7 Ups & 3 Downs From WWE UK Championship Tournament (Night 1)

Downs...

3. Huxley vs. Gradwell Slows The Pace

Saxon Huxley Sam Gradwell
WWE.com

Sam Gradwell vs. Saxon Huxley came right after two of the night's more entertaining matches in Jordan Devlin vs. Danny Burch and Trent Seven vs. HC Dyer, and suffered for it. The earlier matches weren't high-octane thrillers, but with Seven's inherent likeability and Devlin's villainous antics, both gave the fans something to sink their teeth into, and set the night off to an engaging start.

Sadly, the tournament's third match took things down a notch. It wasn't a particularly bad match, but there just wasn't much to it. Gradwell and Huxley wrestled a basic six-minute affair that brought produced no real talking points, and served only to get Gradwell into the next round. The crowd were more into chanting "let's go Jesus"/"Jesus sucks" at Huxley, which says all you need to know about the contest's lack of engagement.

Both were relative unknowns heading into the tournament and faced an uphill battle from the start, but Gradwell in particular could have won the crowd over with a big performance. Unfortunately, he did little to stand out, and he heads into the second round as little more than "the guy Pete Dunne beat up."

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Andy has been with WhatCulture for eight years and is currently WhatCulture's Wrestling Channel Manager. A writer, presenter, and editor with 10+ years of experience in online media, he has been a sponge for all wrestling knowledge since playing an old Royal Rumble 1992 VHS to ruin in his childhood. Having previously worked for Bleacher Report, Andy specialises in short and long-form writing, video presenting, voiceover acting, and editing, all characterised by expert wrestling knowledge and commentary. Andy is as much a fan of 1985 Jim Crockett Promotions as he is present-day AEW and WWE - just don't make him choose between the two.