NXT JUNE 5TH 2019
Keith Lee vs. Kona Reeves
A decent opener, to give a popular Keith Lee another victory. Reeves got a chance to look competitive here, after feigning a knee injury and then catching Lee by surprise with a headbutt when his guard was down. Lee would come back to win though with the fireman’s carry powerslam. Assuming Dream is done with Breeze, it’d be nice to see Lee get a program with him next, to give him something to get his teeth into since the Dijakovic feud never really got going.
Recap of Baszler’s victory over Io at Takeover and Shirai attacking her after the match with the kendo stick and the chair. Io told the cameras she wasn’t done with Shayna yet afterwards.
Highlights of the Tag Title Ladder Match. Street Profits continued their celebration backstage post match with a camera man who had evidently been involved with filming with them for a while.
Breeze versus Dream recap. Breeze was interviewed afterwards, saying the match could have gone either way and they’d both gained respect for each other. Breeze also said he was back in NXT now and he wasn’t going anywhere.
A short video to hype Damian Priest, the former Punishment Martinez, aired.
Bianca Belair vs. Mia Yim
This was built as the deciding match between the two, after Belair had used her hair to beat Mia in their first match and Mia used the hair against Bianca in the second. They topped the first two matches here, building off of the key spots from those to deliver the best match of the series. Bianca went after Mia’s back and, presumably not by coincidence, kept grabbing Mia by the hair as she was in control. Mia managed to counter the double chickenwing outside of the ring to put Bianca into the steps and, despite Bianca tying up her hair to avoid getting pulled into Protect Ya Neck, countered a powerbomb into a guillotine choke. Belair would end up getting frustrated at not being able to put Mia away before getting caught with a Protect Ya Neck from the second rope, giving Mia a surprising second win and a completely clean one as well.
Recap of KUSHIDA’s pinfall win over Gulak last week. They then showed Cathy interviewing Gulak outside after the match, with Gulak claiming he was the best submission wrestler in the world not KUSHIDA and that KUSHIDA took the easy way out by pinning him. Gulak said he was insulted and challenged KUSHIDA to a submission match.
A Cole and Gargano highlights package then closed the show.
RECOMMENDED VIEWING: Mia against Bianca was a really good main event, particularly if you’ve seen the first two matches. Lee and Reeves was also solid.
NXT WEEK: Io and Candice versus Jessamyn and Marina, KUSHIDA versus Gulak in a submission match and Lorcan and Burch against Strong and O’Reilly.