Ilja Dragunov’s first challenger for the NXT UK title will be decided this week, as Nathan Frazer, A-Kid and Rampage Brown face off for the shot.
Quick Results
Heritage Cup Contender’s Tournament – Semi-Final: Wolfgang beat Teoman by 2 falls to 1 at 2:15 of Round 4 (**½)
Jinny pinned Isla Dawn in 4:51 (**)
A-Kid pinned Nathan Frazer and Rampage Brown in 16:25 (***¾)
We’re back at the BT Sport Studios in London, with the usual titles, and the combo of Andy Shepherd and Nigel McGuinness on commentary.
Heritage Cup Contender’s Tournament: Wolfgang vs. Teoman
We’re opening with a 2-1 result then… and that’s just in terms of how many bodies were at ringside, with the Coffey brothers seconding Wolfgang, and Rohan Raja accompanying Teoman.
Round 1: Wolfgang’s out of the blocks early on with uppercuts, then clotheslines as Teoman was finding his opportunities limited, and he fell to the Caber Toss inside two minutes of the first round.
Round 2: Teoman’s still in the corner at the bell, and remains on the defensive as Wolfgang kept the original tactic. Charging him from behind doesn’t work as Teoman’s met with uppercuts, before Teoman sent him to the outside. Working the left arm, Teoman throws Wolfgang into the side of the ring, before Teoman grabbed the ring apron to try and slow Wolfgang down. A clothesline takes Teoman back outside, but Teoman uses the ring apron to unsight Wolfgang, before they went back in with Teoman looking to fly… landing a missile dropkick for a near-fall. Teoman works a crossface, but doesn’t get anything in before the bell as Wolfgang attacks after the bell.
Round 3: We’re back to the boxing as Teoman’s forced to fight out of the corner. He’s met with a Kitchen sink knee, then a diving back senton as Rohan Raja pops onto the apron to argue… the distraction works as Teoman dropkicks Wolfgang in the knee, before he stomped and kicked away the arm. A sliding punch drops Wolfgang… and that’s the equaliser at 1:11 of the round. BECAUSE OF COURSE THIS IS GOING TO END 2-1.
Round 4: Wolfgang’s left arm is apparently causing him problems, and of course, Teoman targets that. A clothesline drops Teoman though, but he’s back with a dropkick to the limb before a sunset flip eventually leads to a near-fall after Wolfgang punched the mat. Wolfgang fights back, splashing Teoman in the corner ahead of a double sledge off the top, as we then got distractions from Raja and the Coffeys. Mark attacks Raja off the apron, as the ensuing distraction saw Teoman handspring into a spear as Wolfgang gets the win… and at least this’ll set up a tag match with Teoman and Raja against Gallus. That’ll be the only thing I’ll be pushed to remember from this match, sadly. **½
Blair Davenport’s sent in a video message. She’s still sad at being suspended, but she’s still on the show, issuing threats.
“Earlier today,” SubCulture are at the performance centre when they run into Sam Gradwell… who we’re led to believe has graffiti’d over their graffiti. Mark Andrews is sad.
“During the break,” Jordan Devlin’s dressing room has been taken over by Gallus. Jordan’s mad. Even more so when he’s thrown out of his green room.
Isla Dawn vs. Jinny
This was set up last week when Isla Dawn drew a pentagram on Jinny’s dressing room mirror with lipstick.
Jinny’s got another new entrance video, and we start with Isla stomping away on her. Jinny fights back, elbowing Isla in the corner before throwing some more stomps. A switcheroo sees Isla land some uppercuts, before Jinny hits another back elbow having bounced back from a shoulder block.
Taking Jinny into the corners, Dawn tries to pull ahead, but she’s swept into Jinny’s knee for a near-fall, before a STF attempt saw Dawn scramble into the ropes. A running knee cracks Jinny by the ropes, as more kicks lead to Isla heading outside, sweeping Jinny off the apron before Jinny’s chucked into the barriers. Joseph Conners, who’d been mouthing off all match, gets grabbed by Dawn, who then replaced her focus back in the ring to come close with double knees on Jinny… but Conners distracts again, shouting from the floor as Jinny capitalises on things with the Makeover – the X-Factor out of the corner – and that’s the win to a match that just felt immensely strange. Do we cheer for the wrestler they flat out called a thief, or the woman who belittles everyone? **
We’re back at the UK PC as Mark Andrews has recovered from the sadness of the earlier vandalism to talk up Dani Luna. Xia Brookside interrupts to challenge her to a match, and that’s probably next week.
Charlie Dempsey vignette time as he’s shown grappling with Andy Wild. He’s going to be NXT UK’s Timothy Thatcher, and he re-debuts next week.
“Earlier this week”, Ashton Smith, Oliver Carter and Trent Seven are having a natter. Trent upsets them by comparing them to Moustache Mountain, and that’s how we do matches these days.
Next week: Jordan Devlin vs. Joe Coffey,
Rampage Brown vs. Nathan Frazer vs. A-Kid
Winner gets the first shot at Ilja Dragunov.
We start with some chaos as Rampage swats away Frazer and A-Kid to the outside. They compose themselves and re-enter the ring together, rather than surround Rampage. A triangle armbar from A-Kid’s broken up by Frazer, as the pair then worked together to dropkick Rampage to the outside. A-Kid nearly trips up as he runs into a Frazer dropkick, sending him out as Rampage returns. Revolving door. A back body drop flings Frazer into the air, as A-Kid returned to try and give Rampage a dead leg. He’s caught and thrown into the corner, but A-Kid’s speed gives him a shot, while Frazer returned to get punched out by A-Kid.
Rampage pounced A-Kid into the corner, before he threw A-Kid into Frazer. A uranage drops Frazer for a two-count, while chops from Rampage blister the Jersey native’s chest. A triangle armbar from A-Kid’s broken up as Rampage powerbombed him onto Frazer… but it’s the smaller lads who are up first, as Rampage rolled outside while A-Kid and Frazer fought in the buckles. An avalanche German suplex by A-Kid is flipped out of, as Frazer then low bridges him to the outside ahead of a tope that barely hit. The tope con giro caught Rampage at least, and commentary’s getting shouty so this is where it’s meant to be dramatic and good. After a Flatliner/DDT combo that left everyone down, Frazer went to fight back, but Rampage is still too big and strong as he flung them both with a double back suplex.
A-Kid tries his luck with a lucha armdrag/headscissors combo, before a baseball slide German suplex caught Frazer mid-springboard. There’s a crossbody off the top for a near-fall for A-Kid, before a Northern Lights into a cross armbar drew in Rampage to break it up. An omoplata has Rampage in trouble, but again he switches and powerbombs free before Frazer’s superkick sees them all fall down. Frazer catches A-Kid on the top rope, as we then get the Tower of Doom… except not as Frazer shoves Rampage into the corner, then slammed him. Frazer goes back up for a moonsault fallaway slam a la Mike Bailey, but Rampage breaks the cover in the nick of time, before A-Kid trapped Rampage in a rear naked choke to stop him beating on Frazer.
A superkick from Frazer stops that and gets a near-fall, before his springboard was turned into a snap powerslam by Rampage. A Doctor Bomb after that nearly gets the win, but A-Kid grabs the back with a rear naked choke. Rampage charges into the ropes to throw A-Kid off, but the Spaniard’s back with a superkick to take him outside, before a German suplex and a leaping kick put Nathan Frazer away. This was like two flies dodging a fly swatter – Rampage held this match together, but visually this was men against boys for the first half before they upped the tempo. I just wish we weren’t given the forced audio cues of commentary yelling at us to try and get us hyped up. Let the wrestlers do that, eh? A cracker of a main event that would probably push into your notebook had we had crowds here to respond, but otherwise it’s worth your time. ***¾
It’s a show without much in the way of organic and natural feeling. It’s wrestling manufactured to death, with the commentary and crowd track trying to tell you what to think throughout. The main event absolutely saved this from being utterly handwave-able, as SubCulture’s mood swung all over the place here from sadness to getting pumped… but we’re firmly in the week-to-week stuff with stuff just happening in their own little bubbles. The fact that nobody from NXT UK wrestled on the recent UK house show swing should tell you where they fall right now – and that’s not a good thing.