Hamilton’s NXT UK Review 06.10.21

Quick Results
Jordan Devlin pinned Saxon Huxley in 6:27 (***)
Primate & T-Bone pinned Andy Wild & Dan Moloney in 6:06 (**½)
Meiko Satomura pinned Kay Lee Ray in 18:25 to win the NXT UK Women’s Championship (****¼)

— 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 open with a video highlighting the end of last week’s show, and the hype for this week’s title match… and then it’s cue titles, cue Andy Shepherd and Nigel McGuinness, as we’re inside the BT Sport Studio.

But first. WALTER. He’d not been around since NXT UK Prelude two months ago, and he’s got words for us. He brags about defending the title twice in the same week on different continents to become the longest reigning champion in modern WWE history. He tells us he’s still driven by the desire to restore the honour of wrestling (cue boo.mp3), before he posed with the belt. Nothing here apart from a reminder that WALTER is still around.

From one wally to another. Jordan Devlin is walking into his personalised dressing room, which looked very much like a staff room.

Subculture vignette time. Dani Luna and Flash Morgan Webster are talking about Jinny and Joseph Conners, and give us their new slogan: start from the bottom and fight to the top.

Saxon Huxley vs. Jordan Devlin
Saxon gets an entrance!

This was Devlin’s first match on the show since March, but he’s lost some hardware since then. Remember he wanted a spot on Noam Dar’s chat show? He’s got that next week, but first, he’s taking Huxley into the corner with chops before Saxon Beele’d him out of the corner. A side headlock keeps the Irishman down, as did a shoulder block and a slam.

Devlin fought back, low bridging Huxley to the outside, but Huxley drags him outside too and tossed him into the no-crowd. A Snake Eyes followed on the barrier, before Huxley rolled Devlin back in for a running knee in the corner. Huxley heads outside for a running boot as Devlin was in the ropes, before a Thesz press led to a hanging choke that Devlin broke with an eye rake.

Huxley tries to stay ahead, but misses a charge into the corner as a slingshot cutter put Devlin back in it. A Devlinside’s blocked as Huxley grabbed the rope, then came back with a chokebomb for a near-fall. Devlin elbows free of a Fireman’s carry before throwing a headbutt… then pulled Huxley into the Devlinside for the win. Huxley got a lot more than I expected here, with Devlin’s ring rust being blamed. One day, Huxley is going to get a push more commensurate with the repackagings he’s had. ***

Pretty Deadly come out to join commentary… they get a full entrance before we cut to adverts. Then we go backstage as Gallus are with the assistant to the regional manager. Amid the accents they seem to have set up Wolfgang vs. Sam Gradwell?

Dan Moloney & Andy Wild vs. Symbiosis (Primate & T-Bone)
Dan’s not been on NXT UK since March of last year – when he and DeReiss Gordon lost to Pretty Deadly…

Moloney and Primate start, with Moloney getting caught in the ribs before he tagged out while lifting up Primate out of a front facelock. Wild charges in with shoulder blocks, prompting T-Bone to come in and charge Wild into the corner. The Scotsman returns with a snapmare and an elbow drop… then brought Moloney back in to hit a crossbody, which got caught and turned into backbreakers.

A fallaway slam followed from T-Bone, then a forearm to the lower back, before Primate’s double sledge to Moloney’s back left him down. That lower back remained focused on with a back suplex, before they chucked Moloney back into the buckles. A double-team stomp followed, as Moloney just couldn’t get anything going.

A second crossbody from Moloneys’ caught, but this time he escaped T-Bone and hit a dropkick before tagging in Wild. Primate’s back in too, but Wild went for T-Bone and fell into a trap of his own making. He escapes with an overhead belly-to-belly for a near-fall, but Primate’s back with a T-bone suplex, then a spear before tagging in T-Bone… who tagged right back out as a powerslam/swandive headbutt combo for the win. This was fine, but was really there to serve as a backdrop to shoehorn Pretty Deadly in and get us to a title match in short-order. **½

Meiko and Kay Lee Ray are walking…

Teoman’s sitting at the table and has words for Oliver Carter. He threatens to put everyone on the roster into hospital, and took a dig at Ashton Carter for seemingly not caring. I guess those two are facing off…

Next week: Wolfgang vs. Sam Gradwell… plus Joseph Conners & Jinny vs. Dani Luna & Flash Morgan Webster.

NXT UK Women’s Championship: Meiko Satomura vs. Kay Lee Ray (c)
Satomura’s last crack at the title aired in March, where she fell short against Kay Lee Ray… after winning a gauntlet match a month ago, Satomura gets her second shot at Ray, whose 649-day title run has already seen six title defences as she comes increasingly close to hitting the two-year mark.

Commentary notes that Meiko’s “never held WWE gold.” I mean, yeah, if you’ve only worked there for less than a year, that’ll probably happen. We get the big match intros, and we start with Meiko stinging Kay Lee Ray with kicks, taking the champion back into the corner. Forearms keep Kay Lee there, but the champion runs back with a quick Gory bomb attempt… Meiko tries for a death valley driver, but the early finishers lead nowhere as the champion spilled outside.

Where she’s kicked again repeatedly. Kay Lee’s rolled back inside, but suckers Meiko with a superkick in the ropes as Ray took over, rolling Satomura back in for a two-count. A chinlock’s escaped as Satomura goes back to the kicks, including a mule kick as she faked out an armbar. A wristlock’s next to set up for mid kicks and a leg sweep, before Ray broke a pin from a knee drop by pulling Satomura by the hair.

Chops from Ray follow, but Satomura blocks a suplex, only to get rolled to the mat for a low kick. A front suplex gets a two-count, with Ray rolling in for a Koji clutch… but Satomura escapes and looked for a STF, eventually tying up Ray, who needed the ropes to make the save. Ray manages to turn it around with a springboard knee drop from the apron back into the ring, before she punched out Satomura’s attempt to springboard out of a whip into the corner.

Again though, Satomura kicks out at two as the champion looked to get frustrated. More finisher teases lead to a roll-up from Kay Lee for a two-count, before a short DDT spiked her. The cartwheel knee drop just about clips Kay Lee for a two-count, but she’s back up for a death valley driver… but couldn’t follow up as Satomura replied with Ray’s own Gory bomb, again with an inability to follow up.

Satomura shrugs off a superkick as the pair begin to trade right hands. An uppercut drops Ray for the cartwheel knees, but it’s only good for a near-fall as Kay Lee returned with a tornado DDT. Again, it’s a two-count as Satomura’s right back up and into superkicks as commentary shouted themselves hoarse. More superkick spamming took down Meiko, but a Saito suplex turned it right back around in a heartbeat. A death valley driver’s next, but Ray’s up at two and hits another superkick, before a Gory bomb left Meiko down for a senton bomb… which lands flush for another near-fall. Again, Kay Lee gets frustrated and heads outside, grabbing her belt as she teased a walk-out… but Satomura followed and ducked a belt shot before hitting a death valley driver on the floor.

Ray’s thrown back inside, but she heads back to the floor as she proceeds to hit a Gory bomb onto the edge of the ring, really upping things here, but it’s still not enough to put Satomura down. After that, Ray looks for something, but Satomura back body drops free before she climbed the ropes… and got caught. Satomura’s able to respond with a sunset bomb that nearly wins it, before a rear naked choke was quickly thrown away.

Satomura goes right back to it though, but Ray falls into the ropes to force a break. From there, Ray goes for another Koji clutch, but Satomura rolled her up for a two-count, before a diving spinning heel kick and another death valley driver left the champion down, with the Scorpio Rising kick finally getting the win. Exceptional stuff as NXT UK pulls out another big time main event – and without any of the other stuff like the Brady Bunch stuff we’d seen in prior women’s title matches, all of the focus this time around was on the wrestling… and it was exactly as you’d expect. Just turn down the commentary if the house style isn’t your thing, and wish, like I did, there was a crowd for this. ****¼

Post-match, Meiko got streamers and celebrated to close the show…

7.8

The final score: review Good

The 411

The proverbial one-match show, but what a match. Nearly 700 days as champion comes to a close for Kay Lee Ray, as Meiko Satomura takes her spot atop the division - and now the question of what’s next for both the former and new champion comes to the forefront.