By John Moore, ProWrestling.net Staffer (@liljohnm)
NXT TV Live Review
Taped June 13, 2019 in Winter Park, Florida at Full Sail University
Streamed August 7, 2019 on WWE Network
Mauro Ranallo, Nigel McGuinness, and Beth Phoenix were on commentary…
William Regal was already in the ring to start the show after the intro theme. Regal was being the mediator for the Street Profits and Undisputed Era contract signing for their title match on Saturday. After both teams made their entrance, Bobby Fish grabbed the mic first. Fish and O’Reilly joked about the Profits not being funny. Fish said the Street Profits are not at “this level”. Fish said the Profits have no chance to leave Takeover with the belts around their waist. Fish said UE aren’t just better than the Profits, but they are funnier.
Kyle O’Reilly said he had a joke, “The Street Profits are NXT Champions”. The crowd chanted “Shut up Bobby”. The Profits were lol’ing before shifting to serious mode. Montez Ford noted that the UE are good and have been featured on every Takeover since they got here. Ford said they beat most teams in NXT history. Dawkins named off a few names like AOP, Moustashe Mountain, or Lorcan and Burch. Ford said you shouldn’t think losing is an option for the Profits and what makes Ford think that. Ford fired up the crowd. Ford yelled that there is one option to “WIN WIN WIN WIN…WIN WIN WIN!”. Dawkins said at Takeover the Street Profits “gon beat dat ass, and that is Undisputed”. Both teams then signed the contracts and left with the Profits entrance playing…
A hype video package aired to hype Velveteen Dream vs. Pete Dunne vs. Roderick Strong for Saturday…
John’s Thoughts: A fun contract signing with no physical contact needed. All four men had solid mic work. Dawkins has come a long way on the mic. O’Reilly is as fun and quirky as ever. Ford has been great but he hasn’t had anything too stand out in a while. Ford and Fish might have had their best mic work in NXT yet. Fish did a great job annoying the crowd and getting them to hate and care about him (reminded me of his old Fish Tank days in ROH). Ford cut his best promo to date by turning the switch to serious. This was a good set up to a credibility building Profits win but with the Profits appearing as Raw regulars it’s more likely they lose or will lose the belts soon.
A video aired of Slipknot talking about how he and his band are providing the theme for Takeover as well as providing the regular theme for NXT…
A hype video aired to hype Shayna Baszler vs. Mia Yim for NXT Takeover…
Nigel hyped Shane Thorne vs. Joaquin Wilde (DJZ) for after the break… [c]
John’s Thoughts: A great video package. Mia Yim has turned that corner again, the corner she turned when she faced Rosemary in Impact. She’s drawing from her real life experience and it’s creating an edgy hero character. Baszler is just always good as antagonist, which is why she’s able to be in every single Takeover women’s match for about two years and it not feeling (that) old.
Joaquin Wilde (f.k.a. DJ Zema Ion) made his lite brite entrance. Mauro called him “The cosmic warrior” I think? (So he’s Aerostar now?). Shane Thorne made his entrance to generic country music…
1. Shane Thorne vs. Joaquin Wilde. Thorne had a size advantage over Wilde. Wilde dominated Torned and then did his dumb ass ba ba ba baughhhhh air horn thing. Dammit! Wilde and Thorne then had a stalemate lucha sequence. Wilde went into a tornado guillotine choke but Torne reversed it into a vertical suplex. Phoenix noted how smooth the counter was. Thorne hit Wilde with calculated and methodical strikes. Leading to nearfalls. Nigel noted that Wilde has an intestinal injury which he got during his time in Impact and how it was life threatening.
John’s Thoughts: By the way, I’ve reviewed a ton of Wilde’s matches and a bunch of these guys in the Breakout Tournament. Therefore it’s a bit annoying when I have to backspace names like “Zema” or “Trevor” due to habit.
Wilde got a moment of respite after hitting Thorne with a flying lariat. Wilde hit Torne with a jawbreaker and springboard back elbow. Thorne went high risk but Wilde hit Thorne with a power bomb. Wilde went for a rolling DDT but Thorne shoved him off and won the striking exchange. Wilde came back with double boots to the face of Thorne. Wilde hit Thorne with a suicide dive and flip dive when Thorne tried to escape. Thorne broke the ten count then tossed Wilde around in ugly fashion and Nigel noted that Thorn likes. Thorne then hit a Sagat-Like Tiger Knee to Wilde to pick up the pinfall win.
Shane Thorne defeated Joaquin Wilde via pinfall in 7:26.
Thorne quietly and quickly walked to the back…
John’s Thoughts: A really fun match with both men looking good coming out. There’s a story with Wilde as a babyface given his near death experiences he had over the years. He even had a cancer scare during his first Impact run. He’s also very good as a heel like when he had the afro and hairspray. Thorne looked really impressive in his new singles persona. His entrance and attire did look a bit low budget, so hopefully he refines that a bit. Back to Wilde a bit, he’s great, but he really needs to drop the Bro Mans “Ba ba ba baughhhhhh” thing. Only the TNA-est of TNA fanboys would like that and it’s a turnoff to me and everyone else I hear. And not in a heat drawing way. Old Zema Ion drew heat.
An Io Shirai vs. Candice LeRae hype video package aired…
Nigel hyped Killian Dain vs. Matt Riddle for later in the show… [c]
The Harley Race tribute video package aired…
Matt Riddle was making his entrance for the upcoming match, but he was beat the hell up by Killian Dain from behind. Dain cannonballed Riddle against the stairs. Nigel noted that the match looks like it won’t happen…
Nigel then cut to a video package for the NXT Breakout Tournament…
John’s Thoughts: I’m glad they didn’t burn through a Dain vs. Riddle feud that quickly. This was standard stuff, but Dain really needs to build up heat now that he’s being reintroduced to NXT.
Nigel hyped a video package to hype the Cole vs. Gargano match for Saturday… [c]
John’s Thoughts: An easy show to review tonight. Essentially this is mostly what would air on the NXT pre-show. The plus here is there’s no annoying Pat McAfee. Also, Nigel has been narrating most of the show tonight.
Cathy Kelley was interviewing Tyler Breeze and Fandango backstage after Fandango’s return. Fandango talked about bringing “fashion” back and he was talking in his weird cartoon voice that he used on the Fashion Files…
John’s Thoughts: I was really hoping we’d see more Johnny Curtis, but it looks like he’ll be sticking with his Will Farrell inspired character for some reason. I hope this is just a smoke screen for a heel turn or something. Tyler changed is gimmick a bit for the better. I just want to see more from Fandango because he’s shown more range in other characters. From Johnny Curtis the creeper to that depressed guy who did Southpaw commentary with John Cena.
The hype video aired to hype Adam Cole vs. Johnny Gargano in Three Stages of Hell (which they aren’t calling Three Stages of Hell, but rather the mouthful of “Best of three falls match, where Gargano, Cole, and Regal pick the three stipulations”). Regal talked about revealing the third stipulation only if it reaches a third fall…
John’s Thoughts: I really like the hook of Regal keeping the third stage of hell a secret and tentative. Everyone expect tit to go three falls so it works as a good and logical way to keep information away from the viewer. I don’t think they’d do Cage Match or Hell in a Cell though given how you need that hanging over the ring.
A Johnny Gargano performance center vignette aired where people like Xia Li, Matt Bloom, Tegan Nox, and others talked about how Gargano is an inspiration at the Performance Center. Gargano talked about how he was inspired by Shawn Michaels. They then cut to an Adam Cole focused version of the video package. It focused on Cole defending his title successfully at NXT live events all over the country. They showed him defeating Keith lee.
The video cut back to Johnny Gargano and Seth Rollins chatting strategy on their upcoming matches at the performance center. They talked about their matches against Cole and Brock Lesnar. The video cut to Cole bragging about a win in South Carolina. Didn’t show his opponent though. Cut back to Gargano and Finn Balor chatting. Balor talked about how Gargano came in as a “mid carder” but he saw him as something bigger. Gargano joked about trying to break Balor’s title record in terms of time as champion. The video then cut to fans giving their predictions. Regal said we’ll find out the real Adam Cole if he retains on Saturday.
“NXT Producer” Road Dogg Brian James talked about how this is a must win for Gargano to cement his legacy. Kevin Owens said he thinks Gargano is going to lose. Owens said that he has no shame in admitting that he’s long time friends with Cole. Terry Taylor said the audience wins. Robbie Brockside said this is going to be an all time classic. Gargano and Cole then gave their final words to hype the match. Gargano said he was going to take Cole to Hell to get his NXT Championship (So he said “hell” at least)…
John’s Thoughts: A well put together video package. I wonder if this was the shorter version of that Cole vs. Gargano documentary that they’ve been airing on the network. Anyway, I really liked how this was put together and telling different stories with Cole and Gargano. It was good to see Gargano seek friendship and advise with some of his WWE main roster friends while Cole was building up confidence by being a fighting and traveling champion. Cole keeps his heel heat because even though he’s doing the honorable thing, he’s being a dick about it, which is what Adam Cole does. Another nice added touch was all the trainers and WWE legends treating this match like a big deal. Why couldn’t they do something like this for Brock Lesnar vs. Seth Rollins?
A very harmless episode of NXT. In fact, there was only one match on the show and that match had nothing to do with Takeover. The other match was supposed to be a big match, but that ended up being a bait and switch. It was fine though because all of the video packages were really good. That said, we might see repeats of these video packages on the Takeover Pre-show, and Takeover show. Speaking of such, join me for live coverage for NXT Takeover on Saturday and we’ll also have an member’s exclusive audio review for you guys after the show…
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