NXT MAY 2ND 2018
The Undisputed Era had promo time and Adam Cole was back draping himself off of that arch again. Cole claimed he made Oney famous, as the answer to the trivia question, who was Adam Cole’s first North American Title defence against. O’Reilly told Burch he got what he deserved for sticking his nose in their business and dared him to try it again and Fish offered to let the people doing his rehab know there were two more patients coming their way. Strong addressed Pete Dunne last of all, saying what he did at Takeover would pale in comparison to what he did tonight.
Kairi Sane vs. Shazza McKenzie
Quick, dominant win for Sane, running through her arsenal and winning with the InSane Elbow.
Lacey Evans came out after the match and admitted she was wrong about Kairi and she did belong in NXT. As Kairi considered offering a handshake, Evans then laid her out with a right hand.
Recap of Ciampa’s attack on Gargano last week. Cathy interviewed Candice, who said she’d been so optimistic at the start of the year, gradually getting to the point where she broke down talking about watching Gargano get stretchered out and had to leave to go prepare for her match. Candice did a really good job here.
Hype video for Lars Sullivan, with comments from Lars, saying his fingers touched the North American Title at Takeover New Orlans and warning all of the champions in NXT to prepare for destruction.
Street Profits vs. TM61
This was going along nicely as a simple but solid babyface versus babyface match. I should have smelt a rat and if I did, it would have been considering they might turn the Profits down the line, which I wouldn’t have been confident was a good move. Instead, Thorne caught a rollup on Montez and put his feet on the ropes for Miller to hold, allowing TM61 to steal the win. So it looks like TM61 are going to be going heel. I’m pretty unconvinced about that being a good move too, particularly because Thorne seems so cut out to be a top babyface. But in fairness, TM61 as a team really haven’t caught on since coming to NXT for one reason or another, so maybe this will be the shot in the arm they need. I’m not sure about it, but I can at least understand it.
Tale of the tape for War Raiders versus Heavy Machinery, followed by a video package of the budding feud between the two teams.
Cathy interviewed Kassius about what happened last week with Ciampa and Gargano. Ohno talked about knowing both of them and what kind of people they are, calling Ciampa an opportunistic coward. He said Gargano was like family to him, so Ciampa needed to feel that helpless and he was the person who’d it.
Kona Reeves vs. Patrick Scott
So, this was Kona’s re-debut, with his new gimmick. The white jacket and wrestling tights look gave me some Jacob Novak flashbacks. Hopefully Kona’s NXT career goes better than his did. I think Reeves has potential at least. There was no real sense of what the character actually is here, besides Kona stopping mid-match to say he was The Finest at least twice, which doesn’t really count (as Hideo ‘respect me’ Itami would attest to). Not a whole lot to the match too, Kona hitting a Ted Dibiase-esque middle rope elbow and a face-first samoan drop called the Hawaiian drop for the win. I’m not going to judge him on one outing, we’ll see how things progress. I am concerned about the gimmick though. Right now there’s not enough meat on the bone and if they do make the effort, I’m not convinced there aren’t guys who do flamboyant (Velveteen Dream) or arrogant (EC3, Sabbatelli) more effortlessly anyway.
EC3, from his rooftop swimming pool, cut a promo about the North American ladder match, saying if that was his first match imagine what the second would be like, because the sequel is always superior to the original. I’m not a film watcher, but I’m pretty sure that’s debatable. Anyway, they’re going with EC3 wanting to change NXT to ‘NX3’ as a tagline.
Dakota was interviewed outside earlier in the day by the hands holding microphones. She mentioned Ember and the Iconic Duo’s debuts on Raw and Smackdown leaving opportunities on NXT and said she wanted to make her mark. She was asked about Baszler and got defensive, before Vanessa Borne interrupted, telling the ‘reporters’ that the way Dakota had been handling Shayna was pathetic. If it were her, she’d have slapped the hell out of Shayna, she wasn’t scared of Dakota and she wasn’t scared of Shayna. Dakota said she was afraid of Vanessa and presumably that’ll set up a match with the two.
Candice LaRae vs. Bianca Belair
Decent match, which was mostly a backdrop to the story of whether Candice was fully focused or not. Belair got to exhibit her power a couple of times in the match before she got the win, countered a tornado DDT and hitting the Alleyoop.
Pete Dunne vs. Roderick Strong
Strong came out to his normal music, but it switched to the Undisputed Era theme, with Cole and O’Reilly accompanying him to the ring. Dunne immediately attacked on the bell and stayed aggressive throughout, even when Strong was able to gain some control of the match via backbreaker, as is tradition. Dunne does a good job of not just laying there and taking a beating, as also displayed against the AOP a few weeks ago. They got into a bit more back and forth action late on, after the first part of the match was worked more like a grudge match. After Dunne kicked out after a top rope olympic slam, Strong lost his cool a little and went back to striking, but gave Dunne an opening by doing so and ended up getting his fingers snapped as a result. Dunne would then hit the Bitter End to seemingly wrap the match up, but Cole and O’Reilly jumped in for the DQ at 2.
Cole and O’Reilly continued the beatdown until Burch and Lorcan ran out for the save, allowing the three of them to clear the ring.
RECOMMENDED VIEWING: Like last week, this was more about the progression of the show and less about the match quality. Dunne against Strong was of course a good match and worth a watch, but not the same kind of match they had first time around. Aside from that, there were a lot of solid set-ups for NXT going forward, with some characters taking steps forward, if not anything must-see in isolation.
NXT WEEK: Kassius Ohno versus Tommaso Ciampa, Heavy Machinery versus War Raiders and EC3 against Raul Mendoza.