It’s all about the titles on NXT UK this week, as we’ve a Heritage Cup defence along with Meiko Satomura’s first defence of the NXT UK Women’s title…
Quick Results
Teoman & Rohan Raja submitted Oliver Carter & Ashton Smith in 8:53 (***¼)
Meiko Satomura pinned Amale to retain the NXT UK Women’s Championship in 7:16 (***)
Tyler Bate beat Mark Coffey X by 2 falls to 1 at 0:57 of Round 5 to retain the NXT UK Heritage Cup (***¼)
We open with an “in memory of” graphic for Paul Orndorff… and then we’re with Triple H, hyping up next week’s rematch between WALTER and Ilja Dragunov.
We’re back at the BT Sport studios in London, with actual press. talkSPORT’s Alex McCarthy. BBC Radio 1Xtra’s Ace. The Metro’s Alistair McGeorge. Bloody hell. WALTER’s asked if he sees Ilja as a threat… which he does not because WALTER’s here to represent wrestling his way. Not sure why “his way” apparently included dubbed in crowd noise for a press conference. Ilja talked about how his past failures have scarred and haunted him, which had WALTER visually rolling his eyes. WALTER interrupts Ilja as the challenger accused him of arrogance, responding by calling Ilja a “fraud”.
That made Ilja’s lip quiver, and WALTER break out into German as the assistant to the regional manager calmed things down. Dragunov ended things by saying that things boiled down to hatred – as we headed to the traditional face-off. The presence of actual media upped this a level, and made this segment leap off the page.
…and from that, we go to a Subculture vignette. What a crash down. Dani Luna’s got spray paint as they’re building up to their title match.
Anyway, we’re with Nigel McGuinness and Andy Shepherd on the call… Shawn Michaels and Triple H were on Tweeting duty to hype this show up, which had exactly one match confirmed at the end of last week. I mean, how hard is it to announce stuff when you’ve taped in advance? This stuff isn’t Mystery Vortex…
Oliver Carter & Ashton Smith vs. Teoman & Rohan Raja
Maybe it’s me looking elsewhere, but I have a nasty feeling that Oliver Carter is family… especially after getting what felt like another round of new music. For God’s sake, just bring out his old wXw theme!
Ashton Smith charged through Teoman at the bell, building up to his slam/suplex move that caught out Teoman… who rolls over to tag in Rohan Raja, who wanted Oliver Carter. He gets him, too, but Carter windmills on Raja ahead of a superkick for a two-count, with Teoman breaking it up. A Black Hole Slam from Raja turns it around, allowing Teoman in to capitalise as he picked his shots on Carter. There’s a kick to the arm, as Raja came back with a grounded abdominal stretch. Teoman’s back as Carter takes a kicking, with rapid tags preventing him from even thinking of making a tag for himself.
Carter finally mounts a comeback, but Teoman’s sliding elbow stops him in his tracks before stomping the upper arm. Raja’s back for something, but Carter slips out and lands an up kick before Carter finally made the tag to Smith. Ashton ran wild with dropkicks before he pulled Teoman into a clothesline. Raja eats a clothesline too before Smith pulled up Teoman into a Samoan driver for a near-fall. Raja’s in to surprise Smith with a back cracker, then a Sky High for a near-fall, but a back body drop got Smith free as Carter tagged in to start again. Carter avoids another Black Hole Slam and hits another superkick instead, before Smith came in to hoist up Raja for a Doomsday Cutter.
Teoman pulls Raja outside for safety, so Smith dives on them both while Carter tagged in to capitalise, throwing Raja back inside for a pin. An axe kick adds to that, but Teoman trips Carter mid-Quebrada after distracting the referee… and that allowed Raja to hit a leaping Flatliner, with Teoman pouncing with a crossface for the win. This was a lovely little tag match, with Teoman and Raja gelling really well together – but in the back of my mind, I’m still expecting that Carter turn. ***¼
“Earlier this week” we’re with the assistant to the regional manager, who’s asked about A-Kid. He hobbles out of the trainer’s room with a shirt that makes my eyes hurt. A-Kid wants a rematch with Jordan Devlin when he’s healed, in a 30-minute iron man match. I mean, Nigel McGuinness literally said before this that A-Kid had a cruciate injury, which usually take a while to heal up. So… two weeks time then?
Aoife Valkyrie promo. She’s here to be the best and wants to go knock Jinny off her perch.
Pretty Deadly promo time. They complain of the daylight robbery last week after their sideplate checks, and call SubCulture the “champions of the past.” We’re told that tag title defence is next week. They’re loading that show up, huh?
NXT UK Women’s Championship: Amale vs. Meiko Satomura (c)
God bless Amale for actually telling us on her Twitter that this was happening this week. NXT UK is starting to develop a bad habit of forgetting to tell us when some matches are happening… and yes, they’re fixing that already.
So, Amale has faced Meiko once in the past, successfully defending her wXw Women’s title in December 2019. She’s taken in the ropes to start with, before Meiko stung her with kicks. Amale’s taken down and tied up by Satomura… but a hair pull gets Amale free as she tried to turn it around. Except Satomura puts on the brakes to grab a headlock, before a leaping shoulder tackle took down the French woman. A grounded abdominal stretch follows, as did a roll-up, before Amale found a way in by pulling Meiko into the bottom turnbuckle. All Amale can get in is some stomps and a dropkick though, getting just a one-count from that, before Meiko came back with uppercuts and kicks.
A knee drop from Satomura’s good for a two-count, as more kicks continued to pepper Amale… but it’s not enough to put the challenger away. Amale caught a kick and kneed Meiko into the corner for a running face-washing kick, before a Fisherman screw dropped Meiko for a near-fall. Pissed off, Meiko’s back and throwing fists, before an overhead kick sank Amale like a stone. Amale escapes a death valley bomb to hit a pump kick, but Meiko’s head kick lands for a near-fall before a uranage spinebuster almost nicked Amale the win. A DDT from Meiko followed, before the cartwheel knee and the Scorpio Rising finally got the win. I thought this was going to be a blow-out squash in those opening minutes, but Amale more than held her own once she got into it. That’s defence #1 for Satomura, and hopefully not the last we’ll see of Amale for a while. ***
“Breaking News” – Ilja and WALTER got into a scuffle after their press conference, with no footage. WALTER’s apparently injured his hand and that means that next week’s title match is off.
What we do get next week, is the Sprnva Sessions with Jinny and Joseph Conners. I’m not sure that’s a like-for-like swap, lads…
Heritage Cup: Mark Coffey vs. Tyler Bate (c)
This was set up with a brief run in two weeks ago… yep.
Round 1: Trent’s buffing the trophy before the bell. I do wonder… we start with Bate and Coffey circling each other, before Coffey clung onto Bate’s wrist. Finally Bate reverses it as Nigel compares this to England vs. Scotland. Wait, so this is going to end 0-0? Coffey reapplies the wristlock as Bate’s taken to the mat. A side headlock from Bate sees him get back on top, but Coffey lifts him over the top rope and onto the apron as the round ends.
Round 2: Coffey starts out with a hammerlock, countering the counter to keep it on, until Bate ran a lap of the ring and sent Coffey to the outside. A dropkick kept him there, before Bate, erm, baited him into the ropes for a roll-up, before some World of Sport-styling led to Bate getting the first fall at 1:35 of the second round with a roll-up.
Round 3: A waistlock takedown from Coffey sees him start with a side headlock. Bate pushes free, but is met with a shoulder block, before Coffey threw him into the ropes. A rebound lariat’s countered into a back body drop from the Scotsman, before Bate’s attempt at a diving uppercut was swatted away with an enziguiri. A sliding forearm from Coffey followed, and that’s the match levelled at 1:42 of the round.
Round 4: WHO GUESSED THIS WOULD END 2-1? Coffey boxes Bate into the corner, but Tyler comes back with a roll-up for a two-count. Uppercuts follow, but Bate has to block an O’Connor roll before a Side Effect from Coffey almost won it. A swinging crucifix from Bate gets him a two-count, before more World of Sport-ish stuff led to an Exploder. A running shooting star press followed from Bate, then an airplane spin on Coffey, who just about elbowed free before another choke-ish slam dropped the champion before a clash of heads ended the round.
Round 5: We start with Coffey throwing Bate into the ring post for a two-count, but Bate’s back with a rebound lariat, a Koppo kick and a Tyler Driver to win it. A decent match, but I’m getting fed up of the 2-1 trope result – particularly as it makes it hard to really engage with these matches until we’ve hit 1-1. ***¼
Post-match, Bate celebrated with the trophy as Wolfgang seemingly motioned to have a match… keeping up his friendly rivalry with his tag partner Coffey. There’s handshakes all around though, as the Scottish lads let the English fellows celebrate to close out the show.
Captain Hindsight here, wondering if they planned to tape the WALTER/Ilja match on a new set of tapings, or whether plans changed. Something something crowds? It did seem to be going well overboard, but the build for the now-scrapped match was well done for the time they gave it. Aside from that, this was a fine show, with some pretty good matches for the TV format.