WWE NXT UK Review - December 10, 2020

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

NXT Cruiserweight Champion Jordan Devlin def. Oliver Carter

During his pre-match promo, Devlin made it sound like that this open challenge for the NXT Cruiserweight Championship will be a recurring gimmick going forward. Maybe not weekly, but that should get him back on the show in a regular role after such a long layoff and showcase the Cruiserweight title. I was hoping for a more notable opponent than Carter considering he's been nothing but an enhancement talent up to this point, but this was a nice opener for what it was with Devlin winning decisively. I'm still curious how the two Cruiserweight champions situation will be fixed because I don't see the travel issue going away any time soon.

A-Kid and Tyler Bate joined Noam Dar on the First Edition of Supernova Sessions

Dar tried to take credit for A-Kid's success before A-Kid clarified that it was Bate who helped him along early on in his NXT UK run. That brought out Bate, who hasn't been seen on the show since before the pandemic. They then agreed to face each other later in the night. As a talk show segment, this was decent. Dar's very good on the mic, so this feels like a good role for him. I also liked how it took place over to the side of the studio (where the crowd normally is) as opposed to in the ring. It's a nice little touch.

Isla Dawn def. Xia Brookside

NXT UK's women's division is in desperate need of some new blood. They've brought in a few women lately, but none of them are anywhere near the level that Toni Storm and Rhea Ripley were at when they were a part of the brand. That said, I appreciate that they're doing a feud with the ladies outside of the NXT UK Women's Championship picture involving Brookside and Nina Samuels. A distraction from Samuels allowed Dawn to pick up the victory. The match itself was forgettable, but I'm glad Brookside has some direction at the moment.

NXT UK Heritage Cup Champion A-Kid def. Tyler Bate

I thought the Heritage Cup was a one-time tournament, but it looks like it's going to be defended as a championship going forward. It feels like a title for NXT UK's midcard division (whatever's left of it, that is), so that's cool. A-Kid is also the perfect person to be holding it as he can have quality matches with most of the roster, including Bate. They tore it up against each other earlier this year and this was another entertaining affair. The flow was hurt a bit by the British Rounds Rules, but they managed to make it work and A-Kid beating Bate was huge for him. This honestly felt like a sendoff for Bate from NXT UK and I'd love for him to make the move over to NXT, but that's purely speculation on my part.

Overall Show

This edition of NXT UK gets an automatic thumbs-up from me for the return of Tyler Bate alone. He's always been one of my favorites to watch in NXT UK and was catching fire pre-pandemic, so I'm happy he's back. Whether it's for good or not remains to be seen. Remember, Pete Dunne worked a few shows recently before heading back to NXT, so you never know. The rest of this show was solid with Devlin successfully defending the NXT UK Women's Championship, Brookside and Samuels furthering their feud, Dar debuting his new talk show segment, and an NXT UK Tag Team Championship match being announced for next week between Gallus and The Hunt. This was one of the best all-around episodes NXT UK has had in recent memory.