Kay Lee Ray puts up her NXT UK Women’s title this week against Piper Niven, as the Heritage Cup brackets get drawn.
Quick Results
WALTER pinned Saxon Huxley in 6:09 (**½)
Sam Stoker & Lewis Howley pinned Wild Boar & Primate in 8:00 (**¾)
Kay Lee Ray pinned Piper Niven to retain the NXT UK Women’s Championship in 14:22 (***½)
We’re back inside the BT Sports Studios in London, as we open up with a recap of last week’s return – albeit in reverse order. This week, Pete Dunne helps draw the brackets for the Heritage Cup, while Kay Lee Ray and Piper Niven finally clash.
Cue titles, with flashes of Jordan Devlin and Tyler Bate – two names that haven’t been directly named on this show lately. We open with the assistant to the regional manager chatting with the entrants in the Heritage Cup. Noam Dar has his phone swatted away by Trent as I guess they’re all wondering who the mystery man is. It was a load of noise.
Andy Shepherd and Nigel McGuinness are on commentary.
WALTER vs. Saxon Huxley
This is non-title, as Nigel McGuinness tells us that while the world has changed forever, WALTER’s stayed constant. I mean, yeah, they didn’t strip any champions.
Huxley’s painted as the latest coming of Bruiser Brody it seems, and after shrugging off an early choke attempt, he tried to launch at WALTER… but the Austrian quickly sweeps him down with a hiptoss before clotheslining him to the outside. WALTER keeps knocking an enraged Huxley off the apron, which just winds up the Hartlepool lad even more. So much so that he threatens to throw the ring steps into the ring. Eventually Huxley’s able to get back onto the apron, where he caught a crossface punch from WALTER before returning with some boots. He’s able to slam WALTER as they quietly try to put the steps back together… before Huxley hits the top rope for a flying clothesline that gets him a near-fall.
WALTER rolls outside for respite, but he’s joined by Huxley, who runs in with a Thesz Press and some punches a la Steve Austin. Saxon breaks the referee’s count, but misses a running kick by the guard rails and ends up getting chopped by WALTER. A rear naked choke is quickly broken, as WALTER’s thrown into the other set of ring steps… but rather than take the count out, Huxley resets it, then ran into a slam by WALTER. A PK to the back keeps Huxley down, as do some chops as WALTER looks pissed off. There’s a backdrop suplex onto the barricades, and a powerbomb onto the edge of the ring, which led to WALTER going back into the ring in search of a count-out. Somehow, Huxley beats the count, but ends up eating some chops as WALTER kept him at close quarters… Saxon tries to fight back, but he’s caught with a rear naked choke, then a release German suplex as he was sent flying.
Stomps keep Huxley down as Nigel rattled off some luminaries from All Japan… a butterfly superplex has Huxley flying, with WALTER looking to get the stoppage, before a chop and a folding powerbomb finally put Saxon away. There he goes. A competitive squash, sorta, with Huxley looking decent in the offence he got, but this was as definitive as it comes. **½
Post-match, WALTER’s ranting about the times he’s beaten Ilja Dragunov. Problem is, his music drowned out a lot of this…
Backstage, Kay Lee Ray is pacing… then we see Saxon Huxley staggering back into the basement. Jack Starz wishes him better luck for next time, but that just sets off Saxon.
They go through the Heritage Cup names, recapping the classic British rules that all fans nowadays are familiar with… right? Eh, it’s a rare throwback to the past from WWE, and now we have the drawing. The Assistant to the Regional Manager is doing this like a FA Cup draw, but first introduces (business casual) Pete Dunne to handle the balls. Pete says a few words, saying that the tournament field have their turn to follow in the likes of Johnny Saint and Rollerball Rocco, before we get the brackets:
Joseph Conners vs. Dave Mastiff
Wildcard vs. Trent Seven
Flash Morgan Webster vs. A-Kid
Alexander Wolfe vs. Noam Dar
It really was handy that everyone in the draw happened to be standing on the right side of the ring for the staredowns, eh? Dar (and his Stone Island patch) tried to crack Wolfe with the ball bag, but Dunne stops him and throws the Scotsman out of the ring. The Heritage Cup starts next week.
Dani Luna and Xia Brookside are giving Piper Niven a pep talk backstage…
The Hunt (Primate & Wild Boar) vs. Pretty Deadly (Sam Stoker & Lewis Howley)
Hey, the women aren’t on second this week! Instead it’s a match from the tag division as we try to figure out who’s next on the list for Gallus.
Boar and Stoker start, and it’s Boar who starts with a chinlock on Stoker, before switching it up by yanking the arm as he looked to pull him to the mat. Stoker flips free, but runs into an armdrag for a quick one-count, before Primate came in to springboard onto the left arm of Stoker. Arm wringers and a punch to the arm follows, but Stoker swings to get free as a tag brings in Howley. Howley knees Primate as he proceeded to throw him into the corner… but Primate tries to get back in, before he got taken down with a headlock takedown. Howley celebrates too soon and gets elbows down by Primate, before a slam led to Boar coming in for an assisted back senton for a two-count.
A log roll from Boar nearly trips Howley, but he recovers before Stoker pulled Boar into the top rope. That sets up some double-teaming before Stoker tagged back in, quickly landing a back suplex for a two-count as some punches to the head kept wearing down Boar. A capture powerbomb from Boar helps him get a two-count, but Stoker keeps him away before Howley tagged in to keep the Boar isolated. Howley uses a chinbar on Wild Boar, but a springboard crossbody out of the corner backfires as Boar rolls through for a near-fall. Pretty Deadly get back on top quickly, with Stoker tagging back in, but Boar fights out of the corner before he was caught with another slam from Stoker.
We’re back to Howley, who heads up top, but he leapt into Boar’s boot… Stoker tags in quickly, but loses Boar, who brings Primate back in. Primate clears house with double-handed chops and an overhead suplex to Stoker, following up with corner-to-corner lariats and a springboard senton to Stoker. A tope wipes out Howley before a flying elbow took Stoker down… before Boar tagged back in for the double splash finish. Howley breaks it up, and gets taken outside with a Cactus Jack-like clothesline from Primate, as Boar’s splash off the top nearly ends it. Primate charges at Howley on the floor, but ends up getting thrown into the barriers, as Howley came in to distract the referee… who misses a visual pin as Boar got a roll-up. Boar breaks the pin to knock Howley off the apron, only to fall victim to a roll-up as Pretty Deadly eke out the win. A decent enough TV match, but the hectic finish didn’t give much credibility to the refs who never usually enforce the legal man to that extent. **¾
Eddie Dennis appears at ringside to have a chat with Pretty Deadly – he says something to them, then walks away. At a guess… he’s offering his help?
Backstage, the Hunt are raging at their loss. They bump into Flash Morgan Webster and Mark Andrews, who tell them that their bad luck will end soon. We then turn around to the Assistant to the Regional Manager and Pete Dunne talking things over – Dunne’s gonna be special guest referee for Dar vs. Wolfe. O-kay…
They announce the wildcard for the Heritage Cup will be determined in a three-way match next week…
NXT UK Women’s Championship: Piper Niven vs. Kay Lee Ray (c)
They do the main event entrances, and have bigged this up by giving Kay Lee and Piper Takeover-like side screens in the entrance way.
We start with the pair circling each other ahead of a lock-up, which is shrugged off by the champion. Niven shoves Kay Lee into the corner, but Ray powders outside, then returned to work over an armbar on Niven as she tried to take her to the mat. It’s switched into a key lock, but Niven powers up and tries to slam Kay Lee away, only to get thrown shoulder-first into the corner. Kay Lee works the left arm, yanking it over her shoulder before going in with an armbar. We’re back to the double wristlock, but this time Niven reverses as Ray’s thrown into the corner… only for Kay Lee to come rolling back, grabbing the leg, as she’s then pushed into the ropes for a shoulder tackle.
A hiptoss front he ropes has Kay Lee on the back foot, before a cobra clutch kept the champion down, with Niven throwing in body scissors on the mat as she looked to force a submission, but Kay Lee Ray slips free and began to work on Niven’s legs on the mat, tying them up as she rolled into an Indian deathlock to wrench on the knees. Niven responds by hiptossing Kay Lee Ray over the top rope to the floor. She follows outside, but gets caught with a tornado DDT off the apron as Kay Lee went back into the ring… then out so she could break the count. Oh, and throw Niven into the ring steps. She misses a charge as Ray runs knee-first into the steps, which led to the referee calling for help for Kay Lee… and Niven throwing a fit as she suspected that her big match was going to be called off through no fault of her own.
Of course, it’s not quite a con because referees Artemis and Chris Sharpe help up Kay Lee… and she shrugs them off to go after a disconsolate Niven. With a crowd, that’d have totally worked, but for now, they head back into the ring with Niven wheeling away with punches before a standing half crab ended with Ray grabbing the ropes. Ray slaps her leg to get feeling in, and it’s enough to crack Piper with a superkick. Kay Lee heads up top and hits a senton bomb, landing on Niven’s legs for a two-count, but Niven’s right back to sweep away the legs for a two-count of her own. A slap and a thrust kick gives Kay Lee Ray another opening, but it does more damage to her before Niven stomped back at the leg some more.
Kay Lee pulls away the turnbuckle pad – the referee stops himself from reattaching the pad to check on Ray as she was in another elevated half crab. The hold’s broken, as Niven lost a Piper Driver, then slipped out of a Gory Bomb before hitting the Piper Driver for a near-fall – with Ray getting a foot on the rope just in time. Niven goes for a Vader Bomb, but just lands in Ray’s knees – which of course, makes it worse. She refuses to let the ref call it off, and manages to side-step as Niven hits a cannonball into the still-exposed corner… and that’s enough for Kay Lee to steal the win as she made the cover to retain the title. With a crowd, this match definitely would have been boosted – and while the story of Niven showing “too much compassion” to her was a little odd, it’s another win that shows that Kay Lee Ray will capitalise on anything to retain her title. ***½
After the match, Jinny appeared at ringside to stare at Kay Lee Ray – and that’s likely our next feud as we fade out on another serviceable episode of NXT UK. They ticked the boxes to highlight all three title pictures – while also covering the Heritage Cup. I don’t get why the wildcard three-way wasn’t announced as such from the off, but it is what it is – a mystery three-way. It is what it is, and it’s not helped with the crowd noise they do pump in at times coming from the “charitable cheers” folder…