Episode 20 (taped November 24, 2018 at the Liverpool Olympia in Liverpool, England)
Quick recap —
James Drake & Zack Gibson beat beat “Wild Boar” Mike Hitchman & Primate in a fun opener. Eddie Dennis destroyed Dave mastiff’s opponent before the match could start, sending a message to his rival. Marcel Barthel made his NXT UK debut and looked tremendous against Mark Andrews. Rhea Ripley defended her NXT UK Women’s Championship against Deonna Purrazzo in an excellent main event; when she attacked Purrazzo after the bell, Toni Storm came out for the save.
Full rundown —
We kicked the show off with a split screen, showing Rhea Ripley and Deonna Purrazzo preparing for their match backstage
James Drake & Zack Gibson beat “Wild Boar” Mike Hitchman & Primate in 4:55 after hitting Ticket to Ride on Hitchman
Primate, who also wrestles as Jason Prime is a former six year veteran of the British Army, and served in the household cavalry for the Royal Family. He chose his ring name because his father, who passed on since, used to say that wrestlers in the ring looked like gorillas. He started in 2014 and was trained by Rampage Brown. He wrestled mostly for Defiant/WCPW, but also other groups such as ICW and PROGRESS among others. He is a former Defaint/WCPW Hardcore and tag team champion.
Gibson and Hitchman started out. There were light Gibson chants. Hitchman escaped from a wrist lock and took over with an arm lock but got thrown on his head. Drake came in but was hit by a senton by Hitchman, who tagged in Primate. Primate hit a clothesline in the corner. Gibson blind-tagged Drake and threw Primate to the outside, then picked him up and Drake launched himself onto Primate over the top to the outside. Gibson locked in his sitting cobra clutch, then tagged Drake who struck him down with a forearm.
They worked over Primate for a while until he managed to throw Gibson over the top and suplex Drake to make the quick tag. “Wild Boar” ran wild for a bit, including a senton on Drake and a pop-up power bomb. Hitchman missed a senton into the corner when Gibson pulled Drake out of the way. They hit Ticket to Ride, their finish where Drake throws the opponent into Gibson’s codebreaker for the win.
Afterwards, Gibson cut a promo in the ring to a mix of boos and light chants. He said the NXT UK tag team titles were right around the corner and he knew a thing or two about winning tournaments. He said he loved his city but he absolutely hated the people of Liverpool. He said not to blame this on him, as the fans turned on him as soon as he got some success. He was the only one to represent Liverpool as no body else in the arena could. He said they were the top tag team in the world, soon to be recognized as the NXT UK Tag Team champions.
A graphic announced Marcel Barthel vs. Mark Andrews; this was followed by a WrestleMania commercial
Moustache Mountain were interviewed backstage about their match with Gallus next week and NXT TakeOver in Blackpool. They said they would become the first-ever NXT UK Tag Team champions.
Dave Mastiff vs. Josh Morrell never got started
Morrell is also known as “Turbo” Josh Terry and previously wrestled Lio Rush on 205 Live. He was trained by current NXT assistant coach Johnny Moss and made his debut at just 16 years old and wrestled for Discovery Wrestling and target Wrestling among others.
Mastiff came out first, followed by Morrell, who immediately got attacked by Eddie Dennis and slammed into the lights on the entrance ramp. mastiff was furious in the ring but the referee held him back. Dennis smiled and went backstage.
Joseph Conners was in a video segment, talking about how there was a mod, a time traveler and a luchador in NXT UK and how they were all just new, shiny toys. He knew how that felt like, because two years ago, he was just one of these news toys as well before he got bad, scratched and discarded. So if he can’t be any of these toys, he’d make sure they would be as bad and scratched as he was.
Marcel Barthel beat Mark Andrews in 9:48 after hitting the Landungsbrücken
Marcel Barthel, 28, is a second-generation wrestler from Germany and the son of legendary German wrestler Axel Dieter, who wrestled all over Europe from 1955 to 1987 and passed away in 2015 at the age of 81. He joined NXT in mid-2017 and has been a regular on their Florida house show loop and also appeared a few times on NXT television.
They locked up and Barthel took him down immediately with a wrist lock. Barthel continued to school Andrews on the mat, locking in a hammerlock. Andrews from the bottom got Barthel into a headlock while still in the move, but Barthel did a head stand into a neck bridge to escape. Andrews eventually managed to escape and hit a few arm drags and a hurricanrana. Barthel came back with a punch to the gut and showed his striking prowess, being a former boxer.
Barthel caught Andrews on a whip, picked him up on an roundabout slam onto his face, then followed up with a knee to the face for a two-count. Barthel locked in a head lock on the mat, transitioning into a chin lock. Andrews escaped, but got his head slammed into the mat for his troubles. Barthel hung Andrews face-down off the second rope then hit a baseball slide right to Andrews’ face, then stopped for a Ringkampf pose on the second rope. Andrews hit a few strikes, but ate a running European uppercut into the corner in return. Barthel locked in a head-and-arm submission and screamed “Nein!” as Andrews tried to escape. Andrews eventually tried to roll through for a two-count.
Andrews followed up with a few chops, slid under a clothesline and hit an enzuigiri that put Barthel down. He followed with double knees into the corner, a roll through and Stomp 182, then tried for a standing moonsault, but Barthel again screamed “Nein!” and rolled out of the ring. Barthel avoided a plancha but Andrews finally hit a somersault body block off the ring steps. As Andrews rolled Barthel back into the ring, Fabian Aichner came out and distracted him, leading to Barthel cradling Andrews once he was back inside for a near-fall.
Barthel went for another European uppercut in the corner but Andrews got up for an enzuigiri. Barthel then hit a slam for another near-fall. Barthel went for a suplex but Andrews turned it into Stunt Dog Millionaire. Andrews went up for the shooting star press, but Barthel rolled out of the way and Andrews landed on his knees. As Andrews hit another enzuigiri from the apron and went for a springboard, Barthel pushed him off the rope to the outside. Aichner at the point hit a running knee on Andrews against the barricade.
Barthel then hit a modified “Landungsbrücken” (fisherman release belly-to-back suplex; the original ends with him bridging) for the victory. Aichner got into the ring after the match and he and Barthel shook hands.
In a WWE.com exclusive, Mark Andrews said that he didn’t lose to Marcel Barthel but to Barthel and Fabian Aichner and is sick and tired of Aichner constantly interfering in his matches
A video on Toni Storm aired, focusing on her Mae Young Classic victory and her then demanding an NXT UK Women’s title match during the last episode; she talked about moving to the UK to get better opportunities and the UK meant everything to her
Doomsday by the Architects is the official NXT Uk TakeOver: Blackpool theme song
A video on Travis Banks aired.
WWE NXT UK Women’s Title: Rhea Ripley (c) defeats Deonna Purrazzo in 11:22 after Riptide
Deonna Purrazzo started out in 2013 and was trained by Rip Rogers and the D2W Wrestling Academy. She appeared on NXT TV as early as 2015 and was part of the 2018 Mae Young Classic. She also wrestled for Ring of Honor, Stardom, Impact, SHIMMER, WSU, RISE, RevPro, GCW and numerous others and held some indy women’s titles.
Rhea Ripley’s previous theme song Final Straw seems to have been replaced by a new one called Brutality, which can’t hold a candle to the old one.
Purrazzo started ff string with a running boot to the head and a head scissors take down, then began to work over Ripley’s arm. Rhea came back with hard forearm strikes, but Deonna got a two-count with a poor woman’s version of a La Magistral cradle. She followed this up with a dropkick to the hip of Ripley which sent the champ to the outside. As she followed, she ended up on Ripley’s shoulders and got her face planted on the apron, then got thrown into the barricade.
Ripley got her opponent down to the match with strikes and kicks, then posed with on foot on top of her fallen opponent, before picking her up for a vertical delayed suplex and another two-count. She locked on body scissors and continued to taunt Purrazzo. Deonna briefly managed to transition into a pin but only got a one-count, before eventually managing to pry Rhea’s legs apart and escape the hold. Rhea followed that with some ground and pound. Purrazzo went for a sunset flip but Rhea rolled through, stomped her in the chest and locked in her reverse Clover Leaf.
Deonna eventually reached the ropes, then managed to evade a clothesline into the corner and pull Rhea’s leg out for a quick pin. Ripley came back with a drop kick to the head and Purrazzo rolled gto ringside while Ripley posed in the ring. Ripley went for a suplex but Purrazzo escaped to the apron mid-move, then hit a kick and a somersault plancha. Purrazzo hit an STO and transitioned into a Koji clutch right away. Ripley tried to escape and managed to turn the hold into a pin, forcing Purrazzo to release the hold.
They traded strikes and chops until Ripley managed to throw Purrazzo on her face off a whip-in. Ripley put her up on the top for a superplex but Purrazzo held on and tried going for a sunset bomb, but this time Ripley held on to the rop ropes. She tried punching down onto Deonna who moved and used Rhea hurting her hand and releasing her grip into a German suplex off the middle turnbuckle, leading to both women being down. Purrazzo kept hitting strikes, then followed with a takeover STO for a near-fall. Purrazzo went crazy on Ripley in the corner, but her aggression was out of control as Ripley managed to pull her head-first into the turnbuckle. She followed up with Riptide for the win.
As Purrazzo got up, Ripley hit her with a kick to the face, then managed to beat her down in the corner until Toni Storm came out to make the safe, sending Rhea packing. Rhea posed with her title on the ramp as Toni stared her down from the ring. Toni and Deonna bumped fists as the show went off the air.
In a WWE.com exclusive interview, Radzi asked Rhea Ripley is she was concerned about Toni Storm. She said he should ask Toni is she was concerned about her, then asked “How dare you?” and sprayed water in his face
Next week:
Moustache Mountain face Gallus in the semi-finals of the NXT UK Tag Team Championship tournament.
