NXT UK: WALTER vs. Devlin brightened a bad week for WWE

While this past week of main roster WWE television was disappointing, the main event of NXT UK: WALTER vs. Jordan Devlin – was the highlight of the week.

United Kingdom Champion WALTER and Jordan Devlin faced off in a phenomenal main event from NXT UK. By comparison, the rest of the week in WWE television was a little less than stellar.

Both Monday Night Raw and SmackDown Live this week were disappointing. Not only because both shows were poorly reviewed – more poorly than usual – but because both shows received record lows in the ratings department.  While WWE’s main roster series left something to be desired, their two yellow brands truly showed out this week.

In the case of NXT, there’s a 7-year history of the show as we know it today that sets high expectations. We expect NXT to be great, so no one’s really shocked when a great episode airs. Meanwhile, NXT UK is still in its infancy. As the British brand tries to find its footing, it is also trying to find an audience. If it continues to put on great shows with great main events like they did this past Wednesday, NXT UK could one day turn into must see tv the same way that NXT is.

For the time being at least, the newest episode of NXT UK brightened a blase week in WWE television. Much of that is due to the main event that the show gave us on hump day. That match saw Jordan Devlin take on the United Kingdom Champion.

The former trainee to Finn Balor and the founder of the Ringkampf sportswear brand have tussled before. In fact, they’ve done so numerous times, especially for OTT Wrestling. Every time, they managed to deliver a modern five star classic. This latest instance was no different.

This is the first time both men have shared the inside of a WWE ring. The only difference being heel/face allegiances. While Devlin usually worked as a babyface on the indies against a monster heel WALTER, those roles were reversed for their NXT UK match. Devlin played a cowardly weasel attempting to evade and outsmart the champion at every turn while the champ played the big scary hoss. So basically, the champ played himself. They leaned into the change seamlessly and it made for a unique dynamic that set this apart from their past encounters.

Even if you’ve never seen their independent matches, it would be hard to watch this match and not appreciate the work these two put in that ring together on NXT UK. For me personally at least, this was one of the more jaw dropping contests I’ve ever seen and it’s not just because of the big man’s thunderous chops. Their years worth of chemistry showed and each man knew exactly how to play to the other’s strengths. Even in the midst of a minor botch off the top rope near the end, both men knew how to improvise immediately because they know each other so well.

Above all else, the match was just brutal. Each man hit each other as hard as they possibly could and each cracking blow looked harder than the last. They laid it into each other and dropped each other like sacks of potatoes on multiple occasions. It was thrilling to watch. More thrilling than anything else we’ve seen this week from WWE.

Devlin vs. WALTER isn’t great solely by comparison to the main roster. It is truly a masterclass of phenomenal in-ring wrestling from two of the best competitors to grace a WWE stage on the current roster.

If you’ve got an account with the WWE Network, be sure to check out this match ASAP. Hell, if you don’t have a Network subscription, get one just to see this match. Not only does this match hold up as the best match of the week, by we could look back at this one at the end of 2019 as one of the better matches to come out all year round.