3 Ups & 7 Downs From WWE NXT UK (3 June)
Dragunov and Dar's banger, Coffey and Brown go strong style, Pretty Deadly maintain their spot.
How can WWE actually continue promoting NXT UK while releasing numerous, legitimately talented, main roster talents literally the day before?
Yes, NXT UK is a pre-taped show, but WWE still make the choice to tape it. The brand has done nothing for them since its inception in June 2018 (technically January 2017 if we're going by the United Kingdom Championship Tournament).
Braun Strowman, Aleister Black, Murphy, and others all brought something to the table that justified their position in WWE; for example, Murphy was a great high-flyer, but he just needed that spot to break out in properly. NXT UK aren't as lucky. They have good matches and a decent roster to fulfil that, but a product can't merely survive on good professional wrestling. Their attendances from before the global b*stard kicked in weren't all that great.
To backtrack though; yes, there were three matches on last night's NXT UK that ranged from good to exceptional, with Ilja Dragunov and Noam Dar's show-opening epic being as good as the show got. Joe Coffey and Rampage Brown's main event was solid, too, while Jack Starz and Nathan Frazer's challenge of the NXT UK Tag Team Championships vs. Pretty Deadly was alright.
The rest of the show? Not so much. Let's get to it...