With the next TakeOver only 10 days away, things are heating up in NXT. Last week’s show saw 3 matches added to the card and a clear rival established for the Women’s title. What more can we expect this weeks? Storylines will be furthered, and matches may be added. Let’s find out what’s coming our way.
Shayna Baszler Promo
We start this week’s show where we ended last time with Shayna Baszler. She enters the ring sporting her title belt (so she must have got it back off Nikki Cross somehow). She talks about how she has dominated the women’s division before turning her attention to Nikki Cross. It does not take long for the deranged Scot to join her with the crowd hot for the potential confrontation.
The champ warns Nikki never to pull a stunt like last week again. Baszler asks Cross if she is crazy and the crowd do a ‘yes!’ chant. She threatens to put Nikki to sleep and Cross responds by leading a ‘do it!’ chant. The brawl is not far off and Cross quickly overwhelms the champ. A diving crossbody from the top turnbuckle brings the segment to a close with Cross standing tall.
This is the first time I think we have seen Shayna cut a solo in-ring promo and she carried herself well (much better than her fellow MMA to WWE colleague at least). Cross seems to have upped the craziness a notch or three, almost to the point of overdoing it. The title match is confirmed almost immediately and should be an interesting matchup.
TM61 v. Team Squash
After cheating to win recently, the Aussie Duo enter the ring cockily for a match with two nameless jobbers. Miller and Thorne show their aggressive side to go with their newfound cheating heelish antics. It works as the crowd soon start a chorus of “let’s go jobbers!” The match doesn’t last long with TM61 looking dominant. After the match, Miller and Thorne lay down a challenge to the entire tag division and declare themselves as TM no longer, they are now The Mighty.
Winners: TM61
After using sneaky tactics to start their heel turn, a vicious and overly aggressive against lesser opponents was just what these two needed to cement their heel turn. A clear rival would have been a better end point though than simply calling out every team on the roster one by one.
Roderick Strong v. Danny Burch
One half of each team from the tag title match face off here with Strong coming to the ring with Undisputed Era’s music but without Undisputed Era – we will see how long that remains the case. A fast-paced blast of mat wrestling starts off the contest with Burch in control. A massive dropkick gets Strong back in it until he misses a keen strike in the corner and a headbutt from Burch takes both men down.
Burch then gets to showcase his power with a series of strikes and suplexes. That draws out Undisputed Era who soon get chased down by Lorcan and Dunne. In the ring, Burch applies a crossface submission but allows himself to get distracted by Adam Cole. Strong takes advantage and knocks him down for the pin. As Strong celebrates, Dunne attacks him popping the crowd as he does so. A chopblock from O’Reilly puts an end to that though and Dunne gets laid out by a trademark Strong backbreaker.
Winner: Roderick Strong
A good match and a fun post-match brawl that added plenty of heat to an already hot programme.
Backstage Segments and Hype Packages
We get two hype packages through the broadcast for Aleister Black v. Lars Sullivan, with Sullivan in particular made to look a true monster. An extended look at Ricochet and Velveteen Dream’s rivalry complete with dramatic cinematic music only further serves to convince me that will be match of the night at TakeOver.
We also get a match booked for next week as EC3, whose hair makes him look like he has just woken up from a lengthy nap, gets in Kassius Ohno’s face during a photo shoot. I still don’t get why people are so into EC3…
Kairi Sane v. Lacey Evans
This one again? After one win a piece, this is being hyped as the rubber match. Evans shows off her right fist with ‘Kairi’ written across her knuckles before the match begins. That only seems to make her hand a target though as Sane stomps on her fingers early on. Evans soon takes over but starts showing disrespect to her opponent with taunts and slaps. She then transitions a cobra clutch into a reverse swing in an impressive display. The disrespect continues with push-up and fist assisted cover attempts.
A missed moonsault (seeing too many of those on WWE TV these days) swings the advantage Sane’s way. She unloads with her interceptor spear, sliding forearm strike, and then an armbar that nearly draws a submission. An Alabama Slam leaves Evans in the drop zone and the In-Sane Elbow soon brings the victory.
Winner: Kairi Sane
Hopefully, we can move on from this feud now. Hopefully, Sane can move on from taking a beating and making a babyface comeback with the same four or five moves, which seems to have been the formula for her wins of late.
Tommaso Ciampa Promo
Ciampa comes out to his usual soundtrack of a bass of boos and a medley of ‘you suck!’ ‘Johnny Wrestling!’ ’You tapped out!’ and ‘asshole!’ He chastises Gargano for interrupting a match last week to announce that he had signed his contract. He also pins the blame on his opponent for injuring Candice La Rae in their last face to face encounter.
Johnny Gargano soon appears on the ramp fighting off security guards and referees to get at Ciampa. They fight through the crowd and back into the ring with security constantly re-appearing. They eventually inadvertently cause Ciampa to take control. He puts Gargano in the Gargano Escape to come out on top.
Or has he? Gargano makes one last charge up the ramp and blasts Ciampa into the screens before applying the Gargano Escape himself as we fade to black.
Watching these two fight whether in a match or a brawl feels like it will never get old! No major twist came from this, but once again considerable heat was added to an already red-hot match up.
Final Thoughts
This is shaping up to be one hell of a TakeOver! The in-ring segments really hyped up the women’s title match, the tag title match, and the Gargano-Ciampa blood feud. Smart use of hype packages did the job for the other confirmed matches as well. The only things missing so far for me are opponents for Kairi Sane and Pete Dunne, and a North American title defence for Adam Cole. All deserve to be on the card – time to add some more matches next week?
