Kenny Williams or Amir Jordan will leave NXT UK after this week’s no-DQ main event, as their rivalry comes to a head.
Quick Results
Ilja Dragunov vs. Dave Mastiff was ruled a no-contest at 1:37 (NR)
Trent Seven pinned Saxon Huxley in 6:01 (***)
Kenny Williams pinned Amir Jordan in 13:50 in a Loser Leaves NXT UK Match (***)
As speculation swirls around the very future of BT Sport – with reports that they’re looking to sell the channel – we’re back at the BT Sport studios in London… Andy Shepherd and Nigel McGuinness are on the call as ever.
Ilja Dragunov vs. Dave Mastiff
Nigel sounds rather hoarse here… and that crowd track just seems off given the status of the opener.
Dragunov charges at Mastiff with a kick at the bell, but the big man tries to smother him with a punch out of a headlock. Ilja escapes and lands another boot, then hauls Mastiff off his feet, but the German suplex is stopped as Mastiff fought free. An elbow weakens Mastiff as Ilja tries for the German suplex again, but this time they back into the corner for a break. Ilja jumps on Mastiff’s back to hit some elbows, but a back bump squashes the Russian… and all of a sudden the bell rings. Mastiff’s been busted open by an elbow to the nose from Dragunov, but the blood letting is enough for them to stop this one in 90-something seconds.
They cut away from Mastiff getting treated to show a profile piece on Xia Brookside. We’re gonna get five of these tonight to build to next week’s gauntlet match…
“Earlier today,” Kenny Williams is reminded by the assistant to the regional manager of the stipulation for his match tonight. Kenny reckons he’ll be the one staying…
Sit-down vignette time with Stevie Turner. She puts over the rest of the women’s division, but says they’re “two-dimensional,” while she’s four-dimensional. She wants to defeat everyone and make it to the top…
“Moments ago,” Ilja blanks the interviewer. When he responds, Dragunov reckoned his lack of self control was what hurt Mastiff…
Also earlier this week, the Gallus lads are having a kickabout as they continue to spray segments at us. Rampage Brown catches their ball and ends up challenging Wolfgang to a match next week. Six segments in twelve minutes… that’s gotta be a rapid-fire record.
Isla Dawn vignette time. Told you we’re getting everyone here.
Supernova Sessions
Finally, we can breathe, I guess? Noam Dar’s got Sha Samuels to keep the double act going as he tells us he doesn’t need any validation from fans who reckons he’s under-rated.
Dar’s guest this week is Nathan Frazer. They mention that Frazer’s already been on as he munches on a breadstick. Dar’s exasperated at the repeat he’s got… meanwhile, Frazer tells us “Ben Carter” was a name he gave himself to avoid his parents finding out. Apparently Nathan Frazer is a better name, as Dar and Sha mock Frazer’s story… Frazer tells us he’s trying to blend styles together as this feels distinctly rushed. Let. It. Breathe. Sha then has a go at Frazer, calling him a fraud for having the Union Jack on his gear and entrance video. This then led to Dar calling out Frazer for a Heritage Cup Rules match… which gets a really weird applause/whooping track as Frazer accepts.
Vignette time for next week’s gauntlet. It’s Jinny’s turn now. If you’ve been following the NXT UK Twitter account, you’ll have seen these.
Backstage, the assistant to the regional manager quizzes Amir Jordan and reminds us again that it’s loser leaves town.
Another vignette for the Subculture trio of Flash Morgan Webster, Dani Luna and Mark Andrews. They’ve got shirts and slogans ready.
Segment twelve… We’ve a vignette of A-Kid and Tyler Bate re-watching their first match from last year – the one with crowds. They give some commentary of it, like a director’s cut, before jumping to their Heritage Cup match not too long ago… Tyler calls out the moment he thought he’d lost, when he lost self-belief, and reckons he’s learnt more from that loss than the first win. An effective piece of tape to hype up the Heritage Cup match in a rather different way.
Dani Luna vignette time…
Commentary tells us Dave Mastiff broke his nose in that opener…
Saxon Huxley vs. Trent Seven
Huxley got the already in the ring treatment, and I don’t like his chances. There’s a political joke to be made about his home town of Hartlepool… but it’s a bit of a softball.
Huxley takes Trent into the corner, but misses a lock-up before he clobbered Trent with some right hands as Trent got winded to the mat. Seven’s crossbody eventually takes Huxley down, as did a slam, ahead of a leg drop for a two-count, but Saxon returns with a leaping knee and a Thesz press to turn it around. An elbow drop gets Saxon a two-count as he took Trent to the corner for some face-washing boots. Another boot follows from the floor, but Huxley decides to break the count-out when Trent looked nailed on to lose. Luckily, Huxley hits a Cactus Jack-ish elbow off the apron, before rolling Trent back inside to claim a two-count.
Seven fires back with chops, but gets caught in the throat, before returning with a DDT as he faked out another chop. All of a sudden, Sam Gradwell appears on the video screen to distract Trent. Huxley couldn’t capitalise immediately, but manages to hit a Baldo Bomb for a near-fall on Seven, before a missed kick hangs Huxley in the ropes… allowing Trent to hit a half-and-half suplex before the Seven Stars lariat got the win. A decent TV match, with the distraction trope being a curveball as we continue to wait for Huxley to get a big win… ***
We’ve another vignette for next week’s gauntlet, this time for Emilia McKenzie.
“Moments ago,” we’ve footage of Amale attacking Xia Brookside backstage. Commentary suggests that Amale was angry at being overlooked… and there’s questions over Xia’s fitness for next week.
Also next week: they confirm Noam Dar vs. Nathan Frazer in Heritage Cup rules…
No Disqualification, Loser Leaves NXT UK: Kenny Williams vs. Amir Jordan
Today’s Amir Jordan’s birthday… and I have a bad feeling, knowing how WWE do special occasions…
Williams roughs up Jordan into the corner to start, as there’s a lot of mind games with the Scotsman trying to get under his former tag partner’s skin. Jordan manages to throw Williams into the corner, barely getting a two-count from that before Kenny hits an overhead kick to Jordan’s taped-up shoulder. The focus stays on the arm as Williams kicks Jordan in the ropes, before some crossface punches wore down Amir ahead of an armbar attempt. Williams lets go and just throws Jordan outside as commentary keeps mentioning how Amir gave up a “lucrative career” to become a wrestler.
Williams grabs a chair and lays out Jordan with it, before the PROGRESS toolbox got thrown into the ring. No weapons are pulled out from it as Williams took Jordan back into the corner and into the Tree of Woe, before he found a turnbuckle iron and sat down to give us a soliloquy. Jordan blocks the turnbuckle iron as Williams went to use it after that mid-match promo, before freeing himself and diving on Kenny with a tope. Williams quickly recovers to post Jordan, shoulder-first, before he pulled up the padding from the floor and teased a snapmare driver to the floor.
Jordan fought out, but gets tossed into the barriers, before he back body drops Williams into the no-crowd. They brawl around where Noam Dar’s set usually is, with Jordan pushing a wheel case into Williams, before Williams got thrown behind a conveniently-placed table… Williams finds a fire extinguisher and blasts Jordan with the gases, blinding him as a release back suplex dumped Amir through that table. Jordan’s screaming in pain from his shoulder, but doesn’t give up as Williams took the match back to the ring. A turnbuckle pad’s thrown off as they give us the heavily signposted callback, but Jordan blocks a throw into the exposed corner and nearly wins with a sunset flip… only to run into the exposed corner before a facebuster gets Williams another near-fall.
The pair scrap onto the apron, with the exposed floor below… Williams teases a German suplex off the apron, but Jordan elbows free, only to get punched in the knee as Williams tries to powerbomb him. That went nowhere as Jordan slips out and suplexes the Scotsman on the floor, before they went back inside, with Jordan going up top for a senton bomb to the back. It lands, but Kenny kicks out at two, so Jordan sets up a chair and threw Williams’ head into it. Williams throws the chair at Jordan as he went up top, but it’s caught and thrown back, only for Williams to hit the ropes and crotch Jordan… from there, the snapmare driver lands on the chair, and that’s Amir Jordan’s NXT UK career over. This felt a little too much of that “forced epic,” with a lot of recent NXT tropes coming in – on its own, this was alright, but the whole break-up through to this was just rushed. ***
Williams gloats in the aisle as Jordan looked on despondent in the ring, breaking down in tears. I’m not sure of the background behind this, but I wish this was something they could have done in front of a crowd if this really was Jordan’s farewell.
I write these reports as the show happens, and they genuinely packed in so much stuff, I lost track after twenty minutes of rapid-fire STUFF. After the strong shows earlier this year, it almost felt like there was someone new formatting these… and regardless of who did, to borrow a saying, this wasn’t it, chief. I get they have the gauntlet match to build up but surely blending those vignettes into one would have been more effective than five blink-and-you’ll-miss-it efforts?