NXT AUGUST 22ND 2018
Bianca Belair vs. Deonna Purrazzo
Purrazzo has had a character makeover, in preparation for being involved in the Mae Young Classic. Despite that and the upcoming tournament, this ended up being a resonably comfortable win for Belair, who put in another assured performance. It’s hard to see where there’s a weakness in Belair’s game, already and they’re clearly going to do something meaningful with her sooner rather than later. Purrazzo got the briefest of hope here and went for the fujiwara armbar late in the match, but Belair simply found a way out and won with the sitout burning hammer.
Recap of EC3 against Velveteen Dream. Cathy tried to interview Dream backstage, who made her wear a crown and said she could wait until Wednesday like everybody else for his answer. There was then an interview with EC3 and Mike Rome, with EC3 admitting Dream was the better man that night and said it’s not over until he won. Aleister Black’s attack was brought up and he basically accused Lars Sullivan of being the obvious suspect.
Strong and O’Reilly’s win over Moustache Mountain and War Raiders’s attack post match, as well as Ricochet winning the North American Championship from Adam Cole were covered. Ricochet was interviewed backstage, with Strong and O’Reilly interrupting him. Pete Dunne happened to be walking down the hall though and warned them off, but brushed off Ricochet’s appreciation, saying he wasn’t his mate he just didn’t like Undisputed Era and he was carrying a piece of gold he wanted.
Surveillance footage from the Aleister Black attack was shown. They enhanced the footage and revealed Nikki Cross had been watching everything from the roof.
Profile video on Zack Gibson.
Kairi Sane/Shayna Baszler recap. Cathy interviewed Baszler, with the rest of the Four Horsewomen, including Ronda which I guess is an odd divide between NXT and main roster. Shayna claimed Kairi didn’t beat her, she lost and she was the better fighter.
Last recap was of Ciampa versus Gargano.
Matt Riddle’s signing was briefly mentioned.
NXT UNITED KINGDOM CHAMPIONSHIP
Pete Dunne (c) vs. Zack Gibson
I’m not sold on Zack Gibson’s theme. I’m sure they were going for something in particular with it that’s Liverpudlian that maybe is lost on me, but it doesn’t feel like a good fit. Unfortunately, we didn’t get a Gibson promo here either. That aside though, the actual match was really good. After a physical start and some good old joint manipulation, Gibson would work over Dunne’s arm. That somewhat went by the wayside, as they had a more back and forth, big move stretch towards the end, which has become a hallmark of the UK Title matches on these Takeovers and post-Takeover NXTs. Not everything they did came off quite as well in execution as I’m sure it did in conception perhaps, including the finish. Dunne got out of the Shankly Gates (which the crowd kinda didn’t buy into enough as the finish, having bought a bit more into a couple of pins earlier) by getting to the ropes with his teeth, which was a little clumsy. Gibson then stomped him and knocked out the mouthguard. The idea was then that Gibson was going to throw the mouthguard away, got caught and it lead to Dunne winning with the Bitter End. Gibson kinda took too long milking the reaction with the mouthguard though, to the point he looked a little silly when he lost because of it, although it didn’t seem to bother the crowd. Overall, a strong match though and Gibson showed he can hang with Dunne, to a crowd that presumably weren’t entirely familiar with him.
RECOMMENDED VIEWING: Dunne and Gibson is worth the watch.
NXT WEEK: Strong and O’Reilly against Ricochet and Dunne.