WWE NXT UK Review - April 17, 2019

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

The Coffey Brothers def. Raul Mendoza and Humberto Carrillo

Carrillo is all over the place these days between 205 Live, NXT and now NXT UK. He's an exciting young talent with a ton of potential, and I particularly enjoy his tandem with Mendoza. They always work well together and they had a good match here with The Coffey Brothers. They were only given five minutes or so, but the finishing sequence was entertaining. The win should hopefully get Mark and Joe back on track.

"The Bomber" Dave Mastiff def. Kona Reeves

Mastiff disappeared from NXT UK TV for a while but his return has been hyped up for weeks with vignettes. I'm glad he's back, but Reeves was the wrong opponent for him here. I would have been perfectly fine with Mastiff making quick work of Reeves and dominating him with ease, but unfortunately, that was not the case. Rather, Reeves was on offense far more than he should have been, causing this bout to bore me to tears until Mastiff regained control.

Rhea Ripley def. Kacy Catanzaro

I'm assuming Ripley's recent injury wasn't serious if she's already back in action. Then again, this was on the shorter side, so it's possible that was done by design to keep her limited. Either way, this was a fun little match with Catanzaro having a solid showing in defeat. I believe these two also clashed during last year's Mae Young Classic, so I'd love to see a full-fledged feud between them eventually because clearly their chemistry is strong.

Kenny Williams and Amir Jordan def. NXT UK Tag Team Champions The Grizzled Young Veterans by Count-out (Non-title)

Williams and Jordan have quietly been building momentum for weeks now, so it was only a matter of time before they took on the tag team champs. This was a quality main event on the whole, but the fans in attendance just weren't all that invested in the action. I can't say I'm surprised considering this was the Axxess crowd, but I also don't blame them because the count-out finish was flat. That said, it should set up Williams and Jordan for a future title shot.

Overall Show

This edition of NXT UK was taped at WrestleMania Axxess two weeks ago, and since it was the day after NXT TakeOver: New York, it was all fresh content because Pete Dunne had lost the WWE United Kingdom Championship the night prior. Speaking of whom, Dunne cut a brief promo at the end of the episode declaring that he wanted to win back the belt and will get his rematch soon enough. Hopefully he'll be main roster bound once that's over with. The rest of the show was decent, though it was hurt by a lack of memorable matches.