Pretty Deadly defend their NXT UK tag team titles this week, taking on Amir Jordan and Kenny Williams as all roads lead to Prelude.
Quick Results
Aoife Valkyrie pinned Stevie Turner in 4:46 (**¼)
Teoman submitted Josh Morrell in 5:22 (**¼)
Lewis Howley & Sam Stoker pinned Amir Jordan & Kenny Williams in 15:23 (***½)
Yep, it’s the BT Sport studio in London again, for the final show before Prelude. It’s straight in with the opening titles, as Nigel McGuinness and Andy Shepherd are on the call…
Aoife Valkyrie vs. Stevie Turner
Turner is the former Bobbi Tyler, whose signing hasn’t been formally announced by WWE – and was only noticed when she changed her Twitter handle last month. The “futuristic” Turner got an inset promo as they acknowledged her past with the Tokyo Cyber Squad. Careful there, Nigel…
Valkyrie opens with a side headlock, but Turner counters with one of her own before Valkyrie returned with an attempted overhead wristlock. Turner blocks and takes her to the mat, following in with an armbar… but Valkyrie gets free and returned with a dropkick. Kicks take Turner into the ropes, but she returns with a trip as she went after Valkyrie’s leg… ultimately taking her into the corner for a running uppercut. Turner pulls Valkyrie out of the corner for a two-count, then rolled her up… and drilled the knee into the mat. Valkyrie boots Turner away as the Irishwoman came back with a single-legged dropkick off the middle rope for a two-count. An axe kick and an enziguiri followed for a two-count, before another floatover out of the corner saw Turner surprise Valkyrie with a back cracker for a near-fall.
Kicks from Turner wake up Valkyrie, who replied with some overhand fists and a spinning leg lariat, before the Peripeteia flying axe kick got the win. This felt like a fresh match-up, but I wasn’t keen on Turner just debuting out of nowhere. It’s another win for Valkyrie though, who weirdly continues to expect defeat… **¼
We get clips of A-Kid winning the Heritage Cup last year – and his shoot name being thrown around as he did the Spanish media rounds. A-Kid’s going to watch Prelude next week to find out who his next challenger for the Heritage Cup will be…
Earlier this week, Jack Starz was eagerly training at the UK PC. He’s set up some routines for he and Piper Niven to do… she has to yell at him to calm down, saying “there’s more to wrestling than working out.” We then get a montage of Niven having Jack Starz beat down a punching bag, like a kid wrestling with a pillow. Apparently it’s meant to bring out a more aggressive side of him…
Pretty Deadly are warming up…
Josh Morrell vs. Teoman
Teoman’s already beaten Danny Jones, so it’s Josh’s turn this week…
Teoman works the wrist of Morrell to start, then held on as Josh tried to backflip free. Eventually Morrell manages to flip free, then rolled away Teoman ahead of a dropkick before he took the German into the corner. After the break, Teoman SLAPPED Morrell, then pushed him away ahead of an eventual low dropkick. A stomp to the knee keeps Morrell down… Josh tries to fight back, but a body blow has him back down ahead of a sliding elbow. There’s a neck crank from Teoman too, before a handspring back elbow dumps Morrell for a near-fall. More stomps follow, but Morrell has another fight back, throwing some rights before Teoman’s elbow connected.
They trade strikes, with Morrell pushing ahead, but Teoman reverses an Irish whip before running into a Cornish hipe for a near-fall. Morrell escapes a slam and tries a prawn hold… that gets a near-fall, before Teoman blocks a standing moonsault with his knees. Another low dropkick has Morrell down before a missile dropkick to the back of Morrell’s head led to a stomp to the back… then the front… before a crossface got the submission. A squash straight out of 90s WWF Superstars and Wrestling Challenge, with Morrell looking real good, as Teoman’s waiting for his first big feud. **¼
The Assistant to the Regional Manager’s looking heavily Instagram filtered as they do a face-off between WALTER and Rampage Brown. WALTER coaxes them into saying he’s the best NXT UK champion… while Rampage called this a “job.” WALTER replied saying it was “his life,” and that he didn’t respect Rampage. The discussion on this low-res version of Table for 3 led to WALTER accusing Rampage of riding on his coat tails, before they reached a snarling climax.
Kay Lee Ray’s heading to the ring now…
But first, we need a Gallus video segment. They’re doing fighting in pub car parks it seems, inbetween training. My Network started acting up here, with So. Much. Ghosting. Wolfgang won his fight.
Kenny Williams and Amir Jordan are warming up…
Finally, Kay Lee Ray finds her way to ringside. She bragged about asking for the best, and not only getting it… but she beat Meiko Satomura and confounded her critics. She’s interrupted by a debuting/returning Millie McKenzie, who tells us she’s been travelling, training and waiting for her moment. She wants to beat the best “very soon,” and I guess that’s Kay Lee’s next feud. Except probably not, because Isla Dawn ran in from nowhere to attack Millie as Kay Lee Ray watched on… before Meiko Satomura ran out to make the save as the Scottish lasses were ran off.
Noam Dar promises to win his Heritage Cup rules match next week against Tyler Bate as we get a mini training montage of Tyler and Dar.
“During the break,” Kay Lee Ray and Isla Dawn are interrupted a lot. They’re booked against Meiko Satomura and Emilia McKenzie at Prelude. I guess they really did rename Millie and it wasn’t slips of the tongue.
Next week: Dar vs. Bate under Heritage Cup Rules… Emilia McKenzie & Meiko Satomura vs. Kay Lee Ray & Isla Dawn… A-Kid speaks… Jordan Devlin speaks… Ilja Dragunov too… plus Rampage Brown vs. WALTER for the NXT UK title.
NXT UK Tag Team Championship: Amir Jordan & Kenny Williams vs. Pretty Deadly (Sam Stoker & Lewis Howley) (c)
Remember in recent weeks, we’ve had hints of Kenny Williams perhaps turning. Wonder if that’ll lead to anything today.
Howley and Jordan start… but a yank of the arm didn’t lead to much as Stoker tagged in, with Jordan breaking away. A shoulder tackle from Stoker takes down Jordan, who replies with some dropkicks before a backslide led to a quick one-count. Tags bring us to Williams and Howley, whose shoving match in the corner led to Howley working over Williams’ wrist, but Kenny gets free to trip Howley before dropping an elbow on the leg. Howley’s back as Stoker tagged in to double-arm whip Williams down for a two-count, as a standing armbar from Stoker looked to lead to a slam. Kenny escapes and hits an armdrag, then an armbar before bringing Jordan in to work over the limb. Jordan and Williams wring Stoker’s arm before an attempted fightback ended with Jordan’s double dropkick.
A clothesline takes Howley to the outside, while Williams’ flying back elbow has Stoker on the floor as we get a fake break. The champions regroup, but things fall apart again with a crossbody from Jordan… only for Howley to swipe him away. A back suplex from Jordan led to Stoker tagging in… and a quick chase on the outside leads to Stoker clotheslining Amir on the floor. Back inside, Stoker gets a two-count, before double-teaming in the form of a splash and a leg drop gets Stoker another near-fall. Jordan tries to fight back against Howley, but he’s tripped down ahead of a slingshot into the corner… but Amir lands on his feet and kicks Howley away… only for Stoker to push Amir down. The double-teaming continues in the champion’s corner, but Amir crawls to freedom and makes the tag out as Williams clears house with back elbows.
Stomps keep Stoker on the deck, with a bulldog and an airy springboard double back elbow having the champions down. A dropkick through the ropes knocks Howley into the barriers, while a tope has Stoker down… but back inside, Williams’ crossbody is caught, before he countered into a ‘rana for a near-fall. Jordan’s back in, but some criss-cross diving attacks from the champion lead to Howley’s diving uppercut almost putting Amir away. Amir fights back and brings Williams back in as a wheelbarrow facebuster from Williams, and a Jordan senton bomb looked to lead to a win… especially with Williams’ tornado DDT, but Howley kicks out at two to keep the titles alive as we have another fake break.
Williams gets stunned with a jawbreaker from Howley… but he’s able to make the tag out. Jordan slingshots in but runs into a Stoker DDT as things were getting too wild to keep up with… and then, a ref bump. With no ref, Williams throws in the title belts and tries to get Jordan to use them. Amir refuses, so Kenny goes to “do it himself”… he’s talked out of it, but then just lays out Jordan with the belt instead. Williams walks out on the match, and it’s elementary from there as Pretty Deadly get the win with a Hart Attack neckbreaker. A fun match, but it was always going to be somewhat overshadowed with the angle at the end. Predictable doesn’t always mean bad – this angle was clear as day, and it’ll likely lead to Williams vs. Jordan next. ***½
A somewhat low-key episode at least on paper this week, with a fair amount of spotlight being put on the women’s division. The return of Millie McKenzie – under a new name – and the debut of Stevie Turner does add to an already-packed female roster, which is going to be the big challenge: how on earth do you mix up the big names and the rising stars without putting too many on the back burner for too long?