WWE News: WALTER vs. Ilja Dragunov for NXT UK Title Will Take Place at NXT Takeover 36 on August 22
It was announced today that a huge NXT UK Championship match will take place at the next WWE NXT Takeover event.
WALTER was supposed to defend the NXT UK Championship against Ilja Dragunov on today’s episode of NXT UK, but WALTER has been dealing with a left-hand injury, so the match was postponed.
Today, WWE announced the new date would be on Sunday, August 22 at NXT Takeover 36 on Peacock/WWE Network. It will take place at the Capitol Wrestling Center (WWE Performance Center) in Orlando in front of a limited crowd.
Here’s the announcement from Triple H, William Regal and Shawn Michaels, who has a birthday today, so happy birthday Shawn!
In a collaborative decision between @TripleH, @ShawnMichaels and @RealKingRegal, the @NXTUK Championship Match between @WalterAUT & @UNBESIEGBAR_ZAR will take place at #NXTTakeOver 36 on August 22.#NXTUKpic.twitter.com/CUA4z0I3ml
— WWE (@WWE) July 22, 2021
In October 2020, WALTER faced Dragunov in an amazing match in front of no fans. It went 25:10 on NXT UK’s TV show (on WWE Network) and I rated it ****3/4 out of five in my review right here. It was rated five stars by TJRWrestling’s Alex Podgorski as well (read Alex’s review here) and the Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer went five stars for it as well. I probably should have went five stars too, but I just felt like it was lacking something and maybe the absence of fans was a reason why. Anyway, in my 2020 WWE Johnny Awards column, I did name WALTER vs. Dragunov as the Best Match. I loved it.
TJR Thoughts: Good luck to anybody following these guys at Takeover 36. It’s going to be incredible. That Takeover will be one night after SummerSlam as well, so it makes that weekend even bigger in my eyes. I love watching WALTER and Dragunov, so having a crowd there will help them too. I wish it was a bigger crowd, though. They need a bigger venue for this.
Here are some videos about that WALTER/Dragunov match from last year.