Welcome to the first recap of NXT UK from The Overtimer, I’ll be your guide through WWE’s most under appreciated brand to hopefully explain why this show is worth an hour of your busy week in the wild world of professional wrestling
Imperium & Gallus Sqaure Off, Set Up Potential Future Matchups
The show opens with Imperium, preaching that the mat is sacred and they are the ones with all the power in NXT UK, a claim that is hard to dispute with WALTER being the reigning and defending NXT UK Champion.
The only faction who even has any right to challenge that claim is Gallus, who shows up to let Imperium know that they’ve been the dominant force on this brand since day one, and they’d love to add the UK Championship to match their newly won tag titles. WALTER vs. Joe Coffey is a natural step for the title picture, and this also sets up a potential matchup between Wolfgang & Mark Coffey vs. Fabian Aichner & Marcel Barthel, both matchups that would be fantastic to see. Gotta love faction warfare!
Xia Brookside Has Her Eyes On Gold
Next up we hear from one of the rising faces of the NXT UK Womens Division, Xia Brookside, who beat Nina Samuels last week in singles action and has a bone to pick with current Champion Kay Lee Rae, who eliminated Xia to win a #1 Contenders Battle Royale, which Xia was moments away from winning. This should be an exciting matchup, Xia has shown lots of potential as of late, and Kay Lee Rae is in need of some talented competition.
Oliver Carter & Ashton Smith vs. Grizzled Young Veterans (James Drake & Zack Gibson)
Finally we get to our first matchup of the show, tag team action between a recently formed team of Oliver Carter & Ashton Smith and inaugural NXT UK Tag Team Champions, Grizzled Young Veterans. Carter & Smith are still building their tag team chemistry, while Drake & Gibson are a well oiled tag team machine, making this on paper a mismatch in favor of Grizzled Young Veterans.
Carter & Smith used their speed and strength to grab an early advantage, but the seamless chemistry and brutality of the former tag team champions kept any advantage short. They kept Oliver Carter isolated for a good chunk of the match, leading into Ashton Smith getting the tag and coming in like a house of fire, nearly getting the win off a huge Blue Thunder Bomb, but James Drake was able to kick out at two.
Smith showed his tag team inexperience, focused too much on James Drake, letting Zack Gibson get the blind tag, who proceeded to blindside Ashton Smith with a vicious Lariat to the back of the head, tagged James Drake back in, and they hit their finisher Ticket To Mayhem, an assisted Double Knee Facebuster to secure a fairly easy victory which puts them back on track to reclaiming their tag team championships.
After the match, they continued their attack on Smith & Carter, prompting Mark Andrews & Flash Morgan Webster to rush to the ring to make the save. It’s fairly obvious this will be a matchup very soon, and given the history between the teams with Andrews & Webster being the men who ended the reign of Grizzled Young Veterans, it should be a very fun main event worthy matchup.
Tyler Bate Speaks On His Status In NXT & NXT UK
Tyler Bate is one of the brightest stars in wrestling today, and is pulling double duty. On NXT he recently got involved with Cameron Grimes, stated here he’s going to go with the flow on that brand.
As for NXT UK, he expressed interest in facing a few of the newcomers, namely Ilja Dragunov, Oliver Carter, and especially A-Kid, who he previously faced in Spain for White Wolf Wrestling in a fantastic matchup. Bate is the inaugural NXT UK Champion, and is always wanting to keep up on top of the competition in the brand he helped build.
Following this interview, we see the winners of our tag match earlier have met up with Tag Champs Gallus backstage and told them to not get comfortable with those titles, and not focus on Imperium, as they’re putting themselves next in line for a shot.
Travis Banks vs. Ligero
These two talented performers are lacking in the win department, making this a must win matchup to get back on track with NXT UK. Both men possess incredible speed and technical abilities, with Ligero being more of a high flier and Banks being known for his crisp striking ability, this was an exciting matchup.
There was more creative pin attempts than I could ever count, some very creative offense like Banks going for a springboard armdrag after Ligero stopped an irish whip attempt, and some brutal strike exchanges; with Ligeros chest turning red after some vicious chops from the Kiwi Buzzsaw.
Neither man would get victory in the match as it ends in a rare double pin fall after an odd roll up left both men shoulders firmly on the mat. This will not be the last we see from these two, and thank god for that because this match was an absolute treat, even with the odd finish. Both men left disappointed, but shook hands in a sign of respect, at least neither man suffered a loss as neither can afford it at this point.
We get a brief video package detailing the issues between ‘The Irish Ace’ Jordan Devlin & ‘Bomber’ Dave Mastiff. They’re on a collision course and the ensuing matchup next week should be a sight to behold, and will likely main event, but speaking of main events…
Main Event: Noam Dar vs. Trent Seven
This has been a heated rivalry, with Dar claiming the death of British Strong Style (Trent Seven, Pete Dunne, and Tyler Bate) and even stealing and defacing the towel Seven brings to the ring for his entrance, and attacking Seven before he could even finish his entrance.
Before the bell could even ring, Dar had slammed Seven into the ring steps, propped him up on the apron near the corner, and used the towel to hold his arm in place around the turnbuckle as he nailed Seven with a running dropkick to the restrained arm. The ref asked Seven if he’s sure he wants to fight Dar after the cowardly assault, and no man worth his place in wrestling would say no to that.
As soon as the bell finally rang, Dar was turned inside out from a massive clothesline from Seven which shifted momentum early, which Seven would ride to an early Burning Hammer attempt, only to be thwarted with a rake to the eyes by Dar, who used that to try and regain control of the situation only to be shut down by Seven who countered an attempt splash into the corner with a huge Uranage.
Seven would try to follow up with something off the top rope, but was cut down by a kick from Dar, who followed with a Fisherman Suplex. Dar would continue his aggression, keeping his bigger opponent downed as he would bend back the fingers during a submission attempt, a call out to Sevens friend Pete Dunne.
Seven would attempt several failed comebacks, being continuously shut down by the crafty Dar and let down by his arm that was hurt prior to the bell ringing. He would eventually tap into the spirit of Mitsuharu Misawa and hit an Emerald Fusion for a two count, turning the tide of the match a bit more back to his favour, then earning further momentum with a DDT on the ring apron, with the delay of him getting back into the ring causing it to again only be a two count. He would even hit the Seven Star Lariat, but even that wouldn’t keep Dar down.
Dar would counter another attempt at the Seven Star Lariat into a knee-bar, grapevining the leg to make it much harder for Seven to escape, but he would fight his way to the bottom rope to force Dar to break the hold, but the damage was done, and now Seven was essentially on one good leg to go with his one good arm. A massive head kick to Seven gets Dar a two count, but Seven would not give up. He would grab hold of the arm of Dar, bend back the pinky finger, then throw an arm up to distract Dar as he delivered a straight shot with his free fist, followed up by a snap of the fingers and a Burning Hammer to finally put Dar away. The spirit of British Strong Style lives on in Trent Seven.
This match was on the level of quality you’d expect from an NXT Takeover match and showed exactly how good both competitors are. I’d call it a must see matchup, as my words really can’t do it justice despite my best efforts. It was truly fantastic, and hopefully the start of a run that could lead Seven to face WALTER for the NXT UK Championship whenever there is another UK Takeover.
That concludes the October 24th episode of NXT UK, and it was a fantastic episode, one of the best since the brands inception thanks to that main event.
