Triple H appeared on this week’s edition of NXT UK to announce that NXT UK Champion Walter would be defending his title against Ilja Dragunov on next week’s episode. This was hands down the most anticipated rematch in the brand’s history as the pair’s first match in late 2020 wound up being a Match of the Year contender. The pair even had a press conference during the episode, where Walter said he was not worried at all about his record-breaking 832-day reign as champion coming to an end.
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Unfortunately, later in the episode, it was announced that Walter had suffered a severe hand injury and would not be able to compete. He has not been stripped of the title, but the match has been postponed.
BREAKING NEWS
WWE medical staff has confirmed @NXTUK Champion @WalterAUT has suffered a severe injury to his left hand and has been deemed unfit to compete for his scheduled rematch with @UNBESIEGBAR_ZAR.
Stay locked in for more updates on this quickly developing story. pic.twitter.com/0ikZn4t4NF
— WWE (@WWE) July 15, 2021
The 33-year-old Austrian has been pulling double duty between the NXT and NXT UK brands, though that was halted for a while by the COVID-19 pandemic. He initially won the title by beating Pete Dunne at NXT TakeOver: New York in April 2019, and his last defense here in the states saw him beat Tommaso Ciampa at NXT TakeOver: Stand & Deliver.
Though he has publicly stated he doesn’t want to move to the United States, the company thinks incredibly highly of Walter. Triple H went so far as to compare him to Brock Lesnar earlier this year.
“It is tough to bet against Walter,” he said while on The Bump back in January. “Anyone who has watched him over the last few years, anyone who has recently watched him against Ilja [Dragunov], one of the most physically imposing, physically dominating performers out there. There’s no wasted movement, he’s not flashy, he doesn’t care about how it looks, he’s just effective. That said, you’ve seen it in the past with other talent like Brock Lesnar.
“Brock has struggled a lot of times with more smaller guys, speed kills,” he continued.”You would watch Brock Lesnar sometimes step in the ring with Daniel Bryan and have a much more difficult time, Daniel Bryan would get much more in because Brock couldn’t strike as hard and as fast, he would have to catch him first and find his way. In that process, he would eat a lot of shots, now it would take a lot of shots from Daniel Bryan’s size to knock Brock Lesnar down, but he ate a lot of shots to get one in. Walter just has to sustain that.”
