2 Ups & 6 Downs From WWE NXT UK (10 June)

3. Got Ring Rust, Jordan?

Saxon Huxley dominated Jordan Devlin in Devlin’s first match since NXT TakeOver: Stand & Deliver. Why?

Huxley has never been viewed as a major player in the brand, rendering this utterly pointless when he didn’t actually defeat Devlin. That Jordan instead connected with the Devlin Side Suplex out of literally nowhere, got in Saxon’s face as if he’d dominated the whole match, and then simply left added absolutely nothing.

It wasn’t even that good a match, either. Saxon wrestled as a basic brawler, adding very little to this other than a neat Biel throw and sit-down Chokebomb later on. Unfortunately, everything inbetween was genuine fodder. He failed to properly string his offence together, instead hitting manoeuvre upon manoeuvre without much of it meaning anything.

Jordan cheating to win – he raked Huxley’s eyes – is what makes this appalling. There wasn’t a single need. He could have mounted a normal comeback, hit his finisher, and gotten on with his day. By sinking to nefarious means opposite a lesser talent like Saxon Huxley puts Devlin across as a lesser talent himself. Entirely the wrong booking.