NXT JUNE 19TH 2019
Undisputed Era came out to open the show, for Cole to brag about becoming NXT Champion. He said they were going to remake NXT in their image, presenting an alternative opening video for the show that was just Undisputed Era clips, which O’Reilly claimed he just threw together. Cole claimed they were going to win all the titles in 2019 and nobody would be able to touch them, including Regal and HHH, because they’d have every ounce of power in NXT. Velveteen Dream would interrupt and claimed NXT was rising to new heights because of him, not them. He said Cole looked good with the gold, but it would look amazing paired with his North American Title. Strong said Dream didn’t deserve to be North American Champion, before Riddle interrupted him and pointed out that he’d beaten Strong and he’d beaten Cole. They argued, with Cole saying Riddle had blown every title opportunity he’d gotten, before Breeze made the last interruption. He took issue with Undisputed Era taking credit for the brand he built before they even arrived and passed on a message from Regal that there’d be a six man tag tonight.
Hype video for the Baszler/Shirai steel cage match next week.
Raul Mendoza vs. Damian Priest
Priest got the big entrance and looked strong in his debut, with Mendoza able to play cat and mouse for a couple of minutes in the middle of the match, but Priest never leaving his feet. He caught Mendoza on a dive and chokeslammed him on the apron, hit a spinning roundhouse kick in the ring and won with a roll of the dice.
In his office, Regal announced an eight man NXT Breakout Tournament starting next week, featuring people from the Performance Center who’d yet to get an opportunity on NXT, with the winner getting a title match of their choosing. They announced the eight competitors and interestingly, they acknowledged them all by their former indie names as well. So, for example, Jordan Myles was “FKA as ACH”. The other people in the tournament are Boa, Cameron Grimes (Trevor Lee), Isaiah “Swerve” Scott (Shane Strickland), Dexter Lumis (Sam Shaw), Bronson Reed (Jonah Rock), Angel Garza (Humberto Garza, or Garza Jr) and Joaquin Wilde (DJZ). It’s an interesting move to debut so many people at once, but if that’s the plan, a tournament seems like the best way to do it and presumably there’ll be character bits for each guy before the matches ala the Cruiserweight Classic.
Speaking of which, they aired a quick feature piece on Mia Yim. The takeaway was her addressing Shayna and saying when it came to the women’s locker room, she’d protect those that needed protecting.
Taynara Conti vs. Xia Li
They acknowledged that these two were a team last time they were on NXT and the match began with a handshake. After an even start, Conti took control, but got frustrated when she couldn’t get the win. Xia would make a comeback and won with a back roundhouse kick. There were promising moments and a a couple of hesitant ones, but overall this was fine.
Street Profits segment, with them mentioning a match against Street Profits next week and celebrating with the fans outside.
Adam Cole, Roderick Strong and Bobby Fish vs. Velveteen Dream, Tyler Breeze and Matt Riddle
Fun, fast paced main event. There were occasional, subtle teases of dissension between the babyface team, in terms of who’d start the match and who tagged in, but nothing major early on. Dream broke out a lionsault at one point and landed his knee across the face of Fish, which led to some brief concern about him and a swollen eye, but clearly he ended up okay to continue. O’Reilly’s distraction would lead to Riddle being cut off by Undisputed Era for a few minutes. Breeze would then get the hot tag after Dream had been knocked off the apron and hit the Beauty Shot on Fish, but Strong pulled Fish out of the ring. As Tyler teased a dive, Dream then tagged himself in, leading to an arguement between the two and Strong capitalising, pinning Dream with the End Of Heartache.
RECOMMENDED VIEWING: The six man tag was the key part of the show. Priest debut was solid and the Mia Yim video was good, but the six man is most worth checking out.
NXT WEEK: Io versus Shayna in a cage match for the Women’s Championship, Street Profits against Forgotten Sons and the start of the NXT Breakout Tournament with Joaquin Wilde against Angel Garza.