NXT TakeOver 36 results, grades: Ilja Dragunov ends WALTER’s historic 870-day title run and Samoa Joe wins gold

It’s the era of Unbesiegbar (Picture: WWE)

WWE delivered a stellar show to bring an incredible weekend of wrestling to an end as Ilja Dragunov put his name in the history books at NXT TakeOver 36.

Unbesiegbar faced off with WALTER in a brutal and highly anticipated rematch months after their first NXT United Kingdom Championship bout in an empty BT Sport Studio.

On Sunday night, they clashed in front of an electric crowd at the Capitol Wrestling Center in Orlando, Florida as WWE’s UK brand got showcased in the best possible light with a match of the year candidate.

WALTER and Ilja delivered a stellar contest – quite possibly the best of the weekend – as they dealt out some serious punishment to each other to surpass already high expectations.

In the end, Dragunov not only won but did so convincingly as the champ tapped out to signal the end of his 870-day reign with the gold.

Bravo to both men, who stood out in the middle of an absolutely stacked card which marked the end of an era for the black and gold brand.

From top to bottom, everyone excelled in a big way here, starting with a fantastic opening match which saw Cameron Grimes – accompanied by Ted DiBiase – defeat LA Knight to claim the Million Dollar Championship.

The NXT Women’s Title was also on the line as Raquel Gonzalez defeated her former friend turned foe Dakota Kai to retain her championship.

She didn’t have to wait long to find out her next challenger either, with former NXT UK Women’s Champion Kay Lee Ray coming out to a strong ovation and immediately setting sights on Gonzalez.

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After Ilja’s big moment, it was time for a two out of three falls match between ex-Undisputed Era teammates Adam Cole and Kyle O’Reilly, with the latter picking up the first fall before Cole tied things up in an utterly brutal Street Fight round.

A cage was then lowered as both men went to war, and the match culminated as Kyle made his former pal submit despite having one arm handcuffed to the cage itself.

Finally, the main event saw Samoa Joe make his in-ring return and defeat Karrion Kross with a Muscle Buster to capture the NXT Title in for a record-breaking third time in a fantastic main event.

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