It’s the last episode of NXT UK before Christmas. This had absolutely no impact on the episode whatsoever but hey it’s a nice little statistic, right? On tonight’s packed show we had Tyler Bate taking on Noam Dar, we saw the return of Amir Jordan and Kenny Williams tag for the first time since Jordan got injured and Jinny showing off her mean streak once again. Also, we got to see more creepy Eddie Dennis antics, yay. Let’s get into it, shall we?

Kenny Williams & Amir Jordan defeated Pretty Deadly (Sam Stoker & Lewis Howley) via Swanton Bombay

Our first contest saw two long lost teams returning to action. Both Jordan and Williams and Pretty Deadly haven’t been seen in months so they both got their time to shine during the match. The main focus of the match though was to celebrate the return of Amir Jordan and reintegrate him with the NXT UK audience. After a hot start, the inevitable happened when Pretty Deadly started targeting the formerly injured shoulder of Amir Jordan. After a series of shoulder-targeted attacks, double team manoeuvres and near falls, Kenny Williams was finally tagged back in and managed to destroy both members of Pretty Deadly. Some more interference nearly cost Williams the match but he was able to kick out of the double team Gutbuster and win the match alongside Jordan. They both hit their finishers with Jordan getting the last blow with the Swanton Bombay. It was a nice feel-good moment and a very good showing for Pretty Deadly and Jordan. It should also be noted this is Kenny Williams first win in forever.

Trent Seven Called out Eddie Dennis

Next up was a segment with NXT UK’s proudest Dads, according to Nigel McGuinness anyway. He came out to admonish Eddie Dennis for the beatdown of Michael May and basically called him weird for all the odd interactions the pair have had for the past few weeks. Dennis was called out and doing his best impression of Michael Myers, creepily made his way to ringside. Seven continued the admonishment of Dennis and started a proud dad speech about helping create NXT UK but Dennis cut him off by bonking him on the head with a mic and uttering one fatal sentence, “I’ll see you at TakeOver Blackpool.” I don’t think I need to say anymore. Though I will as Eddie Dennis is pretty damn good at being weird and creepy, someone makes him a horror movie antagonist.

Jinny (w/ Jazzy Gabert) defeated Amale via The Make-Over

This was less a match as it was watching a very angry and aggressive Jinny beatdown a French talent new to the company. She started off with a slap and hammered Amale down with stiff strikes. After a long session in the Row Boat, Amale got her one bit of offence in the match before the beatdown continued further. Jinny hit a Springboard Senton and finish the match with the Make Over. This was quick and brutal but Jinny wasn’t willing to let it end there. Instead, she brought in her mercenary Jazzy Gabert to continue the beatdown with some lariats. Gabert gave Jinny her wish twice but when she tried to boss her into delivering a third, Gabert had enough. She sensed Amale couldn’t take another and stormed off. Ignoring Jinny’s commands. It looks like Jinny’s backup monster may be separating herself from Jinny’s payroll. Which would no doubt mean Jinny will have a very angry monster coming after her.

Tyler Bate defeated Noam Dar via Tyler Driver 97

Once again, Tyler Bate and Noam Dar deliver a proper main event calibre match. Both guys have a habit of delivering excellent matches when it counts and this was no exception. The pair took each other to the limits offering a bout featuring some superb technical displays, painful-looking strikes and Dar getting to show off his submission wrestling ability once again. He took his lumps early on and cleverly managed to get back into the match, punishing the knee of Bate and continuously reversing some of Bates flashier spots. Whenever Bate went to the well too many times, Dar would punish him. Then again, Bate returned that in-kind whenever Dar got too cocky. Jordan Devlin made an appearance near the end of the match to try and interfere but Bate didn’t fall for the distraction, winning the match in front of him by surviving a roll-up attempt and hitting the Tyler Driver 97. When Devlin tried to attack, Bate scared him off. A challenge was made for NXT TakeOver: Blackpool II. It was a fun main event to round off a fun episode of NXT UK.

So, there you have it, another episode of NXT UK reviewed for your reading pleasure. I thoroughly enjoyed this episode as it gave me some excellent matches, some cool story beats and two more teased matches for NXT TakeOver: Blackpool II. With next week being a highlight episode there will be no review but in two weeks it would appear we have more to look forward to as Ligero looks to settle the score with Kassius Ohno and the promised Alexander Wolfe/Ilja Dragunov No-DQ match will take place. See you all then.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJDcZ2vqem4]

All pics and videos courtesy of WWE