{"id":39085,"date":"2019-02-23T19:25:24","date_gmt":"2019-02-24T00:25:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lwosonprowrestling.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/?p=39085"},"modified":"2019-06-08T16:23:41","modified_gmt":"2019-06-08T20:23:41","slug":"spoiler-two-european-superstars-make-nxt-uk-debuts-at-tapings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2019\/02\/23\/spoiler-two-european-superstars-make-nxt-uk-debuts-at-tapings\/","title":{"rendered":"SPOILER: Two European Superstars Make NXT UK Debuts at Tapings"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After months of rumors and <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/lwosonprowrestling.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/2019\/03\/10\/lucky-kid-wins-wxw-16-carat-gold-2019-tournament\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Westside Xtreme Wrestling<\/a> (wXw)<\/strong>&#8216;s <strong>Ilja Dragunov<\/strong> being pulled from various independent wrestling dates, &#8220;Unbesigbar&#8221; Ilja Dragunov appeared at an NXT UK taping.\u00a0 In a dark match to start the night, he was one of a number of NXT UK debuts as a he faced\u00a0<strong>Ashton Smith\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/twitter.com\/DeiOwen\/status\/1099392135982403584<\/p>\n<p>The man known for rising to fame in Germany&#8217;s wXw<strong>\u00a0<\/strong>and making his way around Europe over the last year wrestling for every major company in the UK including\u00a0<strong>PROGRESS Wrestling<\/strong>\u00a0and<strong> Over The Top (OTT)<\/strong> Wrestling as well as having some great matches during\u00a0<strong>Battle Of Los Angeles\u00a0<\/strong>weekend in 2018.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"[wXw Match] Ilja Dragunov vs Tommaso Ciampa (29.05.2015 - Hamburg)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/zmO-A6jMnb8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>He joins his former rival\u00a0<strong>WALTER\u00a0<\/strong>in NXT UK and is the latest indie superstar to come under the WWE banner.\u00a0 He&#8217;s still only 25 years old and has an intense in-ring style, an unusual charisma and an ability to connect with crowds that few others can match.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Holy. S***. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/NXTUK?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#NXTUK<\/a><\/p>\n<p>(? <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/sportspool?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@sportspool<\/a>) <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/asM38hwBPO\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/asM38hwBPO<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 We Are NXT UK (@wearenxtuk) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/wearenxtuk\/status\/1099407213175685121?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">February 23, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Piper Niven<\/strong> also made her debut as part of NXT UK&#8217;s women&#8217;s division.\u00a0 The former Viper and former Mae Young Classic competitor debuted to confront former\u00a0<strong>NXT UK Women&#8217;s\u00a0<\/strong>champion\u00a0<strong>Rhea Ripley<\/strong>.\u00a0 Ripley defeated\u00a0<strong>Xia Brookside\u00a0<\/strong>and laid claim to being the most dominant woman in NXT UK which brought out Viper.\u00a0 Later in the taping, Viper made her in-ring debut facing\u00a0<strong>Killer Kelly\u00a0<\/strong>and once again confronting\u00a0Ripley.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Piper Niven vs. Toni Storm- Quarterfinal Match: Mae Young Classic, Sept. 6, 2017\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/bwFDjxT8Lf4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Before signing, Niven traveled the world as Viper. She broke out in Scotland&#8217;s\u00a0<strong>Insane Championship Wrestling\u00a0<\/strong>as their women&#8217;s champion during their hottest period.\u00a0 After taking over Scotland she took over the world and at one point in 2018 held five championships at once.\u00a0 She also toured premiere Joshi company\u00a0<strong>World Wonder Ring Stardom\u00a0<\/strong>successfully as a member of Queen&#8217;s Quest even holding the\u00a0<strong>SWA Undisputed World Women&#8217;s\u00a0<\/strong>championship and the\u00a0<strong>Artist of Stardom\u00a0<\/strong>Championship.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"WWE Wrestler Uses Thousands of Thumbtacks\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/3E-zb0rZZhE?start=192&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>As a star in the UK, she was a 2-time ICW women&#8217;s champion,\u00a0<strong>Fierce Females\u00a0<\/strong>champion for over 1000 days and was the first ever\u00a0<strong>EVE International\u00a0<\/strong>champion.\u00a0 The &#8220;megaton barbie&#8221; was one of the best female wrestlers in the world\u00a0using her strength and agility to her advantage no matter where she went in the world.\u00a0 Now in NXT UK, she looks to continue the domination of the scene that saw her have great success on the indies and on national television with\u00a0<strong>World Of Sport<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After months of rumors and Westside Xtreme Wrestling (wXw)&#8216;s Ilja Dragunov being pulled from various independent wrestling dates, &#8220;Unbesigbar&#8221; Ilja Dragunov appeared at an NXT UK taping.\u00a0 In a dark match to start the night, he was one of a number of NXT UK debuts as a he faced\u00a0Ashton Smith\u00a0 https:\/\/twitter.com\/DeiOwen\/status\/1099392135982403584 The man known for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2013,"featured_media":31491,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5336,3],"tags":[2514,2868],"class_list":["post-39085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-nxt-uk","category-wwe-universe","tag-ilja-dragunov","tag-nxt-uk"],"modified_by":"Ben Kerr","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2013"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39085\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}