Hello, friends! Welcome to another Friday Eve and another review of NXT from yours truly. We\u2019re plugging right along as we have about a month and a half away from WrestleMania and NXT Takeover: New York. We had a title change last night as well so let\u2019s see exactly what went down on the yellow brand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Aleister Black vs Roderick Strong<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n This match came about from the end of last week\u2019s episode as Strong had attacked Black. In this bout, Strong was throwing those backbreakers like nobody\u2019s business. There were a couple of near falls and a startling near-tumble off the top ropes from a superplex attempt, but thankfully they held on. A reverse Angle Slam almost handed the match to Strong, but Black hit the Black Mass and got himself the win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Afterwards, the rest of Undisputed Era showed up but they were quickly dispatched by Ricochet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Winner: Aleister Black<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Thoughts: It was a little bit of a sprint, but still a pretty good match. I\u2019ve enjoyed seeing Black on all three shows this week. I need Undisputed Era to step it up though. They keep getting their butts handed to them and it\u2019s starting to weaken the faction\u2019s clout.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Grade: B+<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Backstage: Shayna Baszler and her friends caused drama in the women\u2019s locker room. Bianca Belair said that Io Shirai has to wait her turn before getting a title shot. We\u2019re getting the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thoughts: I\u2019m glad to see they\u2019ve finally got the 3 MMA girls together on television regularly. I could see a rivalry forming between Shirai and Belair, with either of them holding the gold. I like tournaments; should be fun even though most of us will know all the results before it airs on the Network.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Grade: B<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Mia Yim vs Xia Li<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The two Mae Young Classic competitors started off with some basic mat wrestling. Li gave a flurry of kicks and had several roll-up attempts but Yim pulled off the win with a spinning backfist into a Protect Ya Neck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Afterwards, Shayna Baszler and crew attack Mia, whom some of the trainees try to help. Yim still ends up getting kneed in the face. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Winner: Mia Yim<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Thoughts: Li is improving so much as she gets more and more experience. She can only go up from here. I\u2019d like to see what she\u2019s able to do around next year\u2019s Royal Rumble.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Grade: C<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Backstage: Johnny Gargano tells Tommaso Ciampa that he doesn\u2019t need him and he\u2019ll defend his belt by himself. We see part of Matt Riddle\u2019s sit-down interview with Jeremy Borash, the whole of which is on YouTube. Mia Yim is getting a non-title match against Shayna Baszler next week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thoughts: Evil DIY is so cute. Also yes, this is their new tag team name and you can\u2019t tell me otherwise. I like Riddle, nothing new there. Aren\u2019t there easier ways to go about getting a match than taking a knee to the face? It\u2019s not even for the title!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Grade: Not Graded<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Johnny Gargano vs Velveteen Dream-NXT North American Championship <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The two started with some very nice mat grappling and then Dream slapped the absolute mess out of Gargano. Buckle up, fam! Dream got in some fantastic taunting even though he paid for it. Gargano\u2019s style started to turn more aggressive and he locked in an abdominal stretch that looked and sounded painful. A spinning DDT got a near fall for Dream, but he missed the Purple Rainmaker and ate a superkick instead. Dream hit the Dream Valley Driver from the turnbuckle but Gargano wisely rolled out of the way and superkicked Dream again when he tried to dive on him. The two got back in the ring and Dream hit two Dream Valley Drivers, followed up by the Purple Rainmaker and won the match. New NXT North American Champion!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Winner: Velveteen Dream<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Thoughts: That match was a little on the long side, but it was definitely worth it. I\u2019m so proud of Velveteen Dream, especially after watching him be so passionate about the business on Tough Enough. My only fault is with the booking of the North American Championships. It\u2019s still new and no one has really done anything significant with the belt yet. Hopefully Dream gets a well-booked title reign.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Grade: A<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Final Thoughts: We\u2019re still over a month from the next Takeover event, but I see we\u2019re planting the seeds now. I expect the Black\/Ricochet partnership to still have some tousles with the Undisputed Era, something to happen with the Sky Pirates and Bianca Belair, and even a continued feud between Velveteen Dream and Johnny Gargano.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Overall Grade: B+<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n -Wynter <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hello, friends! Welcome to another Friday Eve and another review of NXT from yours truly. We\u2019re plugging right along as we have about a month and a half away from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":10989,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,186,185],"tags":[187,188,47],"class_list":["post-11377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-featured","category-nxt","category-wwe","tag-nxt","tag-review","tag-wwe"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9jnWd-2Xv","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/DSGFmaoUEAAQn9a.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11377"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11377\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11378,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11377\/revisions\/11378"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}