Walter Vs A-Kid (NXT UK No.127, 14/01/2021)

Walter is the one thing I bother watching on NXT UK. A show full of wrestlers i once adored, ruined by the fact of who owns the show and the culture a lot of those wrestlers were (at the very least) complicit in letting fester.

Here he’s defending his title against A-Kid. Before we get onto the match I want to point out how funny it is that commentary put over how close Walter is to beating Pete Dunne’s record as champion, but then goes ahead and doesn’t mention the whole pandemic thing which meant the show was inactive for the best part of a year. This is irrelevant to the match I just find it funny.

ANYWAY, A-Kid is someone i have had limited exposure to. I think I saw him on a couple Progress shows but that’s about it. But he really impressed me here. He was explosive when he needed to be, but always felt like he was one big move from everything falling apart.

Which played into the matched dynamics well, as A-Kid was trying to wear walter down. Kicking out his legs and catching his heavy use of chops out by locking him in armbars. His moments of shine were frantic as he tried everything to stop Walter from retaliation. This didn’t work, when Kid was put down it was with one move and it would be a climb to get back up. He showed some great moments of fighting spirit here, when Walter goaded him to face him head-on he did so.

It’s a refreshing change from Walters previous defences in Joe Coffey and Ilja Dragonuv, who sought to face Walter head-on. This is fin in a visceral and violent way but this provided a nice change before walter would go on to have those same dynamics with Rampage Brown and Dragonuv again.

Walter was Walter. He’s explosive and incredible and a beast.

There are high spots in this match, but due to the setup everything flows like water so it never feels like a highspot is being set up. Like Akid countering a Chop into an arm bar, only for walter to role both men out of the ring and hit an apron powerbomb.

I adored this on rewatch, Akid feels capable to the point where it dosen’t matter that he lost. He countered Walter with precision, he had the key to defeating him he just couldn’t put it together. He tried until the very end though, he tried to fight after the apron bomb, but couldn’t hand walters onslaught. Both men are great at their roles and play them to perfection here. Making me buy into a title match for a championship i actively despise. Good job lads.