A third-round match of the NXT UK Heritage Cup, pitting Trent Seven against Bomber Dave Mastiff, delivered the catch-as-catch-can British-style grappling that is beloved by the show’s fan, 41-year-old Scott Hastings of Birmingham. 

The recent match — filmed in front of an empty arena, as it was in pre-Covid days as well — was a “technical masterpiece,” said Hastings, who accounted for 100 percent of the ratings results of the show. 

Hastings particularly enjoyed the “British Rounds Format” of tournament matches, in which wrestlers compete in a series of 17 “rounds” of random length, each round separated by a 20-minute intermission, with a winner determined by a judges score (winner must score at least 4 pinfalls per inning, unless the visiting grappler has snooked five consecutive knee-to-elbow flyover transitions. 

The NXT UK program, which airs twice fortnightly per quartermonth on the WWE Network (channel 512 in Canada, channel 803 in Denmark, and streaming live to nobody via TOUT), represents the “future of wrestling,” says Hastings, who once considered trying wrestling training in Liverpool, but it was like 2000 quid. 

The NXT UK fanbase — that is, Hastings and, occasionally, his cat Big Daddy — is expected to at least triple by 2021, because Hasting’s parents are tired of fighting over the remote.