By John Moore, Prowrestling.net Staffer (@liljohnm)
NXT TV
Aired October 24, 2018 on WWE Network
Taped October 17 in Winter Park, Florida at Full Sail University
NXT started off with William Regal telling the local indie security troupe “you have one job” and that’s to make sure to intercept Aleister Black. The NXT Theme aired…
Vic Joseph, Nigel McGuinness, and Percy Watson, the 205 Live broadcast team, checked in on NXT. Joseph noted that Mauro Ranallo is currently “on assignment” and will return at NXT Takeover in Los Angeles in a few weeks…
The Undisputed Era quartet made their entrance. Cole said that Bobby Fish is back and Undisputed Era is 100%. Cole bragged about how Undisputed Era demolished War Raiders, which drew cheers from Full Sail. Cole talked about how anyone else who steps up to them will see the same fate. Cole then turned on the fans and said “you’re not NXT”, the Undisputed Era is NXT, and the crowd still cheers since they’re “cool”. Cole turned his attention to Ricochet and recapped his triple threat for the NXT Championship. Cole made the excuse about Ricochet only beating Dunne and not Cole. Cole said Ricochet couldn’t beat Cole.
EC3 interrupted wearing a random fur robe. Ethan said he’s going to tell Cole some truth that Cole’s minions won’t tell him. EC3 said Cole doesn’t deserve a title shot. EC3 talked about how the boys are back in town and it doesn’t matter because EC3 is the top one percent. Cole told Ethan to shut up. Adam Cole called for a referee so he can make an example of EC3. A referee sprinted to the ring.
1. Adam Cole (w/Kyle O’Reilly, Bobby Fish, Roderick Strong) vs. EC3. Vic Joseph noted that William Regal has made this match official. EC3 manhandled Cole around the ring with the strength advantage. EC3 gave Cole an EC3 elbow and then gave him a clothesline to the outside. EC3 did Cole’s boom catchphrase and was distracted for a moment by the rest of the Era. EC3 hit Cole with a facebuster on the apron. Adam Cole came back with a superkick to get some breathing room. Cole then went into his methodical sequence of offense on Ethan. EC3 tried to escape a headlock with a front suplex but Cole rushed back at EC3 with a pump kick.
Adam Cole hit Ethan with the Ushigoroshi Last Shot for a nearfall. EC3 deadlifted Cole from the headlock position and hit a deadlift suplex on Cole to escape the resthold. EC3 came back with clubbing blows to Cole and a running elbow. EC3 hit Cole with a Stinger Splash and German Suplex. Cole escaped a TK3. EC3 dodged a pump kick and hit Cole with a sitout power bomb. The rest of the Era distracted EC3 from the apron which allowed Cole to nail EC3 with a superkick. EC3 came back with a clothesline from hell. EC3 went back to knock off the Era guys from the apron. Cole tried to take advantage but EC3 rolled up Adam Cole for the surprise clean win.
EC3 defeated Adam Cole via pinfall in 6:53.
The Undisputed Era put the boots to EC3 after the match. They dragged EC3 to the stage so Cole could nail EC3 with the Shining Wizard Last Shot. Joseph recapped the segment. Bobby Fish hit EC3’s hamstring into the stage steps to injure EC3 after the recap… [c]
John’s Thoughts: A good television match and a good credibility building win for EC3 who uncharacteristically losses more often than not in NXT for some reason. I’m not sure why they are booking EC3 as a plucky babyface when the guy should be a dominant wrestler, preferably heel due to his talking ability. So around all the odd booking, I like that they are spending several weeks reintroducing Bobby Fish to the crowd while also having him utilize a chair as his weapon of choice.
A vignette aired for Mia Yim who calls herself “The Blasian Baddie” (formerly Blasian Badass). Yim said a lot of people aren’t use to her level of badassery and that she’s not here to play anymore…
Vic Joseph thanked Motionless in White for providing the theme for the next takeover…
Nikki Cross was shown acting like a kitten around the cannon fodder security guys telling them “He’s coming”. Vic Joseph stated the obvious and said he assumes it’s Black coming…
Aliyah made her entrance wearing checkerboard themed gear this week…
John’s Thoughts: Wow, Aliyah looks like she doesn’t want to be there.
2. Mia Yim vs. Aliyah. Yim dominated the early chain wrestling sequence. Aliyah came back and hit Yim with a series of elbow drops. Aliyah countered Yim’s Irish Whip with a Theaz Press. Yim eacaped a Aliyah submission and then took down Aliyah with kicks and lariats. Yim caught Aliyah with a halluva kick and cannonball. Mia Yim hit Aliyah with Eat Defeat for the win.
Mia Yim defeated Aliyah via pinfall in 3:39.
John’s Thoughts: More offense than I expected from Aliyah and I question having a “badass” work from behind a majority of her debut match. Her toolset was showed off a bit better in her Mae Young match against Allysin Kay in this years Mae Young Classic. That said, NXT has a blue chipper on their hands. On the other side. Aliyah might finally be ready to move at least to the undercard of the NXT women’s division rather than be the resident enhancement talent.
Bianca Belair kept yelling that she was undefeated and demanded a women’s championship opportunity. Regal brushed her off and said he’ll address her later. Cathy Kelley interviewed Regal about if he knows who Nikki Cross told Black was the assailant. Regal said he didn’t know. The Undisputed Era quartet walked in to complain about Cole’s loss. Regal booked Cole and Fish in a match against War Raiders next week…
A Roman Reigns recap video package aired which showed highlights from Roman’s devastating news he delivered about his battle with leukemia… [c]
Vic Joseph cut to a Lacey Evans video package which reintroduced her character. Nothing much new other than some highlights from recent matches and sound bites…
Vic Joseph hyped the Mae Young Classic Semi Finals after the episode which will lead into WWE Evolution…
A Kairi Sane vs. Shayna Baszler video package aired…
John’s Thoughts: A lot of generic character vignettes tonight. The random Lacey Evans one made that randomness stand out.
Some guy named Justin Xavier came out to some jobber sounding Dub Step. Nigel said he was trained by Daivari and Molly Holly. Oh no, he has no chance…
3. Kassius Ohno vs. Justin Xavier. Percy Watson and Nigel McGuinness talked about the “Shiny new toy” that Ohno is griping about. Ohno and Xavier locked up in a collar and elbow. Ohno then nosold Xavier’s offense. Ohno mocked Xavier. Xavier caught Ohno and staggered him with a corkscrew elbow. Ohno regained control by knocking Xavier loopy with a kick. Ohno hit Xavier with a face wash and right hook. Ohno caught Xavier with an Atomic Leg Drop. Ohno kept griping to Regal which allowed Xavier to land a few clean punches on Ohno. Ohno came back with a flurry and a series of running sentons. Xavier was bleeding from the mouth. Ohno hit Xavier with the rolling elbow to the back of the head for the win.
Kassius Ohno defeated Justin Xavier via pinfall in 3:05.
Nikki Cross walked to the ramp and laughed saying “He’s coming… I know…ahahaha”. Joseph said “who is he”. Nigel wasn’t an idiot and said “it’s obviously Aliester Black” and he wondered the real question was who is Black coming for…
John’s Thoughts: This was another longer squash, but this was better in reestablishing Ohno as petulant and childish which is what he’s going for these days. Again, the most disappointing part of this is they are obviously setting up Ohno for a singles loss to Matt Riddle with all of the “Bro” references he’s making.
Nigel McGuinness thanked Alice Cooper Guitarist Nita Strauss for providing the second theme for NXT Takeover LA…
A teaser aired for Matt Riddle which said “Bro” and it hyped his debut next week…
William Regal was in the ring for his NXT Takeover War Games II NXT Championship announcement. Before Regal could announce it, Tommasso Ciampa made his entrance. Ciampa circled Regal. Ciampa said “with all due respect sir, wipe that smug look off your face” to Regal. Ciampa said if Regal came to make an anouncement, “do it”. Velveteen Dream made his entrance. Dream said to hold the phones and stop the presses because the headliner is here. Dream said the people don’t want complaining at War Games, they want an experience. Regal said it’s not about the people, but the Dream, and he wants Regal to “say my name”. Lars Sullivan made his entrance with a mic. Sullivan said this isn’t up for debate because everyone is standing in Lars Sullivan territory. Sullivan then told Dream that the NXT Championship belongs to Sullivan.
Dream said he understands that Sullivan calls himself a Nightmare but when he’s in front of the Dream he better wear some pants. Sullivan started choking Dream for the comment that made the crowd laugh. The camera cut to Aleister Black beating up the indie security guards as expected. Black entered the ring and gave Lars Sullivan a Black Mass en route to berating Regal and saying “Where is he!?!”. Johnny Gargano superkicked Black from behind and knocked him out. Gargano said “I’m right here” to close the show…
John’s Thoughts: Mystery solved? This does look like Gargano is being pegged as the parking lot ninja. This can work and I’m really interested to see them go into Los Angeles with Gargano as a full on heel now? As for the segment, we didn’t really get an NXT Championship announcement but the true purpose was to set up for the attacker reveal. Some NXT fans might gripe that this was too much like a WWE main roster setup for a title match but since NXT doesn’t overuse this tactic as much as the main roster does, it was fine. As childish as it was, the Velveteen Dream line about Lars Sullivan not waring pants in public got a chuckle out of me.
This was a bit odd for a usual NXT episode, but it wasn’t a waste of time either. The matches were short, but they all served a purpose. I keep saying, you don’t need indie-style classics every week. This was a harmless show, but if you want your wrestling fix, pair this episode with the preceeding 205 Live episode featuring Mustafa Ali vs. Hideo Itami in a Falls Count Anywhere match. I’ll be by tomorrow with a Hit List and Audio Review for the Dot Net Members.
Be the first to comment