WWE NXT UK Review - September 16, 2021

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Noam Dar def. Kenny Williams in an NXT UK Heritage Cup Championship No. 1 Contender's Tournament Semifinal Match

Both of these guys are similar types of heels, so I was curious how this would play out. It was different than any other match we've seen in this tournament and I enjoyed it as a result. It was pretty competitive, so Williams lost nothing in defeat, and there were some well-done spots. I was fine with either guy advancing here, so while Tyler Bate vs. Williams would have been fresh, you'll get no complaints out of me about a renewed push for Dar. He's also reunited with Sha Samuels, who helped him win here when the referee was distracted.

Nathan Frazer, Rampage Brown and A-Kid Staked Their Claim at Ilja Dragunov's NXT United Kingdom Championship

Dragunov was advertised to speak on this show, and although he did, I was disappointed to find out it was filmed at the Performance Center in the United States and not in person. Bummer. When will he be back? At least we know three people who could potentially be his first championship challenger. A-Kid beat Devlin in an Iron Man match and Brown beat Joe Coffey to beat their feud, so while I think Frazer is very talented, he felt out of place in this segment because he's done nothing to deserve a shot.

Emilia McKenzie def. Stevie Turner

Is it just me or has McKenzie's sole characteristic so far been that she really looks up to Meiko Satomura? I know they're doing that on purpose to build to a future match between the two (which is why McKenzie keeps winning), but I hope McKenzie starts to show some more personality soon other than giving off that "I'm just happy to be here" vibe. This was well wrestled, though, and I continue to enjoy Turner's work. I thought she was a heel, but then she was attacked by Blair Davenport afterward, so who the hell knows.

NXT UK Tag Team Champions Pretty Deadly def. Gallus (Joe and Mark Coffey)

Pretty Deadly beat Mark Coffey and Wolfgang to win the NXT Tag Team Championship at the start of the year, but because Wolfgang is currently focused on the Heritage Cup tourney, Joe Coffey filled in for him in this rematch. His involvement put a new twist on the match to avoid it feeling like a rerun and, unsurprisingly, it was a quality main event. There was some drama down the stretch as Pretty Deadly always do a terrific job of making it feel like their titles are in jeopardy. Pretty Deadly have kept talking about Moustache Mountain, so it seems like they're going to run it back again soon.

Overall Show

It's amazing how many main events Pretty Deadly have ended up in this year. They went from being a joke team literally a year ago to being the best thing in the tag team division a year later. Props to NXT UK for going all with them and making them stars. The main event was good stuff and the rest of the episode felt like it was better paced than usual. It wasn't an enthralling episode on the whole, but they moved plenty of stuff forward and the wrestling delivered.

SEE MORE: NXT UK Reviews