WWE NXT UK Review - February 4, 2021

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Nina Samuels def. Xia Brookside

Brookside previously scored a big upset over Samuels late last year. She was able to avenge the loss here, but only after smacking Brookside in the face with a piece of her luggage when the referee wasn't looking. Although I couldn't care less about Samuels, her bringing her luggage to ringside is a nice layer to her character, assuming it wasn't a one-off. This was well-wrestled match and I'm sure a rubber match is inevitable. That's fine by me as long as Brookside ends this feud on top.

joseph Conners def. Josh Morrell

When Conners linked up with Jinny, I thought we would start to see less of Conners in the ring and he would largely be positioned as her bodyguard, but apparently not. He bores me to tears and I don't think Jinny (who is great) being in his corner and giving him some fashion tips will do much to change that. This was fine, but I'd much rather the focus be on Jinny than on Conners.

Ilja Dragunov def. Tyson T-Bone by Referee Stoppage

They're telling the story that Dragunov is falling apart following his loss to WALTER last October. He was unhinged during his match with Starz and he was overly aggressive here as well. I love that they went with the referee stoppage finish because it made Dragunov look like an even bigger badass. Sam Gradwell talked trash the entire time at ringside and got beat up by Dragunov afterward. This character development for Dragunov has been very compelling thus far.

Joe Coffey def. Danny Jones

Coffey has seemingly been spinning his wheels since the relaunch of NXT UK, so I figured this would be another simple squash for him. The match wasn't anything out of the ordinary and thankfully didn't last longer than it needed to, but the focus was on what happened afterward with Rampage Brown coming out and apparently accepting his challenge. That should be a hard-hitting affair.

NXT Cruiserweight Champion Jordan Devlin def. "Bomber" Dave Mastiff (Non-Title)

This was supposed to be another open challenge for Devlin's Cruiserweight Championship, but because no one stepped up, Mastiff accepted the challenge instead and it was non-title as a result. Devlin hasn't worked with a larger opponent in a while, but he proved once again why he can have great chemistry with just about anyone. This was a very fun main event with Mastiff on offense for most of it until Devlin battled back at the end and hit a beautiful-looking 450 Splash for the victory. He has to be showing up in NXT soon to challenge the other Cruiserweight Champion Santos Escobar, right?

Overall Show

This was a slightly longer edition of NXT UK than usual, yet it was definitely lacking up until the main event. Devlin vs. Mastiff is the only match worth going out of your way to check out, but at least the other short showcase matches served a purpose (aside from Conners vs. Morrell, that didn't need to happen) and some stories progressed. The vignettes were well done and I appreciated that so much stuff was announced for next week, including a Street Fight between The Hunt and Mark Andrews and Flash Morgan Webster.