NXT UK Recap for July 3, 2019: Clean-Shaven Mountain

Extra Most Dominant

At last it has been settled. We know the identity of the most dominant woman in NXT UK, as someone who claimed to hold that distinction defeated someone else who also claimed to hold that distinction. Yes, it’s Piper Niven versus Rhea Ripley.

https://twitter.com/WWE/status/1146495271980785664

Surprisingly, the show opens with this match when Ripley storms down to the ring, gets on the mic and claims she’d rather fight that very moment than wait approximately 10 minutes to fight after Alexander Wolfe and Jazzy Gabert’s respective matches. Thankfully a referee is already down there so when Niven comes running to the ring, they can go right at it.

As expected, it’s a really good match, albeit kind of short. Ripley and Niven make the most of their time however, going back-and-forth for some fun sequences. Even the crowd is going back-and-forth, with dueling chants for each woman.

For the life of her, Ripley cannot keep Niven down. Everything she throws out, Niven is able to find a way out of. She pulls Niven down off the top rope, causing Niven’s face to bounce off the top turnbuckle for a two count. Thinking that would probably stagger her long enough to lock it in, Ripley tries to apply her inverted Texas Cloverleaf submission and mostly succeeds. Mostly being the key word, because Niven has the strength to keep her arms locked and extended, subsequently wheelbarrow-walking her way to the bottom rope to break the hold.

A little later, after a sequence in which the two maintained wrist control on each other and took turns delivering clotheslines, Ripley is able to dodge, kick Niven in the stomach, and set up for her finisher, The Riptide. Niven block it though, and takes advantage with a big time headbutt. She then sidesteps a charging Ripley, who goes crashing into the post shoulder first, before hitting a cannonball into her back. That is swiftly followed up by a Piper Driver for the three-count.

Did Ripley overestimate her own dominance, or underestimate Niven’s? Either way a surprisingly clean, decisive win for Niven, one that seems to firmly establish her as the extra-most dominant woman in NXT UK. Piper had better watch out though, because there’s already another dominant woman on the rise in NXT UK.