Last week on NXT: Heavy Machinery saved EC3 from an Undisputed Era beatdown, then EC3 and Heavy Machinery got called up to the main roster. The Mighty lost to Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch and then Nick Miller of The Mighty got released from the company. Mia Yim defeated Female Stan Hanson. Tyler Breeze returned home in a losing effort to Ricochet for Ricochet’s North American championship.
Cold Open
An opening video package with Johnny Gargano and Aleister Black set to a cover version of the song “Wade in the Water” which fits but doesn’t make sense at the same time. I feel like the mood would have set better if the version of the song was from the Blind Boys of Alabama.
Io Shirai and Dakota Kai vs. Marina Shafir and Jessamyn Duke
- I love me some Dakota Kai theme song. Io’s song is like the K-pop version of Dakota’s song. Don’t get it twisted though, Dakota’s theme song slaps and I’m so upset it isn’t on Apple Music.
- Four Horsewomen use Shayna’s theme song which is tremendous and is such a shmood.
- I am a big fan of Io and Dakota separately and the Horsewomen as a whole. Marina and Jessamyn don’t have much in terms of characters outside of Baszler’s lackeys.
- The match at the moment is Shafir and Duke dominating Dakota while Io looks on nervously.
- Shafir seems to be the bigger star on her team. She has more charisma than Jessamyn and adds a bit more realism. Jessamyn still seems like she is acting confident instead of being confident. Where as Marina oozes confidence.
- The crowd isn’t reacting much but I think this is the fourth hour of the taping so it’s understandable. This whole match is building to the Shirai hot tag.
- As Dakota crawls to Shirai you can feel the anticipation from the crowd. Io gets in and the crowd wakes up!
- Shirai hits her five moves of doom starting with a 619 and ending with a moonsault for the win.
And I’m Like… Very by the numbers tag match but it worked. Everyone played their parts well and it’s nice to see some babyface teams in the women’s division. This is the future of the woman’s division on all four brands and it makes me excited for the future.
Dijakovic has a vignette about how he won’t fail and some other nonsense.
Video showing Matt Riddle and Kassius Ohno’s feud is far from over. Riddle answers some questions about Ohno and says he doesn’t like Ohno.
Dominik Dijakovic vs. Aaron Mackey
- For some reason Dijakovic does not seem like a star. When he was Dijak on the indies, he had an IT factor. With this entrance and theme song, it’s just, bland. For now, maybe I’m missing it, or maybe he will look like a bigger star on the main roster. This is the Beyond Wrestling/ROH roster of NXT right now though, maybe Dijakovic just needs a feud and opponent.
- This match isn’t even a match. It’s Dijakovic acting very angry and aggressively destroying Mackey.
And I’m Like… It’s an introduction to Dominik. We don’t know anything about him other than “Feast Your Eyes”. The theme song is super bland though. Iremember when Finn Balor was just starting out in NXT and couldn’t time his entrance properly and it looked very awkward. He grew a lot since then. I’m sure Dominik can too.
A Heavy Machinery hype video.
Heavy Machinery vs. Enhancement Team
- Heavy Machinery haven’t lost a match in six months and their opponents today didn’t even get an entrance or introduction.
- It’s sad to see the plans NXT had for Heavy Machinery. It’s great that the boys got called up, but I can’t help but worry that they will be wasted.
- The Undisputed Era come out to taunt Heavy Machinery. Then we are told that The Undisputed Era will defend their tag championships against Heavy Machiney next week. Which kind of gives away the finish because when the video package for Heavy Machinery aired, they didn’t show off any tag team titles.
And I’m Like… What I just said above. This feud is building and would be so much fun if we weren’t spoiled by the ending. The matches will be good but the hype has all but vanished. Heavy Machinery are a super fun team and I hope the best for them.
Steel Cage Match
Johnny Gargano vs. Aleister Black
- Stipulation matches aren’t used that often in NXT, which makes it extra special when they do.
- Aleister was making his entrance and Gargano jumped him before Black entered the cage.
- This match is starting off hot and heavy with some brutal brawling.
- Black was able to gain the advantage and threw Johnny in the ring. The match finally starts and Johnny already trying to escape.
- Black keeps going for a quick pinfall because Mauro said Aleister has an upcoming title match against champion Tommaso Ciampa.
- Black and Gargano climb up and down the cage trying to gain the upper hand and it is reminiscent of Super Mario Bros. when you need to punch the koopa’s on the cage.
- This match is interesting because this is a feud built on both men loathing each other, but Black and Gargano are both going for quick pins and trying to climb the cage to escape. Real strange way to go about this story.
- This match would be on such another level if there was some blood from both competitors. I can visualize it and both of these men would be such a look with a crimson mask.
- Aleister easily climbs to the top of the cage and could have won but he just climbed back down and did a jumping overhand punch. This is such a weird match. It feels very disjointed, or maybe I’m just not getting what they are trying to say.
- Johnny almost wins by pinfall after a sunset flip powerbomb from the middle of the top rope.
- Full Sail has dueling chants of “Johnny Badass/Aleister” and both men engage in a strike battle that Aleister easily wins.
- Gargano almost escaped through the door after a missed knee to the head by Black.
- I want to say this match is good and that I’m enjoying it but something just feels off. They are kind of recreating the Hart vs. Hart cage match from Summerslam ’94 with some added twists. The feud seemed more heated than that. The crowd is reacting but they aren’t really hot for the match either. The commentators are putting over this match really hard and it just doesn’t mix well.
- Both men end up getting into a yay/boo spot on top of the cage but Gargano just crawled back into the ring. Gargano started headbutting Aleister to show how aggressive he’s become but Black is able to overcome it ending with a Meteora from the top rope.
- The crowd is slowly getting more invested and reacting to the moments being created. This match seemed to be designed to illicit crowd response for every moment. Because the pace of the match and the story they are telling hasn’t changed but the crowd reactions have.
- Gargano tried to absolve Black from his sins, which was a callback to their previous encounter. Then Black was able to hit the Black Mass but wasn’t able to cover Johnny because both men are spent.
- Gargano starts climbing over the top rope. Black crawls to the door. Before Gargano can get his feet on the ground, Ciampa closes the door on Black’s head. Gargano stops climbing and gets back in the ring as Ciampa stands across from him. Black is knocked down in the middle and Gargano and Ciampa motion to hit their D.I.Y. finisher!!
- The crowd chants “D.I.Y.” as Ciampa leaves the ring. Gargano gets the pin on Black and we now have an unholy reunion.
And I’m Like… Even though the match was a bit weird, the finish was incredible. The storyline between Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa is one of the greatest storylines in wrestling history and it doesn’t seem like it’s even close to finishing. They went from acquaintances to babyface friends to teammates to best friend/brothers to bitter enemies back to being friends but as heels. Aleister is somehow caught in the middle of these two and always ends up with the short end of the stick. It’s quite a tale NXT has woven and goes to show you how much better NXT does pro wrestling over WWE main roster.
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