6 Ups & 3 Downs From WWE NXT UK (17 June)

2. Huffing And Puffing

Sam Gradwell’s patter, man. What a bunch of piss.

Cutting off his own entrance by referencing the children’s Three Little Pigs story, Gradwell proceeded to call himself a pig and Wolfgang a big bad wolf. Why? Because his opponent's name is Wolfgang? Utterly dreadful humour.

The match itself was nowhere good. It was just too slow. Incorrectly mixing chain wrestling with rest holds and the odd impact manoeuvre, Wolfie and Gradwell were favouring their shoulder and ribs, respectively, despite the serious lack of intensity in the contest.

It was Wolfgang who pinned ‘The Thunderstorm’ here, flattening him with a Spear variant of the Buckshot Lariat, which was neat. Aside from that and a flying Senton from the Gallus man, the match was entirely passable. What should have been a show-stealing clash of beef was instead an underwhelming serving of cold mash.

On a side note, how difficult is it for Sam Gradwell to get a victory? Since he returned from injury on 5 November, the guy has had one pinfall victory in nine matches. Isn’t he supposed to be getting built up as a resentful heel? Entirely odd booking here.