WWE NXT UK Review - July 3, 2019

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Piper Niven def. Rhea Ripley

Ripley wasting no time in calling out Niven after the weeks and months they've teased tension for was a nice touch. This was a very hard-hitting match and they worked well together. It was perfectly paced with Niven and Ripley never ceasing to take the fight to each other and Niven winning clean was the right call. I'm curious whether their rivalry will resume and what the future holds for Ripley in general in NXT UK seeing as how she's already held the NXT UK Women's Championship.

Alexander Wolfe def. Jack Starz

It's weird to see Wolfe in normal trunks after he was with SAnitY for so long sporting pants, but it's a welcomed change for his character. I honestly haven't seen too much of his work on his own because he wrestled in nothing but tag team matches in SAnitY, but he fared well for himself here and had a solid showing. This was a necessary showcase for him coming off his hot NXT UK debut. Meanwhile, Starz did an effective job as always of putting over Wolfe's offense and making him look like a threat.

Jazzy Gabert def. Mercedez Blaze and Dani Luna in a 2-on-1 Handicap Match

Gabert is an absolute force to be reckoned with and I'm a big fan of her pairing with Jinny, who can do a lot of the talking for her. The commentators noted how Jinny very easily could have wrestled here and teamed with Gabert but decided not to because she knew she could handle the two local ladies on her own. This was as dominant of a squash as you'll see for Gabert and it was well done.

Moustache Mountain def. NXT UK Tag Team Champions The Grizzled Young Veterans by Disqualification

I loved the hell out of the match these two teams had back at TakeOver: Blackpool and this was an equally entertaining encounter. They really do have tremendous chemistry and have made magic both times they've clashed. Moustache Mountain are so skilled at getting crowds heavily invested in their matches while Zack Gibson and James Drake are fantastic foils for them. Just when it looked like Moustache Mountain were closing in on the tag titles, Imperium interfered and caused the contest to be thrown out. The angle made sense because Imperium has been feuding with Pete Dunne for a while and clearly their bad blood isn't over yet. It also sets up the need for a rematch between Moustache Mountain and Grizzled Young Veterans if they decide to go in that direction.

Overall Show

As I said last week, this string of shows from the Download Festival have been a ton of fun, though I assume this is the end based off the note they ended on here (but that's purely my speculation). This continued the streak of enjoyable editions of NXT UK with a terrific tag team title main event (that is well worth seeking out), two squash matches, a highly physical opener, and plenty of storyline progression with Noam Dar attacking Kenny Williams outside of the venue and Kassius Ohno setting his sights on Mark Andrews. This was strong stuff from the NXT UK brand.