NXT APRIL 24TH 2019
Jaxson Ryker vs. Humberto Carrillo
After Ryker’s recent efforts, I wasn’t expecting too much here, but they came up with something a little different. The match itself was probably better than Ryker’s last two, with Carrillo looking good. Ryker seemed to be working with a bit more intensity though, even before he seemed to snap late on in the match and mauled Carrillo on the outside. He ended up throwing Carrillo over the rail and continued the beating in the crowd, resulting in the referee calling for the DQ. Burch and Lorcan would run out to make the save and fended off Forgotten Sons with chairs, with Ryker having to be held back by Cutler and Blake. If the crowd were more invested in these six, this would have come across as more of a hot angle, because the effort and intensity was definitely there.
Cole was in the middle of a photoshoot when he was asked about Strong’s match with Gargano. Cole said he thought Gargano would be man enough to face the leader of Undisputed Era, but Strong would do the same thing he would have done and that’s beat Gargano to a pulp. Cole then noticed Riddle, who teased Cole about being jealous, with Cole saying he had more important things to do than deal with Riddle.
Vanessa Borne and Aliyah vs. Candice LaRae and Kacy Catanzaro
Simple enough match. Vanessa and Aliyah worked over Catanzaro for 90% of it, Candice got the hot tag, ran through both and pinned Vanessa with the quebrada.
Recap of Baszler’s DQ win over Sane last week and Io being made to watch as Baszler stomped Sane’s arm. Cathy interviewed Io, who began to say she wad going to get Shayna back, when Jessamyn and Marina attacked her from behind, holding her for Baszler to deliver a kick.
After more build-up to KUSHIDA’s debut next week, Regal was interviewed about it in his office. Ohno appeared and asked to face KUSHIDA, with Regal agreeing to it.
Street Profits vs. War Raiders
War Raiders were still going by Hanson and Rowe here. Montez took them out during their entrance with a big flip dive and they teased Street Profits getting the win in under 30 seconds with the sky high/frog splash combo, which the crowd bought into, but Rowe kicked out. Rowe then avoided the doomsday blockbuster and War Raiders took control of the match through Hanson. Montez made a big comeback, before War Raiders ran through their tag team repertoire and beat Ford with the pop up powerslam. Good match, the hot start was really effective in getting everyone into this.
Undisputed Era were shown talking outside ahead of the main event, with Cole still looking unhappy.
Mia was asked about Shayna backstage. Mia agreed that Shayna was unstoppable, running through the names Shayna had been through and said she deserved another shot after their last match.
Johnny Gargano vs. Roderick Strong
I struggle to remember the last time Strong had a real big singles match, between the tag run with O’Reilly and being a background player recently after Fish came back. No surprises here, this was really good. It maybe didn’t hit the next level of being a match people will talk about at year’s end, but these two are so consistant it was never going to be anything less than really good, especially when it was given time. Gargano ended up getting the Gargano Escape, causing Cole to run out and force Gargano to break it to go after him. Fish and O’Reilly came out to join Cole but were taken out by Riddle. Cole fended off Riddle, but the distraction caused him to kick Strong instead of Gargano. Gargano then took out Cole with a dive and pinned Strong with the slingshot DDT. Riddle celebrated with Gargano, as Cole tried to explain himself to Strong and Fish and O’Reilly played peacemakers.
RECOMMENDED VIEWING: A good episode this week with four very effective matches, including a strong main event.
NXT WEEK: KUSHIDA’s debut versus Kassius Ohno.