We got an hour long title match without a proper result, Rhea Ripley challenged Mercedes Martinez to a Steel Cage Match (natch) and Candice LeRae challenged Tegan Nox to a friendly dinner.
This Week: Who is our NXT Champion? Who will survive the Steel Cage? Did Johnny and Candice kidnap Tegan?
POP: The Prinxe Currently Known As Champ
We don’t waste any time getting to the big matches as we start out with Finn vs Cole for the NXT Championship. Now, in general, I tend to like my matches with a little story/build. Especially my title matches. Now, due to unforeseen circumstances, NXT has been put in a position where they have no World Champion and this leads to these 2 former Biz Cliz members having this baller ass title match that could have easily been on a TakeOver.
With the proper build, this would’ve been perfect. But, i’m happy with what we got. WWE is often at its best when forced to book on the fly, and this match, combined with the Fatal 4-Way last week have made for a very entertaining pair of title matches (and that top rope 1916 was crazy).
Finn of course had to win this one. What would’ve been the point of bringing him back to NXT if you weren’t gonna eventually give him another run with the title? Now he’s joined the 2-Timers club with Samoa Joe & Shinsuke Nakamura. The robe’s in the mail.
A little later, Cole comes off as a very uncharacteristically respectful babyface in an interview about the match (as well as 2 Sweeting Finn after the match). So, is this just Cole being given another dimension to his personality or is Adam Cole turning face while the rest of UE remains heel?
POP: World Of Tank
After all that gravitas or whatever, we get back to the best part of the show, the neverending feud between Robert Stone and a tank. That nogoodnik Robert Stone is seconds away from taking a pipe to Shotzi’s Tank when she magically appears and punches him in the face for his troubles.
That leads to poor Aliyah accidentally pushing Shotzi into Io and then they both team up and punk the 2 most ineffectual people in NXT in order to set up a match between each other next week. Basic stuff, but fun.
Shout out to Aliyah for dressing like the henchwoman for a Power Rangers villain.
POP: Friendship Is Tragic
It’s the dinner we have all been waiting for! If it weren’t for the main event, this would’ve been my favorite segment of the night.
I have to say, I was expecting an obvious trap for Tegan being laid by Candice but…it appears she really did want her friend back. (And let’s be real, Tegan clearly chose sides between friends when she decided to be a fake pizza delivery person in Team Yimitless’ parody dinner. What was that for Tegan?)
Unfortunately, she and her husband have become weird dorks now (and possibly created a new religion?) so that fact keeps her from actually being able squash the beef she has with Tegan. But hey, seeing two people at least try to talk things out to figure out where things went wrong instead of immediately jumping to putting each other through tables is pretty refreshing for a wrestling show!
Unfortunately the title gets brought up, Candice tosses her salad at Tegan, Tegan throws water back, Johnny gets involved, someone wasted a perfectly good bowl of pasta (How is Tegan not the heel?! That looked delicious!), then Tegan runs off into the night with Candice chasing after her. RIP TV Gargano. It was so young.
(Dope Bull Nakano shirt Tegan, I want it.)
POP: Support Teachers Unions
It occurs to me that Full Sail University where NXT is filmed…is a University (sorta) so the fact that the homie Tim Thatcher can’t even get a decent whiteboard to project clips of Damien Priest matches is just plain depressing. What is happening to this country? (Luckily for Tim, Priest is way too busy partying and getting drunk to actually watch the product, otherwise Thatcher would be letting him know about his glaring weak points.)
They let us know about Priest and Thatcher’s title match being made official via a Priest interview where he made me laugh by simply calling Thatcher “ugly”. Sometimes it’s the simple stuff that gets a pop. Yo, the look on Charly #34’s face after Priest invites her to the “Party Forever” is priceless.
A Velveteen Dream segment happened
Dream beat Ashanti “Thee” Adonis (ok, solid name) in a tune up match. Then Kushida returned to beat up Dream as payback for Dream assaulting him after their Triple Threat North American Championship Qualfying match. I liked that part.
Small Pop to Kushida’s “numbers” button up shirt, man is dedicated to the time travel gimmick.
Fashion vs. Fascism
This hype vid reminding everyone where we are in the Breezango/Imperium feud was cool, but basic. Which is fine. I expect the match to be damn good. Honestly, i’m just counting down to when I can see WALTER again.
A match featuring Austin Theory happened
Match was fine, it’s just Theory being involved makes me feel…eehhhhhhhh. Reed won and he’s great, let’s move on from this story huh?
No New Friends
Yeah, I didn’t really give this segment a Pop or a Botch because the whole thing was pretty mid to me. I didn’t hate it, but also it was like “well, that happened”. It’s not even like the match was bad, it’s just that this is the first Roderick Strong match in a while where I didn’t even raise my eyebrows once. Also I can’t believe all it took for Strong to beat the former unstoppable monster of SAnitY was a knee strike. Homie didn’t even lose to a secondary finisher, hate to see it.
Post match, UE (sans Kyle btw) starts beating down Dain, which leads to Drizzy Drake showing up with a pipe. Of course he almost immediately starts getting beat up too and Dain has to save him. Dain then thanks Drake by slugging him in the face. It looks like we’re getting to the fireworks factory next week because after the show, Drake let’s Dain know they have a match against UE next week and again, Dain punches him in the face. This would not be happening if Ethan were here.
POP: #GirlHoss
So, there’s been debate around the ol’ IWC about whether or not Rhea Ripley’s star has fallen since losing the NXT Women’s Championship to Big Match Charlotte at WrestleMania. If you are still on the side of “yes” I implore you to go watch this match. It has never been more certain to me that they believe in a wrestler. Rhea’s already had star making performances (including her match with Charlotte), but she was firing on all cylinders here.
Now, don’t take my comments to mean Martinez didn’t pull her weight here too, she absolutely did. This match was billed as “Battle of the Badasses” for a reason. Mercedes even in losing, still showed why she is such a dominant competitor. That top rope German Suplex straight up took my breath away. Then the kickout after Superplex from Rhea made me jump out of my seat.
But unfortunately, Mercedes had to learn, you come at the King, you best not miss. Even with The Hardest Working Manager in NXT putting his body on the line by climbing up to the top of the cage just to help her win wasn’t enough. Rhea gets the W with a memorable top rope Riptide through a table.
Afterwards, Robert Stone officially kicks Mercedes out of Da Brand (more than likely because he expects her to beat the shit out of him for not helping her win) and asks Cathy #34 to deliver the restraining order. Something tells me some papers ain’t gonna stop the ass whooping coming his way soon.
That was this week’s NXT. Great beginning, pretty meh middle, amazing end.
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Next Week (on Wednesdays again!):
Breezango vs. Imperium – NXT Tag Team Championship Match
Undisputed Era vs. Killian Dain & Drake Maverick
Io Shirai vs. Shotzi Blackheart
Damian Priest vs. Timothy Thatcher – NXT North American Championship Match
