1 Up & 6 Downs From WWE NXT UK (13 May)

2. Build One, Bury Two

The Women’s Championship contendership gauntlet match was a weird one.

Johnny Saint and Sid Scala worked to find a replacement for the injured Xia Brookside rather than saving themselves a job by placing Amale in there. The order of entry for the participants didn’t make sense either; favourite to win Emilia McKenzie entered second, while surprise entrant Meiko Satomura came in fourth, rather than entering last for the ultimate surprise reaction. This meant that she and Jinny were the final two, two ladies who have already had Women’s Championship opportunities, rather than someone who hasn’t.

Your writer’s biggest gripe with the bout, however, was that the creative team fought they could get away with wasting Emilia McKenzie and Dani Luna here, so long as they did something of note with Isla Dawn. As enjoyable as it was to see Dawn succeed for a bit, she had no right doing so against two others who needed building.

Like with the Mark Andrews situation, Luna has just formed SUBCULTURE. She shouldn’t have been eliminated without getting at least one elimination herself. McKenzie, meanwhile, shouldn’t have been losing full stop. She’s been built up as the one to end Kay Lee Ray’s title reign, yet she was the first one eliminated.

Seriously questionable booking.