NXT UK Power Rankings: Unbesiegbar Rising

Much like Ponyboy NXT U.K. stayed golden tonight with both the Women’s and Men’s U.K. Championships bookending the card. While Rampage Brown might have fared better than Johnny he still got burned in his attempt for Championship glory. So let’s cut through the grease(ers) and get to this week’s rankings! 

Honorable Mention: Blair Davenport: After her defense Meiko and Emilia McKenzie were in the back when Meiko said she was going back to Japan for a few weeks. Davenport asked what McKenzie will do without Meiko to protect her and challenged her for next week. McKenzie accepted and Davenport told Meiko to “Bring back a present please” and “Arigato!” Davenport has felt like the biggest mountain for Meiko to overcome since I started covering this brand a few months ago and it’s great to see them get closer and closer to that clash. I keep asking but can we please get a U.K. TakeOver soon?! 

5: Sha Samuels: This week the U.K.’s resident bookmaker was in the back with the odds for next Heritage Cup Contender and I was dead! The board read as follows:

   EH? KID 2/1   TILER BATE 3/1   JOHN COFFEE 4/1   ST JOHNNY SAINT 14/1   DOINK (THE CLOWN) 100/1   SAMSON GRADWELL 4,000/1

Gradwell barged in and liked the odds on himself and offered to put a tenner on him to beat Samuels. Sha claimed Gradwell has never won a match and the pairing was made. 

4: Charlie Dempsey: Him being on the show in any capacity beyond a re-cap is going to earn him a spot but we got some development with him this week. He met Rohan Raja at a house and went up to a roof where they had Teoman on the phone. Raja asked Dempsey what was important to him? Charlie said legacy and heritage, things he knows are important to Raja as well. When he saw the problem they were having with the “pub brawlers” (Gallus) who have no respect for anyone in the ring he figured they could use a helping hand. Teoman says “Welcome to Die (pronounced dee by Teoman) Familia” and he and Raja shake on it. Being somebody who always thinks 10 steps ahead I’d love to see this eventually lead to Teoman dethroning Dragunov and Dempsey turning face to feud with Teoman for the title. 

3: Trent Seven: We had a video package to hype up Moustache Mountain v. Pretty Deadly 2 next week and this was some of the best work I’ve seen from NXT U.K.’s handsome Grandma. He and Bate talked about how the Moustache Mountain name started tongue-in-cheek but how they now realize it’s always been about the climb and the struggle. Pretty Deadly had a great line too about Moustache Mountain being the foundation of NXT U.K. but them being the beautiful building, the Sistine Chapel built on top of it. Seven though stole the segment with one, emotionally delivered, telling line; “What do I do if we don’t win?” Gut-wrenching. Next week could be the last dance for the founding fathers and if it is it could be the best tag break-up since #DIY in Chicago. 

2: Meiko Satomura: While commentary made sure to remind us that Brookside only got this match because of her Daddy and that she did nothing to earn it she almost proved a worthy challenger…almost. Even her pre-match graphic took a shot as her accolade portion read “Daughter or Robbie Brookside” Brookside got a nice flurry of offense landing some big kicks and a double knee code breaker style shot for 2 but none of it was enough to fell the final boss. Meiko took the last life from the challenger landing a death valley bomb and Scorpio Rising to add another name to her list of defenses. 

1: Ilja Dragunov: Unbesiegbar lived up to the moniker tonight and showed his invincibility by outlasting Rampage Brown in a hard hitting war. The stoppage came suddenly and unexpectedly when Dragunov followed a big strike from Brown with an enzuigiri of his own that rendered Rampage unable to continue and forced the ref to call the match in Dragunov’s favor. This match was fun for the relatively short (around 10 minutes or so) time it lasted but felt like it ended just as things were really picking up. Dragunov’s selling and intensity are some of the best in the game. He collapsed against the ropes when he was whipped into them and took quite a few seconds trying to squat Rampage Brown to counter a powerbomb attempt into a backdrop. While the finish felt flat at first it made me question if it was a legitimate injury for a second and that’s a great thing. I tend to think it wasn’t because the replay didn’t look like the kick really connected that much and commentary mentioned Mastiff also being unable to finish a match with Dragunov via ref stoppage. But the fact I can even question it and it had that sudden MMA type ending  felt like another fresh, creative finish from the brand that has become my favorite in all of wrestling for doing just that. This feels like their way of protecting big powerhouse faces/tweeners who face Ilja and I really enjoy it. I hope they run this back because it felt like these two had great chemistry and have another level to take this to.