NXT TakeOver 36, Orlando, FL
These two had a monstrously brutal empty room match about 10 months ago, and this is a huge rematch for the NXT UK title, at huge as anything under the NXT UK umbrella can be, anyway. Now they’re in Orlando at the “Capitol Wrestling Center,” which is usually a good sign that the NXT UK title is going to change hands, because of the three reigns coming into this match, two of them began in the United States.
One of WALTER’s “intangibles” is “unbeatable,” which seems a huge advantage to me. Dragunov uses his speed to dodge WALTER a bit early, annoying the shit out of the big man and smacking him with a couple of chops. Dragunov also gets to show off his power, not catching WALTER on a crossbody, but standing his ground enough to block it from going through and riding forward momentum to slam him down.
This match is amazing even before it gets going, because it gets the — let’s be real — extremely stale NXT Orlando audience to actually sound like they’re truly alive again for the first time in quite a while. And it’s just the mat work early, because all of it is intense, there’s a violence even to Draguno’s tight side headlock, and to WALTER’s attempts to escape. It is just not the type of wrestling you get from the standard NXT or WWE people.
Things turn up when they go to the floor and WALTER power bombs Dragunov against the edge of the apron, and inside he destroys Dragunov with a release German suplex. Dragunov’s selling is the type of thing that would run the risk of angering Vince McMahon unless he’d already put in several years and/or become a personal favorite early, but it’s great selling, carries his offensive intensity over to the “defensive” side.
The pure violence starts coming as they obviously begin trading vicious strikes, and Dragunov holds his own but is at a pure power and force disadvantage, WALTER is just a much larger, naturally stronger man. Dragunov’s chances come from resilience and technique more than striking, but the striking is worthwhile when he can find a real opening, because he certainly hits hard enough to do some damage, and his variety may be great than that of WALTER, who focuses mostly on chops and some brutal lariats. Dragunov has more with his hands, has some good lariats of his own, and also throws great knees and whatnot.
By the point WALTER utterly levels Dragunov with a lariat, the NXT fans are sincerely into the match. Dragunov times the emotional boiling point perfectly and the big offensive rally is awesome. He’s running on rage and adrenaline, his chest a disgusting mess of blood boils.
But he runs into WALTER’s vise grip sleephold, and gets fucking disgustingly suplexed over onto his skull, only to pop up and hit Torpedo Moscow to the back of the head. Another one connects and WALTER still kicks out, so Dragunov hits the “what will it take” faces and has to devise a plan.
The plan is to just keep beating the shit out of WALTER. “This is turning into a test of the soul,” Vic Joseph says on the call. WALTER goes up top, but he’s caught with a BIG ass superplex. Joseph and Wade Barrett are excellent on the call, caught up in the emotion of it all. Beth Phoenix is laying back more than normal, but when she comes in she comes in with the same energy that the other two and the crowd have.
Dragunov eats a shotgun dropkick and a power bomb but it only gets two. WALTER now has to find a plan, and it’s the same as Dragunov’s: beat the shit out of the other man. Chops, a knee, another power bomb, but this one leads to WALTER going up and hitting his big ol’ splash — for two. And now we’re seriously at the point of wondering how this can end.
WALTER mounts the downed Dragunov and rain downs forearms, Dragunov blocking as much as he can. Dragunov counters a sleeper but eats a boot, only to bounce back and rock WALTER yet again. And now it’s Dragunov with a deep sleephold, WALTER powering to his feet and carrying Dragunov to the corner, climbing up to the second rope and falling back crazily. But Dragunov releases before he can be crushed, and that allows him to jet back over and get the sleephold on again, which he keeps on, WALTER turning purple and turning just enough to relieve some pressure, so Ilja unloads with desperation strikes, everything he can throw, and then he gets the sleeper standing, pulling back with all the leverage he can get — and WALTER taps out. He has no choice.
Dragunov is a mess of pure emotion. It gradually hits him that he’s finally beaten this man and taken the NXT UK championship, beating an unbeatable champion. Ilja standing with his boot on a depleted WALTER is an amazing visual.
I think I might have liked the 2020 match even better, but if I did it’s not by much. This was a different thing, and the way they awakened a crowd that has basically seen it all over the years in NXT and is now very hard to get a rise out of was incredible. You know what did it? Good, honest, hard-fought professional wrestling. Nothing more and nothing less. Given that this show is reportedly the end of NXT as we’ve known it for some years now, it may have been the last time we see something like this in this company for a long time, and even if it weren’t, these two are downright special against one another, they have a chemistry that doesn’t come easily. To reach what WALTER and Ilja Dragunov have together, it has to first come naturally, and then be refined, too.
Tape Machines Are Rolling 
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