WWE NXT UK Review - October 15, 2020

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

"The Bomber" Dave Mastiff def. Joseph Conners in a Heritage Cup in a First-Round Match

I'm sorry but I immediately lose interest in anything Conners is involved in. He just does nothing for me. On the bright side, Mastiff is a much more diverse competitor and made this match bearable. As I've said before, the rules of the Heritage Cup won't be for everyone, but I appreciated that this was done differently than the other three matches with Mastiff winning with a knockout three rounds in. It was better than dragging it out longer than it needed to be.

Piper Niven def. Isla Dawn

Now that Niven has unsuccessfully challenged for the NXT UK Women's Championship twice now, I'm curious what's next for her. She could very well be working toward getting another shot at the strap, but I'd rather see someone else in that spot. Nonetheless, this was a perfectly fine match. Similar to Conners, Dawn bores me to tears, so this wasn't a terribly exciting outing whenever she was on offense.

Ilja Dragunov and Pete Dunne def. Imperium (NXT United Kingdom Champion WALTER and Alexander Wolfe)

Dragunov and WALTER have a title match coming up in two weeks, WALTER and Dunne have a rich history from last year, and Dragunov and Wolfe have worked together a bunch this year as well. In other words, the fact this was an excellent match should have come as no surprise. They were given plenty of time, the action was extremely entertaining, and everybody beat the holy hell out of each other. I wasn't expecting Dragunov to pin WALTER ahead of their championship clash considering WALTER has never been pinned in NXT UK before, but if it was designed to make viewers buy into Dragunov as a credible challenger and establish that he has a chance of winning, then job well done. Here's hoping this isn't the last we see of Dunne in NXT UK as long as he isn't able to travel overseas.

Overall Show

The outstanding main event was really the one thing carrying this episode, so if nothing else, seek that out. The other two matches were solid albeit unspectacular. Although I'm happy NXT UK is back after such a long layoff, they aren't delivering exciting or interesting programming from week to week like Ring of Honor and other promotions are right now. The Heritage Cup is still trying to find its rhythm, the women's and tag team divisions are depleted, and there aren't any engaging storylines outside of WALTER vs. Dragunov. I'm looking forward to their match in two weeks, but the rest of the brand could use some help.