WWE NXT UK Review - July 10, 2019

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Ilja Dragunov def. Ashton Smith

I've said this before, but Dragunov is an absolute freak of nature, and I mean that in the best way possible. His intensity is out of this world and he never ceases to bring the fight in his matches. Smith scored some offense, but Dragunov largely dominated and he once again went over in decisive fashion. This was a fun little extended squash as Dragunov maintains momentum.

NXT UK Women's Champion Toni Storm def. Candy Floss (Non-Title)

Storm is a star and that is a fact. She always has the crowd behind her and that was no different here, but I wish this would have been more straightforward in her favor. I felt this lasted longer than it needed to and Floss (who I don't believe is even under contract to NXT UK but I could be wrong) was a bit too competitive with Storm for my liking. On the bright side, the post-match angle with Kay Lee Ray attacking Floss on the stage and taunting Storm was well done.

Trent Seven Called Out WWE United Kingdom Champion WALTER

It's rare we see or hear from Seven on his own, but this was a great way to follow up on Tyler Bate's attack at the hands of Imperium last week and he delivered on the mic. He specifically called out WALTER, which was interesting. I'd be surprised if that ended up being the United Kingdom title match for TakeOver: Cardiff, but I could see that happening on NXT UK sometime soon to build to WALTER vs. Pete Dunne III at the event.

Gallus def. "Bomber" Dave Mastiff and The Hunt

Mastiff and The Hunt made for a damn good team here. I don't know if it's an alliance I want to see full-time going forward, but they worked well together and produced a solid main event with Gallus. Mastiff has had issues with Gallus for weeks, so it made sense for Gallus to go over to ensure Mastiff remains in chase mode. They received an ample amount of time for this main event and made the most of it.

Overall Show

I was pleasantly surprised to find out that this edition of NXT UK would also be emanating from Download, just because I've really enjoyed the atmosphere there for the last few episodes. This was a successful show on the whole with three effective matches and Seven's promo planting the seeds for a future face-off. Next week's episode will see Xia Brookside take on Jinny and Mark Andrews battle Kassius Ohno.