NXT OCTOBER 31ST 2018
Nikki Cross vs. Mercedes Martinez
Mercedes got a big pop coming out. She took a good portion of the match and the crowd seemed to side with her, although not necessarily at Nikki’s expense. Nikki would make a comeback and end up with a busted nose, with Mercedes responding with a flurry of suplexes, before Nikki got a flurry of her own in and hit the Purge for the win. Good solid opener. Nikki showed Mercedes respect post-match, in her own, Nikki Cross kind of way.
Candice came out once Mercedes had left and confronted Nikki, who laughed at her and left. Aleister Black then appeared as Nikki was about to leave, coming to the ring and asking where Gargano was, before warning Gargano’s future in NXT was gone.
Recap of Street Profits and TM61’s match from last month, which TM61 won.
Street Profits vs. TM61
Apparently, TM61 still have Street Profits’s cup and jewellery and have thus had it this whole time. They’ve at least taken care of it, because the cup is still in pristine condition. Once again, Montez looked awesome here. They built to a big Dawkins hot tag, before The Mighty stopped Street Profits’s finish and hit a double team superplex, with Miller giving Thorne a sitout powerbomb for I guess more momentum. Dawkins broke up the pin though and Montez was able to hit the big frog splash a short time later to get the win regardless and allow Street Profits to reclaim their property.
Cathy spoke with Regal backstage. He booked Ciampa versus Velveteen Dream for Takeover, before Black showed up looking for Gargano. Regal said he’d told Gargano to stay home, but he’d get Gargano at Takeover. Black told Regal the same as he told Candice, re: Johnny’s NXT future.
Lars was shown throwing stuff around outside, mad at not getting the NXT Title shot. He said he’d rip Dream in half before Takeover and get his spot.
Matt Riddle vs. Luke Menzies
No surprise, people were happy to see Riddle. Menzies got to look competitive, as is NXT’s want, en route to Riddle taking control and winning with the Bromission. These NXT debuts can be a little hit or miss with the seeming need to have the new guy sell a bit, but this was a entertaining little match.
Recap of Shayna regaining the NXT Women’s Title from Kairi at Evolution. Baszler was interviewed by Cathy afterwards, with Jessamyn and Marina with her. Shayna said she proved that she beat herself at Takeover, before an injured Kairi tried to confront her but was held back.
Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch vs. Humberto Carrillo and Raul Mendoza
This was a really fun little sprint. They packed a lot into the time they got, before Burch and Lorcan got their win with the double team spike DDT, with Humberto and Mendoza getting a real chance to shine along the way. Good stuff. Hopefully for Carrillo and Mendoza this becomes a more regular team, because they’ve probably got more upside together than they do separate.
Undisputed Era spoke under their arch, before Fish and Cole’s match with War Raiders. This was meandering a bit and not much of interest was being said. There might have been a reason for that though, as War Raiders appeared from behind the curtain and jumped them, which I didn’t see coming and was thus a clever idea. Cole and Fish brawled outside with War Raiders, but Strong and O’Reilly’s involvement meant that Undisputed Era got the better of things. That was until Ricochet appeared and dove onto everyone. They all brawled some more, winding up back inside the ring. Fish hit Hanson in the knee with a chair, leading to Undisputed Era getting the advantage. Pete Dunne would make the save with a chair though, before Regal came out and booked the War Games match that had presumably fallen to the bottom of his to-do pile and he’d forgotten about until two teams of four people happened to get into a big brawl. I assumed the angle last week was setting up EC3 as the fourth guy, but evidently not and I’m sure people will be happy with this line-up.
RECOMMENDED VIEWING: All four matches on the show fell into the fun category, all worth watching to some degree without being blowaway. Riddle’s debut and the Lorcan and Burch tag were probably the highlight. The closing segment was enjoyable as well, kind of obvious where it was leading, but the Dunne appearance surprised me, so not completely obvious.
NXT WEEK: Lacey Evans in action and Velveteen Dream against Lars Sullivan.