NXT AUGUST 15TH 2018
The show opened with a recap of Regal making a triple threat match for Takeover last week, before showing the Aleister Black footage, with Black being found attacked in what turned out to be a suspiciously crowded parking lot and confirming that it would now be Ciampa against Gargano in a Last Man Standing Match.
Street Profits vs. The Mighty
Solid tag match. I remain unsold on The Mighty as heels, but there’s no problems with them in the ring. This went along fine for the majority and just when it felt like it was starting to drag a bit in the middle, picked up again when Montez Ford got the tag. Ford has a ton of charisma, but he’s also got a spark and an energy in the ring to back it up. Finish here saw Thorne try to get the win with another rollup holding the tights, but Ford reversed it into his own rollup and held the tights for the comeuppance. If this is what The Mighty’s NXT run is going to be, minimal character heels who lose a lot to the more exciting face teams, I don’t know what they’ll end up as on the main roster. Or, they’ll be well prepared.
Shayna was shown giving advice to Aliyah backstage.
Undisputed Era cut a promo under their little arch. Strong and O’Reilly discussed Bate and “Trent The Beast Severn” and didn’t seem concerned about having to face them again, before referencing War Raiders. Cole brought up the face that they formed a year ago in Brooklyn and spoke about Ricochet briefly, before saying they’d show this was their era at Brooklyn and that was undisputed. These four, obviously, play off each other really well.
Kairi Sane vs. Aliyah
Shayna came out before the match to join commentary. This ended up being a dominant win for Kairi, to build to Takeover and to play off of the story that Shayna claimed Kairi doesn’t have the killer instinct. So, to prove a point, with the match won, Kairi decided to hit three InSane Elbows in a row, before pulling Aliyah up at the count of two and beating her with the Anchor, while pointing to Baszler, who by this point was standing on top of the commentary table.
Hype video for Cole against Ricochet.
Velveteen Dream came out, to discuss EC3. He said EC3 did have his curiosity, but now he had the Dream’s attention. He’d made an enemy of the Dream and it’d be Dream over at Takeover. EC3 interrupted with a Prince reference and told Dream he knew what he was trying to do, but he lived in people’s heads and Dream’s head was a real fixer-upper. The two argued over who was going to win until EC3 teased that they should fight right now. Dream threw his jacket into EC3’s face to get the jump on him, but EC3 fought him off and hit the One Percenter to stand tall. Crowd were into both of these two. I’m not sure how the match will go, but it should get a strong reaction regardless.
More on the Aleister Black attack, as they showed the alternate angles that revealed that a huge chunk of the roster were in the parking lot at the time and were therefore suspects.
Gargano/Ciampa hype video.
Footage was shown of Bianca Belair preparing for her return at the Performance Center.
Tyler Bate vs. Roderick Strong
This felt like a last match of the taping kind of match. The effort was there, no question. The crowd weren’t completely out of things either. But for whatever reason, this felt like it was just lacking something, given who was involved and the heights they’ve hit recently. At times, it almost felt like they were doing too much, if only because they weren’t getting an ooh or an aah on every single thing they hit. Still a good match, of course and there was one sequence in particular with some great, speedy counters. O’Reilly tried a distraction with the match going Bate’s way, but Seven pulled him off the apron. Strong then took out Seven with a dropkick through the ropes, but with the seconds out of the way, Bate ended up getting the clean win with the Tyler Driver 97. This was a bit like the Smackdown singles match they’d include on a Hardys/Edge and Christian DVD, in between all the matches you remember. I’ve no doubt that the tag match will deliver again.
RECOMMENDED VIEWING: All three matches on the show were good, if not essential. All the segments were probably the same. A good one hour primer for Takeover if nothing else.
NXT WEEK: Pete Dunne against Zack Gibson for the United Kingdom Championship, which will be taped in Brooklyn.