NXT JANUARY 23RD 2019
Ricochet was shown arriving at the building, before Velveteen Dream came out for a promo. Dream said he had a sparkle in his eye and it was the North American Championship, but he was quickly interrupted by Undisputed Era. Or at least Cole and Fish. Cole said they were going to capture all the NXT titles in 2019 and they were going to add to Strong and O’Reilly’s Tag Team Titles soon. Fish got a lot of heat when he tried to talk, telling Dream shame on him for getting people’s hopes up and he needed to live in reality, because 2019 was going to be their era and that was undisputed. Dream implied that Fish was Cole’s lackey which set him off, before Dream avoided a two on one attack and celebrated on the stage.
Hype package for Baszler versus Belair, with sitdown comments from both.
Recap of Ohno’s win over Keith Lee last week.
Danny Burch and Oney Lorcan vs. Marcel Barthel and Fabian Aichner
These two had a run-in and a challenge on WWE.com after Barthel and Aichner’s debut win a few weeks ago. This suffered a bit from a quiet tired crowd at the start, but the match very quickly turned into an all out sprint. And the sheer effort from all four woke everyone up, because it really couldn’t have done anything else. Clearly these guys were out to impress and job done, because this was a relentless match. The finish saw a dive from Oney and an even bigger, run up the turnbuckles dive from Aichner, before Lorcan surprised Aichner with a roll up when they were back inside and Burch stopped Barthel from making the save. Presumably that means this was just match one which I don’t think anyone will complain about.
Ciampa and Black hype video.
Kairi Sane and Io Shirai vs. Tanea Brooks and Amber Nova
Comfortable win for Sane and Shirai in the end, pinning Brooks after a double team version of the InsSane Elbow and a double team moonsault.
Sane and Shirai were interviewed outside during the break afterwards, with Jessamyn and Marina interrupting with some thinly veiled threats.
Velveteen Dream vs. Bobby Fish
Fish had Cole in his corner and Cole played distraction for most of the match. The distraction eventually worked and led to Fish going after and working over the leg. Dream did a good job of selling it, hampered by it when he went for the Purple Rainmaker which allowed Fish to counter it into a kneebar. Cole held the bottom rope to stop Dream escaping, but the referee caught him and it ended up leading to the match going wrong for Undisputed Era. Dream ended up throwing Fish out onto Cole, before hitting the rolling DVD and the Purple Rainmaker for the win.
Recap of Forgotten Sons’s attack on Street Profits last week, with a match announced for next week between the two teams.
The show closed with the promised Ricochet/Gargano face to face. Ricochet spoke for a while first saying Gargano was the same person in 2019 as 2018 and he showed his true colours. Ricochet said he was something Gargano wasn’t, a champion, which brought Gargano out. Gargano said if this was 2018 he’d probably rush into the ring, but in 2019 Johnny Gargano has a plan. He then tried to sneak attack Ricochet, but Ricochet got the better of him, only for Ciampa to hit Ricochet from behind. Gargano and Ciampa ended up locking eyes before Gargano kept attacking Ricochet while Ciampa applauded. Black appeared and went after Ciampa though, until Gargano threw Ricochet into the steps and decided to help Ciampa. The same thing happened with Gargano and Ciampa locking eyes, before they went after their separate Takeover opponents, laying them both out before leaving up the ramp, at the same time, but not really together. Ciampa then ended up trying to offer a handshake, but Candice ran out and stopped Gargano from doing so. I don’t know where they’re planning on going with all this, but the problem they’ve got is that people are reacting to Ciampa and Gargano getting together as a babyface thing. Maybe I’m wrong, but I’m guessing when this storyline was drawn up, the idea wasn’t to get “hug it out” chants, but that’s what they’re ending up with.
RECOMMENDED VIEWING: Both Burch and Lorcan versus Barthel and Aichner and Dream versus Fish were strong matches this week. The tag was a great sprint and Dream/Fish was a good main event. The final segment of the show was good as well and probably rather important going forward.
NXT WEEK: Street Profits versus Forgotten Sons and Shirai and Sane versus Jessamyn and Marina, taped in Phoenix before Takeover.