After WALTER retained the NXT UK title, with a little help from his friends, we’re back to see the fall-out.
We’re still at the intu Braehead Arena in Glasgow, with Vic Joseph and Nigel McGuinness on commentary. But first, a recap from last week’s main event, with the focus on Fabian Aichner and Marcel Barthel helping WALTER at the end.
“Live”, we’re joined by that trio to open the show, who get scattered chants of “who are ya?” from a crowd who really wanted to see Pete Dunne. Marcel Barthel speaks first, saying that the group want to lead everyone to a better NXT UK, while improving the professionalism of the sport. I think you can see where this is heading. Fabian Aichner says that British Strong Style has “expired” (wording everyone uses, right?!), while WALTER declares the group will be known as Imperium. They’re interrupted by Pete Dunne, who’s flanked by Trent Seven and Tyler Bate – and it looks like we’re going straight into an Imperium vs. British Strong Style feud. We get a six-way brawl, with Barthel being shoved into a camera man… and instead of switching to another angle (or indeed, the hard cam), we get static and a test card to close the segment.
Nigel and Vic pitch to Radzi backstage with Sid Scala. I bet he’s kidnapped Johnny Saint. Sid announced Imperium vs. British Strong Style in two weeks’ time.
Gallus (Mark Coffey & Wolfgang) vs. A-Kid & Carlos Romo
Romo and A-Kid aren’t billed as Team Whitewolf, I guess so as not to outwardly plug another promotion.
Wolfgang jumped Romo at the bell, attacking him from behind before whipping him into the corner. Coffey’s quickly in to Beele throw Romo a few times, but Romo gets free and tags in A-Kid… whose palm strikes are quickly cut-off as a chokeslam dumped the Spaniard to the mat. Wolfgang’s back with a back senton to squash A-Kid, before bringing Coffey in to ground A-Kid with a chinbar. Coffey switches it into a full nelson, swinging A-Kid around like… a kid, before he let go and turned it into a full nelson slam. A knee drop misses, but Romo just tags in and runs into a clothesline as Wolfgang proceeded to dump him with a pop-up powerslam for the win. Very squashy, but it’s telling that the Gallus duo didn’t seem as over as Joe Coffey in front of the Glasgow crowd. **
Backstage, Xia Brookside’s asked about the beating she got from Jazzy Gabert a few weeks back. She’s interrupted by Isla Dawn, who we’ve not seen in forever. Isla offers to team with Xia to take on Jinny and Jazzy.
We’ve a selfie promo from Joseph Conners, challenging Ilja Dragunov to a match. Eh, it’ll be your death warrant.
We get a promo package for next week’s four-way match to determine WALTER’s next contender… then we see Toni Storm warming up backstage.
Kassius Ohno vs. Jack Gallagher
Gallagher was last seen on the NXT UK tapings in Phoenix, losing to Tyler Bate… and hey, there’s a wild Chris Roberts. HMM.
After some pacing around, Ohno took down Gallagher in a wristlock, before a toe hold’s just spun out of by Gallagher, who charges after Ohno in the corner, only to be broken apart. Ohno takes Gallagher down and wrenches away on Gallagher’s arm, leaning into an armbar, only for Gallagher to escape with headscissors. It’s all very World of Sport-y, which seemed to go over the heads of the crowd judging by the minimal reactions. Ohno scoots out of the headscissors before kipping up, before a single leg crab is rolled out of as Gallagher ends up putting himself in a full nelson. Gallagher breaks the hold then goes to Ohno’s fingers on the way to a wristlock, but again Ohno gets free as I wonder if Vic Joseph was poking fun at the crowd who were supposedly “on their feet”.
A knuckle lock from Ohno forces Gallagher to bridge… but he sweeps the head out to get a pinning attempt before Gallagher does a headstand on the top rope. Jack ties himself in a ball next, as the Ode to Johnny continues… but Kassius just stomps it apart as he’s done paying tribute to the absent GM. A right hand drops Gallagher like a sack of spuds for a two-count, following up with a boot after Gallagher tried to fight back as it was becoming clear that Ohno wasn’t here to out-wrestle him. Gallagher throws a headbutt to block a rolling elbow, before he dropkicked Ohno’s hands off the ropes, as more body blows looked to weaken Ohno.
Gallagher rolls Ohno into a cross armbar as he continued to target the “rolling elbow arm”. In the middle of that, Gallagher looked to have picked up a bloody nose, not helped when he headbutted Ohno… but he crashed to the mat, as did Ohno, in an entirely fortuitous back senton. The pair trade more strikes, swapping chops and uppercuts before Ohno caught him with a rolling elbow out of nowhere for the pin… despite Gallagher having one leg dangling off the ring apron. Classic Chris Roberts officiating. Technically, this was fine, but Glasgow didnae care one bit for this. ***¼
Backstage, Piper Niven is in a media scrum being asked about Rhea Ripley. She’s ready and waiting if Rhea wants a fight.
They replay the British Strong Style/Imperium brawl from the top of the show…
NXT UK Women’s Championship: Nina Samuels vs. Toni Storm (c)
Nina talked her way into this shot in recent weeks, and we get the “main event” lighting and entrances here.
Nina tries to play keep away at the bell, as she looked to frustrate the champion in the opening stages. After a cravat, Nina just gets booted by Toni, sending her to the outside as the challenger perhaps needed to find a new gameplan. Back in the ring, Nina takes a low dropkick for a two-count, before Samuels took Storm down for some brief ground and pound. Some boots have Toni in the ropes, where she’s stretched and met with a dropkick as Nina picked up a quick two-count ahead of an armbar as Nina looked to wear her down. A Stacy Keibler boot choke in the corner puts Toni through a turnbuckle before a neck snap a la Curt Hennig kept Nina ahead, following up with some slingshot knees to the back as you perhaps sensed some frustrations growing.
Toni fought back with a kick out of the corner before a leap over took her into a German suplex on Samuels. A diving enziguiri keeps Samuels down, but it’s too soon for the Storm Zero as Toni had to duck an enziguiri and trap Nina in a heavily-torqued STF. Nina makes it to the ropes, and onto the apron, as a head kick dropped Toni ahead of a slingshot tornillo back into the ring that almost ended things. Nina heads up top, but she has to cartwheel down to avoid Toni, as a backbreaker and am attempted ushigorishi was slipped out of… with Toni landing a headbutt, falling onto Nina in the process for a near-fall. I see everyone’s borrowing something from the prior match this week, eh?
Samuels looked for a clothesline, but Toni ducks and counters with a German suplex for a two-count. A backbreaker nearly nicks it for Nina, before she got caught on the top rope by Toni… Toni’s shoved down and met with a missile dropkick for a near-fall. Another headbutt from Toni connects as some facelock suplexes and a Storm Zero follow… and that’s your win. Standard WWE template stuff here – decent enough, but no way did the Glasgow crowd buy Nina as a viable challenge… and it showed. ***
The show ends with Toni celebrating as we fade to black…
So, after a few weeks where the Glasgow crowd buoyed the show, this was back to the status quo. The three matches on show all should have had a hotter crowd than they did: the hometown heroes in the opener, two stars from NXT/205 Live, and then the women’s title match which was actually advertised ahead of time to sell tickets. So… what happened? To be fair, this was from the start of a new day of tapings, but surely the crowds should be starting out hotter than this? Still, I guess this shouldn’t be the benchmark – but if that Imperium/BSS match in two weeks gets similar crickets, then perhaps the first day’s tapings can be seen as an outlier in the terms of great crowd reactions here.