WWE NXT UK Review - August 5, 2021

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Blair Davenport def. Xia Brookside

Davenport is off to a strong start for her debut. Aoife Valkyrie was beating "local athletes" for her first year in NXT UK, but Davenport is already facing notable faces in the women's division. Granted, Brookside has almost always been a stepping stone, but she's a regular on NXT UK and won her last feud with Nina Samuels. This was a nice little match with the correct outcome. Brookside can absorb the loss while Davenport can continue building momentum.

"Bomber" Dave Mastiff and Jack Starz def. Danny Jones and Josh Morrell

Mastiff and Starz have been appearing in vignettes together for weeks at the UK Performance Center, but I didn't know they'd be leading to the two teaming up. I figured we'd get a match between them, but this makes more sense and gives NXT UK another team for its tag division. Jones and Morrell worked over Starz for a majority of the match, but they had a solid showing as a tandem. Hopefully they can develop more chemistry over time.

A-Kid def. Jordan Devlin in a 30-Minute Iron Man Match

This marked the first Iron Man match in NXT UK history. I'm honestly surprised that we haven't seen one before given the style of wrestling we tend to see on the brand, but you couldn't have found two better people for the stipulation than Devlin and A-Kid. It was 30 minutes as opposed to 60, so it allowed them to cut down on the boring spots and ensure that it was virtually all action. They picked up the pace down the stretch, making the nearfalls even more suspenseful. A-Kid winning was the right call considering he's already lost to Devlin twice, and a victory over Devlin for him is huge. As expected, this was very well wrestled and they definitely maximized their minutes. It wasn't the greatest Iron Man match I've ever seen, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Overall Show

Being 30 minutes long, the Iron Man match obviously took up the second half of the show, and because it was very good overall, that made this a thumbs-up show. That isn't to say the rest of the episode was lacking, however. Davenport vs. Brookside accomplished what it needed to and Mastiff and Starz made their official debut as a team. We also found out that Pretty Deadly will defend the NXT UK Tag Team Championship against Moustache Mountain in two weeks, which I'm looking forward to, as well as a tournament being held to determine the next number one contender to the NXT UK Heritage Cup Championship.

SEE MORE: NXT UK Reviews