WWE NXT UK Review - January 16, 2020

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Joseph Conners def. A-Kid

Tom Phillips mentioned on commentary that Conners hasn't lost a match since last spring, which blows my mind. I know he's been on a winning streak lately, but I had no idea it dates back that far. He's been saying for weeks that he's TakeOver worthy, so while he didn't make the main card this time around, he did wrestle on the pre-show. This was one fo the best matches I've seen him in yet, which is largely due to A-Kid. He's an amazing athlete and can be a real star on this brand. He just needs a few important victories first. I assume this Conners push is heading somewhere, I just don't care to find out.

Dave Mastiff def. Kassius Ohno

Ohno has been quite the roll recently with this "Wrestling Genius" gimmick and has had some really good matches to boot. He and Mastiff worked well together, and although this was shorter than I would have liked, they maximized their minutes and delivered an entertaining outing. For two big guys, both Mastiff and Ohno are incredibly agile. Mastiff needed the win more as he hasn't scored an important victory in some time. Ohno can absorb the loss easily.

Overall Show

This was your typical post-TakeOver episode in that both of these bouts were filmed before TakeOver: Blackpool II on Sunday. Speaking of which, there was plenty of replays and recap of the event on this episode, so if you haven't seen it, I strongly suggest that you do. It was another stellar show from the NXT UK brand. There was also hype for next week's episode where Ilja Dragunov will be in action, Ligero will take on Jordan Devlin and Travis Banks will face The Brian Kendrick in Cruiserweight Championship qualifiers for Worlds Collide, and Jazzy Gabert will battle Killer Kelly.