Hamilton’s NXT UK Review 08.05.21

Quick Results
Blair Davenport pinned Xia Brookside in 4:21 (**)
Dave Mastiff & Jack Starz pinned Josh Morrell & Danny Jones in 5:27 (**¼)
A-Kid beat Jordan Devlin 2:1 in a 30:00 Iron Man match (***½)

— 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 the Shawn Michaels promo, hyping up the rigours of an iron man match with clips of (60 minute) matches of years gone by. Once again, we’re at the BT Sport Studios as Andy Shepherd and Nigel McGuinness prepare for an iron man match. With a lot of shouty commentary sprinkled throughout, I bet…

Xia Brookside vs. Blair Davenport
Funny how Xia’s “nepotism” only just became part of a storyline, eh?

Brookside works the arm and wrist of Davenport to start, but Blair countered with a wristlock of her own that Xia breaks with some headscissors. A roll-up gets a one-count, but after landing a dropkick Brookside’s taken outside and into the barriers. Back inside, Xia tries to fight back, but she’s caught in a chinbar, before she nailed some forearm strikes.

Tiltawhirl headscissors take down Davenport, as did forearms, before Brookside got caught out with a head kick. A double springboard dropkick keeps Xia down, before a V-Trigger-ish knee and a Kamigoye proved to be a shower of offence that Brookside couldn’t sustain. A fun extended squash, as Davenport really needs to brand those two moves… **

Post-match, a Michinoku driver from Davenport on Brookside.

They replay the finish of last week’s main event, and bleed into Trent and Tyler celebrating backstage. Pretty Deadly bump into them and offer a match for some point in the future… which bleeds into an announcement of a Heritage Cup contender’s tournament starting next week, featuring Mark Andrews, Noam Dar, Kenny Williams, Oliver Carter, Nathan Frazer, Teoman, Sam Gradwell and Wolfgang. I mean, it’ll pad out a few shows…

We even get brackets, paired out like the above…

Vignette time. It’s spooky and mysterious, but this one’s for Isla Dawn. She kneels in front of a camouflaged box, opening it to find it’s… empty? She puts in a watch in that’s ticking really loudly. I’m sure there’s better ways to silence that thing, as she leaves it behind…

Backstage, SubCulture’s asked what’s next after their loss a few weeks ago. Flash Morgan Webster bumps into Wolfgang, and slaps him, after noting that that’s how Wolfgang got his big match. Yep.

Danny Jones & Josh Morrell vs. Jack Starz & Dave Mastiff
It’s been a hot minute since we’ve seen these guys on here… Starz and Mastiff get singles entrances, as they need to work on their tag team chemistry.

Starz works over Jones’ wrist to start, then tripped the Welshman to the mat before Jones escaped a cravat. They reset on the mat, with Starz grabbing a side headlock ahead of a missed dropkick from Jones… a Superman body press gets Starz a two-count, as he then grabbed an armbar before tagging in Dave Mastiff’s Cowboy Boots.

Jones hits a quick jawbreaker before Morrell tagged in to try his luck with a dropkick. Mastiff shrugs it off and suplexed Morrell from the ring to the floor. Starz throws Morrell back in, as the new team lands a double team back body drop for a near-fall. Starz tropes for something out of the corner, but Morrell countered out and tagged in Jones, who tries his luck with a backslide before settling with an enziguiri.

Starz gets thrown into the corners ahead of a running boot from Jones. Morrell’s back for a dropkick that nearly beats Starz, before a slam set up Starz for a wacky corkscrew split-legged moonsault that missed. From here, Starz hits uppercuts and a release Northern Lights suplex, before Mastiff came in to flip Josh to the mat.

Mastiff throws in a clothesline and a Chaos Theory German suplex, with Starz blind-tagging in. He hits a hesitation dropkick as Morrell was in the Tree of Woe, before Mastiff returned for a cannonball that gets the win. A decent TV match, but there’s a lot of work needed for this tag team to gel, as they felt distinctly like two singles guys here. **¼

Earlier today, Amale’s getting made up… Nina Samuels is pissed that she’s hogging the camera crew. Hey Katja! It leads to a pullapart as referees were on hand…

Next week: Noam Dar vs. Mark Andrews in the Heritage Cup contender’s tournament. They play footage of their first match from 2019, where they both got injured, so they’ve got form…

Vignette time for Aoife Valkyrie. She’s pissed that Jinny won with a lot of interference… Wait, are they doing a cage match? Oh wait, they’ve imported the shark cage gimmick for Joseph Conners to be held in.

Stevie Turner’s at the PC interrupting Emilia McKenzie and Aleah James’ training session with Meiko Satomura. She reckons Meiko can’t beat her, and I guess we’ve got that in a few weeks… because next week we’ve Amale vs. Nina Samuels. Plus Flash Morgan Webster vs. Wolfgang as we keep stacking up one-week builds!

Iron Man: A-Kid vs. Jordan Devlin
We’re running with a 30-minute time limit… and the entrances are starting at 8.32, so this match is going over the top of the hour.

A-Kid’s coming in with the dodgy knee, and we’ve a cagey start as A-Kid picked Devlin’s leg. They look for a hold on the mat as commentary tells us Pretty Deadly vs. Moustache Mountain is in two weeks’. That was a quick turnaround from “under advisement” to confirmed…

A-Kid rolls out of a wristlock and dropkicks Devlin to the outside. Back inside, A-Kid escapes headscissors, before the search for a hold led A-Kid to try an omoplata, but it ends quickly in the ropes. Devlin’s knuckle lock leads to some pinning attempts, before he countered A-Kid’s escape into a Gory stretch, sliding A-Kid back to the mat for some pinning attempts en route to A-Kid powering himself back up as he went back for the armbar.

Devlin’s back in the ropes and powders outside to take the sting out of things. When he returned, he went back after A-Kid, ground him in a front facelock, before a side headlock on the mat kept the Spaniard grounded. Things head into the ropes, where Devlin snuck in a cheapshot, but A-Kid shrugs it off and went back to the side headlock, before Devlin hung A-Kid in the ropes and started to work over the previously-injured knee, forcing a submission at 9:41 in the match.

Going 1-0 up, Devlin stays on A-Kid’s bad knee, driving it into the mat before A-Kid leapt over a chop block and rebounded back into a rear naked choke as Devlin rolled into the ropes to force a break. Rolling outside, Devlin throws A-Kid’s knee into the apron, then around the post, before a ringpost Figure Four exacerbated the bad wheel.

A kneebreaker follows back inside as Devlin went for another submission. It ends in the ropes, but A-Kid chops back before Devlin floored him with more kicks. A-Kid snaps in with a German suplex, holding on so he could roll some of them together as we crossed the halfway mark. Devlin clings to the ropes to avoid an O’Connor roll, before the Dynamite Kid inside-out suplex dumped both men to the floor.

A-Kid rolls back inside, while Devlin narrowly beat the count… only to get caught in an omoplata that ended with Devlin backing into the ropes. A slingshot cutter from Devlin’s countered into a rear naked choke, but A-Kid lets go of the hold and instead runs for a big PK to get a near-fall.

Back to his feet, Devlin lands a forearm before an exchange of strikes put A-Kid ahead, getting a near-fall that led to a Fujiwara armbar… then a cross armbar for the rapid tap at 18:14 to level things. Hey, do you think this ends 2-1? Like a Heritage Cup match, without the rounds?

Devlin rolls outside and tries to run away from A-Kid, looking to protect the draw. A-Kid throws Devlin outside when he did engage, and that seemed to annoy the Irishman, who charges back in, and gets thrown outside, including with a hard Irish whip that bounced Devlin out of the ring.

That wound him up to the point where he grabbed a chair, but A-Kid kicks the chair into Devlin on the floor to stop the DQ. Back inside, a crossbody gets A-Kid a two-count, before a dropkick’s caught by Devlin, who then looked for a Cloverleaf, but A-Kid countered out with a ‘rana for a two-count. Another PK gets the Spaniard another two-count, as Devlin stuck close to the ropes to frustrate any further offence.

Kicks send Devlin crashing outside again as we enter the final 7 minutes. Back inside, Devlin nearly lucks into a fall after a headbutt saw him knock down and land on A-Kid for a two-count. Another exchange of strikes sends Devlin onto the apron, but A-Kid gets punched out when he tried for something on there, leading to Devlin teasing a Devlinside to the floor, only to get met with an up-kick instead.

Devlin twangs the ring apron into A-Kid to stop hiom, then pulled him off the edge of the ring to the floor with a Devlinside. A-Kid dives in in the nick of time to avoid a count-out, before A-Kid managed to hit a superkick for a slow near-fall. It’s back to the cross armbar as A-Kid looked to eke out a fall, but he rolls back in for an omoplata instead… and eventually Devlin submitted at 28:30!

It’s going to be a rush against the clock, but Devlin tries it with a jack-knife cover for a two-count, before the pair swung with forearms as A-Kid looked for another submission, while Devlin went for flash pins. Another headbutt dumps A-Kid into the final 30-seconds, but he kicks out at two, while Devlin looked to snatch a fall via KO, eventually decking A-Kid… but time runs out as the ref could only make a two-count before the 30 minutes expired. A heck of a sprint finish, with Devlin perhaps costing himself by going for a pin rather than a KO – but this was a pretty good iron man match, hanging on to the A-Kid knee injury story without it being the sole story in the match. ***½

7.4

The final score: review Good

The 411

Almost literally a one-match show, but at least the “one match” was a good one - while the brand continues to pepper stuff your way in terms of literal week-to-week booking. I’d say go out of your way for the second half of the iron man match, and especially the final stretches.