NXT AUGUST 8TH 2018
Nikki Cross vs. Amber Nova
A win for Nikki, but Amber got a bit of a chance to control the match in the middle. She looked solid, en route to Nikki winning with the swinging fisherman’s neckbreaker.
Short hype piece for Keith Lee.
Ricochet was scheduled for a match, but during his entrance, Undisputed Era came out, carrying a beaten down Ricochet out onto the stage. Cole said he wasn’t a coward and he didn’t hide behind anybody and Ricochet was laying battered and beaten while he stood tall, the one and only NXT North American Champion. He told Ricochet that would still be undisputed after he mangled him at Takeover.
Cameras caught up with Vanessa Borne backstage about her Mae Young Classic qualifier. Her new nickname is, evidently, The Vision and she claimed she was going to win because she didn’t want to deprive people of seeing her in the tournament, before shooing the camera off.
Kassius Ohno vs. Adrian Jauode
The story here is that Ohno is frustrated and wants better competition. He seemed put out by Jauode’s capoeira stance at the start and annoyed when he went for a waistlock takedown. When Jauode got the takeover though, it forced Ohno to get serious. Jauode caught him with a suplex late on, but Ohno cut him off with an elbow and hit the Dream Crusher, formerly the Death Blow, for the win. This felt like they were, potentially, setting the table for an Ohno heel run with the way he was acting here.
Next up was a segment, with EC3 meeting up with Velveteen Dream at his pool. They had a rather passive aggressive conversation, with Dream’s music playing over this since they were in “Dream’s world” I guess. Then, Dream ended up trying to sneak attack EC3 after dropping his sunglasses, but EC3 caught him and threw him into the pool. This was different.
Keith Lee vs. Marcel Barthel
This was hyped as Keith Lee’s debut, but it was also Barthel’s debut, the former Axel Dieter Jr. Both got strong reactions coming out, but particularly Lee. Not a particularly special match, but it did it’s job of introducing both guys. Barthel got his fair share of offence in and seems to be making shouting “nein” his thing. Lee showed a couple of moments of agility and plenty of charisma, finishing Barthel off with the fireman’s carry jackhammer, which wasn’t named yet.
Street Profits skit, with them discussing The Mighty and saying they’d see them next week.
Mae Young Classic Qualifier
Vanessa Borne vs. Taynara Conti
This was billed as being for the final spot in the tournament, with both of these two having competed in the first tournament. Solid enough match. Conti has the more dynamic offence, with the judo background, but Borne has done well in her NXT performances since the tournament. Conti got the win though to qualify, countering a crucifix attempt with a modified swinging slam for the pin.
Recap of Shayna continuing to choke out Candice after their match last week and the confrontation between her and Kairi Sane afterwards.
Cain Velasquez was shown in the crowd.
Johnny Gargano vs. Aleister Black
Of course, this stemmed from Johnny Butterfingers accidentally hitting Black with the title and costing him the match with Ciampa two weeks ago. The reaction for Gargano seemed to have evened out a bit after the smatterings of Johnny Sucks chants in the segment last week, with no real sign of any dissent against Gargano here. These two didn’t get a lot of time at all, having a decent sprint of a match before Ciampa showed up and threw Gargano out of the ring so he could attack Black. Gargano came back to help, but Black kept going after Gargano, not wanting his help. It ended with referees coming out to pull apart Black and Gargano, before Regal appeared and made the NXT Title match at Takeover a triple threat.
RECOMMENDED VIEWING: Five short matches on the show this week. Keith Lee and Marcel Barthel is worth watching, purely for the fact it was both of their debuts and Black/Gargano is key from a story perspective, if not much of a match. Everything else was it’s typical solid self, but not essential viewing by any means.
NXT WEEK: A Velveteen Dream appearance, Street Profits against The Mighty, Kairi Sane against Aliyah and Tyler Bate versus Roderick Strong.