WWE NXT UK Recap March 20, 2019: United Kingdom Championship match set for Takeover

5. Building them up

Eddie Dennis did what he said he would do, dispatching of Ligero in a hard-fought victory. Returning from his self-imposed exile, Dennis was methodical in his approach, taking his first step on his mission to defeat other people so as to become better regarded in NXT UK. The match was fine overall, but honestly felt like it did more to establish Ligero as an underdog than it did to establish Dennis as the next top star on the rise (though that delayed vertical suplex spot was quite impressive). Maybe we’ll see the dividends paying off for Dennis in the weeks to come as he racks up more wins.

The final singles match we haven’t discussed was Kassius Ohno making his official NXT UK debut — just wipe the WALTER loss from your memory banks — defeating Ashton Smith with the ripcord elbow. Ohno seemingly toned down his angry sentiments from last week’s promo, giving a respectful fist bump to start the match and checking in on Smith after scrambling his brain with the aforementioned elbow. But, after a post-match fist bump attempt goes un-returned, Ohno unleashed another elbow on poor Smith before screaming at him, “If you’re so British, name three William Regal matches!” (That last part may or may not be true) This brought out Travis Banks for the save, clearly to set up Ohno’s first feud, and to give Banks somewhere to go after losing his feud against Jordan Devlin.

Have any thoughts on the March 20 edition of NXT UK? Let’s hear them down in the comments below.