The NXT UK Heritage Cup’s on the line this week as Noam Dar defends against Joe Coffey.
Quick Results
Charlie Dempsey submitted A-Kid in 12:30 (***¾)
Primate & T-Bone pinned Josh Morrell & Danny Jones in 6:05 (**½)
Heritage Cup Rules: Noam Dar beats Joe by 2 falls to 1 in 2:53 of Round 5 to retain the NXT UK Heritage Cup (***¼)
We open with the standard video package to hype up tonight’s main event, before we go to the still-empty BT Sport studios. Andy Shepherd and Nigel McGuinness are on the call, but Charlie Dempsey’s cutting everyone off as he heads to the ring alone…
Charlie Dempsey vs. A-Kid
A-Kid getting called up to NXT 2.0 certainly makes you wonder if this is going to be a farewell or not…
We’ve a tentative start as A-Kid looked to evade Dempsey, cartwheeling away from a snapmare attempt, before Dempsey rolled A-Kid down for an armbar. It’s escaped as A-Kid grabbed a front facelock, but it came to little as the pair reset. Dempsey grabbed a wristlock, and rolled A-Kid down for a chinlock, but eventually A-Kid’s able to counter a counter as they continued to look for an edge. A knucklelock sees Dempsey push A-Kid down, then break the neck bridge for a two-count ahead of a monkey flip from the Spaniard… who rolled back and then tried to break Dempsey’s bridge. Stepping on Dempsey’s groin couldn’t get it done Dempsey looked rather regal in his showboating.
Dempsey knocks A-Kid outside with a big uppercut after having kicked him in the thigh, then stayed on A-Kid with a near-camel clutch back inside, but A-Kid countered into an armbar that’s quickly rolled out of. A-Kid keeps the arm and hits an uppercut of his own as they went back-and-forth, before a battle of a backslide saw Dempsey block things. A-Kid switches up into an Octopus stretch, but Dempsey makes it to the ropes, only to get punted. That sets off Dempsey with some forearms and knees, only for A-Kid to grab Dempsey by the foot, taking him to the mat in a toe and ankle hold, which Dempsey manages to escape. Dempsey recovers with a Fujiwara armbar, rolling with A-Kid’s attempt to escape as the Spaniard stomped his way free.
A nice bridging Dragon screw has A-Kid down as Dempsey tries to push on, downing A-Kid for… Cattle Mutilation! He spins around and rolled back into a Fujiwara armbar, before A-Kid rolled his way into a knee bar as the pair looked for a limb. The skirmish ended with a Fisherman suplex from Dempsey for a near-fall… despite missing a dropkick, Dempsey recovered with a bridging Dragon suplex for a near-fall, before A-Kid retaliated with a Tiger suplex. Dempsey kicks out, but got instantly pulled into an omoplata attempt… Dempsey defends, but is caught in a triangle armbar, which he Alley-Oop’d his way out of. A diving forearm gets Dempsey a near-fall, before an overhead kick from A-Kid closed the distance, only for Dempsey to cross-chop A-Kid to the outside.
Dempsey distracts the referee, allowing Rohan Raja to sneak through the no-crowd to post A-Kid, before the Stupid Lock from Dempsey back in the ring forced the submission. Interference aside, this was sublime stuff for the style – a welcome change of place from what’s usually served up here. ***¾
Noam Dar’s warming up backstage as Sha Samuel’s carrying the Heritage Cup…
The assistant to the regional manager has an announcement – there’s a special guest from the US coming over, but before he can say it, Wolfgang enters the room. Wolfgang wants a challenge, and the two tie together – he’ll be facing Roderick Strong next week.
They recap Isla Dawn attacking Meiko Satomura two weeks ago after interrupting the championship celebration… and confirm that Isla gets her title match in two weeks’ time. Earlier this week, Aleah James was quizzed about it, but Stevie Turner interrupts… and Aleah walks away from Stevie’s mumbo-jumbo.
Danny Jones & Josh Morrell vs. Symbiosis (Primate & T-Bone)
A rematch from almost a year ago – I guess that’s what happens with a limited pool of enhancement talent?
Primate tries to Biel Morrell early, but it’s rolled through… unlike a shoulder tackle, before Morrell dropkicked Primate out of a pop-up. T-Bone’s in and has similar issues, as he’s dropkicked in the back before Danny Jones came in to try his luck with shoulder tackles. A flying stomp off the top to the arm from Morrell keeps Symbiosis on the back foot, but his slingshot crossbody back into the ring was caught and turned into a fallaway slam. Primate’s back to maintain control, as Morrell couldn’t get going again while a clothesline and legdrop from T-Bone left him laying.
T-Bone targets Morrell’s lower back in the ropes before Primate’s double sledge targeted the same area. A back suplex keeps it going, but Morrell leaps over a shoulder charge as Primate posted himself, then tagged in Danny Jones to make the comeback on T-Bone. Clothesline have T-Bone rocked, but he takes out Jones with a knee strike, only for Jones to nail an Exploder to keep him in it. Morrell’s back in for a Spiral Tap off of Jones’ shoulders, but it’s not enough, and Symbiosis get back in it, with a T-Bone slam and a swandive headbutt from Primate gets the win. Some good fire from Morrell and Jones, but when Symbiosis were in control it just felt “eh.” **½
Post-match, Wild Boar returns and laid out T-Bone and Primate with chairshots… he then targeted Eddie Dennis, who gets pulled out of the ring to safety.
Joe Coffey’s warming up backstage…
We’ve a Nina Samuels Show segment next, with Nina’s tour of the UK PC being interrupted as she got distracted by Emilia McKenzie in the kitchen. McKenzie takes the piss out of Nina as referees Chip Danning and Joey Tofino watched on…
Earlier this week, Moustache Mountain, Oliver Carter and Ashton Smith argue in the UK PC because Trent and Tyler apparently were backing out of their offer of a title rematch. They’re instead doing two singles matches so they can “earn” their rematch, which feels underhanded as hell.
Next week: Oliver Carter vs. Tyler Bate, Roderick Strong vs. Wolfgang.
NXT UK Heritage Cup: Joe Coffey vs. Noam Dar (c)
This was Dar’s third defence of the Heritage Cup…
Round 1: Coffey throws Dar aside into the ropes to start as we’ve a ‘Mania plug… but it’s an overly cautious start, broken as Coffey took down Dar in a wristlock. The pair head into the ropes for a break, Dar continued to back away before his takedown attempt saw him trapped in another wristlock. Dar escapes, but his sunset flip found no luck as Coffey instead came in with a Boston crab attempt, but he couldn’t get Dar over before the round ended.
Round 2: Dar’s cocky to start, taunting Coffey as he tried to sting him with kicks… but Coffey scored with a headlock takedown. A big boot from Dar’s caught in the ropes as Coffey takes him down again, but headscissors free Dar ahead of… another headlock takedown. Dar again goes for kicks as he’s starting to get frustrated, as a misdirection shoulder tackle kept him on the back foot. Some scurrying’s caught as Coffey countered with a German suplex, then a Glasgow Send-Off to win the first fall at 2:25 of the round.
Round 3: Coffey stayed on the front foot, taking down Dar with waistlocks before Dar tried to force an opening by going for the wrist. Coffey’s crossbody out of the corner nearly wins it, prompting Sha to jump up onto the apron to cause a distraction… it kinda worked too as Dar’s able to capitalise, pulling Coffey into a Champagne Super Knee Bar… which is rolled out of, so Dar kicked Coffey ahead of a roll-up to equalise at 1:48 of the round. Yep. 2-1.
Round 4: Coffey boxes his way out of the corner to start, but Dar kicks him down for a quick one-count, before he stomped Coffey’s wrist into the mat. Kicks from Dar keep Coffey in the ropes, as a snapmare led to another one-count before Dar began to elbow a downed Coffey. Recovering, Coffey’s slingshot shoulder tackle dropped Dar ahead of a pop-up uppercut and an overhead belly-to-belly, following up with a Boston crab as the round headed into its final seconds. Dar makes the ropes, then pulled Coffey to the outside as the pair scrapped to end the round, with an extra cheapshot to Coffey after the bell for good measure.
Round 5: Dar charges in with a corner dropkick at the bell, then followed up with a front kick and a clothesline for a near-fall. Coffey struck back, landing a short clothesline for a near-fall, but Dar kicked away his follow-up. More kicks from Dar see him try to wear down his challenger, as Coffey had 90 seconds to win… but he’s able to fight back with a right hand before he missed a discus lariat. Awra Best for the Bells lands at the second attempt, but Sha puts Dar’s foot on the rope – telegraphing it too – as the match was saved. A back elbow from Dar stops a second Awra Best for the Bells, hitting a Nova Roller to win the match with just seconds left. Pretty good stuff given the format, but I’ve a sneaking feeling that Dar and Sha vs. Gallus isn’t sorted just yet… ***¼
Sandwiched by some really good matches, NXT UK got back on track – these “good” shows tend to be the ones that aren’t hammering you with segment after segment… and with fans back on the next set of tapings, we might have a more normal atmosphere again too.