WALTER vs. Dragunov UK title match set for NXT TakeOver 36

A new date has been set for WALTER and Ilja Dragunov’s NXT United Kingdom Championship rematch.

WALTER will now defend his NXT UK Championship against Dragunov at NXT TakeOver 36 on Sunday, August 22. The match was originally set to headline today’s NXT UK episode, but it had to be postponed due to WALTER suffering an injury to his left hand.

Paul “Triple H” Levesque, Shawn Michaels, and William Regal appeared in a video that aired on NXT UK today and announced the new date for WALTER vs. Dragunov.

In storyline, it was said that WALTER’s injury happened during a backstage altercation with Dragunov following their in-ring press conference on last week’s NXT UK. The altercation wasn’t shown on TV.

In what was one of the best matches of 2020, WALTER retained the NXT UK Championship against Dragunov on NXT UK last October. The match ranked fifth in the Match of the Year category in the 2020 Wrestling Observer Newsletter Awards.

Dragunov has been involved in a storyline where he’s struggled with temper issues and has worked to get them under control since his loss to WALTER. He was set up as WALTER’s next challenger when he defeated Rampage Brown and Joe Coffey in a triple threat match on NXT UK last month.

WALTER has been NXT UK Champion since winning the title from Pete Dunne at TakeOver: New York in April 2019.

WALTER also defended the NXT UK Championship at a TakeOver event in the United States this April, retaining against Tommaso Ciampa.

This is the first match that’s been publicly announced for NXT TakeOver 36. Matches for the event were also set up at Wednesday night’s NXT television tapings.