It’s time for the go home show guys. Although this is NXT so that means we probably won’t get that much to see, but what we do get will be memorable right? right?! We’ll let’s waste no time and jump right in.
The first match of the night was Ember Moon vs Liv Morgan. The two impressive women on NXT who confronted each other last week to decide who should try to go after the NXT women’s championship after all this fatal four-way business has been sorted. This wasn’t a bad match really, one notable highlight was with Moon showing off her power when she reversed a guillotine hold into a suplex tossed Morgan onto the outside. Ember finished the match in a fairly quick fashion with her diving corkscrew stunner. I feel like this could’ve gone on longer as it felt like it was just getting started, besides that the match was pretty good but nothing to write home about. It even ended with Ember Moon and Liv Morgan shaking hands out of mutual respect which was nice to see for a change.
Cutting to a backstage interview with Andrade ‘Cien’ Almas where he bad mouthed Rodrick Strong. Suddenly in came Rodrick and basically told Almas to put his money where is mouth is and ask for a kick. Andrade did walk away but then received a kick and got beat down with punches and the occasional Spanish. Well, Strong literally did ask for it.
A video package played showing DIY’s victory and building their match with the Authors of Pain up at this weekend’s TakeOver PPV. The video did well in building the Authors of Pain’s as this destructive force by showing their beginnings in NXT and the path of destruction they have created since then. Does very well in building hype for the match, plus I’m looking forward to seeing this match anyways and this video package just makes me anticipate it more.
The next match of the show was between No Way Jose and Kona Reeves which I’m referring to as; the “You didn’t help me once so I think you’re a dick” feud. Jose was just having fun dancing about, treating Reeves as barely a threat. Reeves even joined Jose in a dance but then sucker punched him and at one point rode Jose like a surfboard (as long as he doesn’t dab, I guess we’re fine). Jose got his momentum back and won with a punch in mid air. The finishing punch didn’t seem strong enough for it to be a finishing move so this kind of makes it feel like it was a squash match. Oh and Elias Samson showed up to goad Jose into a fight with his song, feels like I’m listening to Bayley’s poetry all over again, to be honest. Jose amusingly countered by using his own theme’s beat to tell Samson to “just drift away” which is engrained into my head now so thanks, Jose. This “feud” has come out of nowhere so I guess the one they were planning to start with Reeves wasn’t good enough.
The last match was Eric Young vs Chris Atkins who impressively tall, and you cannot teach that. Damo who joined Sanity last week was now in full gear with his new friends, wait, they’re calling him Killian Dane now? But I just got used to calling him Damo. Damn, Killian Dane is a pretty sweet name, to be honest. In this squash match, Eric Young wails on Atkins while mocking Tye’s 10 Chant, brutalised him and got the win. Young grabbed the mic and delivered a message to Tye Dillinger, saying that he made the wrong choice by deciding to reject his offer of acceptance into Sanity. Kilian Dane then crushed Atkins while he’s down, leaving us to wonder whether Tye will have to just Eric young, or the rest of his crew.
A flashback to last week played showing The Revival vs TM61 and how Shane Thorne’s knee could take up 7-9 months to heal after surgery. We all here at Steelchair Magazine wish him all the best and a speedy recovery.
Another video package plays featuring Shinsuke Nakamura, his debut and the hype he received upon arrival. basically, LOOK HOW AWESOME HE IS! all of this was to build up the confrontation between him and Roode at NXT Takeover: San Antonio.
The final segment of the night was the meeting of all four women participating in the fatal four-way match this weekend with Asuka, Nikki Cross, Peyton Royce, and Billie Kay. A quote from William Regal best sums up what’s about to go down;
“They’ve assured me that this won’t break out into a fight”
Gee, what could possibly go wrong?! Billie and Peyton talk about how they run the division. Nikki comes down and was her usual intimidating self, I think she’s one of my favourite things about NXT at the moment. I just love how intense she can be and just jumps around causing mayhem. Asuka wasted no time coming to the ring and chased Billie and Peyton out of the ring. All hell broke loose as they all started punching each other. We are then shown the main focus of this fatal four-way, Asuka and Nikki (Hell yes). Security tried to break the two of them up but ended up causing them to create more chaos, ending with Nikki diving off the top rope to take out Asuka and the security holding her back.
There were some moments in the show that I really like, the conflict that’s being built up between Asuka and Nikki is genuinely interesting, wanting to see who will come out victorious when these two chaotic forces collide are going to be something to see this weekend. The rest of the episode just felt like filler with attempts to build up to the PPV. Other than the final segment is was a pretty forgettable episode, but I’m still looking forward to this weekend with both Takeover and the Royal Rumble, who needs sleep anyway?