NXT JULY 25TH 2018
Adam Cole vs. Sean Maluta
Big reaction for Cole coming out. Cole was cocky at the start, until Maluta caught him with a few quick moves and forced him to get serious. A well timed superkick to catch Maluta coming off the middle rope set up the Last Call for the win. Good little match for Cole.
Cole put himself over as the most buzzworthy superstar on any brand after the match, saying he defended his title all over the world and he even gave an upstart like Maluta an opportunity. Ricochet interrupted as Cole started to issue a challenge, complimenting Cole for not running away from his competition, even if it was a non title match against a guy who’s name Cole couldn’t even remember. He said he thought Cole had become a coward since becoming champion, but he could change his opinion, because Cole was so good and he could prove it by defending the title against him at Takeover. Cole agreed that he was good and said he wouldn’t diminish himself by facing Ricochet. Ricochet called him a coward again though and faked Cole out when he tried to get back in the ring. Strong and O’Reilly appeared on the stage with Cole, at which point Cole seemed happy to come back to the ring. War Raiders came out though, forcing Undisputed Era to take an alternate exit through the crowd. Moustache Mountain met them there though and attacked, causing Undisputed Era to escape through another part of the crowd to get away.
Footage was shown from the contract signing between Baszler and Sane, overseen by Regal. Baszler took issue with him calling it a rematch from the Mae Young Classic, pointing out she’d beaten Kairi since then. She claimed she was a different wrestler now and she had a killer instinct that Kairi didn’t have, pointing out that since then she’d risen to the top of the division, while Kairi had done nothing and was living off of past glory. Kairi signed and told Shayna they both knew she could beat her. Shayna said she was living in a fantasy world, pretending she had what it takes, like everybody else in the division. Kairi said she’d beat her in Brooklyn, so Shayna signed, telling Kairi she didn’t have to listen now, but she’d hear Shayna announced as champion at Takeover. Kairi re-iterated her point to Regal once Shayna had left though, that they both knew she could beat Shayna.
Recap of Velveteen Dream walking out on EC3 in their tag match at Royal Albert Hall, before EC3 against Kona Reeves was confirmed for next week.
Tenilla Price vs. Lacey Evans
Squash win for Evans, dominating the entire match and winning after cutting off a cartwheel in the corner with the Woman’s Right.
Bianca was interviewed backstage and asked about her injury. Bianca said she didn’t need to explain herself, but also said she didn’t need to work three times as hard to get a title shot, because she was undefeated. She said she was going to keep rehabbing and when she came back, she was going to get what she deserved, because she was undefeated.
Shayna was asked about the contract signing as she was leaving the arena, but was interrupted by Candice, who took issue with Shayna’s comments about her. Serena Debb held her back from doing anything physical though, as Shayna dared her to.
NXT CHAMPIONSHIP
Aleister Black (c) vs. Tommaso Ciampa
Half of the show was devoted this match, entrances to finish. And the result was well worth it. Ciampa got an early close near fall with a roll up and tried to hit the draping DDT early on, but Black largely got the better of the opening exchanges. Ciampa eventually got the advantage, pushing Black to the outside as he tried a springboard and throwing him into the barricade and steps, before working on the back. They teased the draping DDT a few more times in the match, from both guys, which played in later. Black ended up making a comeback that had Ciampa on the ropes and begging off, until Ciampa tripped Black on the apron. The match then began to go into the next gear for the final five to ten minutes, not just with what the two guys were doing, but with how much more invested the crowd became with each big near fall.
And at that point, Ciampa started to cheat more too. A Black Mass was countered into a rollup with the tights. After a big Aleister sequence that really got the crowd and ended with a Black bridging german, Ciampa then threw Black into a camera man and hit Black with a crutch as Drake was, somewhat unnecessarily, distracted, to score a near fall. Black hit a big dive, before Ciampa finally hit the oft-teased draping DDT, for another big kickout.
Finally, Ciampa teased a draping DDT off the apron onto the exposed concrete, which Drake prevented, only for Drake to get knocked off the apron and onto the concrete. With Drake down, Black delivered Black Mass, but there was no-one to count. After checking on Drake, Black then had his eye gouged by Ciampa, who retrieved the title belt, only for Gargano to hit a superkick. As he tried to take the belt off of Ciampa though, he accidentally hit Black, before being thrown outside, as Ciampa delivered a butterfly facebuster to win the title.
Given the finish, I can see why they did this on TV and not Takeover. It was slightly different from your typical Takeover NXT Championship main event with the finish and the Ciampa cheating, albeit still a hell of a match. The crowd were super into the near fall teases too and broke into a standing ovation down the stretch, so clearly they were doing something right by this crowd. Like a lot of the Ciampa/Gargano feud, it skirted the line between too much drama and just enough. The tug of war, accidentally hitting someone else with the object spot is really hard to do without it looking hokey and there were some minor timing issues with Drake’s distractions. But, it worked. The only issue I’d have is that they’re really starting to risk Gargano looking like a chump and losing the likeability factor and I wouldn’t bet against the crowd switching and deciding Ciampa’s cool now at some point (there were some people trying to chant for Ciampa post match). But the match itself was really good.
RECOMMENDED VIEWING: Black and Ciampa, obviously, deserves a watch. The first half of the show was clearly less significant, but fine, with both Ricochet and Baszler doing fine jobs in their speaking roles.
NXT WEEK: EC3 against Kona Reeves.