Last Week on WWE NXT…
Io made us fear for Dakota Kai’s life, the Garganos got matching sweatsuits, …Velveteen Dream returned, and Kross may have Killed Keith’s eyebrows.
This is the Go Home show for the historic NXT TakeOver XXX (and the first week in a while without direct competition), so let’s find out if NXT showed out this week.
Second Chancery
We immediately begin with an NXT North American Championship Qualifying match, Johnny Gargano vs. Bane Venom Sami Zayn. The match is put together very well with the smaller, quicker Gargano using submissions against the larger Holland and wearing down his limbs before Holland just powers out of them. But the real tone shift came when Holland hits Gargano with a Brainbuster sort of move and he lands right on his head, but not the way he’s supposed to.
The rest of the match is kinda scary as everyone is concerned about Gargano’s well-being, but noted heel Johnny Gargano is able to overcome the odds (with some help from Candace) and beat Holland with a One Final Beat DDT to make it to Takeover. Johnny seems to not be hurt, so here’s hoping he’s truly fine.
(His fucking face in this thumbnail guys)
In the Main Event, we had Finn Balor vs. a Stressful Conversation seemingly aping a Dennis Rodman aesthetic this week. For me, this match started out fine, but eventually kinda felt like they were moving through molasses and kinda drawing it out. That changed however when Hero of the People Cameron Grime shows up to climb up TO DA MOON and sit on top of the ladder to troll Finn and Dream.
Grimey eventually grabs the title, and keeps distracting Finn when eventually Johnny Immortal tips over the ladder which causes Grimey to fall onto Ref Drake Younger who may as well have gotten shot with how long he was down for. Gargano jacks the title and turns to leave till Hoss Trek: The Next Generation, Damien Priest and Bronson Reed show up to beat him up about it (Drake is still knocked out).
Dream and Reed both take out Priest, Finn gets hit by Tim Thatch, which leads to Dream getting the W and becoming the final person to enter the NXT North American Title match, and the show ends with everyone getting hit and Reed standing tall (surprisingly). At least we know who isn’t winning. This here was a case of EXPLOSIONS! booking actually improving a match vs. what happened on Monday.
POP: No seriously girl, run
Deathwish Kai has a tune-up match with Jessi Kamea (who you may remember from the May Young Classic as the former love child of AJ Lee and Bayley (h/t to Dave M J)), which was fine, but the real pop comes from Kai talking shit to Io once again after the match about how she’s not scared of Io (shiiiiit) which obviously makes Io show up to immediately kick her ass. However, it turns out it was a trap to reveal the return of Raquel Gonzalez, foreshadowed by Dakota spending weeks talking about how she didn’t need friends. Can’t believe the Bad Kai would lie. SMH. (Also, Io stop turning your back towards the very large woman.)
POP: Paging Dr. Shelby (hopefully)
We get a heartwrenching promo from pro wrestler/Kree fighting space pilot Tegan Knox about how her friends keep leaving her, Candace nee LeRay in particular. And instead of the usual WWE face thing where they vow revenge against the offending party forever, she actually says she wants to try to patch things up with her. Preferably over a glass of wine (Just don’t eat any of her brownies).
POP: Play No Games
This 6 man between Legado Del Fantasma and Isaiah “Swerve” Scott & Breezango was the best in NXT style 6 man tags. Even if Wilde was dressed about 10 years his junior. Even Breeznago was all business in this match, they didn’t even bother with the weekly costume change. A lot of the flippy dippy “video game” wrestling that folks love and other tennis racket enthusiasts hate.
Match of the night here for me. Finishing sequence comes when Swerve accidentally tags in Breeze, which causes a confusion when he goes for a pinfall and gets taken out. Breeze comes in and tears the house down with a delayed hot tag, but Escobar hits the Phantom Driver for the W. There was just something about how that entire ending was executed that I loved.
Legado Del Fantasma vs. Breezango vs. Lorcan & Burch in NXT Tag Team Championship #1 Contender’s Match is announced for the pre-show so the tag division is in a very interesting spot right now.
BOTCH!…ok no, POP: Krabby About Patty
Ok. I’m gonna say something nice about Pat McAfee. This was an effective promo. The entire point of this promo was to get the audience to despise Pat and really want to see former biggest scumbag in the world Adam Cole kick his ass (I guess this signifies the Undisputed Face Era). Even brought his own 3 friends from work.
And he definitely accomplished that with his bragging about how he’s gonna waltz into wrestling and be great like he is at everything else he does, how he turns Adam’s egocentric past on him with how all his accomplishments meant nothing when he knocked him out in seconds, and of course insulting Kyle O’Reily which should never be allowed. I do worry about the actual match and what it will entail…and who will actually win, but I have no complaints about this segment. 99% of the time, the celebrity going into a wrestling match should be a heel IMO. Kick his ass, Bay Bay.
POP: Dust Yourself Off and Try Again
I don’t know what it is about Aliyah that is warming me up to her lately. Maybe it’s the way she tags herself in and delusionally thinks she can take on Rhea. Maybe it’s her fruitless attempts to befriend Mercedes Martinez. Maybe it’s the way Aliyah literally shakes her fist at the ref and yells “I hate you!”. I’m starting to like Aliyah, what is happening to me?
While I feel the 6 Man was match of the night, this was definitely my favorite match of the night. The team of Rhea and Shotzi unsurprisingly gel well in both aesthetic and style and anything that gets us more of lady hosses Rhea and Mercedes in the ring together, the better. That one spot where Rhea powerbombs her onto concrete (which was obviously edited, she probably landed on a crash pad, but it had the intended effect) was wild as hell. Shotzi got the win for her team with a Senton to Aliyah. Great match.
POP: KrossFire
In an amazingly edited package (scored to Frantic by Metallica) we get a summary of what’s been happening in the battle between Keith and Kross ever since Keith became Champ Champ and Kross showed up to NXT. It’s job is to get us hyped for Kross ve. Lee and it does that job exceedingly well. If there’s one thing WWE can do across all 3 brands, it’s put together an amazing video package.
I really don’t know who is gonna win this match. I think it may be a little too early for Kross to take a loss, but obviously I don’t want to see the title reign of Keith Lee end so soon. On top of that, babyface NXT title runs don’t often last very long. No matter what the result is, that match is gonna be Killer.
And that’s the Go Home show for NXT TakeOver XXX. Join us next time as we make jokes about and mark out over what is sure to be a memorable show.
