Last week on WWE NXT
Karrion Kross killed some kooks to fight Keith, Dakota Kai got herself a title match after Rhea got hit by a Mercedes, Damien got a good omen by earning a spot in the NXT North American title ladder match and Adam Cole got punted by a podcast host.
Tonight, we find out who’s next to join the North American title match. Will Kross murder Oney’s best bud (what do you think)? Are we gonna get more Undisputed Era vs. Imperium fights? Is this Pat McAfee storyline still really going on?
Let’s find out.
POP: The End is The Beginning
First off, Kross and Scarlett’s entrance is still killer (heh). But one person who isn’t intimidated by all the smoke and exaggerated lip syncing? Danny F’n Burch. This match was a lot more back and forth than I was expecting. Danny started out pretty hot really laying in shots to Kross to start out the match. However, once Kross actually got his hands on him (similar to how last week’s Lee vs. Grimes match went), the tone in the match instantly shifted.
Danny was still able to put up a solid fight, which I appreciated because Burch is dope as hell, but we knew where this match was ultimately gonna go. The match ends when Kross chokes out Burch with a sleeper. One could say it was a fiery start to the episode.
Afterwards, NXT Champion Keith Lee graces us with his glorious presence with a title match contract in hand and demands Kross sign his “punkass name” on it. It even has the stipulation that Keith can’t put his hands on him till NXT TakeOver: XXX The Return of Xander Cage. Kross of course signs it, Scarlett slides the contract back to Lee who opens it and…GETS A FIREBALL TO THE FACE.
Within the first 13 minutes of this episode someone got a face full of fire from a booby trapped contract. Wild. I have to believe this will be the most talked about moment from this episode. Yup, definitely.
BOTCH: Drake Dain Demo Tapes
So, following all of that, we get a match between Drake Maverick and Killian Dain that is such an afterthought, not only are we cutting back to Lee getting first aid care (appreciate the appearance of confirmed onscreen (and real life) girlfriend Mia Yim), we get the UE immediately showing up to Full Sail as the ambulance leaves and then beating up Drake and Killian which gets the match thrown out. They barely even show up in the highlight videos. Oh well. Shout out to Drake getting his job back.
POPBOTCH: Bay Bay Blues
Cole cuts a great promo responding to McAfee sonning him last week.
He then challenges Pat to show up next week.
Pat agrees via Twitter to show next week (yay), and also it seems he’s declared war on NXT and the whole “wrestling community” for some reason? Ok.
POP: Easy, Breezy, Beautiful. Fantasma.
Nice kinda quick little match that stems from Legado Del Fantasma jumping Fandango last week. Before the match starts, Escobar sends his buddies to the back to show how he doesn’t take Breeze seriously. However, that’s a mistake. Don’t let the costumes get you tripped up, he’s an NXT OG for a reason.
So when Escobar is clearly at the end of his rope, Escobar’s LDF goons come out to distract Breezus which leads to a Phantom Driver for his troubles.
Post-match, Dango comes out with a mop(?) to save his BFF from a beatdown, but he’s down an arm so it doesn’t take much to take him down. But then, Swerve shows up to even the odds and it looks like we’re gonna get a 6 way confrontation sooner rather than later.
“You’re not running from me. Not anymore!” @swerveconfident has his sights set on @EscobarWWE and the #WWENXT Cruiserweight Title! pic.twitter.com/Q5eySQgC4A
— WWE NXT (@WWENXT) August 12, 2020
POP: Girl, You Better Run
We get a package hyping up Dakota Kai as a viable contender for Io’s NXT Women’s Championship that really makes you think she might almost have a chance. She claims to have figured out how to beat Io and get in her head, which according to this promo is sneak attacks. Of course, it’s so obvious.
Kai starts spitting that hot fire about how she’s done everything on her own (Raquel: “Am I a joke to you?”) and doesn’t need friends, she might need some first aid after TakeOver XXX though, because a pissed off Evil Io is not someone I would want to face.
Io has a response promo later in the night that puts Dakota’s to shame. Io talks about how “no one knew who Dakota was” until she betrayed Teagan, how she uses people until she’s done with them (look in a mirror lately, Io? we ain’t forget), and how all she sees when she looks at Dakota is the “little girl” who was terrified of Shayna and how Io’s gonna make Dakota terrified of her.
Did ya’ll just get a chill down your spine too?
POP: Hartache
Mia Yim vs Indi Hartwell is a fine match, that also has a shade of drama behind it as Mia is worried about her man who just left Full Sail looking like Kenshi Takahashi. I like that Indi Hartwell is on the show every week, I think she has a great look, a lot of potential and is good in the ring. Hope to see more of her.
POP: Lifestyles of the Thicc and Infamous
Ah, a good old fashioned hoss fight. Sometimes you just wanna see two big meaty men, slapping meat. And slap meat, they do. I don’t wanna start comparing folks, but I couldn’t help but think back to all those Lee vs. Dijakovic matches while watching this.
This match had a bunch of cool spots, like Priest doing a springboard senton to a standing Reed, Priest trying 3 times to hit a Broken Arrow suplex on Reed and finally hitting it the third time, and even Reed finishing the match with a flash jackknife pin. It’s taken me a while to warm up to Reed and Priest has been one of my favorite Top 5 NXT Superstars for a minute now. Absolutely match of the night.
POP: What’s gonna work? Teamwork!
Next, there’s a short but very effective tag match, between Kacy Catanzaro and The Robert Stone Brand. It featured a very hyped hot tag from Catanzaro (the image of her barely clearing the top rope popped me for some reason), but once again, fighting spirit wasn’t enough to put away Mercedes Martinez. All 4 women did good work here (yes, even Aliyah).
However, Rhea shows up to return the favor for last week (while also doing her entrance animation for some reason). Once she inevitably starts getting beat on due to the Damned Numbers Game™, Shotzi comes out to lend a hand and my Teddy Long senses start tingling.
POP: GO GO Power Couple
Yo, that damn protective cup is still on display. Right next to their food. That’s just nasty. Anyway, we check in on the Wrestlings doing couple things like reading stories to adorable doggos, changing light bulbs and cutting promos while reality and the color of the world changes and everything gets all wavy as they rant towards no one in particular, all while wearing CUSTOMIZED MATCHING POWER COUPLE SWEATSUITS. If WWE doesn’t put those on ShopZone, they are bugging.
Candice assures us that despite her darker hair color and makeup which is the ultimate signifier of an evil woman in wrestling that she is not evil and Johnny says the next time he’s climbing a ladder, it’s gonna be to win the NXT North American title. It’s gonna be Gargano vs. Ridge Holland next week.
So…um, Dream’s Back
He was the mystery opponent in the last Triple Threat. I’m gonna keep it a buck, I was mad uncomfortable. To the point where it took me, and I imagine a lot of you as well, out of the match. There’s been a lot of very serious controversy surrounding Patrick Clark aka Velveteen Dream recently (not even including an unrelated car accident). I was the biggest Dream homer around, but those allegations (which Clark has vehemently denied) definitely gave myself, and a lot of others pause.
I want to imagine that the 2020 version of WWE wouldn’t put him on TV again unless for some reason they truly believed he’s innocent, but I have no clue. Let’s be real. It’s still WWE. I don’t know if anything happened, but based on what was made public, it did not look good at all. I hope nothing happened because what he was accused of was very serious and very criminal. No one on TV acknowledged it (not that I would expect them to) and they merely said he “took time off”. But even putting myself in the shoes of the crowd made up of PC recruits, I would’ve felt very strange being forced to cheer his return.
And as of 11:00 AM on August 13th, 2020, WWE has yet to make any public statement on the matter.
Right, The Rest of The Show
Obviously, in a vacuum, the match is great because all 3 of these guys are good at what they do. Grimes takes it when he hits a sneak Cave In on Kushida while he’s got Dream in a Hoverboard Lock. But yeah.
Dream turns heel by attacking Kushida and Finn shows up to do finger guns at him.
Next week is that match everyone was excited for until…you know.
Next Week:
- Johnny Gargano vs. Ridge Holland – NXT North American Championship Qualifying Match
- Finn Balor vs. Velveteen Dream – NXT North American Championship Qualifying Match
- Legado del Fantasma vs. Isaiah “Swerve” Scott & Breezango
- Adam Cole & Pat McAfee – Face to Face
