NXT Power Rankings: The UK Goldberg Commeth?

This show didn’t have the depth of the last 2 weeks but it made up for it with a really fun main event. So let’s dive right in with the rankings.

Honorable Mention: WALTER and Dragunov: “Really John, again?” Yes reader, again. Because we are getting their TakeOver 36 match replayed next week on this show. My natural inclination was to think NXT UK may be getting stuck in the early Performance Center pandemic problem of not having enough new content filmed to fill a new show after only advertising 1 other match next week. However they did announce the match will feature “new elements” that will make it present differently. I’m not all that fond of rewatching matches but adding potentially new camera angles or alternative commentary/behind the scenes information could make me much more open to the idea. 

5: Emilia McKenzie: Her performance was the least memorable of the 5 on this list but Meiko Satomura’s resident young girl did get the win regardless to help her standing in what is quickly becoming a stacked women’s division. 

4: Dave Mastiff and Jack Starz: I’m a sucker for big guy/little guy tag teams and this duo is just that. Starz is the smaller speed demon and Mastiff’s name may as well be an onomatopoeia because he’s the powerhouse his name sounds like. Mastiff isn’t especially tall but could easily take on the thicc boi moniker that was vacated with Bronson Reed’s departure. Like seemingly all big guys in WWE he is deceptively athletic and gave his team the win after a cannonball splash to his opponent in the corner. 

3: Blair Davenport: She was scheduled for a match with Nina Samuels but that never happened. After tossing Samuels from the top rope to the floor as she posed for her entrance Davenport continued the beat down until the referee had no choice but to thow the match out before it could even start. Assistant to the NXT UK General Manager Sid Scala showed up to try to calm her down and she took him out as well. Alright so she didn’t have a match per say but anytime a woman can take out a man in wrestling it’s going to help her stock quite a bit. 

2: Nathan Frazer: He first blew me away a little over a year ago at GCW Homecoming 2020 and since then I’ve wanted to see the former Benjamin Carter on a bigger stage. Well an empty arena in London wasn’t exactly the stage I’d hoped for but he did wow me yet again. He hit an absolutely beautiful flipping small package which may sound odd but go watch it, it was brilliant to tie it up at 1 fall a piece and nearly had the match won when he missed a Phoenix splash near the end. He may not have advanced in the #1 Contender for the Heritage Cup tournament but he came damn close. At amazingly still just 23 years of age he should change his last name to Grimes because he’s going TO THE MOON! 

1: Teoman: This was my first exposure to him. The name leaves much to be desired but the performance did not. While not as young as Frazer, Teoman is still just 28 years old and also looks to have a bright future. With an incredible looking flipping inverted DDT (think A.J. Styles’ version but flipping forward with your opponent) he moved to 7-0 in NXT UK and one step closer to challenging Tyler Bate for the Heritage Cup. Undefeated with a win in the main event in a high stakes match-up left no other place for him.