Grizzled Young Veterans Beat Moustache Mountain to Win NXT UK Tag Titles

The Grizzled Young Veterans upset Moustache Mountain at NXT UK TakeOver: Blackpool on Saturday to become the inaugural NXT UK tag team champions.

After taking Tyler Bate out of the equation, Zack Gibson and James Drake hit Trent Seven with Ticket to Mayhem to pick up the victory.

While Moustache Mountain fell short, it energized the crowd in the first match in NXT UK TakeOver history with moves like Bate's Double Airplane Spin:

Saturday's bout represented the finals of a four-team tournament that also included Gallus and the duo of Mark Andrews and Flash Morgan Webster.

Bate and Seven beat Wolfgang and Mark Coffey of Gallus to qualify for the finals, while Gibson and Drake took down Andrews and Webster.

Moustache Mountain entered the tournament as the overwhelming favorite to win, as well as the fan favorite given its popularity in the UK.

Both Bate and Seven debuted on WWE programming as part of the tournament to declare the first WWE United Kingdom champion in 2017, and Bate prevailed by beating Pete Dunne in the finals.

Although Bate dropped the strap to Dunne a few months later, he remained a relevant performer in WWE by joining forces with Seven on the NXT brand.

Moustache Mountain quickly worked its way through the NXT tag ranks and went on to defeat Undisputed Era for the NXT Tag Team Championships last year at the United Kingdom Championship tournament in London.

While Bate and Seven only held the titles for two days before dropping them back to Undisputed Era, their title win was celebrated by fans, and it went a long way toward making casual viewers of the product better aware of their talent.

The Grizzled Young Veterans began appearing on NXT UK to far less fanfare than Moustache Mountain, but it didn't take them long to make their presence felt.

Gibson received nuclear heat from the fans as soon as he debuted on NXT UK, and that helped make him and Drake the perfect opponents for the highly popular Bate and Seven.

The live crowd was firmly behind Moustache Mountain at TakeOver: Blackpool, but supporters were not able to celebrate a victory.

With Gibson and Drake at the top of the NXT UK tag division, it may set the stage for a long-term feud against Moustache Mountain or perhaps open the door for another team to step up as the No. 1 contenders.

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