Looking Back at Walter’s Run

By Ryan Joy
Updated: January 13, 2022
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Image Credit: WWE.com

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Looking Back at Walter’s Run

Today episode of NXT UK featured Walter’s Last Stand where Walter defeated Nathan Frazer in his final NXT UK match. It’s not clear if Walter will head to NXT 2.0, the Main Roster, or just stay home. Wherever he lands will surely be instantly improved.

With that in mind, let’s take a look back at what these first three years of Walter in WWE have looked like.

Walter’s first match in WWE was a victory airing on the 1/30/2019 episode of NXT UK. His opponent was current NXT UK regular Jack Starz.

Fast forward three months to NXT TakeOver New York on April 5, 2019 and we saw Walter end the incredible 685 day title reign of The Bruiserweight Pete Dunne.

Walter Wins NXT UK Championship from Pete Dunne. Image Credit: WWE.com

Over the next 870 days, Walter maintained his grasp over the NXT UK championship defeating all of NXT UK’s major names including Jordan Devlin, Tyler Bate, Trent Seven, Travis Banks, Joe Coffey (NXT UK TakeOver: Blackpool II), Dave Mastiff, A-Kid, Ilja Dragunov, and Rampage Brown.

Walter made several trips to the United States during his title reign including NXT TakeOver: Stand and Deliver where he defeated former NXT Champion Tommaso Ciampa with a right handed chop.

Walter faces Tommaso Ciampa at NXT TakeOver: Stand and Deliver. Image Credit: WWE.com

In what we can only hope is not harbinger of bad thing to come, Walter has had three matches on televised WWE Main Roster programming – and he lost all of them.

His Main Roster run started off with a DQ loss to Seth Rollins on the November 11, 2019 episode of Raw and was immediately followed up with a tag loss on the same episode (Kevin Owens, Seth Rollins, Street Profits defeated Imperium). The third loss was as a member of Team NXT at Survivor Series 2019.

Walter’s 2019 Main Roster run was unsuccessful. Image Credit: WWE.com

You can’t talk about Walter’s time in WWE without also talking about the end of the Ring General’s 870 day reign as NXT UK Champion. Ilja Dragunov won his NXT UK Championship rematch at NXT TakeOver 36 to finally end Walter’s historic run as champion. While WWE didn’t name Walter v. Dragunov the 2021 WWE Match of the Year, many fans argue that it was the greatest WWE match of 2021.

Ilja Dragunov was the man to end Walter’s 870 Day Reign. Image Credit: WWE.com

As we close this final chapter of Walter’s NXT UK career, Walter’s overall televised record is 21-5 with three of those losses coming from his 2019 main roster run. His singles record was 18-2 losing to Rollins by DQ on Raw and to Dragunov at TakeOver 36.

We can’t wait to see what Walter does next . . . just as long as it doesn’t look like that 2019 Main Roster run.

Where do you want to see Walter next? Who should be his first opponent outside of NXT UK?

You can commemorate Walter’s Last Stand by picking up a little Walter merchandise on WWE Shop. There’s not much available, but what they do have is pretty good.

The Walter Chop T-Shirt comes in sizes XS-5XL for 27.99

The Imperium Logo T-Shirt comes in sizes XS-5XL for 27.99

Belt collectors will be happy to know that you can still pick up the NXT UK Championship Walter Side Plates, which are currently marked down from $99 to $49 on WWE Shop. As always, we at Minutes To Bell Time can offer you a promo code if you do want to pick up any of the above merchandise. Just use WWESAVE10 at checkout to save $10 off your purchase of $70 or more!

Also – Check out HighSpots for signed and exclusive wrestling items.

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