“You don’t even go here.”
Bianca Belair’s one-liner to Toni Storm stole the night! Jokes aside, this was a well-done opening segment with the two women’s champions and some challengers. I wasn’t at all shocked when the ensuing brawl was booked into a tag team match. It’s predictable at this point but still enjoyable!
Grade: A
Rhea Ripley, Candice LeRae, and Toni Storm vs Kay Lee Ray, Bianca Belair, and Io Shirai
Let’s be real; NXT has a fantastic women’s roster and these six women showed just that in this opening tag team match. It felt as though each woman had time to shine and we still got a little bit of tension in the babyface team with two potential challengers in LeRae and Storm. I also liked that they incorporated the rivalries that have been going on in the past year. Continuity!
Winner: Rhea Ripley. Candice LeRae, and Toni Storm
Grade: A
Imperium vs Forgotten Sons-Dusty Tag Classic
Imperium is so intimidating with their classical music theme, simple black and white gear, and the air of austerity they project. And the Forgotten Sons just looked raggedy next to them. Anyways, this was a great little sprint of a match. I was actually so into it that I failed to realize how short it was until I watched it back. It’s a little sad that the team who made it to the finals last year was eliminated in the first round but I think they want Imperium to have more exposure here in the US.
Winner: Imperium
Grade: B
Grade: B
Broserweights
Matt Riddle explained how the team of himself and Pete Dunne came about and my goodness, did he sound like that high dude in your class asking to be project partners. It was adorable though, as are most things Riddle does.
Not Graded
Austin Theory vs Joaquin Wilde
This was a short, fun match with a nice television win for Theory. I don’t know much about Mr. Theory but there have been rumblings about him for some time. And he had a pretty good match against Roderick Strong as well!
Winner: Austin Thoery
Not Graded
Undisputed Era vs Gallus-Dusty Tag Classic
Undisputed Era has been spoiling us with their tag matches as of late, but this one was nowhere near a top-tier bout. That’s okay; everything doesn’t have to ring all the bells all the time. It was a solid brawl and in the end, the right team moved on.
Winner: Undisputed Era
Grade: B-
Johnny Promo
I will forever be a fan of people basically telling Johnny Gargano to shut up. And Finn Balor (with more and more of his Prince Devitt showing) did just that. I’m all about this match happening at Takeover: Portaland so let’s make it happen.
Grade: B+
Alex Shelley is going to be Kushida’s tag team partner for the Dusty Classic so the Time Splitters get an automatic A+!
Mia Yim vs Kayden Carter
I have finally made peace with Carter’s name change. Also she has lots of potential and Yim was a perfect dance partner for her. The little show of sportsmanship at the end was so cute! I hope we get more interactions between them and Carter gets loads more matches to help her get better. And I think this match was a good choice to introduce Robert Stone and Chelsea Green into the mix as it was more of a rebound win for Yim more so than a match to advance an established story.
Winner: Mia Yim
Grade: C
Keith Lee vs Dominik Dijakovic vs Damian Priest vs Cameron Grimes
We love a good main event! This was arguably the best match on the show and everyone got their moment in the sun. And Keith Lee (in all his glory) won! This win actually cemented his spot as the number one contender for the North American Championship after months of start-stop pushes.
Winner: Keith Lee
Grade: A
Ciampa’s Promos
I wanted to point out just how easily Ciampa has been able to slide back into this creepy, manipulative puppet master character since returning from injury. We didn’t see as much of that when he first returned; he genuinely just seemed happy to be back. But now we’re starting to see his obsession with Goldie return and I’m excited to see what king of mind games he plays with Adam Cole.
Grade: B+
Final Thoughts
I have to say that I liked the crossover between NXT UK and NXT. It helped build up the hype for the UK’s upcoming Takeover event as well as give us some great matches. The only thing that’s been bugging me lately about NXT is that there doesn’t seem to be a cohesive timeline for the show. It tends to be match, match, promo/interview, match, and so on. This worked fine for the one-hour time slot on the Network but with two hours on television, it seems clunky.
Overall Grade: B+
