Nina Samuels Discusses How WWE NXT UK Was Impacted By COVID-19

WWE's "NXT UK" brand is indefinitely on hiatus while the company looks to develop NXT Europe. The Covid-19 pandemic unfortunately played a part in the downfall of the brand as it appears 2020 was set to be a pivotal year before plans were changed. Former "NXT UK" star Nina Samuels recently spoke to Steve Fall of "Ten Count" about some of the exciting plans that were in motion before shutdowns occurred.

"I think our brand, more than any, was really, really affected by Covid," Samuels said. "Just before the pandemic, we had Finn Balor on one of our tapings. They were setting up a match between him and WALTER, which was going to be huge. We had a TakeOver coming up. We were about to do tapings at WrestleMania, which was going to be my first WrestleMania week. We were going to be going and doing tapings at Axxess. You know, really expanding the brand, getting more eyes on it. I feel like we were on such an upward trajectory, and Covid really slowed it down for us."

After global shutdowns began in March 2020, "NXT UK" went on hiatus until new episodes resumed in October while airing from an empty BT Studios in London. Samuels said that while they were grateful to be able to film content there, it was frustrating to not have fans in attendance for so long as other independent promotions in the UK had welcomed fans back after a while. Despite being part of WWE, it felt like "NXT UK" was "behind the curve" in regards to bringing crowds back.

The final episode of "NXT UK" aired on September 1, 2022, right before WWE unified the "NXT" and "NXT UK" championships at NXT Worlds Collide on September 4.