5 Ups & 3 Downs From WWE NXT UK (29 April)

3. Statement Made

Enough lamenting about how terrible Rohan Raja’s official NXT UK debut was. His match vs. Teoman was class.

The German striker was calculated in his assault of Raja, taking moments to target both the shoulder and the knee of the former Gursinder Singh. Rohan got brief flurries of being in control, including a beautiful Sky High and stiff slap. A minor Down here for Raja actually slapping Teoman and demanding his respect; a babyface shouldn’t be acting in this manner, regardless of the situation and particularly not when it’s their first appearance.

Teoman’s grounded forearm strike and diving DDT set Raja up to be locked in a Crossface, eventually succumbing only via referee stoppage. His shoulder seemingly became dislocated via the submission. This looked sick.

The former Lucky Kid is legitimately going to be a huge deal in NXT UK one day because of performances like this. The noise Raja’s shoulder made when Teoman cranked back on the submission was real in the sense that you could empathise with the pain. Raja didn’t need to win this one; he merely needed to make Teoman look like a megastar.