NXT SEPTEMBER 26TH 2018
The show began with Regal coming out. He didn’t get to say much though, beginning to say that he was getting closer to finding Aleister Black’s attacker, before Undisputed Era interrupted him. Cole claimed that Black’s injury was on Regal, but it was also in the past and Regal should be more concerned about making sure such attacks didn’t happen again. Strong said they shouldn’t have to worry about War Raiders and O’Reilly claimed he felt unsafe. Regal pointed out how interesting it was that they’d interrupt him talking about the investigation, which Cole took exception to. He claimed Regal hadn’t noticed Ricochet was ducking him and he wanted his rematch now, but Regal suggested Cole hadn’t asked him and actually wanted Dunne to soften Ricochet up for him. He told Cole he couldn’t get one over on him and it wouldn’t be fair to give him a title shot straight away, but in two weeks he’d face Ricochet and Dunne in a triple threat match. He then booked Strong and O’Reilly against War Raiders for the Tag Titles the following week as well.
Gargano was asked about facing Tony Nese next week as he arrived to the building. Gargano said it was the first time in a long time he’d actually been excited about something and it felt good. He said he didn’t like where he was going, so he went home and now he was seeing clear. He was sick of running around whining and complaining and next week, he was going to be the man he was meant to be because he couldn’t be Johnny Wrestling sitting on his couch. As the interview, seemingly, ended, Gargano met up with Candice, and they were immediately confronted by Lacey Evans. Lacey said a good lady and a good wife would fight beside and defend her husband no matter what, not try to separate her career life and personal life. Gargano stopped Candice from going after Lacey as she walked off.
Hype video for Lars Sullivan.
Cathy tried to interview Velveteen Dream, as he was finishing a photoshoot. He said they’d already talked about how he’d stolen the show at Takeover and he wasn’t going to talk about Johnny Failure, a man who wasn’t here right now or the man who attacked him, the NXT Champion. Cathy asked if he was saying Ciampa did it, with Dream returning to clarify he wasn’t a snitch, but the writing was on the wall and Cathy should do her job.
Lars Sullivan vs. Victor Orchant
Orchant had ‘Walker’ on the back of his gear, which is a minor thing, but come on guys. Sullivan was in the process of completely squashing Orchant, when EC3 ran out and attacked him. EC3 cleared the ring of Sullivan and stood tall, as Sullivan laughed and walked away.
Regal was asked about the investigation backstage, saying he’d narrowed it down considerably but still needed answers. Nikki Cross emerged from his office, wanting another match with Bianca. She then said she knew and left. Regal said nobody knew what Nikki knows, which I guess is the excuse as to why he’s not just asking her again and again until she tells him.
The Mighty vs. Street Profits
The Mighty came out with Street Profits’s jewellery and cup. As a result, Street Profits came out all business. The Mighty taunted them before the bell and Dawkins laid Thorne out with a punch to kick things off. Street Profits made a hot start from there, including an awesome dive by Ford, before some brief heat on Dawkins and some more prolonged heat on Montez after he was crotched on the ring steps and had them dropkicked into his trapped knee. They went for an interesting finish here, as they teased the hot tag, but Montez tweaked the knee and got rolled up before he could make it, with Miller holding off Dawkins on the apron. It’s encouraging that Street Profits were able to transition to being a more serious team so well here and that versatility is going to be useful going forward. Unfortunately, this lost a decent amount of steam whenever The Mighty were on offense and although it’s starting to improve, the heel run still really isn’t doing it for them.
Kairi Sane vs. Vanessa Borne
Borne put on Sane’s pirate hat before the match and kicked it out of the ring. It then looked like she was going to get a decent amount of offence in, but Sane quickly built up some momentum and ran through Borne, winning with the InSane Elbow in short order.
Baszler came out as Sane was celebrating, telling her to celebrate while she could because the clock was about to run out on it. She admitted that Sane won in Brooklyn and it hurt her, but she wasn’t going to take it out on Kairi now, she was invoking her rematch clause and she’d take back her title. Sane told Shayna she could have her rematch, at WWE Evolution, which got a good reaction. She added that she’d beat Shayna again as Shayna was leaving.
Keith Lee was asked what was next for him backstage. He said anyone who was undefeated wanted an opportunity and he wanted gold. He ran into Kona Reeves, who didn’t seem impressed. He introduced himself and faked Lee out on a handshake, before telling him that when he was waiting to be interviewed he should wait his turn. Lee said he’d been turning heads and Kona was the man with the finest set of loses in NXT, before challenging him to a match. Reeves is showing a decent amount of personality in these backstage segments now and seemed on Lee’s level in that sense, so my hopes for him are continuing to improve.
Tommaso Ciampa vs. Otis Dozovic
I like the attention to detail of Ciampa kissing not the belt, but his sideplate on the belt. His new entrance is strong too. This was your classic, Ric Flair Clash Of The Champions style, heel champion match where he faces a popular babyface that you know he’ll probably beat in the end, but does his level best to look vulnerable and give the other guy a boost. And they pulled it off really well. Both guys being over helped and they ended up having a strong match. It started as you’d expect, Dozovic using his size early. There was a Dozovic tease of a dive where he instead faked Ciampa out, sort of, by doing the worm/caterpillar as well, which was a little less expected. From there, Ciampa did a great job of showing the vulnerability without it hurting him. He teased taking a countout midway through the match when things stopped going his way, but Tucker came out to block his exit. He then hid behind the referee and poked the eyes at one point, as Dozovic was picking up near falls towards the end. The finish saw Ciampa hit the draping DDT onto the apron though, before following up with one back into the ring for the pin, for an eventual clean win.
RECOMMENDED VIEWING: A good amount of solid segments on the show. The wrestling never really felt like it got going until the main event, which delivered on what it was designed to be really well. Still, probably a show worth going through top to bottom, as the undercard matches feed into decent angles and there’s a strong performance from Street Profits in the tag match.
NXT WEEK: EC3 versus Lars Sullivan and Forgotten Sons in action.