NXT UK Power Rankings: A Dar And A Draw

On the eve of the New York Giants hiring the Buffalo Bills’ version of Sid Scala to become their new version of Johnny Saint we were back in BT Sport Studios for another episode of NXT UK. There may not have been Giants Pride on the line but The Heritage Cup was at stake in our main event. So let’s jump into the weekly rankings! 

Honorable Mention: Jinny and Jordan Devlin. Jinny had a solid package where she reminded everyone that she was also the daughter of immigrants with a degree, who had an accomplished career outside of wrestling. But unlike Amale she doesn’t tell people her story because she’s not looking for pity. Devlin talked up Dragunov feeding off the people rather than fighting for himself and challenged him to an empty arena match when they clash for the UK title which Ilja promptly accepted. 

5. Sam Gradwell. “The Thunderstorm” and his unlikely partner Saxon Huxley may have taken the loss this week but the highlight of the whole show was in the opening moments when we got a recap of his week spent searching for a partner. Among the partners Gradwell recruited on Twitter were Stone Cold, Elon Musk and Sir Paul McCartney. He told Austin they could “pop a few tinnies at BT Sport Studios”, told Elon that afterwards they could “Go for a long weekend in space” and he could “actually breathe on the moon” and told McCartney “Pretty Deadly reckon I’ve got no mates, I say let’s take a sad song and make it better” He also tried to recruit the person taking his order at the drive through, the person on the other end of his room service call, Nathan Frazer (who reminded him he said there was “More cows than people on my island”) and A-Kid on the toilet (who reminded him he had a match this week and he insulted his whole country). He had settled on Finlay (“Finlay’s a geezer right?”) before being confronted by Kenny Williams calling everything “Preposterous!” and eventually having Saxon Huxley show up saying “You can count on Saxon!” 

4. Isla Dawn. Dawn continued her tour of redemption and returns when she defeated Emilia McKenzie with her swinging fireman’s carry to side slam and then returned McKenzie’s watch she had taken last August like she returned Aleah James scrunchy after beating her. I can’t recall who else Dawn had taken items from, if anyone, but this feels like there should be a big 3rd person. I like that NXT UK will revisit old stories after a while off but sometimes I could use a refresher that they don’t always give. 

3. Pretty Deadly. Thanks to Kenny Williams getting involved and taking out Saxon Huxley to prevent the hot tag, then taunting Gradwell lounging on the corner barricade, Pretty Deadly was able to get back in the win column by hitting Sam Gradwell with Spilt Milk. 

2. Noam Dar. The main event ended in a draw making the final 2 spots a toss up. Even though he captured a fall in round 3 with a Nova Roller Dar could not win in the 4th despite Sha Samuels betting his Grandmother’s house on the 11/1 odds he would. He retained his Heritage Cup thanks to surviving all 6 rounds but for costing Sha Samuels everything he owned Dar lands only at #2 this week. Maybe Sha can go hang out with Happy Corbin and win some money back. 

1. A-Kid. He nearly overcame bad ribs and Sha Samuels but in the end fell just short in his bid to reclaim the Heritage Cup. Down 1 fall to nil in the 4th round Kid beat a 9 count outside the ring and dodged Sha Samuels while balanced on the top rope and flipped backwards into a DDT to tie up the score at 1 fall each. Round 5 saw the two men continue to battle to no avail and in round 6 A-Kid came as close as he could to winning it all. After Sha held Dar on the ropes to avoid a suplex Kid dove through the ropes and took Samuels out. A-Kid then managed to lock Dar in an armbar and get the leg over to actually armbar both arms but Dar was saved by the bell. There may have been no official winner here but A-Kid’s stock continued to rise despite that. Had this been 5 seconds longer we may be looking at a new Heritage Cup champion today! I look forward to these 2 meeting again without the round limits.