NXT AUGUST 28TH 2019
Io Shirai vs. Cami Fields
Quick squash win for Io to start the show. Io had the match won with the moonsault, but pulled Fields up and tapped her out with the Koji Clutch. Io then teased using a kendo stick post match, but Candice ran out and chased Io out of the ring with a few shots with the stick.
Short hype video for KUSHIDA.
Keith Lee vs. Dominik Dijakovic
After the long gap between the first meeting between these two and the second, the video package last week did a great job of making this feel like an important match and the match itself delivered. The ante kept being upped on the big moves, with the biggest one being a spanish fly off the top by Lee, leading to Dijakovic kicking out at two and a standing ovation from the crowd. It ended with Lee trying to match Dijakovic by hitting a moonsault, but Dijakovic stopping him on the top and managing to hit the Feast Your Eyes for the win. This got over big with the crowd and some slightly cheesy staredown moments aside everything they did landed. Presumably, barring any injuries, it won’t as long before we see the third match between these two.
They aired an ‘NXT Career Retrospective’ on Johnny Gargano. The commentators were vague about what was next for Gargano afterwards, until Shane Thorne came out and complained to them that they were talking about Gargano and not him, until they threw to a commercial.
Recap of Shayna offering Mia a place in the Horsewomen last week and her being laid out after turning them down. Footage from WWE.com was then shown of Mia asking Regal for a shot at Takeover and Regal being unsympathetic, pointing out that she attacked Jessamyn and Marina first.
Baszler came out with Jessamyn and Marina for a promo, but was interrupted by Rhea Ripley before she could speak. Rhea snatched the microphone away before Baszler could try and speak again. Rhea said she knew that Baszler was going to say she’d beaten everyone, but she hadn’t beaten her, bitch. And that was that, with Baszler and co quickly leaving. This was a pretty straight to the point, effective introduction for Rhea.
Video on Pete Dunne, with a sitdown interview explaining that he wasn’t done with NXT UK, he goes where he wants. Dunne pointed out that he should have won the North American Title at Takeover and if that put him at the end of the line, so be it, he’d go through everyone.
NXT TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP
Street Profits (c) vs. Bobby Fish and Kyle O’Reilly
This ended up being a solid main event, but lacked a little from the crowd compared to the Lee and Dijakovic reaction. Street Profits got the better of the early going, until a kick from the outside by O’Reilly allowed Undisputed Era to focus on Ford and target the leg. Dawkins would make the hot tag, but had his leg taken out as well to put a stop to that. Street Profits would get a near fall with a Rock Bottom from Ford and a frog splash from Dawkins. After a big dive from Ford and a Dawkins spear to O’Reilly, Montez would end up missing his frog splash though, allowing Street Profits to hit a high/low combo and pin Montez to win the titles. It felt like the crowd might not have expected the title change until the very end and this could have done with a hotter crowd, but it was still a decent match.
RECOMMENDED VIEWING: Lee versus Dijakovic is a must and the Tag Title change is obviously an important moment, as well as a solid match. The debut of Rhea Ripley was well done also and made Ripley look great.
NXT WEEK: Adam Cole defending the NXT Championship against Jordan Myles and Velveteen Dream versus Kona Reeves