It’s that time once again, time to check out what happened this week on NXT. Shamefully, not a lot really happened in-ring wise (unless you count a corker of a main event). While there were a few ups during the show, but the downs do hold back the episode from being great. What was that bad? let’s take a look.
Street Profits vs Jobbers
I thought we were passed the squash matches with these guys. While we did get some good spots from the Street Profits, it’s annoying that we once again had to go through the same tired and uneventful type of match that can rear its head every so often on NXT. This was at least salvaged by the Profits addressing the NXT crowd, calling out the other tag teams saying that 2018 will be their year and will be coming for the tag team titles.
Not a bad opening to NXT, but not a brilliant start either.
NXT Women’s Championship – Ember Moon (c) vs Sonya Deville
Oh man, I really wonder who is going to win this. The person that’s clearly moved to the main roster will definitely be taking the NXT belt over to RAW. Can’t you just feel the excitement as I write this?
I’ll be fair, the match opened well with Ember and Sonya exchanging blows. Both women didn’t dominate so neither looked too strong, but they didn’t act too weak as they sold the strikes well to make the other look intimidating. In the end, Ember came out victorious and retained her championship. Will we now feel confident having Deville on the main roster now?
But! Things were not other as Kairi Sane came out and made her intentions clear that she wants that championship. Shayna Baszler interrupted and knocked out Sane. Needless to say this kicked things up a notch in the race for the women’s championship.
Meanwhile…
– Paul Ellering built up the authors of pain while also putting The Undisputed Era in their place. “This is our house! We are the law” and many more cliches were used in the book of pain presumably.
Killian Dane vs Johnny Gargano vs Lars Sullivan vs Aleister Black
Now, this is what I’m talking about. A highlight of the night and more importantly a new challenger was decided to face Andrade ‘Cien’ Almas for his NXT Championship. The match kicked off magnificently going and full speed, Aleister dominated a little which was then followed by everyone seeking to see Lars grounded to the outside.
We saw an amazing build up to a table spot with Lars asserting control, but once again led to a team up to keep him down and Killian Dane leaping out Sullivan through the commentary table. What followed was an incredible back and forth between all these men, with seemingly it heading Aleister to victory. But all that changed once The Undisputed Era got involved, causing Black to lose his opportunity. His loss was Johnny Gargano’s gain as he moved closer to becoming NXT Championship.
Story-wise it’s perfect as it sets up further storylines and adds to the underdog tale for Johnny Gargano, now we just have to wait and see if he truly gets what he desires or whether someone is going to stand in his way.