Hamilton’s NXT UK Review 04.29.21

Quick Results
Teoman defeated Rohan Raja via referee stoppage in 6:01 (**¾)
Sha Samuels pinned Levi Muir in 4:01 (**)
Meiko Satomura pinned Aoife Valkyrie in 11:22 (****)
Joe Coffey, Mark Coffey & Wolfgang pinned Primate, T-Bone & Eddie Dennis in 9:26 (**¾)

— If you’re on Twitter, give me a follow over on @IanWrestling – and check out the GoFundMe that’s still open for Larry’s family.

We’re back at the BT Sport studio in London as we go straight in with the titles… and it’s Andy Shepherd and Nigel McGuinness on the call once again. They’ve got a commentary desk for Andy as well, but Nigel’s doing this remotely…

Teoman vs. Rohan Raja
It’s a debut for Raja, who had a cup of coffee in Impact as Gursinder Singh… he has an inset promo with an accent that I was NOT expecting.

Raja’s been trained by Lance Storm and Yuki Ishikawa, so there’s some pedigree there as he grappled Teoman to the mat early. There’s a cheapshot from Teoman on the break as he then goes for the arm, with Raja rolling free before a lucha roll-up gets a two-count. Misdirection keeps Raja ahead, as he nicks in with a neckbreaker and a head chop. Khali!

Teoman responds with a trip to take down Raja, before a back elbow and a punt to the back had the German ahead. A whip takes Raja into the corner, but he floats over Teoman’s charge and returns with a crossbody for a two-count, before Teoman caught him with a sliding forearm.

Keeping Raja down with a neck crank, Teoman keeps going with body blows, but Raja fought back with elbows and clotheslines, before a Sky High powerbomb almost got the win. Teoman escapes whatever was coming next with a low dropkick, before going up top for a flying DDT that set up for a crossface… Teoman rolls him away from the rope, then snapped back on the arm – complete with a dubbed in sound effect – as he yanked back on the hold one more time for the stoppage. Hey, corny sound effect aside, it’s a nice twist on the usual crossface escape, as Raja looked good on his debut. **¾

Vignette time. Flash Morgan Webster, Dani Luna and Mark Andrews are skateboarding and in graffiti’d parts of town. Going by the area code, it’s somewhere in London, as the trio look to be getting branded as Subculture. This was a good video spot to (re)introduce the trio.

Earlier today Ilja Dragunov is getting interviewed when Dave Mastiff interrupts to challenge him. The rebuild continues!

The Assistant to the General Manager is in the ring to introduce Kay Lee Ray. She gets smoke machines as she’s celebrating going over 600 days as NXT UK Women’s champion. Ray’s unhappy with the introduction she got, so she reminds us she’s the longest reigning women’s champion in all of WWE… and rattles off the names she’s beaten. Ray suspects that there’s something being set up… and it’s revealed.

They’re doing a “special gauntlet match” to crown Kay Lee Ray’s next contender, with game show reveals for the entrants. Jinny, Isla Dawn, Xia Brookside, Dani Luna and Emilia McKenzie. What’s in the box? A repackaged Thunderbastard!

Backstage, Aoife Valkyrie’s stretching ahead of her match with Meiko Satomura… then we have a Pretty Deadly segment… covering their media appearances. There’s then a video hyping up the forthcoming A-Kid vs. Tyler Bate Heritage Cup match for three weeks’ time.

Levi Muir vs. Sha Samuels
The Network’s loving to buffer on me tonight…

We open with a lock-up as Muir throws Sha into the corner. Samuels is back with shoulder tackles, then a knee to the gut, before he clubbered Muir to the mat. Levi ducks a clothesline and clatters into Sha for a two-count, following with a slam before he missed an elbow drop. Sha takes over from there, setting up for a volley to the back, before he overwhelmed Levi in the corner.

Another clothesline drops Muir, before more elbows to the shoulder set up for an armbar as we buffer again. Muir responds with some overhand shots, before he countered out of a Butcher’s hook to land a series of clothesline and a side Russian legsweep to drop Sha again.

A knee drop keeps Sha down, ahead of a torture rack… but Sha rakes the eyes to get free. Levi climbed the ropes, but got pulled down as Sha comes in with a spinebuster… and that’s the win. Your usual TV squash as they get Sha back in the winning column. **

Meiko Satomura’s warming up… for her semi-main.

But first, Trent Seven’s at the UK PC where he’s interrupted by Sam Gradwell who took exception to Trent calling himself a founding father – when he signed on the same day. They’ll be facing off soon, then, and I’m here for it…

Aoife Valkyrie vs. Meiko Satomura
Valkyrie challenged Meiko to this match on NXT UK Prelude, by giving her a feather. Eh.

Valkyrie bows to Satomura at the bell, as we open with a lock-up that took Valkyrie into the ropes. A kick from Satomura on the break’s almost returned, but Meiko takes her down as Aoife got to the ropes for a break. Another armdrag takes Valkyrie back to the mat, with a Corning hold restraining Valkyrie… whose headscissors escape flopped badly.

Satomura goes to a wristlock as Valkyrie goes to the ropes again, before she broke a Test of Strength and rolled Satomura to the mat for a crucifix pin. It gets a two-count, so Valkyrie’s back to the wristlock only for Satomura to escape and come back in with more kicks. A forearm takes Valkyrie to the corner, before her attempt at a leg nelson was stomped apart… with an armbar putting Satomura ahead.

Valkyrie rolls up Meiko to break the grip, but Valkyrie’s quickly back on the mat as a waistlock from Satomura gets broken. A kick from Satomura’s slid under as Valkyrie nails an enziguiri instead, taking Meiko outside for a dropkick through the ropes, and maintained the pressure back inside with an Axel Dieter Special.

Satomura manages to roll into the rope to force a break, and returns with an uppercut before going back to Valkyrie with kicks. Those kicks soften up Valkyrie for a spinning toe hold that turns into an inverted Figure Four, but that too ends in the ropes. Valkyrie returns the kicks as they go tit-for-tat, leading to Meiko catching a kick and flipping Valkyrie to the mat… with a head kick almost putting the Irishwoman away.

Meiko pulls Valkyrie back up, but she blocks… and gets kicked again. Ducking a spinning heel kick allows Valkyrie an opening to hit an overhead kick for a near-fall, before Valkyrie went up top for the Peripeteia… Meiko catches her up top and looks for a superplex, but Valkyrie floats over with a sunset flip powerbomb for a near-fall.

From there, Satomura ducks a running enziguiri then ragdolls Valkyrie with a Saito suplex, before it’s back to the kicks. Valkyrie elbows away a Scorpion kick, then lands a leg lariat before heading up for a moonsault… but it’s still not enough! It’s back up top for the Peripeteia flying scissors kick, but Satomura avoids it and returns with a short DDT as a cartwheel knee drop leaves Valkyrie laying.

Satomura goes for it again, and lands it as Valkyrie refused to quit… staring daggers at the referee who looked to be on the verge of calling the match… so Meiko leathers her with kicks before the Scorpio Rising got the win to shatter Valkyrie’s streak. This was absolutely fantastic – by far the best women’s match in the show’s history, and right up there with the best on NXT UK total. This was exactly what I was hoping for when Meiko signed – proving ground-style matches with those who are on the way up, which benefit all sides way more than squashes, especially now Meiko’s out of the title picture. I just wish this had a crowd. ****

Promo video time. Eddie Dennis and the Hunt are by a foggy fence. Eddie’s mind and the Hunt’s body’s are “symbiotic in nature,” hence the group’s new name. Symbiosis.

They recap the Amir Jordan/Kenny Williams history, complete with to-camera stuff from Kenny Williams who blamed Amir for not seeing what he was like all along – a chancer. Amir’s called the “real lucky ‘yin” for having teamed with Kenny, as they build to the no-DQ loser-leaves-town match next week.

Also next week: Ilja Dragunov vs. Dave Mastiff… and Nathan Frazer returns to the Supernova Sessions.

Symbiosis (Eddie Dennis, Primate & T-Bone) vs. Gallus (Joe Coffey, Mark Coffey & Wolfgang)
There’s new music and an entrance for Symbiosis, who have a suitably death-metal logo as Primate looks like he’s about to mosh like his life depended on it.

Dennis and Joe Coffey start… but Eddie tags in Primate almost instantly. T-Bone’s in too to kick out Coffey’s leg, as the newly-rebranded trio isolate Coffey before he came back with an armbar. Mark Coffey and Wolfgang tag in to wear down Dennis, but quick tags catch everyone off guard as T-Bone came to corner Coffey with shoulder charges ahead of an overhead suplex.

Another one flings Joe into the Symbiosis corner, with Primate’s springboard double sledge keeping Coffey down. Dennis is back, eventually booting Joe head of a swinging side slam for a two-count. They keep the quick tags going as Joe’s thrown into the Symbiosis corner for a two-count for Primate, who them had to block a sunset flip as Coffey tried to tag out.

T-Bone’s back in, then Eddie as Coffey’s kept isolated ahead of a Severn Bridge attempt… but Coffey slips out, hits a springboard cross body off the top then finally made a tag out to Wolfgang. T-Bone’s back too as he takes Dusty punches and a crossbody into the corner as Wolfgang ran wild for a moment.

A fallaway slam puts T-Bone back on track, but Wolfgang makes the tag out to Mark Coffey as we get him charging through Primate ahead of a half-nelson slam. T-Bone’s knocked to the outside too, while a bulldog gets a near-fall. Primate clotheslines Mark in the back of the head as a spin-out slam from Eddie gets another two-count, before the former Hunt set up for a running slam and swandive headbutt on Mark Coffey that almost wins it.

The ring fills, then empties as Mark Coffey’s leaping mid kick takes down Primate… a Side Effect keeps him there, as Wolfgang’s flying back senton and a Glasgow Send-Off from Joe Coffey led to Awra Best For The Bells as Gallus took the clean win. For me, this was too fast paced for its own good to start – it calmed down after the first five minutes, but that opening spell was way too frenetic to allow much of anything to register. **¾

7.3

The final score: review Good

The 411

Come for the feature match that performed exactly as you hoped, and stay for an episode where they continue to set up stuff for the future - in the form of what I suspect is a rebranded Thunderbastard (out of PROGRESS). By the way, per a quick check of Cagematch, the trap this show continues to fall into is giving everyone a shot. Seriously, only Amale, Oliver Carter and an injured Wild Boar haven’t had any serious on-screen time in the last two months. If you feature everyone, you really don’t feature anyone...