Hamilton’s NXT UK Review 09.01.22

Quick Results
Blair Davenport defeated Amale, Eliza Alexander & Isla Dawn in 15:07 (***)
Saxon Huxley pinned Kenny Williams in 5:44 (**½)
NXT UK Championship Tournament Final: Tyler Bate pinned Trent Seven in 20:30 (****)

— 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.

After 1416 days and 216 episodes, this is it. Ending 72 episodes short of Monday Nitro, 54 behind 205 Live, and a load of other shows I couldn’t be arsed to count up, NXT UK is about to be no more. Starting in the Corn Exchange in Cambridge with Mark Andrews vs. Joe Coffey, and ending in the BT Sport studios in London with, presumably, Trent Seven vs. Tyler Bate…

We open with a video package acknowledging that this is it, recapping Trent Seven’s and Tyler Bate’s history throughout NXT UK…

Cue the titles with all of the released folks on for one last time, as Andy Shepherd and Nigel McGuinness are on some re-recorded commentary.

Blair Davenport vs. Amale vs. Eliza Alexander vs. Isla Dawn
This elimination match is for a shot at the NXT UK Women’s Championship… and I guess, that means they’re part of the unification with the NXT Women’s championship this weekend at World’s Collide.

Since I’ll probably not be able to ask this again for a while… is the Devil’s Pulpit in Scotland, or are they calling Scotland the Devil’s Pulpit?

Isla Dawn’s pinged around the ring to start, then sent to the outside after some forearms before Blair and Eliza ganged up on Amale. That took Amale to the corner, but Alexander’s sent into another corner with some forearms, before Davenport rudely threw her under the bottom rope to the outside. Things build up quickly to a dive from Amale, whose body press off the top met the pile.

All four continue to fight on the outside, with an Amale neckbreaker on Alexander leading to Isla Dawn posting Davenport. Back inside, Davenport fought back on Dawn, who returned with a Saito suplex, before Amale took over… only to get elbowed down by Davenport. Amale’s kicked out of the corner as a Shining Wizard took Amale down… but the Parade of Moves continues as Dawn picked up a two-count on Alexander.

Dawn heads up top, but takes a gamengiri from Davenport… Alexander’s back to build a Tower of Doom, which Amale pulled the trigger on. Amale chucks Alexander into the buckles, then threw some face-washing boots to Eliza and Blair in the corners, but we get the spooky Isla Dawn appearing behind Amale horror shot. Dawn’s quickly taken care of by everyone else though, as a Hope Breaker and a piled-on pin eliminated Dawn at the 7:00 mark.

The match continues with an exchange of pinning attempts, but to no avail as the three had a staredown. Amale shoved Davenport into Alexander, before Alexander returned with a clothesline. Davenport shrugs it off and went after Amale in the ropes, but Amale pulled Davenport into Alexander, ahead of a shotgun dropkick to Alexander. Amale’s full nelson’s broken up by Alexander, which makes no sense in an elimination match, while Davenport’s missile dropkick found Amale.

Alexander posts Davenport, then hit a running knee to Amale… which eliminated her at 10:07. The old Virgil Van Strike, if they were able to call it that.

Davenport and Alexander have a staredown to start the “final fall,” as a German suplex nearly got the win for Eliza. Pulling up Davenport by the hair, Alexander continues on the offensive, throwing Davenport into the buckles ahead of some boot choking. After that, Davenport got back in it with some short-arm clotheslines, pulling up Eliza for some more, before a missed running knee from Alexander allowed Blair back in.

Alexander escaped something, then elbowed Davenport in the corner before a trip up top ended in a nasty avalanche German suplex. From there, Davenport’s knee strike lands, before Alexander’s spiked on a Falcon Arrow for the win. This got good towards the end, but felt a little clunky in the first half of the match. ***

Commentary still talks about Davenport getting a shot at the NXT UK Women’s title – and didn’t redo it to mention the unification match…

Trent Seven’s backstage, pinching to zoom on a photo of him low blowing Tyler Bate…

…while Tyler’s skipping to warm up.

Saxon Huxley vs. Kenny Williams
Holy unadvertised match, Batman!

Commentary talks about the masked wrestler that’s distracted Kenny Williams in recent weeks, as we start with Huxley throwing the Scotsman aside. Kenny slaps him, then got thrown back into the corner as Huxley then ran him from buckle to buckle, leading to a backbreaker out of the corner.

Huxley gets a two-count, then went back after Kenny, pulling him up into the corner, before Huxley missed a front kick. He’s hung in the ropes as a flying back elbow knocked Huxley… whose leg was then homed in on with kicks. Huxley shrugs it off to throw Williams back into the corner, only for Kenny to spear the front of the knee.

Williams ties up Huxley’s leg in the ropes again, following with a dropkick to the knee before Anrew Chase, Bodhi Hayward and Thea Hail appeared in the aisle. They distract Kenny with some flag waving, allowing Huxley to fight back with a ragdolling atomic drop. Williams gets thrown into the corner, then booted down ahead of a running clothesline to the back of the head.

A running elbow drop’s next for a near-fall, before Williams ducked a crossbody as Huxley bounced off the ropes. More Chase U distractions take away Williams’ attention, as he’s knocked into Chase and Hayward’s arms, before they dumped him on his arse. Huxley pulls Kenny back in by the hair, then nailed a choke bomb for the win. Decent enough, but we’ll never know who Tiger Turan was. I bet he was the White Hummer driver… **½

Trent and Tyler are walking…

…then we get pre-taped promos of Tyler Bate saying that this match apparently felt like fate. Trent’s in too, with footage from PROGRESS and old photos from Trent’s Instagram as they talked up their run through the indies as a tag team. I vividly remember how weird that initial pairing was in PROGRESS was they first made British Strong Style… with heel Trent and babyface Tyler. Anyway, this was a good promo for a match that other WWE television has made inconsequential.

Johnny Saint and the Assistant to the Regional Manager are in the ring with the title belt on a table

NXT UK Championship Tournament Final: Tyler Bate vs. Trent Seven
The final match on “our brand,” then… to determine a championship that’ll be unified within the week.

Opening with a lock-up, we get a headlock takedown and escape… before a second one saw Tyler hold on with some grounded headscissors. Trent breaks it in the ropes, before Trent took things back to the mat with an overhead wristlock. Bate rolls free, reversing the hold, but Trent too rolled free to break the grip.

Bate takes Trent down with a dropkick, before chops took Trent into the corners. A trip allowed Trent to work over Tyler’s leg, but he got distracted by the crowd as Tyler kicked Trent over the top, and followed up with a plancha as we got the old soundboard crowd for one last time.

Right hands keep Tyler ahead, but Trent went back to the knee as Tyler was quickly back on the defensive. A toe hold looked to weaken up Tyler more, as did a knee breaker, before Tyler countered another knee breaker into a sunset flip for a near-fall. Uppercuts help him carve a way back in, but Trent faked out a chop and instead DDT’d his former tag partner for a two-count.

Trent stays on the leg, as there’s a super awkward line about “what’d happen if Trent Seven walked into Principality Stadium on Saturday with the title.” I mean, I’m sure there’ll be some fans in Cardiff on Saturday with a belt and a beard… Bate fires up with an Exploder, then some mounted punches in the corner, before a wrist clutch Exploder took Trent down. A kip-up seemed to jar Tyler’s knee, but he’s still able to hit a running shooting star press for a two-count.

Trent ducks a rebound lariat, then returned with a Dragon suplex… but his Emerald Flowsion’s countered into a brainbuster. An airplane spin followed, but Trent slipped out and went for a Seven Star lariat, eventually landing it for a near-fall. Trent stays on Tyler’s knees with a Figure Four, but Tyler rolls over the hold to reverse it, forcing Trent to crawl to the ropes for the break.

With both men on the deck, Trent and Tyler exchange right hands, escalating to chops as they got to their feet… but Bate finds a second wind, walking through the chops before he threw some uppercuts. Bop/Bang blasts Trent, as we get dramatic backfists, before a rebound lariat from Tyler found its way through. The Tyler Driver’s next, but Trent kicks out at two.

Bate heads up top, but Trent chops out the leg, then joined Tyler up top and teased a superplex to the floor… Bate slips down, then headbutted Trent in the corner, only to get his superplex countered into an avalanche Emerald Flowsion as Trent almost nicked the win. From there, Trent hits his own Tyler Driver, but it’s still not enough, as we’re into the shouty main event commentary.

Trent snaps Tyler’s fingers, then went a Bitter End… but Tyler countered out and hit a Seven Star lariat for a near-fall, before a Spiral Tap almost got the win. Another Tyler Driver’s countered as Trent folded up Tyler for a near-fall, but Tyler’s up for bop/bang and one more Tyler Driver… and that’s enough to win the title. The first, and probably only two-time NXT UK champion, and I’ll give them this, they closed this show on a high. ****

Tyler’s celebrating with the title as Trent’s left disconsolate in the corner… and we’ve some dubbed commentary to end things as Nigel and Andy closed out “this chapter” and promised/threatened that the next chapter as NXT Europe will begin next year. We get a video package of NXT UK highlights to close out four years of this show. The first UK Championship Tournament, WALTER, Pretty Deadly, the end of Moustache Mountain, Meiko Satomura, Kay Lee Ray, the Heritage Cup, and of course, bloody Gallus.

…and after a photograph and a “thank you,” that’s it. Save for Worlds Collide this weekend, NXT UK is no more. NXT UK has ceased to be. NXT UK has expired and gone to meet ‘is maker! NXT UK is a stiff! Bereft of life, NXT UK rests in peace! NXT UK’s kicked the bucket, shuffled off its mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin’ choir invisible… it is now, an ex-brand, in rest alongside WWE ECW.

As one of the few who’ve watched every single episode, even the clip show weeks at the start of the pandemic, it’d be fair to say… that’s a lot of hours down the pan for the few highlights we got, and that’s not even considering the effects it had on the scene. The writing really was on the wall when the main roster held more touring shows in the UK than the UK-specific brand… and was only cemented when the lower reaches of NXT 2.0 were brought over and put over the UK roster. It is what it is, and it was what it was. Little more than a footnote in global wrestling, but a massive talking point in Europe for mostly the wrong reasons.

7.3

The final score: review Good

The 411

The last few weeks of NXT UK have been lame duck shows, even more so with the decision to only re-do some lines of commentary rather than re-record the lot so as to mention Worlds Collide (or whatever they could without killing kayfabe). Add in the unresolved storylines, and this was a show that did as good a job as it could with it being turned into an unexpected farewell episode. Guess I’ll be doing something else on my Thursday nights now!