NXT UK champion WALTER wants to face ‘best wrestler in the world’ Brock Lesnar and a man he studied, Samoa Joe

This Sunday at NXT TakeOver 36, WALTER and Ilja Dragunov meet in the rematch from their 2020 classic.

The pair will battle for WALTER’s NXT UK Championship and the first battle they had 10 months ago has already been labelled one of the most brutal pro wrestling matches in recent history, so how do you top that?

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Both men will try to do just that at NXT’s Capital Wrestling Center a day removed from SummerSlam. talkSPORT had the chance to speak to WALTER, who, as of writing, has reigned for 865 days atop of NXT UK

On possibly facing Brock Lesnar...

“Brock Lesnar is like, I think - I don’t know how long he doesn’t wrestle, two years? - for the years before that, I think he was the best wrestler in the world. 

“Nobody was smarter, nobody drew more money, nobody knew how to protect themselves [like he did]. He wasn’t there all the time [and] I love that presentation about him. I think he’s fantastic. 

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“Some of the best matches in WWE in the recent years have had Brock involved because he’s fantastic. He’s going to look like a million bucks, but everybody who wrestles him is going to look like that as well, when they have a competitive match with him. 

“Obviously, that would be great to do [face Lesnar].”

On possibly facing Samoa Joe...

“I’d love to wrestle Joe. We kind of filled the same spot, just in different generations. I think that makes it interesting. 

“When I was growing up and I was watching wrestling and started to look out for other wrestling to study and stuff like that, Joe was the man everywhere. He was the record champion in Ring of Honor. 

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“He had the great match with [Kenta] Kobashi that I watched 10 times or something like that - I loved it. Joe did so much great stuff in wrestling, it would be my pleasure, obviously."

On facing Ilja for a second time in WWE...

“Ilja is maybe my biggest rival over the past few years. He follows me everywhere [laughs]. Ilja and I come from the same place in regards to wrestling in Germany and we have a similar mentality about how wrestling should be. 

“Also, our wrestling style in Germany was always very physical and very intense. I’m glad I get to introduce my kind of wrestling to a big audience now, especially as the representative of NXT UK or European wrestling in general.”

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On getting injured and postponing the rematch…

“[The injury happened] when I was getting ready for the match with Ilja in England. That’s when I injured myself, right in the first training session. 

“[It was] nothing crazy, just a basic movement and it just went wrong. That stuff can always happen, it is what it is. It’s all healed up now, I’m good to go. 

“Now it has led to us being able to do it at TakeOver right after SummerSlam, so it led to something good I would think.”

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On Imperium member Alexander Wolfe leaving WWE...

“When it comes to that, I’m always like, that’s the nature of wrestling. Sometimes you spend a lot of time with the people around you, then out of nowhere, someone makes a decision and you don’t anymore. 

“Years later, it changes again and you stick together with them again. So, obviously, I felt bad for him personally him losing his position there, but, on the other hand, he seems to be very excited about the future and the stuff he can do, so I’m happy for him in that regard. 

“It’s not the end of the world to lose that job, there’s so many possibilities for everybody. Who knows, maybe we see him back one day?”

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On the idea of travelling to the U.S. weekly to be on the main roster...

“That’s not a scenario I’ve talked about with them. I don’t know. I’m happy in the situation I’m in now. I’m the only guy who holds a European Championship in WWE and I’m a representative of European wrestling. To be authentic with that, I kind of got to live in Europe if that makes sense [laughs]. 

“Going forward, nobody can stay on top forever. At some point, that’s the nature of it. Nobody did that before [being uneaten forever] so we’ll see what the future brings. 

“For now, I focus on being the NXT UK champion and I have a big match coming up with Ilja on Sunday and the outcome of that is going to decide which direction I go in my future, so I can’t even make any assumptions or speculations myself. 

“So it’s not something I spend too much time thinking about to be honest.”

Catch WALTER every Thursday on NXT UK on the WWE Network and Fridays on BT Sport, but catch WALTER vs Dragunov II this Sunday on the WWE Network at NXT TakeOver 36