WWE NXT UK Review - November 5, 2020

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Gallus (Joe Coffey and NXT Tag Team Champions Mark Coffey and Wolfgang) def. Sam Gradwell and Pretty Deadly

Gradwell was a part of that first WWE United Kingdom Championship Tournament in January 2017 and appeared on some of the early episodes of NXT UK two years ago before suffering an injury. This marked his first match back since then. Kudos to him for overcoming the injury, but he seems super generic to me and nothing he did here stood out as special to me. The fact he was the one pinned means he probably won't be much more than an enhancement talent, anyway. It was a perfectly fine albeit slightly boring six-man tag team match that appeared to be designed to tease a feud between Gallus and Pretty Deadly.

Jinny def. Aleah James

This was James' NXT UK debut. Although she scored some offense, this was essentially a straight-up squash for Jinny. The commentators acknowledged that Jinny was a "dream opponent" for James, which is why she stood up for her afterward when Piper Niven was beating her down. Kay Lee Ray urged Niven to be more aggressive, so Niven heeded her advice and attacked both Jinny and James. It was an effective angle that set up their Falls Count Anywhere match for the NXT UK Women's Championship in two weeks.

A-Kid def. Noam Dar in a Heritage Cup Semifinal Match

I liked how they played off their previous encounter where Dar cheated to win, so that made A-Kid's victory here that much more meaningful. The rules of the Heritage Cup have made the matches hit or miss so far, but I thought this was one of the better bouts in the tournament so far. The rounds hurt the overall flow, but what we got in each round was pretty good. It's cool to see A-Kid advance to the finals, so even if he doesn't win the whole thing, it's great he made it this far.

Overall Show

The biggest hook coming into this show was the in-ring return of Joe Coffey, but if you're like me and don't care about him that much, then you'll likely be disappointed coming off that instant classic in the main event last week. Don't get me wrong, the main event was enjoyable and we found out the NXT UK Women's Championship will be up for grabs in two weeks, but NXT UK should have delivered a hotter show to capitalize on whatever momentum they have right now. Instead, this was a solid albeit unspectacular episode.