Tonight’s edition of NXT was not much of a wrestling-heavy show. Most of the matches were meant to showcase some of the talent who will be involved in the matches at the upcoming Takeover show in Houston, but the show was headlined by a match featuring Roderick Strong taking on Adam Cole. One of my favorite acts started show off: Heavy Machinery.
Heavy Machinery vs. Kris Payne & Sean Maluta –
Otis Dozovic and Tucker Knight came down to the ring for another squash match against two random opponents. Tucker and Otis both beat down their opponents for a while. Payne and Maluta almost got no offense in during the match. Once Otis was tagged in, he surprised the crowd by doing the Worm before hitting an elbow drop. Once Tucker Knight came back in, he then hit a springboard elbow drop. Dozovic and Knight hit the Compactor on Maluta to get the win.
Winners: Heavy Machiner
Ember Moon appears backstage for an interview. She is asked about Mercedes Martinez saying that she cannot win “the big one” at Takeover. Ember challenges her to a match next week. It was not officially announced, but the match will likely take place soon.
Kairi Sane vs. Billie Kay –
This match was setup a few weeks ago when Sane taunted Kay and Peyton Royce backstage. Surprisingly, this match was much more evenly paced than some may believe. Sane caught Kay with a headscissors and a dropkick.
Kay did manage to fight back for a while, and she even put Sane in a Torture Rack. How often do we see one of those these days?
Sane then connected with some chops and a diving forearm before, of course, Peyton Royce tried to get involved in the match. Sane fought off the interference and proceeded to hit Billie Kay with the In-Sane Elbow to get another win heading in Takeover.
Winner: Kairi Sane
In William Regal’s office, Kassius Ohno enters and says that he believes that he deserves to be an NXT Championship contender. Ohno vows to prove himself by asking Regal for a match against Lars Sullivan at Takeover. With some brief hesitation, Regal makes the match official for the show.
A video package reminding fans what WarGames is was shown. The reintroduced the concept based on some footage of classic WCW matches featuring the double rings and cage was shown. The likes of Arn Anderson, Booker T, and Dustin Rhodes hyped up the brutality of the match. They also said that Dusty Rhodes, the creator of the match, would be delighted to see it return if he were still alive today.
Zelina Vega and Andrade “Cien” Almas partake in a brief interview. Vega says that she and Almas faced Drew McIntyre face to face like he wanted, but reminded fans that they beat him down before their contract signing took place last week. When asked what the relationship between herself and Almas really was, Vega quickly brushed the question off and proceeded to put over Almas once again. Almas himself finally spoke and vowed to win the NXT Championship at Takeover.
The Velveteen Dream vs. Cezar Bononi –
Once again, a quick and easy match meant to highlight our old pal Velvey before his match at Takeover. When the female referee tried to prevent Dream from getting himself disqualified, he nearly put his hands on her. The crowd in Full Sail were surprised to see this. No elbow drop from the Dream, but he still picked up the win courtesy of a Death Valley Driver.
Winner: The Velveteen Dream
After the match, Velvey “The Dragon” Dreamboat took the mic and warned Aleister Black that he will say his name at Takeover.
During their triple threat match for a chance to enter the Fatal 4-Way match for the NXT Women’s Championship at Takeover a few weeks ago, it is revealed that Sonya Deville injured Ruby Riot’s ankle. At the Performance Center, Riot receives word that her injury will be healed in two weeks. Deville then comes in and calls Ruby a coward. Ruby says that Sonya has been blaming everyone but herself for her loss in the match. Sonya says that she should’ve tapped out to her in order to avoid the injury, but Ruby proclaims that she should’ve kept the submission move applied to stop her from returning. They will have a match once Ruby has been cleared.
The Street Profits are hanging out at Full Sail University. A man in a suit walks by and the team have him hold their plastic cup before awarding him with some bling. Another man comes by with a suit meant to be delivered to Tino Sabbatelli. Montez Ford claims that he is Tino and takes the suit. He and Angelo Dawkins proceed to have a look at it before Sabbatelli and Riddick Moss find them with it. Tino says that the Profits can’t afford the suit and Moss warns them to stop touching what is theirs. Dawkins challenges them to a match next week.
Roderick Strong vs. Adam Cole –
This match comes to us after Strong turned down The Undisputed Era’s offer to join their group. Strong starts the match off by hitting some strikes, chops, and a few dropkicks on Cole. He sent Cole outside of the ring early on after he gave him a shove early in the match. Cole begins to take control after hitting a superkick.
Cole started to fight back against Roderick Strong with some stomps to the chest. He applied a headscissors on the mat, as well as a headlock. Strong began to get back to his feet with the crowd cheering him on. Strong then hit a pendulum backbreaker on Adam Cole.
They began chopping each other for a while until Roddy hurled Cole into the corner and charged after him with an explosive forearm. Roddy hit the backbreaker once again for a near fall in this match. The two then traded waistlocks before Cole hit a standing Shining Wizard for a near fall for himself.
Strong then took control of the match with some basic maneuvers, but it did not take too long for Cole to dish out another superkick. Strong was able to kick out of the superkick and this shocked Cole greatly. Roddy hit a jumping knee and tossed Cole into the corner post. He positioned Cole on top of the post and then proceeded to give him a wicked backbreaker onto the post!
Roderick definitely had the match won at this point. He struggled to make the cover, and once he finally got close to Cole, Bobby Fish and Kyle O’Reilly ran down to the ring and broke up the pin to end the match via disqualification.
Winner: Roderick Strong
The group stood in the ring for a bit until The Authors of Pain made their way down to the ring. SAnitY also came emerged from the crowd and stormed the ring. All nine men involved in the WarGames match at Takeover now stood in the ring and they proceeded to lay waste to one another. They all kicked, punched, charged, and dove onto each other. It was a bit like a child taking action figures and having them all ram into each other. Alexander Wolfe did a dive outside of the ring onto everybody as Cole and Strong continued to fight in the ring. Roderick Strong then hit a suplex on Cole from the corner post, causing them to land on the pile of bodies outside. With all of the carnage settled, the show went off the air.
Just one more show to go until NXT Takeover: WarGames in Houston. It appears as though the card for the show is set, so expect to see more hype for the event, which I suppose is never a bad idea on the final show before the big event. NXT has one more chance to get fans interested in WarGames, but if they can’t do that, fans can rest easy knowing that Tino Sabbatelli will be wrestling on next week’s show. I’ll see you NXT time!