By Ross Casey
No awesome lead in montage this week, sadly. First time in a few weeks that has been the case. We do, however, get Sid Scala excitedly running down what we have in store. He is officially the assistant to the NXT UK General manager according to his lower third on screen. Hope he hands out the milk last to anyone who isn't nice to him...
IMPERIUM v SAXON HUXLEY & T-BONE
The start to this match is very interesting. Fabian Aichner is in the ring with T-Bone, who I was expecting to overpower the Italian. However, the story here is that Aichner is actually beating T-Bone for strength and he manages to pull off many impressive power moves. They certainly appear to be positioning Aichner as a big strong European boy...
Barthel on the other hand, is super aggressive here, showing no sign of the finesse we are used to. At one point, he throws Huxley around with such force that his head bounces off the bottom turnbuckle. He follows up with stomps and the ref has to intervene. What happened to you Marcel?!
Huxley looks like he is going to get the hot tag, but Aichner tags in and attacks T-Bone on the apron before he can. Then he slams his knee into T-Bone who is sat against the ring steps. What a bastard!
Imperium then land the European uppercut and powerbomb combo for the win. Utterly dominant, utterly brilliant. What a team.
WINNERS - IMPERIUM
TRAVIS BANKS BACKSTAGE INTERVIEW
Travis Banks says that he is devastated to lose his NXT Championship match and now its time to hit the reset button and come back better than ever. He sold the upset on his face very well... see below!
XIA BROOKSIDE v JINNY
Jinny screams to Xia that she can beat her even without Jazzy Gabert who is at ringside. This doesn't mean that she is daft enough to send her insurance to the back though. Xia starts off the match with a flurry of strikes and moves until Jinny puts a stop to that with a hellacious forearm.
Brookside turns the tide with a great crossbody before tying Jonny in the tree of woe in the corner. She goes for the baseball slide, but Jinny pulls herself up and Xia slides to the outside - where she comes face to face with big Jazzy Gabert.
It causes a distraction, so Jinny can pull her back in with her hair. However Xia reverses that and falls back into the ring alone. She deviously pretends to be injured, so the ref is taking care of her, leaving Jazzy with a free shot at Xia.
Jinny lands an insane transition into the Liger submission she loves. That was stupendously smooth. An Irish whip sees referee Tom get hit and Jazzy trips Xia, allowing her employer Jinny to sneak a roll up victory.
I love that Jinny said she didn't need Jazzy to win - but used her here plenty. Great heel work and good story advancement. Good stuff.
WINNER - JINNY
IMPERIUM BACKSTAGE
Marcel Barthel opens by saying that only Trent Seven is left after they removed Pete Dunne and destroyed Tyler Bate. Alexander Wolfe says that if Trent Seven actually wants to fight the most dominant champion in NXT UK history, well be careful what you wish for... WALTER accepts!
WALTER concludes by saying he will break Trent just like he did his little mates. Imperium have decimated British Strong Style...
TONI STORM IN RING PROMO
Toni gets a great reaction from the crowd and then explains how Kay Lee Ray used to be her friend. When she first moved to the UK, the Scot was one of the first to take her under her wing? What has changed? Now she's attacking other people to send me a message?
Well, she is sick of the mind games....
KLR's music plays and we get a response! She says she can have her match at any time and right now, she looks a bit more prepared than Toni. How about we do this RIGHT NOW? The crowd cheer... she laughs and tells them that it isn't happening. That gets her a you suck chant...
She is cashing in at NXT UK's biggest ever show - NXT Takeover: Cardiff. Until then she plans on making Toni's life a living hell.
Good stuff. A bit of backstory, KLR mind tricks and a match set for Takeover!
MAIN EVENT MARK ANDREWS v KASSIUS OHNO
The build up to this match has been fun, with Kassius Ohno claiming that Andrews isn't a real British wrestler and he probably throws a superkick because of HBK and not Gentleman Chris Adams.
For that reason, I love that the opening exchange is basically Ohno using a cravat on Andrews. Mark uses his speed to perfect an armdrag, which creates some distance - enough for him to attempt a dive to the outside, but he gets caught.
Whilst holding Andrews in a bodyslam position, Ohno removes the padding around the steel turnbuckle and drops his opponent throat first onto it. He smirks as the crowd boo him. He focuses his moveset on the throat of Andrews.
He puts on his hundreth cravat and shouts WRESTLING GENIUS. Lolz. Andrews goes up top, but Kassius pushes him off to the outside. Ohno goes out after him, open palm slaps him in the face and says YOU DON'T BELONG IN THE RING WITH A WRESTLING GENIUS.
Commentary mention that in the past, Ohno has not wrestlers away because he toys with them and doesn't get the job done. It feels like that is what he is doing here...
Before long, Andrews gets his second wind and lands a great huricanrana from over the top rope! He hits a standing moonsault and then does his knee slide, but Ohno simply watches him and FOREARMS him in the back of the head! That was awesome!
He then hits an electric chair on Andrews, but White Lightning kicks out at two. Ohno lands some big open hand slap slaps to the much smaller chest of Andrews, but it only serves to hype Mark up!
He answers back with strikes of him own, that are much faster paced, but offer less impact. A disgusting big knee lands from Ohno to stop that show of resistance. Ohno needs to land more of those strikes in NXT UK. I get that he is doing the European wrestler thing, but boy do they look incredible!
Andrews then hits a reverse rana on Ohno that looked UGLY. Crazy they can do that move but not a piledriver. Ohno tries to suplex Andrews... when will they learn? Stundog millionaire follows, obviously.
Andrews lands a moonsault into a tornado DDT for 2 as the crowd go banana. Mark then goes back up top for the Fall To Pieces shooting star press, but Ohno catches him in a cravat from the floor!!!
Cravat plex! Spinning big boot DESTROYS Andrews. Love these strikes! Ohno then goes for his new finisher, but Andrews cradles him for the three!
A slow build that paid off in the end with the cravat off the SSP and Andrews won using some classic British escapology. Loved it.
WINNER - MARK ANDREWS
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