WWE NXT UK Review - November 19, 2020

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Joe Coffey def. Sam Gradwell

This marked Gradwell's first one-on-one match on NXT UK, and if it wasn't already evident when he ate the loss in the six-man tag team match he had against Gallus recently, it's now clear he's going to be in an enhancement role on the brand. I'm totally fine with that as he screams generic to me and nothing he did here stood out as special. Granted, Coffey isn't that much more exhilarating himself, which is why this matchup felt like it dragged. Coffey vs. Alexander Wolfe appears to be the next feud and it makes sense when you consider Wolfe basically cost Coffey the NXT UK Championship at TakeOver: Blackpool II back in January.

Pretty Deadly def. Ashton Smith and Oliver Carter

Smith and Carter now have matching gear along with new entrance music, but it wasn't enough to earn them the victory here. Pretty Deadly, on the other hand, were once positioned as jobbers on NXT UK yet have been all over the show since the relaunch. This was a better bout than I thought it would be and Pretty Deadly in particular got to shine. This was a nice win for them, but I wish they would flesh out their characters a little more.

Saxon Huxley def. Levi Muir

As I've said before, Huxley does absolutely nothing for me. I don't know why NXT UK all of a sudden wants to push the man because he's just not impressive in any way, but I really wish they'd get his push over with similar to how Joseph Conners was built up for a bit before losing to someone and going back to being a loser. This was a standard squash for Huxley and thus it bored me to tears.

NXT UK Women's Champion Kay Lee Ray def. Piper Niven in a Falls Count Anywhere Match

This feud has been going on for so long (literally almost a year) that I honestly expected Niven to finally take the title here. However, that was not the case, and I can't say I'm upset Ray retained. She's been great in the role of champion, it's just a matter of finding more credible challengers for her to face. Nonetheless, this was a pretty good Falls Count Anywhere match and I was happy that they took full advantage of the stipulation by brawling to the backstage area. It wasn't overly exciting at certain points, but the storytelling was strong and the finish was well done. Jinny cost Niven the title because of what Niven did to her a few weeks ago, so Niven has a ready-made program despite this seemingly being it for her in the title picture.

Overall Show

As much as I enjoyed the Falls Count Anywhere main event, I thought the best parts of this entire episode were the video packages highlighting Ilja Dragunov vs. WALTER from a few weeks ago and the one previewing Trent Seven vs. A-Kid in the finals of the Heritage Cup next week. They were tremendously produced. From an in-ring standpoint, the tag team match was fun for what it was, but the NXT UK Women's Championship main event was obviously the best bout of the night. The other two matches were uninteresting to me, so feel free to skip over those if you feel the same about those involved as well.