Hello, hello and welcome to the final NXT review for the month of February! This year seems like it’s really flying by. The Royal Rumble feels like was just yesterday and now here we are two weeks away from Fast Lane. We’re moving right along to NXT Takeover: New York and things seem to be heating up. Let’s take a look at what happened down on the yellow brand.
Johnny Gargano came out and talked about his failed North American Championship title defense. He said he feels like a champion, but knows he isn’t, which started the dueling Johnny Champion/Johnny Failure chants. Cue Tommaso Ciampa, who came out and said that they need each other. He proposed they team together for the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic and shook hands. Candice LeRae does not approve.
Thoughts: Evil DIY is officially here to stay! Tommaso is such a puppet master and I can’t wait to see how he continues to manipulate Johnny Gargano throughout the tag team tournament.
Grade: A
Vanessa Borne and Aliyah vs Taynara Conti and Xia Li
Conti started off with Borne and she took control pretty early. Aliyah got in and worked with her before adding double team moves with Borne. Conti got a hot tag and Li had some nice offense on the heel team, but Borne and Aliyah had a sneaky tag and won the match.
Winner: Vanessa Borne and Aliyah
Thoughts: It wasn’t the best match in the world, but everyone looks like they’re getting better. I’m a bit puzzled about Conti; she’s seemingly a face now even though she was just acting as a heel not too long ago. I wonder if there’s any way to really elevate Aliyah. Maybe she would actually do better with a main roster jump?
Grade: C+
Undisputed Era rolled up on Velveteen Dream outside. Adam Cole said he was going to take the North American Championship back. Dream called him a little man and said that he couldn’t anything without his little squad.
Bianca Belair and Io Shirai were having a heated argument backstage and got pulled apart.
Thoughts: Having Cole feud with Dream is a good idea since Kyle O’Reilly and Bobby Fish are going back to tag teaming. I wonder what Roddy is going to do now. Shirai and Belair totally sounded like the girls who used to argue in the school locker room.
Grades: Not Graded
Keith Lee vs Dominik Dijakovic
At first it was just a power struggle between this big guys then it went into some back and forth, with both men showing great athleticism. Lee tried to hit the pounce, but Dijakovic put a stop to that with a choke breaker. Dijakovic sent Lee out to the floor and then followed up with a beautiful moonsault. The bout went to a double count-out.
Winner: No one. Double count-out.
Thoughts: Admittedly I have not seen any of these guys’ work with each other on the indies so I will have to check it out. They have great ring chemistry and I think this would be a great feud to go into Takeover: New York, plus the no-contest finish leaves the door open for more matches.
Grade: A
Shayna Baszler vs Mia Yim
This match was very mat-based, but Yim did utilize her striking ability. A lot of attention was called to Baszler’s submission background and Yim’s background in taekwondo. Yim missed a kick and instead hit the barricade and Baszler took advantage for the remainder of the match. Baszler injured her hand and that gave Yim a focal point as well. Yim succeeded in getting off a power bomb, but Baszler eventually choked her out.
Winner: Shayna Baszler
Thoughts: I really enjoyed this match, especially as the two worked injuries on each other. It felt like both competitors had a lot of respect for each other. I could see Mia Yim becoming champion before the end of the year.
Grade: B+
Final Thoughts: This week’s episode of NXT had some very enjoyable wrestling. I was really into everything on the show, which is hard to come by sometimes. We’re definitely having the seeds planted for some Takeover: New York matches, which is great!
Overall Grade: A-
-Wynter
