NXT FEBRUARY 6TH 2019
Gargano came out to open the show. He got a big babyface reaction and Johnny Champion chants. Gargano said they were all validated when he won the North American Championship and Johnny Wrestling was back. Ciampa interrupted at this point and said he was out there to celebrate his moment. Ciampa said Gargano knew how to listen and follow the champ’s lead, pointing out that they were both champions and they owned the world. He claimed that Takeover ending with them both holding titles proved that this was their moment. Gargano said there was no ‘our moment’ and the only reason he came out at Takeover was to show that he never needed Ciampa. Velveteen Dream then came out and called this cute, but tonight wasn’t about them, it was about the man who stole Takeover by simply showing up. He brought up winning the World Collide tournament which earned him an NXT Championship opportunity of his choosing and teased he was going choose Ciampa, but psyched Ciampa out and chose Gargano instead. Gargano accepted and they exchanged words, before Gargano left, passing Ciampa on the ramp and exchanging another look with him.
Gulak was shown arriving at the arena.
Jaxson Ryker vs. Mansoor
Squash win for Ryker, winning quickly with a sitout chokeslam. Ryker then hit a second one after the match, with Cutler and Blake having to drag him away afterwards.
Cathy was waiting for an interview with Ricochet, but Undisputed Era stole the time, with Cole calling him a one trick pony and saying he was championship material. When Ricochet took offence, Cole told Ricochet he was at the back of the line and the North American Championship had his name on it. Ricochet reminded Cole that he beat him for the title and they agreed to a match next week.
Drew Gulak vs. Eric Bugenhagen
Bugenhagen came out doing some really over the top air guitar, among over things and won over the crowd. It also made him the perfect person to go against Gulak, who apparently wants to clean up NXT now. Gulak won with the dragon sleeper, but Bugenhagen might have earned himself a more regular spot as the Full Sail fan favourite here with one entrance.
Post match, Gulak said he was the best submission specialist in WWE and said he’d never been more disrespected in his life by being given Ben Stiller from Dodgeball as his opponent. He called out someone else to come out and step up to him, which brought out Matt Riddle. Riddle told Gulak to get out of NXT, or he’d come down there and tap him out of it. Gulak told him to take his flip flops off and make his day and Riddle proceeded to do just that.
Drew Gulak vs. Matt Riddle
I think you can make an arguement that this was Riddle’s best showing in NXT yet, because this was a match that played to his strengths. They started with some MMA style grappling, but not so much that it became uninteresting and they did a good job of both mixing things up a bit and, via Gulak, making the submissions he put on in the middle of the match different. They stepped things up towards the end, without needing a particularly big finishing stretch. And Riddle got the win with the Bromission, after an awesome looking knee strike got two and the elbows softened Gulak up for the submission. Gulak then gave Riddle the Catch Point handshake post match. This was great. I don’t know if this was a one and done thing, seems that way, but I’d be all for something a bit more between these two, because Riddle came out of this looking great and Gulak did a great job with both the match and the talking beforehand.
Bianca Belair, Kairi Sane and Io Shirai vs. Shayna Baszler, Jessamyn Duke and Marina Shafir
This was a pretty fun main event. Jessamyn and Marina are obviously still learning and the crowd got on their case a little bit, but they were fine, again. They’re a bit awkward, but they’re certainly not embarrassing themselves or messing anything up. They’re also willing to get hit hard by Sane and Shirai to make up for it. Kairi was worked over briefly here, before Shirai made the comeback. Kairi had the pin on Baszler at the end after the InSane Elbow, but Shafir broke up the pin. Kairi then crawled to tag Shirai, but Belair took the tag for herself, hitting Shayna with the KOD, only for Shafir and Duke to break that up too. Kairi ended up taking them both out with a dive, while Shirai tagged herself in and hit a moonsault to finally pin Baszler. Belair celebrated with Sane and Shirai, but sold that she wasn’t actually happy that Io got the pin.
RECOMMENDED VIEWING: Everything involving Gulak this week was really good, in particular a great match between him and Riddle. The main event was decent as well.
NXT WEEK: Adam Cole against Ricochet.