NXT UK recap, September 11: South Wales Squashculture

Surprisingly, not a squash!

This week in “thought this would be a third boring squash, but actually,” Jordan Devlin grinds out a win over Ashton Smith and his necklace tattoo. You wonder if he would really have a tougher time against Smith than his most recent opponent Kenny Williams — seeing as the latter has won matches before and the former is best known for having won no matches — but Smith gets in a pretty big share of the offense.

Feeling underappreciated and perhaps above this, Devlin smacks Smith in the face early on. Turns out, not the smartest move. Smith hits a big dropkick and throws Devlin so high in the air I’m surprised he didn’t go “WOOP” when he did it. Really, the majority of Devlin’s attacks get turned around on him. Knees up on a standing moonsault. Caught out of mid-air and suplexed off a crossbody. Top rope moonsault “blocked” via superkick.

It’s only until Devlin manages to pull off one move that Smith can’t anticipate that he gains a firm upper hand. Following the superkick Smith charges off the ropes to attack and keep his momentum going, but Devlin snatches him into a Spanish Fly out of nowhere. His caged animal survival instincts kicked in. After a struggle — Smith is a big guy after all — Devlin rips him up off the ground and hits the Devlin-side for the win.

The only other thing of interest from this match is that commentary — when they’re not touting the still winless Smith — talks about the prospects of Jordan Devlin being the one to topple Imperium. Nigel doesn’t think it would be plausible on his own, saying that superstars will need to band together to accomplish that feat. INTRIGUING. Wouldn’t mind seeing a fragile alliance between Jordan Devlin and assorted others towards the greater good that is ridding NXT UK of the scourge of Imperium. Wouldn’t mind that at all.