By John Moore, Prowrestling.net Staffer (@liljohnm)
NXT TV
Aired September 19, 2018 on WWE Network
Taped August 23 in Winter Park, Florida at Full Sail University
The cold open was the ad for Pete Dunne vs. Ricochet in a title vs. title match. The NXT theme played…
Mauro Ranallo, Nigel McGuinness, and Percy Watson were on commentary. Mauro hyped up the title vs. title match as the hook for the show…
1. Dakota Kai and Deonna Purrazzo vs. Lacey Evans and Aliyah. Aliyah’s weekly attire change of the week was plaid this week. Lacey Evans went back to looking more 1920s again (Can she join the Forgotten Sons already!?!). Mauro Ranallo said all four of these women are suspects in the Aleister Black attack mystery. The crowd started off the match with Marty Scurll “Woop woop” chants for Deonna. Deonna and Lacey started off the match with methodical chain wrestling. Evans got the upper hand with a simple and effect boot. Aliyah tagged in to dominate Deonna. Purrazzo got a leg takedown on Aliyah so she can tag in Kai who kicked Aliyah. Kai quickly tagged out to keep up the momentum. Aliyah managed to fight to her corner to tag in Evans.
Mauro noted that these four women are teaming up with women they never teamed with before. Deonna tried to lock in the Fujiwara Armbar on Evans. Evans escaped and hit Deonna with a Northern Forearm. Aliyah pummeled Purrazzo and then let out a guttural yell. The heels isolated Purrazzo in their corner. The heels got in some smooth tandem offense on Deonna. Purrazzo crawled under the legs of Aliyah so she can tag in Kai. Kai hit a scorpion and front kick on Aliyah. Kai then hit Aliyah with two face wash kicks. Aliyah then rolled Kai into position, got a tag, which set up Kai to be nailed with the Women’s Right for the victory.
Lacey Evans and Aliyah defeated Dakota Kai and Deonna Purrazzo via pinfall in 7:35.
Velveteen Dream was interviewed by “the press”. Dream plugged the network and then talked about how he carried momentum into a win against Johnny Gargano, who he likes to call “Johnny Failure”. Another press member then tried to ask about the Aleister Black mystery. Dream said when you come to a Dream interview and ask him questions that don’t deal with The Dream, they you need to get a clue.
Percy Watson hyped Jaxon Ryker’s (f.k.a. Gunner) debut for after the break…
A Street Profits camcorder vignette aired. They were interviewed by the mystery girl on the camera… [c]
John’s Thoughts: A good win for the heels in a match that could have gone either way. Purrazzo is in the need of one of those famous NXT documentary vignettes because WWE needs to redefine her as credible as opposed to being their resident enhancement talent which is who most fans know her as (despite the smart fans in the crowd making Marty Scurll chants. A docu package would help that too). I continue to like them developing the Women’s Right as a simple and effective finisher.
Bianca Belair was interviewed about Nikki Cross. Belair said Cross is crazy. Belair then talked about being undefeated and the Est of NXT…
2. Jaxon Ryker vs. Humberto Carrillo. Mauro noted that Carrillo is the nephew of Hector Garza (so he’s the cousin of Garza Jr? Ultimo Ninja?). Ryker dominated Carrillo with power moves. Carrillo got in a kick but was swatted out of the air. Ryker then hit Carrillo with a slingshot power bomb for the victory.
Jaxon Ryker defeated Humberto Carrillo via pinfall in 2:11.
John’s Thoughts: An okay and expected win. I was more impressed by Carrillo’s cool look. Hopefully Ryker and the Forgotten Sons find a way to come off more than just Sanity-lite. I do have confidence in the artist formerly known as Gunner because I feel that Gunner was really pulling it together at the end of his Impact run (but that also was helped out by working with the smart James Storm).
Candice LeRae was interrogated by William Regal and his lawyer backstage. Candice talked about how she doesn’t know who did it. Candice then threw out a rhetorical question and tried to pin the blame on Tommasso Ciampa. Regal said so far Ciampa is in the clear. Regal then asked LeRae about Johnny Gargano. LeRae talked about how she just remembers Gargano going to the back after the triple threat (for the title) announcement and then they drove home as a couple…
Ricochet and Pete Dunne were shown backstage getting hyped for their match. A highlight package aired of the events that led up to the title vs. title match… [c]
A Keith Lee “limitless” vignette aired. Lee talked about getting advice from Dusty Rhodes. Lee talked about all of the connotations of the word “limitless” in terms of his career. Lee then ended the promo by saying his catchphrase “bask in my glory”…
A replay aired of EC3 blaming Lars Sullivan for attacking Aleister Black and the subsequent beatdown of EC3 by Lars for blaming him. Nigel used this to hype up a random Lars Sullivan match next week (which will probably get interrupted by EC3 based on that the prior video)…
Ricochet made his entrance first wearing his royal cape to the ring. Mauro and Nigel talked about how interacting with Adam Cole and the Undisputed Era led up to this match. Pete Dunne’s entrance followed. Kayla Braxton handled the formal ring introductions. Drake Wuertz was the referee of the match…
3. Ricochet vs. Pete Dunne in a Title vs. Title match for the NXT North American Championship and WWE UK Championship. Ricochet was wearing bedazzled ring tights this week. A “one and only” and “Bruiserweight” dueling chant occurred. Ricochet and Dunne had a stalemate in the opening chain wrestling sequence. Nigel asked Mauro and Percy how it would feel to have a British North American Champion to “You Yanks!”. Mauro responded by saying “I’m Canadian”. Ricochet locked in the joint manipulation. Ricochet got to a vertical base and locked in his own modified rear chin lock. Ricochet then locked in a modified Indian Deathlock. Nigel noted that this might be a mistake due to Dunne being a submission wrestler while Ricochet is a high flyer. Ricochet sold hand pain from the joint manipulation.
Dunne and Ricochet traded submissions on the ground. Dunne reversed a pin into a reverse figure four. Dunne locked in a surfboard on Ricochet with some added joint manipulation. Ricochet escaped and got a pin attempt in. Dunne went back to the hammerlock on the ground. Ricochet escaped and tried to work on the left arm of Dunne. Dunne countered a rope break with a simple running right hand. Ricochet continued to sell his hurt hand during the strike exchange. Ricochet landed a dropkick on Dunne. Dunne went to ringside and Ricochet hit him with a long reaching suicide dive. Dunne blocked a headscissors and turned it into an ankle lock. Dunne then kicked Ricochet from the ankle lock position.
Dunne then twisted Ricochet like a pretzel in a modified Tequila Sunrise. Dunne then went into his signature finger breaking move. Dunne also locked in the joint manipulation on Ricochet on the ground. Dunne also pulled at the ear of Ricochet. Ricochet tried to come back with a series of shortarm lariats but he didn’t have any steam behind it. Dunne then went for the elbow stomp but Ricochet got out of the way. Ricochet caught Dunne with a Clothesline from hell to get a bit of respite. Ricochet hit Dunne with a few strikes and the 619 (not the 323 which he used to call it). Dunne escaped a Bennadryller attempt. Dunne caught Ricochet with a running enzuigiri. Ricochet escaped an X-Plex on his feet and got a two count on Dunne after a running Shooting Star.
Dunne caught a flying Ricochet with a Flying armbar with added hand manipulation. Dunne then stomped on the fingers of Ricochet in fun but evil looking fashion. Ricochet staggered Dunne for another moment of respite. Dunne then caught Ricochet with a right hand. Dunne hit Ricochet with the X Plex for a nearfall. The crowd was on fire at this point with NXT Chants. Ricochet countered the Bitter End but Dunne landed a suplex. Ricochet countered Dunne’s fighting spirit. Ricochet then did a cool Devil May Cry wall run on the buckle for a cool counter sequence on the outside. Ricochet hit Dunne with a reverse Frankendriver for a nearfall.
Dunne managed to get the hands of Ricochet under his feet. Ricochet then countered Dunne with kicks. Dunne hit Ricochet with an inside out lariat. Dunne countered the Lethal Injection but Ricochet followed into a hanging DDT for a great nearfall. Ricochet went high risk but Dunne went to the apron to avoid the move. Dunne went into the joint manipulation on the top rope. Ricochet caught Dunne with a Super Frankensteiner. Ricochet hit Dunne with an axe kick and paydirt for a really hype nearfall. Ricochet got to his feet first. Dunne caught a flying Ricochet into a Kimura. Ricochet powered his way into a deadlift power bomb. Dunne kept his hands on Ricochet’s finger and locked in a Hammerlock and Finger submission. Ricochet powered through with a deadlift Suplex to end the pain. An NXT Chant ensued at the 20 minute mark. Adam Cole and The Undisputed Era ran in for the no-contest.
Ricochet vs. Pete Dunne ended in an apparent no contest in 21:42.
The War Raiders chased off Undisputed Era. With the interference cleared, the referees handed Ricochet and Dunne their respective titles. Ricochet and Dunne then recovered in opposite corners as the crowd gave them an NXT chant to close the show…
John’s Thoughts: This was the most predictable thing ever in terms of storyboard. Everyone expected an Undisputed Era run-in to end this in a screwy finish. Unlike old school TNA, where screwy finishes were used as a crutch, NXT rarely has screwy finishes and it can be used as a tool in their toolbox to enhance a feud. I liked the interference here because it turned a Takeover match into a badass preview match (similar to the way they booked the Moustache Mountain vs. Undisputed Era feud). This was a Takeover/PPV worthy main event match. I’ve been spoiled by being lucky enough to watch a ton of Ricochet live matches during his time in LA and this is up there in terms of high quality Ricochet matches. This was great. Dunne is the complete package. Not only did he hang in there with Ricochet, but he used his “strong style” as a counter. Dunne does the little things right, like doing simple things like attacking the fingers to cause both cringe and believability. Ricochet did a good job selling the hand injury throughout the match. The only thing that dragged it down a peg was I would have been cool to see Ricochet not cleanly hit a move to sell the hand injury mid move, but of course I do understand “fighting spirit” to an extent.
No question, watch this NXT Episode. It was a one-match show if you think of it and that one match delivered given the high expectations of all of the talent level in the ring. As viewers, you got two really good title matches in the two hour block with Cedric Alexander vs. Drew Gulak and the even better Ricochet vs. Pete Dunne title match. Both matches over 20 minutes and both matches were worth the watch. I’ll be by tomorrow with my NXT Hit List and Members Exclusive Audio Review. It’s not going to be hard coming up with hits with this one big hit of a match at the forefront.
I feel really in two minds about that main event. The two competitors are just fantastic and they did a great job, but (and this is just me), I find it hard to get that excited about a lengthy match where the ending is a foregone conclusion, no matter how well wrestled it is. Still, kudos to Ricochet and Dunne.