Hamilton’s NXT UK Review 07.07.22

Quick Results
Tiger Turan pinned Kenny Williams in 6:33 (**¼)
Josh Morrell pinned Primate in 4:05 (**)
Trent Seven pinned Tate Mayfairs in 4:05 (*½)
Meiko Satomura & Sarray pinned Xia Brookside & Eliza Alexander in 9:27 (**¾)

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We’re at the BT Sport studios yet again, with Andy Shepherd and “Magic Fingers” Nigel McGuinness on commentary… I hear that was someone Boris tried to hire…

Tiger Turan vs. Kenny Williams
Kenny charged at Turan before the bell, as we’re going all-in on the “is it Amir Jordan in a mask?” story.

Turan throws Kenny down from the opening lock-up, then scored a roll-up for an early two-count before armdrags grounded the Scotsman. Kenny gets free but had to go for the eyes to escape a wristlock, following up with a side headlock… only for Turan to get out and score with another armdrag.

Williams escapes an armbar by getting to the ropes but failed to catch out Turan with a swinging punch. A slap finds its mark though, only for Kenny to leap into a gutshot, before Turan outsmarted Kenny in the corner… leading to a roll-through Flatliner for a near-fall.

Out of nowhere, Williams fires a shot with a chop block to the front of the knee, while stomps and a chinlock kept Turan grounded. A suplex gets Kenny a near-fall before he tried to rip off the mask… Turan fights free, then snatched an inside cradle for a near-fall, before a counter into a sunset flip added another two-count.

A double chop has Williams rocked, as did some leaping forearms and an inside-out slam. Turan follows with a missile dropkick, but Williams rolls outside… and eats a tope as he tried to get some respite. Back inside, Williams gets the knees up to block a senton, then ran in with a PK as we got the ring mics turned up… Kenny tells “Amir” to take off the mask, only to get caught with an inside cradle for the win. Decent enough, but we’ve got a long ways to go on this storyline. **¼

Post-match, Williams attacked Turan from behind, leading to a headlock driver as he then removed the mask…but Turan has at least two more masks on underneath it. One of them’s pulled off, but Turan’s still masked up like a member of Doom, which makes Kenny sad.

We’re shown a recap of Josh Briggs & Brooks Jensen celebrating in “proper” NXT with the NXT UK tag titles last week… and the temper tantrum thrown by Pretty Deadly.

“Last week” we see Trent Seven carted to the back as coach Johnny Moss read Trent the riot act… Sam Gradwell walks out conveniently to chew out Trent, but was called a “no one.” Match upcoming.

“Earlier this week,” Oliver Carter’s doing weights, but Die Familie are on hand to help. Well, in Teoman’s case, bug him for an answer… which seemed to be Carter challenging die Familie to a series of singles matches, starting with Teoman.

Josh Morrell vs. Primate
Josh is already in the ring, and about 5% KT tape… while Primate has new music and seems to have shed the whole Symbiosis thing, and T-Bone seems to have evaporated.

Nigel’s cracking wise on commentary as Primate went for Morrell early on, countering an arm wringer… only to get rolled up for a two-count. A Cornish Hipe has Primate angered, but his Test of Strength’s overpowered as Morrell makes Primate bridge… before the Geordie came back with a monkey flip.

Morrell lands on his feet, then on the middle rope before an avalanche German suplex brought him down. A back body drop flings Morrell skyward for a near-fall, but Josh gets back in, low bridging Primate to the outside for a Sasuke special of all things. Back inside, Morrell aborts a 450 splash as Primate came right back with a back elbow, then clotheslined Josh onto the apron for good measure.

Primate tries to follow up… but Morrell surprises him with a slingshot Code Red into the ring, and that’s the win! Decent TV fare, but going 50-50 and losing to an “already in the ring” guy is not a Good Sign… **

“Earlier this week,” Blair Davenport’s quizzed arriving at the UK PC. She’s fed up with the same questions as Amale approached her… annoyed with the dig in Blair’s promo last week. Stevie Turner’s watching from the doorway to get some screen time, as we’re clearly setting up for Blair/Amale… and Stevie getting chewed out for saying the obvious.

We’ve got a video from Ilja Dragunov next, talking about the names he’s defended the NXT UK title against… and who’s next. Not good timing there, lads. Ilja only noted “the Irish Ace,” rather than old or new names, before he called his next opponent: Wolfgang. “A man of integrity,” Ilja calls him, as Dragunov wants to step into the Lion’s Den.

Tate Mayfairs vs. Trent Seven
Another “already in the ring” match, but I don’t think Tate’s going to get his second win here…

They replay security holding the “fan” up to get punted in the knackers, stopping short of the ball shot. Trent’s in no hurry when the match starts, but he goes straight for Tate with a gut shot and some chops. He throws Tate into the ropes before chopping him to the outside… for more chops. Yup.

Tate’s rolled back inside and tried to mount a comeback, only to get faked out for a DDT. a whip bounced Tate into the buckles, leading to them perhaps teasing a stoppage before Tate kicked out at two from a chop. Eventually, Tate boxes back, leading to a step-up forearm and a crossbody for a near-fall… before a backhanded chop and a Seven Stars lariat got the expected win. Very squashy, with Trent being very choppy too. *½

Post-match, Trent put the boots to Tate some more, setting up for a modified Figure Four as Sam Gradwell made the save.

Meiko Satomura and Sarray are ready to head to the ring as Emilia McKenzie looked like a spare part…. Xia Brookside and Eliza Alexander are stretching too…

Noam Dar’s got a sit-down interview, painting himself as a victim of his own success because of how many times he’s defended the Heritage Cup. He’s defending against Mark Coffey next week… You know how those promo pieces go by now. Also next week, Oliver Carter vs. Teoman… and Stevie Turner vs. Amale.

Eliza Alexander & Xia Brookside vs. Meiko Satomura & Sarray
Sarray didn’t get her “Stars In Your Eyes” walk-on entrance, sadly…

Sarray and Xia start, with Brookside taking things to the ropes before she was caught in a wristlock. Xia reverses the wristlock and yanks down on it, only for Sarray to reverse back as Xia ended up using the ropes to spin into a headlock takedown. Headscissors got Sarray free, but Xia floated out for a kick, before taking Sarray into the corner.

Alexander tags in and threw some forearms to a rocked Sarray, who fought back in kind… only to get pulled down by the hair. The ref counted two from that, as Sarray kicked out and returned with a low dropkick, before bringing in Meiko who went right for Alexander with kicks. A double wristlock takes Alexander down for a two-count before she made the ropes from the submission attempt.

Meiko tags out and helps with a double-team bulldog before Brookside held onto Alexander in the ropes. It stopped Sarray as Alexander’s able to boot her down before Xia tagged back in to knee Sarray into the ropes. Stomps by the ropes gets Brookside a two-count before she threw Sarray into Alexander’s boot in the corner.

A running uppercut knocked Sarray down, as did a suplex and a sliding back elbow… my feed dropped a little here, returning as Meiko made the hot tag, dumping Alexander with a DDT ahead of cartwheel knees. An elbow drop followed before Brookside broke up the pin on a frog splash… then tagged in to club away on Satomura. Meiko’s right back with a head kick to Xia though, then tagged Sarray back in… but Sarray’s quickly on the defensive, taking a Wing Clipper from Xia, then a diving kick from Alexander for a near-fall.

Satomura breaks up the cover but gets dispatched as Sarray’s double-teamed… thrown into the ropes before she overcame Alexander’s attempted cheapshots. Sarray trips Xia into the ropes for a running low dropkick that nearly took her to the outside, before Meiko came in for a Scorpio Rising kick for the win. A good main event in comparison to the rest of the card, as Sarray’s looked solid in her first two matches on the show. **¾

5.2

The final score: review Not So Good

The 411

NXT UK was a mostly-inoffensive 51 minutes of wrestling this week, but with little to write home about other than the main event.