Looking to rebrand NXT UK as "NXT Ireland: Featuring the United Kingdom," Jordan Devlin steps up to challenge Birmingham's hometown hero Pete Dunne, who has held the WWE United Kingdom Championship for more than 500 days.
Looking to rebrand NXT UK as “NXT Ireland: Featuring the United Kingdom,” Jordan Devlin stepped up to challenge Birmingham’s hometown hero Pete Dunne, the reigning WWE United Kingdom Champion for over 500 days.
Both competitors suffered a hard blow early in the contest, as Devlin leveled the titleholder with an earth-shattering forearm and Dunne answered back with a vicious lariat. It wasn’t long before the sadistic Dunne began to focus on punishing his opponent’s arms and fingers. Devlin would not be dissuaded, though, roaring back with a backstabber and his trademark standing moonsault. But, the intense Dunne welcomed the pain, using Devlin’s strikes to fire himself up and take down his opponent with a brutal forearm, setting the stage for an attack that included a series of devastating kicks, an explosive snap German suplex and a painful armbar submission.
With Dunne’s back clearly in agony, however, Devlin dragged The BruiserWeight into a backdrop driver for the near-fall. Still, despite Devlin hitting his first Spanish Fly of the night, Dunne immediately answered with the brutal submission maneuver that nearly made Devlin tap out.
Outside the ring, after planting Dunne into the steel ring steps face-first, Devlin unleashed an unbelievable second Spanish Fly off those same steps and onto the hard ringside floor.
Back in the ring, Devlin then countered Dunne’s vicious attack with a beautiful inverted hurricanrana for another near-fall. Dunne answered back with a mid-air forearm and the Bitter End. But, when the fight reached the apron, Devlin mercilessly hurled Dunne back, spine-first, into the ring post, before delivering a deviating third Spanish Fly off the top rope. Perhaps sensing victory, Devlin removed Dunne’s mouthguard and hit a devastating superkick, but still couldn’t close out the resilient titleholder.
Devlin then flipped from the top rope at Dunne, but it would prove his undoing. As he descended, Dunne locked in a triangle submission out of nowhere. And, just as Devlin was about to reach the ropes, Dunne flipped him over and back away from the ropes, to rip into the fingers, before bending back the hand to make Devlin finally submit.