WWE NXT UK Review - July 22, 2021

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Nina Samuels def. Laura Di Matteo

We haven't seen Samuels in action since February when she lost her feud to Xia Brookside and became her assistant for a month. Hey, I'm not complaining because I've personally never been a fan of hers and don't find her all that interesting. I was expecting a standard squash match, but Matteo scored plenty of offense and was impressive. I actually came away from this wanting to see more of Matteo than I did Samuels.

Jinny Called Out Aoife Valkyrie on ​Supernova Sessions with Noam Dar

Jinny seems to work better when she has someone to play off of, which is why I've been digging her pairing with Joseph Conners thus far. He's boring on his own, but he's been a nice addition to her act. This was a solid segment designed to further the feud between Jinny and Valkyrie. Everyone played their roles well and it didn't predictably end in a match being made for once. Dar giving Jinny a pillow to sit on because she's "royalty" was great.

Joseph Conners def. Tristan Archer

Couldn't this match have been saved for another week? We just got Conners in the previous segment, and it's not like the segue into this match was seamless. He made a formal entrance instead of just walking to the ring from where he was sitting as part of the Supernova Sessions, which was weird. This was basically every Joseph Conners match ever, but it was fine while it lasted and Archer stood out to me. Valkyrie was shown behind the barricade and she handed Jinny a feather, so it looks like we're getting that match sooner rather than later.

NXT UK Tag Team Champions Pretty Deadly def. Subculture (Mark Andrews and Flash Morgan Webster)

I loved the story of how Subculture are the shortest-reigning NXT UK Tag Team Champions of all-time and that they wanted the belts back here. Andrews and Webster are excellent babyfaces and are a blast to watch in the ring to boot. Give them opponents that are on their level and watch them shine. That was the case with Pretty Deadly here as this was a very entertaining, fast-paced encounter. There were a few points where I thought Subculture had it won, but no such luck. Rather, Pretty Deadly cheated to pull out the victory. I'd love a rematch between these teams at some point.

Overall Show

It was announced at the start of this show, which was originally supposed to host WALTER vs. Ilja Dragunov II for the NXT UK Championship, that their rematch will instead happen at NXT TakeOver 36 next month. That sucks for anyone who watches in the United Kingdom, but that's probably where it always should have happened. It can't happen inside of an empty building. Now the question is, can we get that event in front of actual fans and not inside the Capitol Wrestling Center? Please? This was a one-match show otherwise thanks to the main event, but the progression in the women's division with the first three segments was well done.

SEE MORE: NXT UK Reviews