WWE NXT UK Review - August 14, 2019

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Flash Morgan Webster def. Mark Coffey

Both of these guys are very talented yet work completely different styles, so I was pleasantly surprised by how enjoyable of an opener this ended up being. Webster played the underdog role perfectly and thus his victory meant that much more. With this win, Webster and Mark Andrews should now be officially entered into the NXT UK Tag Team Championship match at TakeOver: Cardiff with Gallus and The Grizzled Young Veterans.

Travis Banks def. Kenny Williams

Last week, Banks asked NXT UK management about getting a match at TakeOver and was told that he'd have to impress first before he could be considered for such a spot. Of course, the outcome of this contest was hardly in doubt as I can't recall the last singles match Williams won, but I thought this was a nice little match with good work from both men, nonetheless. Noam Dar watched from afar, so it looks like they're being groomed for a matchup against each other at TakeOver.

Nina Samuels def. ISla Dawn

To be completely honest, I probably care about Samuels and Dawn less than almost anyone else in the NXT UK women's division. It's not that they're terrible or anything like that, but they have largely bored me to tears from a character standpoint since their respective debuts. They had a perfectly fine match here, but once again, nothing they did stood out to me as special. This felt like filler because I don't see either one of these ladies getting a shot at the NXT UK Women's Championship any time soon.

Ilja Dragunov def. Kassius Ohno

Dragunov has been totally dominant for the past few months in NXT UK and Ohno was easily his toughest opposition to date. They got way more time than I thought they would and maximized their minutes by delivering a very hard-hitting affair. Ohno's clean victory genuinely surprised me just because Dragunov has been undefeated up to this point and I'm not sure it was the right time for him to lose, especially if NXT UK doesn't have anything planned for Ohno. If nothing else, their eventual rematch should be equally entertaining.

Overall Show

With NXT UK TakeOver: Cardiff coming up in a little over two weeks, it was nice to see most of the card set in stone on this episode. So far, WALTER vs. Tyler Bate for the WWE United Kingdom Championship, Toni Storm vs. Kay Lee Ray for the NXT UK Women's Championship, and "Bomber" Dave Mastiff vs. Joe Coffey in a Last Man Standing match have been made official for the event, while the three-way tag title matchup, Banks vs. Dar, and Piper Niven vs. Rhea Ripley were heavily teased on this show. I didn't particularly care for Samuels vs. Dawn, but everything else on this edition of NXT UK was worthwhile, especially that excellent main event.