WWE NXT UK Review - August 4, 2022

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Ilja Dragunov Relinquished the NXT United Kingdom Championship

This was a major bummer. Dragunov said he suffered an injury in his title defense against Wolfgang that aired last week. I thought that was a storyline excuse and he actually got hurt some other way, but they showed the footage and it looked legitimate. He's been champion for almost exactly one year, so it sucks to see his reign end this way. It was announced later in the show that an eight-man tournament will be held in the coming weeks to determine a new champ.

Oliver Carter def. Rohan Raja

Carter previously beat Teoman, and considering Teoman is higher on in the Die Familie pecking order than Raja, I can't say it was too surprising that Carter won here. Even still, Carter was mainly utilized as an enhancement talent before and while teaming with Ashton Carter, so it's impressive he's been on a bit of a winning streak lately. They had a nice match and I'm sure a match between Carter and Charlie Dempsey is coming.

Sha Samuels def. Bodhi Hayward

The story they're telling with Samuels is that he's down on his luck after Noam Dar lost the NXT UK Heritage Cup Championship to Mark Coffey. Dar didn't appear here, but Samuels came out looking disheveled, giving me "Bumass" Baron Corbin vibes. That's what made me think he was losing here, so the outcome surprised me. The match itself was solid and Hayward is making progress, but he clearly needs more experience.

Blair Davenport vs. Isla Dawn in an NXT UK Women's Championship No. 1 Contender's Match Ended in a No Contest

This bait-and-switch was straight-up bullshit. Meiko Satomura vs. Sarray for the NXT UK Women's Championship had been advertised for this episode for at least a week or two and teased even longer than that. Before it was about to happen, Davenport emerged and said Satomura and Sarray ran into an issue and that was her. Instead, we got a match with her and Dawn. Both are heels, so the crowd didn't care much and neither did I. Worse yet, it went to a no contest due to interference from Amale and Eliza Alexander. This was trash.

Overall Show

NXT UK has been a slump for some time now, but this was one of the worst editions in recent memory. The middle was fine, but I hated the opening and closing segments for different reasons. Dragunov delivered his promo well, but the fact he has to relinquish his title due to injury is very disappointing. What happened with the advertised main event was inexcusable with the way it went down because they were hyping it up all episode long, and now we don't know if we're ever going to get it. The brawl that closed the show was lame, too. The future of this brand remains bleak.

SEE MORE: NXT UK Reviews