FanPost

NXT UK Recap & Reactions (Jan 13, 2022): Die Matte ist heilig!

WWE.com

Welcome to the BT Sport Studios!

Today we have the NXT UK finale of WALTER as he tries to help get Nathan Frazer over on his way out the door, we get the next qualifier match in the #1 Contender's Tournament for the Tag Team championship between Dave Mastiff/Jack Starz and Die Familie, and Amale verus Stevie Turner.

Jack Starz and Dave Mastiff versus Die Familie -- NXT UK Tag Team Championship #1 Contender's Tournament

Starz and Mastiff rocking a new combined entrance. The winner of this match goes on to face the team of Ashton Smith and Oliver Carter next week.

The story of this one was Die Familie trying to avoid the big man Dave Mastiff. They did everything they could to isolate and work over Starz including a pretty big distraction from Charlie Dempsey who was ringside. Starz was able to display his remarkable tenacity and keep his team in this until he was able to tag in Mastiff. At the end of the match Die Familie engaged in some more shenanigans which led to Gallus coming out to give them a beat down. Meanwhile in the ring Mastiff was able to pin Raja for the win!

I was not expecting the baby faces to win here. As a result we now have 3 baby face teams at the top of the Tag Team division. I'm not sure I'd want to feed either of these teams a loss to Mustache Mountain unless this is either Seven's last (short) run before retirement or if one of the other teams is heading to a break up. Or else maybe NXT UK is just more of a baby face promotion than I expected.

This Weeks' Promos

WALTER: We get highlight packages and promos about his time in NXT UK throughout the show. Usual top quality stuff from WWE here.

Davenport and Satomura: we get a highlight package of what went down last week reinforcing Davenport's beat down of Satomura as meaning they're not finished.

Dragunov and Devlin: we get a promo of these two and confirmation that they will fight for the title in 2 weeks.

Pretty Deadly: They barge into Sid Scala's office and demand Gradwell be punished for his comments towards them last week. Scala makes a tag match between Pretty Deadly and Gradwell and a partner of his choice next week. He also acknowledges their desire for a title rematch.

Heritage Cup promo: we get promo interviews with both A-Kid and Noam Dar here. Both men do some good character work. They'll face each other next week.

Amale versus Stevie Turner

For a couple of weeks we've been hearing about Amale's background as the daughter of immigrants and how she represents the hope of France. Last week Jinny, who is on commentary here, spoke ill of the outpouring of respect that Amale received. Jinny walked off before Amale could respond but Turner's snide remarks sparked a violent response from Amale, leading to this match.

Amale made pretty short work of Turner here. They're giving Amale a pretty good push here so we'll see if she can handle it. Honestly given her story and that I can't think of a wrestler from France in WWE since Andre the Giant (let me know who I missed in the comments) I'd say hot shot her to NXT 2.0 and see if she can crack the main roster. Lord knows the women's division on both RAW and Smackdown need help so presumably NXT 2.0 is going to be stripped soon.

During the break we catch up with Amale in front of the NXT UK backdrop when Jinny comes along and insults her. Amale snaps and attacks Jinny until referees show up and break them up.

Nathan Frazer verus WALTER

The last time we'll see WALTER in the BT Sport Studios. He was one of several wrestlers who caught my eye when I first started watching. Frazer, or Ben Carter as he was known then, was another one as he debuted on the first episode I ever watched. I've been down on the young man for his lack of character work so hopefully this rub can get him over somewhat.

This was your traditional David versus Goliath battle. Frazer worked over WALTER's knees to try to take some of the power away from the big man and it did seem to bother WALTER during hte match. But the Ring General's sheer brutality and technical prowess allowed him to dominate his smaller opponent through the first half of the match. Frazer showed incredible resilience throughout this one managing to get counters and covers despite the beating he was taking.

Frazer went on the offence big time in the last 4 minutes again working WALTER's left knee. WALTER however derailed this after a massive, mid-air chop as Frazer tried a springboard off the ropes. Frazer turned it around with a stomp and then a frog splash but WALTER kicked out of the cover attempt. In the end however WALTER ends it with a power bomb into a pin for the victory!

This was a pretty good match. Frazer has now strung a few of these together working with the top guys in the promotion. WALTER didn't do the job for him here but certainly helped put him over with this one. Frazer's problems are still on the microphone and in character work and this match just goes to show that he can wrestle with the top performers.

Overall: B+

Reminder/introduction: A+ is a near perfect show, B+ is a good show, C+ is an average show, and anything less than that is not good.

This one gets bonus marks for being WALTER's last but all three matches were pretty good. I was a mark for Amale from the get go so that one was an easy plus for me. All the men involved in the tag match are great performers and didn't disappoint. And Frazer was at least able to show he belonged in the ring with WALTER so a success all around.

Let the rest of us know how you feel in the comments below fellow Cagesiders!

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