Meiko Satomura defends her NXT UK Women’s title on the first show of the year, as she takes on Blair Davenport.
Quick Results
Oliver Carter & Ashton Smith pinned Primate & T-Bone in 9:36 (***¼)
Xia Brookside pinned Myla Grace in 3:50 (*½)
Meiko Satomura pinned Blair Davenport in 12:57 to retain the NXT UK Women’s Championship (***¼)
After two weeks’ of clip shows, we’re back in the BT Sport studios in London… Andy Shepherd and Nigel McGuinness are on the call, once we get past the opening video package for tonight’s main event.
Ashton Smith & Oliver Carter vs. Symbiosis (T-Bone & Primate)
This is part of the mini-tournament for a shot at the NXT UK tag titles… and there’s chatter on commentary about how effective Eddie’s been as a manager lately.
Primate and Carter start us off, as a chinbar from Primate’s rolled and kicked out of… before a dropkick took Primate down. Smith tags in and rolls Primate down so Carter could work a wristlock, before an armdrag took us back to the armbar. Smith’s back in as he charged through T-Bone, before Carter’s PK and a rebound splash led to a two-count on T-Bone. T-Bone turns it around with a back suplex to Carter, then brought Primate in for a double-team suplex that Smith made the save on. Dropkicks take Symbiosis outside briefly, before some double-teaming led to a powerbomb and a PK on Smith back inside for a near-fall.
The double-teaming focuses on Smith’s lower back as a T-Bone elbow drop nearly wins it… as did a fallaway slam. A Primate spear and a T-Bone splash gets Symbiosis even closer, but Carter breaks up the cover before Smith cleared the way… but there’s nobody to tag to quite yet. Eventually Carter gets up for the tag and jumps in with a springboard double dropkick, following with a spinning heel kick and a forearm as Symbiosis looked rocked.
Carter’s uranage dropped Primate, while T-Bone’s taken care of with a Koppo kick… a Quebrada lands on Primate for a near-fall, only for Carter to get pulled outside. Ashton Smith’s tagged in, but he’s immediately isolated as Symbiosis went for their finish… but T-Bone’s knocked into Primate in the corner. Smith sends Carter into T-Bone on the floor, then went after Primate, hauling him up for a Doomsday Cutter for the win. This was a nice, breezy tag to get the show going. ***¼
Blair Davenport’s warming up backstage…
Pretty Deadly’s interviewed somewhere with their shaved chests, complaining that they’re not getting a tag title rematch. Sam Gradwell interrupts and mocks them, as they then walk off…
We’ve a video package of Ilja Dragunov training in Dresden, running up steps and jogging by the River Elbe. He talks about his new wife as they make fruit salad bodies (you’ll know what I mean when you see it). It’s a rather touching mini documentary about Ilja’s family life (and a rather condensed version of the documentary wXw did all those years ago), which intersperses into the Jordan Devlin challenge.
They replay how A-Kid beat Nathan Frazer three weeks ago to earn a shot at the Heritage Cup… which bleeds into Noam Dar watching the clips as Sha Samuels has written odds up. 6/4 for Dar to win 2-0? Way too short man… Dar wants Sha to pick the perfect result, and I guess they’re trying to rig the market?
Die Familie’s back and looking for tag team gold…
Myla Grace vs. Xia Brookside
This was Myla’s second outing on NXT UK, having lost to Amale back in October… Xia’s got a boo boo face because the crowd are doing the thumbs down to her these days.
Grace looked to pull ahead early on, grabbing a wristlock as Xia used the hair to get free… only for Grace to roll Brookside down. A roll-up scared Xia as she fought back, only to get tripped up for a low dropkick.
Brookside manages to get back in with some kicks, then some stomps as the crowd played their one Liverpool chant. Another armbar keeps Grace down, but Myla gets free and fought back with clotheslines, before she caught Brookside in the ropes for a 619 to the midsection. Tripping Grace off the top rope gives Xia a way back in though as a Wing Clipper (a two-footed back cracker) gets the win as Myla was more work than Xia’d bargained for. *½
Meiko Satomura’s preparing for the main event…
…and then we get clips of A-Kid winning the Heritage Cup originally in November 2020. He’s preparing for his latest shot at the trophy. We then get Dave Mastiff and Jack Starz doing a promo for their match against Die Familie in the tag title contender’s tournament. Dave’s music’s playing, as the odd couple continue their stuff.
They recap last month’s video package for Amale, and that segues into her arriving at the UK Performance Centre… and being interrupted by Angel Hayze. Angel stops to tell her how inspirational that video was, while Jinny’s here to take the piss. Jinny exits stage left, Stevie Turner tries to poke fun, but Amale explodes at being interrupted so much.
We’ve ANOTHER video package, this time for WALTER covering his time in NXT UK. He’ll be here for “WALTER’s last stand” next week – and it’ll be against Nathan Frazer. WALTER speaks about his final match in NXT UK “for now,” but rather than throw roses at Frazer, he tells Nathan that he’s “taking the piss out of this great sport.” Well he’s learned something in his three years at NXT UK…
NXT UK Women’s Championship: Blair Davenport vs. Meiko Satomura (c)
Nigel’s voice is so hoarse, it sounds like he’s revoiced all of 205 Live over the holidays…
We start with Meiko kicking Davenport into the corner, before a Test of Strength led to Satomura throwing down Davenport into a side headlock. Headscissors got Blair free and into a stand-off, but another headlock takedown takes us back to the mat. An arm whip keeps Davenport down as Satomura went for a Fujiwara armbar, but it’s rolled out of as Davenport tried for a pin.
Davenport heads up top, but Satomura kicks her down to the floor, then went back to the arm as Davenport returned to the ring. A head kick drops Blair for a two-count, as she pulled herself outside for respite… and managed to block Satomura on the apron with a head kick. Rather than go for a cover, she pulls Satomura into a draping DDT off the apron, then rolled her back in as Davenport began to wear down Satomura some.
A chinlock forces Satomura to try and stretch for the ropes… when she got free, a spinning heel kick dropped Davenport as Satomura fought back, trading right hands ahead of a Saito suplex from Satomura. She rolls Davenport into a STF from there, but Davenport escaped and applied a Fujiwara armbar, then went back with kicks. Satomura blocks a Falcon arrow, then hit a DDT, then a cartwheel kneedrop… the crowd chant “one more time,” but don’t get it, as Meiko instead hits a kick for a two-count. Davenport snaps back with another STF, only to let go and try another tactic, throwing kicks to the downed Satomura instead.
Throwing Meiko to the ropes, Davenport hit a Bea Trigger to send Meiko outside, before a springboard stomp to Satomura on the apron connected for a near-fall. Meiko snaps back with a pair of death valley drivers, getting a near-fall out of those, before Davenport pushed away a Scorpio Rising. Another Bea Trigger is a response for a near-fall, before a Falcon arrow’s escaped… only for a see-saw pin to land Meiko’s way as she snuck out the three-count. This was fine, but lacked any real spark – and that clean finish would suggest… ***¼
Oh… Blair attacks Meiko with three Bea Triggers afterwards, and I guess THIS FEUD MUST CONTINUE. After she lost clean as a sheet. Well, they’ve not warmed anyone else up enough, so why not?
A new year, but the same format for NXT UK – with a LOT of video packages thrown in to remind us of all those names they neglected to tell us about in those best of/year in review shows over the holidays.