WWE NXT UK Review - January 20, 2022

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Pretty Deadly def. Sam Gradwell and Saxon Huxley

I liked how Pretty Deadly were more serious than usual due to losing their NXT UK Tag Team Championship that they held for almost all of 2021. I also liked the video package that aired before the bout showing Gradwell trying to recruit a tag team partner for this match, which was funny. Gradwell and Huxley were the babyfaces here and it looks like Gradwell will be a babyface going forward with Kenny Williams costing him the win here. Gradwell's been so entertaining that I don't have an issue with it. The matchup was fairly formulaic and I don't care for Huxley at all, but it accomplished what it needed to in setting up the Gradwell vs. Williams program as well as getting Pretty Deadly back on track with a win.

Isla Dawn def. Emilia McKenzie

I can't believe they're continuing on with the dumb vampire (or whatever it's supposed to be) crap with Dawn. It's simply not working, and what's worse is that it's coming at the expense of someone like McKenzie. Granted, McKenzie is boring as a character, but I enjoy her matches more than Dawn's, personally. This was well worked and they made the most of the time they had, but I wasn't a fan of the outcome.

NXT UK Heritage Cup Champion Noam Dar vs. A-Kid Ended in a 1-1 Draw

Of the many Heritage Cup matches we've gotten over the last year-plus, have any of them ever ended in a draw? There may have been, but I can't think of a single one and this might have been the perfect time to do it to keep the feud alive. The layout of these Heritage Cup matches can get fairly formulaic, but this was an absolute banger and kept the crowd invested from start to finish. The second half was especially awesome. These two are simply incapable of having a bad match together, but this was the best of the bunch and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Overall Show

We found out on this show that Ilja Dragunov vs. Jordan Devlin for the NXT United Championship next week will be an Empty Arena match, which seems like a questionable decision. Those types of matches are best with an audience. Didn't we get enough Empty Arena matches from this brand for almost two years? At any rate, this was pretty much a one-match show. The first two were fine but easily skippable. The main event, on the other hand, was an excellent piece of business and well worth going out of your way to check out. I'm sure Dragunov and A-Kid will have no problem delivering the goods next week as well.

SEE MORE: NXT UK Reviews