rotten poses. At that point, Dar came out to a big pop.
Just as he was about to enter the ring, NXT UK general manager Johnny Saint came out and told them to “not even think about it” and ordered both men into his office. Saint is great and the difference between he and Stephanie McMahon emasculating talent is that even at age 78, you can believe that Saint will go into the ring and stretch the living hell out of everyone not complying with his orders.
We got a video package on Ashton Smith from Birmingham, who talked about his style being pure aggression and fire, that he was a roughneck brawler, and had more fight than anybody else in him and would do whatever he had to. This was followed by a video on Story Time.
Radzi Chinyanganya was backstage with Travis Banks, who talked about how his martial arts training got him to NXT and how at Royal Albert Hall, he was attacked by the Coffey Brothers and was looking for revenge now.
Ashton Smith beat Tucker in 4:14 with the Ash Cloud
Smith started out in 2007 and wrestled for ICW, Preston City Wrestling, and FutureShock Wrestling among others. He held the FutureShock title for almost one year, beating Zack Gibson to win it. We were told that Drake Maverick took Ashton under his wing. Tucker, from Belfast, was a fighter literally from birth, being born eight weeks premature and only given 26 hours to live by doctors. He came up in 2006 and mostly wrestled in Northern Ireland and Ireland for Pro Wrestling Ulster and is also a regular for OTT.
Ashton looked crisp early on with snapmare, an effortless arm drag, and a high sunset flip. After a super kick by Tucker, they traded pinfall attempts. Ashton hit a beautiful dropkick and a high belly to back suplex. For the finishing sequence, Ashton hit a high knee into the corner, followed that up with another kick, and hit his Ash Cloud ripcord DDT for the win. Ashton looked good here and got to show his natural athletic abilities.
We got a video package for Danny Burch who had quite the journey in the UK and the U.S. He said that he didn’t come from much, nothing came easy to him, and that he fought, scratched and clawed for any opportunity. They showed his lariats and he mentioned he had a mean streak, spent 15 years in the business, and had experience, training and knowledge. He said that people in London would know he was one of their own. He debuts next week.
There was another package hyping the Evolution PPV. Stephanie McMahon mentioning 50 women on the card was still left in. They then showed Saint announcing via Twitter that Gibson and Dar would wrestle next week.
Tyler Bate beat Wolfgang 10:23 with the Tyler Driver ’97
Bate, at only 21 years old, is already a seven-year veteran. Trained by Dave Mastiff and Trent Seven, he started out in 2012 and honed his skills throughout the UK. By 2014, he also traveled to Germany for wXw and in 2016, he and then-girlfriend Toni Storm had an extended stay at the wXw Academy, living and training under WALTER in Germany for a few months. His career really took off from there and he soon wrestled on a regular basis in PROGRESS, RevPro, ICW, Attack!, Southside, and many more.
He appeared at the first UK Championship tournament in January 2017 and promptly was crowned the inaugural WWE UK champion, beating Pete Dunne in the finals. He became a semi-regular mainstay on NXT and had some of the best matches in WWE in 2017 and 2018, both in singles and tag team competition. He also is a former wXw Shotgun champion and a two-time PROGRESS tag team champion with Trent Seven.
Wolfgang is a 16 year veteran, starting out with British Championship Wrestling and ICW in Scotland where he also spent most of his career and was known as “The Regulator”. A phone call by Jake Roberts got him into wrestling and he trained with Drew McIntyre early in his career. He is both a former ICW world champion and ICW Zero-G champion.
Wolfgang started out with power moves and mocked Tyler with a howl. Bate applied a headlock but Wolfgang just picked him up and put him down on the apron and mockingly howled again. Bate went for a test of strength and initially looked like he was losing, but came back and eventually managed to use the mat to escape. He hit a beautiful kip up, dropkick, kip up sequence and mocked Wolfgang, twirling his moustache. After some back and forth, Wolfgang dropped Tyler onto the ropes from a vertical suplex position, injuring his ribs, which he promptly worked over some more with kicks. Tyler sold the ribs well and was caught in a bear-hug but managed to escape.
A striking combination cut Wolfgang down to size and a flying European uppercut from the middle rope added some more damage. Bate tried for an exploder, but Wolfgang blocked it and was looking to throw Bate to ringside, but the smaller man catapulted himself off the ropes, leaping into them by his beck and shoulders and using the momentum for a lariat. He repeated this twice more and got the big man to his knees and managed to pick him up for the airplane spin and followed that with a beautiful running shooting star press for a near-fall. Wolfgang reversed a Tyler Driver ’97 attempt, but Tyler flipped out of that and landed on his feet.
Wolfgang hit a huge release German that spun Tyler by 270 degrees and Wolfgang followed that up with a spear that also looked like a running uranage for a near-fall of his own. After a failed superplex attempt, Wolfgang missed a big back senton off the top, allowing Bate to hit a rolling capo kick and the Tyler Driver ’97 for the clean pin. He posed as the show went off the air.
Conclusion:
This was a fun show but not quite as good as the debut which had a stronger opener with the Coffey/Andrews match. While both main events were excellent, the title match had more drama, and more charisma by Dar. The women keep underwhelming, which isn’t their fault but the little time their matches are given. I’d still recommend you watch if you have the time as the video packages are generally good and insightful and the Gibson promo was pretty good, both from the heat he got and his staccato-like, huffing and puffing delivery.