Charlie Dempsey Loses Latest Chance At WWE NXT Heritage Cup

Charlie Dempsey lost his latest bid for the Lexis King's Heritage Cup during "WWE NXT," with King stooping to blatantly underhanded tactics to retain his crown. Dempsey sought his third reign with the Cup since losing it to King via disqualification in December; William Regal handed King brass knuckles, which then found their way into Dempsey's hands in eyeshot of the referee to prompt the disqualification. Per Heritage Cup rules, the title changed hands, but even still a rematch was made by Ava under sudden death rules at "NXT New Year's Evil." King regained his title with a dubious win, having seemingly gone low but argued since that it was accidental, prompting Tuesday's bout to be contested under British Rounds Rules.

King scored the first fall of the bout via a pin in round one, unable to close the match in the second round but not conceding one either. That wouldn't last, with Dempsey leveling the score with a pinfall in round three, and forcing a change in demeanor from the champion. It was shown on camera that King had hidden the brass knuckles in the ice bucket in his corner, and he was shown ahead of round four pondering whether he should use them. He was unable to use the brass knuckles in the end, pulled away from them by Dempsey only for their tussle to be taken back to King's corner. With the referee sandwiched between them and the corner, King delivered a kick below the belt, landing the Coronation to win the bout 2-1 via pinfall.