Ilja Dragunov ended WALTER’s NXT United Kingdom championship reign tonight at NXT TakeOver 36.

In a brutal, hard-hitting match, Dragunov continually took everything WALTER gave him and gave it back. The finish had Dragunov locking in a sleeper, with WALTER getting back to his feet. Dragunov didn’t let go and got WALTER fell back to the floor, evemtially causing him to tap.

WALTER had held the title for 830 days, defeating Pete Dunne at NXT TakeOver: New York back on April 5, 2019. WALTER is the longest reigning champion in the belt’s history, eclipsing Dunne’s 685 day reign.

Dragunov and WALTER previously had a match for the NXT UK title back on the October 29 edition of NXT UK, a match that WALTER won. Both WALTER and Dragunov made appearances on the main NXT brand after their title match was announced for TakeOver 36. Dragunov lost a match against Dunne on the August 10 edition of NXT, but did defeat Roderick Strong on the August 22 edition of the show.