6 Ups & 2 Downs From WWE NXT UK (27 May)
Teoman fells Smith, Williams goes clean-shaven, Seven and Gradwell collide.
An atypical stellar NXT UK episode went down last night, marred only by an iffy promo and its main event outcome. The match itself, however, was a banger.
The match in question was Trent Seven vs. Sam Gradwell, and the pair delivered a far better match than your writer was expecting. Sam, in particular, gave what was inarguably his greatest NXT UK performance to date, What should have been a breakthrough night for him, though, instead turned into another good night for Seven. More on that in just a bit.
Between the other three matches on the card, the vignettes and promo packages for upcoming matches, and the general fact that WWE debuted Andy Wild on the episode, the rest of the episode was immensely enjoyable to sit through.
Nathan Frazer vs. Sha Samuels, Teoman vs. Ashton Smith, and Kenny Williams vs. Andy Wild all ranged from fine to great, with the right winners occurring in each. Each was also somewhat different to what had preceded it, which is needed on a show like this. Elsewhere, promos from Ilja Dragunov and Jack Starz were good, and a vignette for the upcoming Women's Championship clash hit the right note.
Let's get to it...