By John Moore, ProWrestling.net Staffer (@liljohnm)
NXT TV
Aired February 13, 2019 on WWE Network
Taped January 30, 2019 in Winter Park, Florida at Full Sail University
Right before the WWE signature, WWE ran an “in memory of…” for the late Pedro Morales…
Mauro Ranallo, Nigel McGuinness, and Percy Watson were on commentary…
1. Dominik Dijakovic vs. Shane Thorne. Shane Thorne was now by himself due to Nick Miller deciding to take a break from WWE due to wanting to spend more time in Australia with his family. The commentators didn’t mention anything about Miller. Dijakovic and Thorne were pretty even during the lockup until Dijakovic pressured Thorne into the ropes. Thorne managed to eluded Dijak a bit and have the advantage via striking. Thorne pummeled Dijakovic with rapid fire kicks. Nigel noted that the feet looked un-educated but effective. Thorne locked in a wristlock which Dijak struggled but managed to escape with shortarm right hands.
Dijakovic managed to ground Thorne with a shortarm lariat. Dijakovic hit shortarm strikes on Thorne followed by the “Time to Fly” suplex. Thorne reversed a Uranage with a nice Saito Suplex on Dijakovic. Thorne was staggered on the top rope with a right hand. Dijak sent Thorne outside and hit Thorne with a corkscrew Plancha. Dijakovic defeated Thorne after hitting Thorne with the Feast Your Eyes (Burning Hammer GTS).
Dominik Dijakovic defeated Shane Thorne via pinfall in 4:20.
After the match the show cut to the Undisputed Era cutting a promo in a warehouse container. They talked about having ups and downs. Strong talked about how he was happy to be back in singles competition after losing the tag belts with Fish and O’Reilly now being the tag team of the group (reforming reDRagon). Cole ended the promo by talking about how they are Undisputed… [c]
John’s Thoughts: A good compact match. Dijakovic sells a bit more than I would expect from NXT’s designated powerhouse. That aside, I’m glad Thorne got a chance to shine. He was really good here and hopefully WWE finds a spot for him after his tag partner left the company. Thorne is really good in the ring and of the two Mighty members he was the one with a strong personality. He’s very similar to former ROH champion Davey Richards.
Io Shirai and Kairi Sane were interviewed about beating Shayna Baszler. Shirai talked about coming after the NXT Women’s Championship. Bianca Belair interrupted and told Shirai and Sane that she’s still going after the NXT Women’s Championship…
Humberto Carrillo and Stacey Ervin Jr. were already in the ring. Kassius Ohno walked out for a promo saying that he knows he wasn’t scheduled to come out. Ohno talked about being back in NXT for two years already. Ohno called Full Sail “notorious”. Ohno said Full Sail makes him sick and he detests them for their faces, sounds, and chants. Ohno said he’s telling everybody that “I’m out of here”. He said he’s going somewhere to show that he’s the best to ever “do it”. Keith Lee gave Ohno a blindside rolling elbow.
Lee took the mic and said “oh no” in a sly way. He sung “oh my God!”. Lee said he probably should have hit Ohno in the balls like in their match. Lee told Ohno not to let the door hit Ohno in the ass on the way out. Ohno talked about how the show can now continue. Street Profits made their entrance with Montez Ford acting dead on the ground to mock Ohno.
John’s Thoughts: A really good promo from Ohno that reminded me of Ohno’s great heel promos from early NXT and FCW. I’m intrigued at what this leads to, but I hope that it wasn’t a farewell from Ohno. It seemed like a leaving superstar burial, but I hope it leads to bigger things on air for Ohno in WWE.
2. “The Street Profits” Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins vs. Humberto Carrillo and Stacy Ervin Jr. Ford and Carrillo had a nice cruiserweight stalemate sequence to start off the match. Ford and Carrillo shook hands for the stalemate, but Ford used that to catch Carrillo off guard (which drew some boos from the crowd). The Profits did some isolation offense with quick tags. Carrillo did a ninja flip to escape the offense and gain the advantage. Mauro noted that Carrillo was like a “ninja” to reference his masked Ultimo Ninja gimmick.
Stacy Ervin tagged in and showed off flashy offense. Dawkins used a tackle takedown on Ervin to give the Profits a bit of an advantage. Ford was more aggressive and less playful in dominating Ervin. Watson said he noticed a difference in Ford. Ford hit Ervin with a nice Spike back suplex. Dawkins tagged in and Ervin escaped to tag in Carrillo for the hot tag. Carrillo hit Dawkins with a handstand back elbow. Carrillo hit Dawkins with a high missile dropkick. Carrillo got a two count on Dawkins. Ervin tagged in and hit a cool and very high tuck Tsunami-sault. Dawkins blocked a huracanrana by Ervin. The Street Profits hit Ervin with a Super Assisted Blockbuster (a modified version of LAX’s finisher. Now I want to see LAX vs. Profits again).
The Street Profits defeated Humberto Carrillo and Stacy Ervin Jr via pinfall in 6:14.
Dawkins and Ford took the mics after the match. They talked about how they want a piece of the action for the gold. The crowd chanted “you deserve it”. Ford talked about how NXT has been a roller coaster. Ford talked about how they are ready to go for “War” at any time. Ford was about to call out War Raiders but they were interrupted by the “Tag Team European Union” of Marcel Barthel and Fabien Aichner. Barthel said “nein” three times.
Barthel said opportunity is sacred and no one else deserves an opportunity more than Aichner and Barthel. Barthel told the Profits to stand aside. Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch interrupted not for a promo but to jaw with the tag teams in the ring. War Raiders came out. Ray Rowe said there’s a lot of talking about the titles, but no fighting. Hanson said if everybody wants a title shot, then they should make a move. War Raiders were walking to the ring and were blindsided by the Undisputed Era trio of O’Reilly, Fish, and Strong. UE grounded Raiders and tossed them in the ring to get the bones picked by the hounds. War Raiders turned the tide by beating up the tagteams and sending them to ringside. War Raiders stood tall in the ring to head into commercial… [c]
John’s Thoughts: A good tag match with Street Profits showing a bit of a heel edge in the ring. Either that or a more serious edge because their post-match promo had them positioned as fan favorites. A good and formula way to set up the “new look” tag team division with some very strong tag teams creeping up in NXT, and the Profits elevating themselves, at least for this night, to that prime status. Really excited to see where this leads. Is it time for another Dusty Classic?
A Johnny Gargano video package aired to hype Johnny Gargano vs. Velveteen Dream. The video focused on Gargano specifically and chronicled his march to the North American Championship. Mauro hyped Gargano vs. Dream for next week…
3. Taynara Conti vs. Aliyah. Mauro noted that Aliyah was now “bad and boujie” (so yet another gimmick change. She’s a debutante now?). Conti got some early takedowns including a cross armbreaker takedown. Aliyah took down Conti with a facebuster. Vanessa Bourne walked to ringside. Aliyah hit Conti with a few roundhouse kicks to the back. Conti tried to counter with a few rollups. Conti slammed Aliyah with a few judo hip tosses. Conti surprised Aliyah with a nice armbar on the top rope. The ref was distracted so Bourne held Conti’s leg on the top rope. Aliyah locked Conti in an armbar and kept kicking the head of Conti for the tapout submission.
Aliyah defeated Taynara Conti via submission in 2:51.
Vanessa Bourne heldup the hand of Aliyah after the match. Shayna Baszler marched to the ring and the duo in the ring scurried away like ants. Duke and Shafir blindsided Borne and Aliyah while Baszler punched out Conti in the corner. Baszler hit Conti with a gutwrench suplex while her goons hit the other two with a roundhouse takedown move. Baszler took the mic and told the women’s division not to mess with, cross, or piss Baszler, Shafir, and Duke off… [c]
John’s Thoughts: A decent match with Conti showing improvement. Aliyah finally got a win and hopefully her alliance with Borne leads to something (she’s been on WWE TV since she was 19 years old. She’s currently 24). I also fear that it might lead to them being heel losers like Sabbatelli and Moss. Standard stuff from Baszler afterward, but it was fine in building upon the Baszler character.
A Velveteen Dream video package aired similar to the Johnny Gargano one earlier which focused on Dream’s road to next week’s match and him winning the World’s Collide Tournament…
Entrances for the main event took place.
4. Ricochet vs. Adam Cole. Cole cornered Ricochet on the early collar and elbow. Ricochet turned the tables with his opening dropkick sequence. Ricochet caught Cole outside with a suicide dive. Cole caught Ricochet with a standing boot. Cole went for a sunset flip but Ricochet held his ground. Cole tripped Ricochet off the top rope and he got tangled in the second rope. Cole noticed that Ricochet’s left leg was the one wrenched so he slammed it on the ringpost. Cole focused his attack on Ricochet’s injured knee and even used the second rope as a fulcrum to wrench Ricochet’s leg.
Cole ducked an Enzuigiri and continued to isolate his onslaught on the left leg of Ricochet. Nigel talked about how Cole is keeping Ricochet grounded to the mat with his focus on handicapping Ricochet. Ricochet fended off Cole with a few boots but Cole came back with a basement dropkick to the injured knee of Cole. Ricochet reversed a suplex and went for a flip but his knee gave up on him (great sell). Ricochet instead adjusted and hit Cole with an inside-out suplex. Ricochet hit Cole with a Tiger Feint Kick and a top rope uppercut. Ricochet hit Cole with a standing moonsault (while selling the knee) for a two count.
Ricochet’s leg gave up on a suplex attempt again. Cole grounded Ricochet with a front kick to the injured leg of Ricochet. Cole hit Ricochet with a boot on the top rope. Cole hit Ricochet with the Ushigoroshi Last Shot for the nearfall. Ricochet stayed close to the ground to block a Cole Suplex. Ricochet tried to go for his double suplex combo but Cole took advantage of Ricochet’s leg injury to hit another Ushigoroshi Last Shot for a nearfall. Ricochet dodged the Shining Wizard Last Shot. Cole missed another kick and Ricochet hit Cole with a desperation reverse Frankendriver. Ricochet hit a (purposefully) ugly one-legged slingshot moonsault on Cole. Cole and Ricochet then traded fighting spirit punches. Cole continued to target Ricochet’s injured leg.
Ricochet used his good knee to land a few knee strikes. Cole dodged a waterfall kick from Ricochet and hit Ricochet with a kick for a nearfall. A “fight forever” chant ensued. Cole punched Ricochet on the top rope. Ricochet slipped out and punched Cole in the back. Cole managed to fend of Ricochet due to Ricochet not getting good footing on the top rope. Ricochet struggled and hit cole with a Frankensteiner. Ricochet hit Cole with his signature double suplex combo into his Michinoku Driver finisher for the win.
Ricochet defeated Adam Cole via pinfall in 14:21.
The Undisputed Era ran out as expected quickly after the match to put the boots to Ricochet. Aleister Black tried to even the odds a bit, but the numbers advantage was still too strong and Undisputed Era stood tall to close the show…
John’s Thoughts: A really good match with a good heel story of Cole focusing his attack on a body part. Ricochet did a great job throughout the match selling the injured knee and even doing moves with one leg (which goes to show how great of an athlete Ricochet is). This match would have fit on a Takeover show if there was a title involved to add stakes to the match.
Overall another good weekly NXT episode with NXT continuing to include a lot of character development in the short and sweet one hour timeslot. I do hope that they show more vignettes on NXT eventually because NXT has had less vignettes in recent months due to the stacked roster and limited time per month to showcase that talent. I’ll be by tomorrow with an NXT Hit list and a member’s exclusive audio review…
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