WWE NXT UK Review - August 19, 2021

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

NXT UK Women's Champion Meiko Satomura def. Stevie Turner

I've been thoroughly impressed with what I've seen from Turner since her arrival in NXT. I was surprised to see her get a title shot so early in her run, but the key was that she looked credible in defeat. As for Satomura, I love how she's been utilized so far when it comes to working with all of the fresh faces and getting good to great matches out of all of them. This was another quality contest, even though the outcome was never in doubt in my mind.

Saxon Huxley def. Eddie Dennis

I'm confused. Was Huxley supposed to be the babyface here? Why are Symbiosis losing so many matches? I have no idea what they're going for with these guys and I can't say I care. Dennis is a good worker and has some credible wins under his belt, but losing clean to Huxley is a new low for him. The match was fine but nothing too memorable. With Symbiosis laying out Huxley afterward, their bad blood will apparently continue.

Dani Luna def. Isla Dawn

It's been months and I still can't get into the vampire gimmick (or whatever the hell it's supposed to be) that Dawn is currently portraying. She's always been competent enough in the ring yet beyond boring. Thus, this match didn't do much for me at all. Dawn is skilled and I'm glad she's getting more television time as part of Subculture, so at least she went over here. Hopefully this was a one-and-done and this won't turn into a feud.

NXT UK Tag Team Champions Pretty Deadly def. Moustache Mountain

I don't think Moustache Mountain get the credit they deserve for being such a tremendous team, even though they've been with WWE for almost five years and have had a handful of excellent matches in that time. This was another above-average bout and Pretty Deadly had every bit to do with that as well. They've excelled as champions and this had more drama and suspense than any other title defense they've had up to this point because I genuinely thought there was a chance they could lose. They once again utilized underhanded tactics to steal the win, but it will be interesting to see if this gets revisited or not.

Overall Show

The two title matches made this show slightly more notable than usual. Both bouts were well-wrestled and bookended the episode nicely. The stuff in the middle was fairly forgettable, though. The Isla Dawn experiment isn't working in my opinion and I'm not into the idea of a Saxon Huxley push at all. On a side note, the last-minute hype for WALTER vs. Ilja Dragunov this Sunday at NXT TakeOver 36 was well done and left me looking forward to what could be one of the best bouts all year.

SEE MORE: NXT UK Reviews