WWE NXT UK Review - March 5, 2020

​By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Alexander Wolfe def. Travis Banks

Wolfe has experienced a career resurgence since moving to NXT UK one year ago, winning more matches than he loses and always putting in a quality performance. Banks, on the other hand, never seems to win whenever it matters most. He's a talented wrestler, but fans don't have much of a reason to care about him at the moment outside of that. This was a well-wrestled match that featured enjoyable action.

Ridge Holland def. Saxon Huxley

I've mentioned before how Holland comes across like a star and has a great look about him, but it's high time he entered a feud. He's been beating nobodies for months, and while he's been booked dominantly, it's gotten old. In addition to targeting someone with star power (like a Trent Seven or Tyler Bate), he'd benefit from getting the video package treatment so viewers can know more about him and his backstory.

Aoife Valkyrie def. Isla Dawn

This marked Valkyrie's second match on the brand and I'm already captivated by her presence. She's still a work in progress in the ring, but at least she has the awesome entrance down. It helped that she had someone more established to work with this time, even if Dawn isn't the most exciting performer. The match was fine for what it was, but Valkyrie winning to maintain momentum was what was most important.

NXT UK Champion WALTER def. "Bomber" Dave Mastiff

I wish this feud had been built up over a longer period of time so it could have meant more because this felt no bigger than any other main event we've seen on NXT UK recently. I was surprised they didn't get more than 10 minutes for their match. That said, what we got from them was solid and was exactly the type of hard-hitting hoss fight I was hoping for. Based off how decisively Mastiff won, I assume the plan was always for him to be the challenger of the month before WALTER moves on to Finn Balor.

Overall Show

It dawned on me while watching on this show that it was taped well over a month ago at this point. Thankfully, this was the last episode from that set of tapings and they'll start fresh next week. As for this edition of NXT UK, it was serviceable albeit unremarkable. The only thing that stood out as special about it was that the NXT UK Championship was defended in the main event, but even that match was slightly disappointing to me. Once the build to the next TakeOver in April kicks off (presumably next week), I assume the show will find its mojo again, even though it has been entertaining on the whole so far in 2020.