Jordan Myles vs Angel Garva-Breakout Tournament Semi-finals
This was a super fun match with a lot of energy and a great opener. Both Myles and Garza gave us everything: spots, technicality, high-flying, personality. The crowd really got into this match as well, which is very good considering it’s about finding the next breakout star. I was impressed with the match overall and satisfied with the winner.
Winner: Jordan Myles
Grade: B+
Promo time!
Shane Thorne says he’s going to break out all his own and Johnny Gargano chose a street fight for the stipulation of his and Adam Cole’s upcoming title match.
I love when the NXT stars grab the headset off the commentary team to do their promos. It adds an air of seriousness to them. And street fights are one of my favorite stipulations so I’m good.
Grade: B-
Bianca Belair vs Xia Li
This was a rather short match that did show off Belair’s even more pronounced aggression. I’m not a fan of the short matches that a lot of the women have been having, and Li is improving so much, so i hope they meet in the ring again soon and have a proper match.
Winner: Bianca Belair
Grade: B-
Video time!
Killian Dain showed us how he put Matt Riddle through the floor last week. The PC cameras caught Mia Yim attacking Jessamyn Duke.
These were good character and feud advancement videos and I rather liked Yim yelling “Surprise motherf*cker!”
Not Graded
The Velveteen Dream Experience
As per usual, Dream hit us with those lovely sexual innuendos. Roderick Strong, in a less-confident-than-Dream manner, said he was the most deserving challenger on the planet. Then Pete Dunne showed up! Backstage, William Regal booked a triple threat match between the three of them for Takeover Toronto. The addition of Pete Dunne is intriguing to me, especially since he is supposedly back on NXT stateside for a while. Also Strong says good thing, but he doesn’t have that snide confidence that his Undisputed Era brothers have made their own.
Grade: B+
Io Shirai vs Kacy Catanzaro
There wasn’t much of a match as Candice LeRae interrupted and chased Shirai off. It was fine feud advancement, but I still don’t like all the short matches the women have been getting.
Not Graded
No more Johnny Wrestling
Adam Cole put over his UE brother for the triple threat over the North American Championship. He also picked a regular wrestling match as the stipulation for his title match.
Meh, I think Gargano’s choice was better but I understand why Cole chose this as he wants to make sure Gargano won’t be Johnny Wrestling anymore. Here, he was also demonstrating that snide confidence I mentioned earlier.
Grade: B
Keith Lee vs Damian Priest
One day the urge to call that man Punishment Martinez will not be so strong. Anyways, this was a great main event and a hard-fought victory for Priest after a couple weeks of squash matches. The crowd seemed very much into it too, which is always a good sign. It looks like the brass is quite behind Priest so it’ll be interesting to see what they do with him. Unfortunately, Lee’s trajectory has been derailed after Dominic Dijakovic’s injury and his own injury. Hopefully they can set it right soon.
Winner: Damian Priest
Grade: B+
Final Thoughts
Overall, not a bad episode of NXT. We got some build up for the upcoming Takeover as well as some character development for some of the other stars on NXT.
Overall Grade: B
