With the NXT Title situation up in the air, I’m Scott Hammond here for another week of NXT TV, two weeks away from NXT Takeover: New York.

The boss was out to start the show, Triple H held the NXT Title in his hands as the crowd gave him a huge pop. He started by putting over the crowd of Full Sail University on something special and went on to start by saying that for some, the dreams start in NXT, and for others, it takes years to reach this point. He then said that the dream can end at any moment and that he was looking forward to being there to announce Johnny Gargano vs Tommaso Ciampa for the NXT Championship at Takeover: New York, but Ciampa needed neck surgery and had to relinquish the title.

He said that when one dream ends, another begins and Gargano was going to Takeover: New York to compete in the main event, and that tonight, there would be a Fatal five-way match to determine Gargano’s opponent. Those men are Matt Riddle, Ricochet, Aleister Black, Velveteen Dream and Adam Cole. Triple H finished the segment by saying that the match for the title at NXT Takeover: New York would be a two out of three falls match.

Next up was a backstage promo from the Forgotten Sons. The put over the final of the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic next week on NXT, and said that it was good that Ricochet and Aleister Black were a distraction with their match tonight, and that would give them the edge next week. They finished it saying they’d be forgotten no more. Basic stuff but decent.

Another solid video package aired next, showcasing Ricochet, Aleister Black and Velveteen Dream’s aspirations of winning the vacant NXT Title. Although the whole ‘you will fade to black’ thing is getting pretty tiresome now.

Yet another video package aired, this time detailing Tommaso Ciampa’s neck surgery. The doctors spoke in detail about his neck, and the risk’s if he’d continued to work with the issue. They mentioned that he had 3 surgeries and were very impressed with his resolve. This video package got him over a legitimate tough guy. Really great stuff.

At this point, I felt like I was in a video loop because there was yet another package detailing Matt Riddle and Adam Cole’s journey and wanting to win the vacant title. Are there actually going to be any matches here?

Backstage, Io Shirai and Kairi Sane for no reason at all stopped a photo shoot to have an interview regarding their fatal four-way match for the NXT Women’s title at NXT Takeover: New York. They were quickly interrupted by Bianca Belair, who said that she would be the new champion because her mindset was un-de-fea-ted. I see what she did there, very clever.

Number One Contender Fatal Five Way Match: Aleister Black vs Ricochet vs Adam Cole vs Matt Riddle vs Velveteen Dream

Yay, a wrestling match! I still am not sold on Matt Riddle. The match started quickly, and Black and Dream found themselves alone in the ring early on, with Black hitting a leg sweep, but Dream reversing. Black hit a head kick. Ricochet then entered the match and hit a quick head scissors takedown followed up with a dropkick that knocked Dream to the outside. Riddle then entered the ring and hit two deadlift gut wrench suplexes on Ricochet, but was quickly stopped by an enzuigiri by Cole. Black and Ricochet hit some double team offence on Cole, before turning to each other and preparing to fight one another. Before this could happen, Cole recovered and attacked both men, hitting a suplex on Ricochet and followed up with a kick to the face.

Dream re-entered the ring and sent Ricochet to the outside and did the same to Cole, before hitting a top rope double axe handle to Cole onto the outside. Dream then tried to come off the top rope again this time onto Riddle in the ring, but he reversed it into a German suplex. Riddle then caught Black in the Bro-Mission, which was quickly broken up by Dream. Black recovered, hitting kicks to Dream, before hitting a middle rope moonsault on Dream. Riddle and Cole found themselves in the ring and had a pretty cool face off. They had a strike off before Riddle put Cole in the Bro-Mission, which was once again broken up by Dream. Then a quick indy style sequence took place with all five men hitting kicks and superkicks which led to all five men ending up down on the mat. Ricochet was up first and headed to the top rope, but the other four men recovered and caught Ricochet in the corner and performed a crazy five-man superplex.

Black recovered first and hit a German suplex on Dream with a bridge, but the pin was broken up by Riddle hitting a senton. Riddle then hit a fisherman’s buster on Black but was attacked by Cole who hit a shoulder breaker for a two count. Ricochet immediately hit Cole with a reverse hurricanrana, and as Cole retreated to the outside, Ricochet hit an over-the-top-rope Dragonrana. In the ring, Riddle walked into a Black Mass by Black but then walked into a Dream Valley Driver by Velveteen Dream. Ricochet and Dream then worked their way to the top rope, and Ricochet hit a crazy hurricanrana on Dream to the outside that also took out Black and Cole. Ricochet then hit a shooting star press on Riddle but during the cover, Cole hit a devastating knee to the back of his head for the pinfall victory. The show went off the air with Cole celebrating his huge win on the ramp.

Weird show this week, one match and a whole lot of video packages. The circumstances with Ciampa aside, I feel like Adam Cole was the most appropriate fit for Gargano, given that all other men in the match already have matches planned at NXT Takeover: New York (Ricochet and Black depending on next week, of course).

All photos courtesy of WWE.com