WWE NXT UK: June 23, 2022: Briggs and Jensen capture newly vacated NXT UK Tag Team Titles

NXT UK Tag Team Champions Ashton Smith and Oliver Carter relinquished their title, Sid Scala announced a Fatal 4-Way Elimination Match to determine new champions

In one of the most heart-wrenching moments in NXT UK history, Ashton Smith and Oliver Carter were forced to relinquish the NXT UK Tag Team Championship that they had spent more than two-and-a-half years doggedly pursuing.

After announcing on Twitter that he had a big announcement to make, Smith hit the ring with Carter while sporting a brace on his right knee and revealed that he had suffered a ruptured MCL during the Triple Threat Tag Team Championship Match three weeks prior.

Smith recalled how he “couldn’t buy a win and sometimes couldn’t even make the card” before starting to team with Carter, whom he credited for jumpstarting his career.

After Smith encouraged Carter to keep dominating on NXT UK and passionately vowed to return to NXT UK better than ever, Smith and Carter handed the titles to Assistant to the General Manager Sid Scala and exited. Scala, however, was almost instantly joined by Die Familie, Josh Briggs and Brooks Jensen (who were originally scheduled to challenge Smith and Carter on this episode), Mark Andrews and Wild Boar, and Dave Mastiff and Jack Starz.

Though Die Familie insisted that Scala name them the new champions, Scala announced that there would be a Fatal 4-Way Tag Team Elimination Match for the vacant titles later tonight!

Isla Dawn def. Myla Grace

Though attempting to figure out what goes through the head of the mysterious Isla Dawn is always a risky and often fruitless endeavor, anyone who watched her match against Myla Grace likely concluded that she has quickly moved past her two title match losses against NXT UK Women’s Champion Meiko Satomura.

The cackling Superstar taunted Grace from the opening bell, though an undeterred Grace showed impressive resilience by fighting out of a submission hold and leveling The Unholy Enchantress with a stiff clothesline and a picture-perfect tornado DDT.

Dawn nevertheless regained control by dodging her airborne opponent, blasting her with a kick to the face and planting her back-first into the canvas with a decisive half-nelson suplex.

Sarray def. Nina Samuels

Though they don’t have much history together, Sarray and Nina Samuels didn’t take long to bring the fireworks and raise the animosity when they clashed one-on-one.

The host of “The Nina Samuels Show” was infuriated after The Warrior of the Sun got off to a fast start and scored a long two-count with a rollup attempt right at the opening bell. And after being back on her heels in the opening minutes, Samuels pummeled her opponent with a backbreaker and a vicious series of stomps in the corner.

After absorbing significant punishment from her antagonistic foe, The Warrior of the Sun got the last laugh, overwhelming Samuels with a second-rope double stomp to the midsection and a savage basement dropkick before earning the victory with an innovative suplex in her first appearance on NXT UK.

Josh Briggs and Brooks Jensen def. Mark Andrews and Wild Boar, Dave Mastiff and Jack Starz, and Teoman and Rohan Raja to win the vacant NXT UK Tag Team Championship

With a guarantee that new NXT UK Tag Team Champions would be crowned in the main event, the WWE Universe was on the edge of their seats for an instant-classic of a Fatal 4-Way Tag Team Elimination Match.

Following a flurry of action that was highlighted by Josh Briggs chokeslamming Teoman from the apron on top of the other Superstars at ringside, as well as Mark Andrews obliterating the field with a shooting star press onto his fellow competitors on the outside of the squared circle, Jack Starz scored the first elimination by executing a crafty rollup on Andrews.

Then, after Charlie Dempsey suplexed Starz on the ringside floor, Rohan Raja took advantage of the distraction by leveling Dave Mastiff when “The Bomber” came to check on his partner, spiking him with two Seek and Destroys for the elimination. 

With Briggs in pain and in a crumbled heap on the ringside apron, Teoman and Raja targeted Brooks Jensen and nearly won the match when Teoman trapped his foe in the crossface, but Jensen responded with a back suplex and made a crucial tag to Briggs.

After shaking off yet another distraction from Dempsey, Briggs and Jensen booted Teoman and Dempsey off the apron, then teamed up for their devastating high-low maneuver on Raja to tee up Briggs for the championship-winning pinfall!

After the match, Briggs and Jensen were joined in the ring by Fallon Henley and lifted their championships into the air as NXT UK concluded.