Back in Full Sail University once again this week, NXT did a lot to build up to the NXT Takeover: New Orleans event taking place before WrestleMania in two weeks. General Manager William Regal appeared on this show several times tonight after making a major announcement at the start of the show. After promising to change NXT forever, William Regal has done just that, and some new faces have officially arrived on NXT as well. Before we get to any of that though, some big news came right off that bat.
Tommaso Ciampa arrived to Full Sail University incredibly flustered as he met William Regal outside of the building. He mentioned that Johnny Gargano has attacked him several times and even showed up to his house at 3am recently. Regal decided to have the two officially settle their differences in an unsanctioned match at NXT Takeover: New Orleans. If Gargano wins the match, he will be reinstated on NXT, but if not, he will remain banished forever.
As mentioned Regal promised a major announcement for the show, and that announcement came in the form of a brand new North American Championship coming arriving to NXT at Takeover: New Orleans. This brought out EC3 who made his NXT debut to a standing ovation from the Full Sail crowd. EC3 was elated to find out that Regal had created a title just for himself, only that is not what’s happening here. Regal said that EC3 is talented, but no one is handed anything in NXT. Instead, EC3 will compete for the title in a ladder match against five other competitors in New Orleans to crown the first-ever North American Champion. Undeterred, EC3 promised to win the match because he is in the top 1% of the industry.
TM61 appeared in a taped video filmed at the WWE Performance Center and vowed to get better and improve. Their video was interrupted by a shouting match between Ember Moon and Shayna Baszler. The two then began to brawl before other members of the PC were able to separate them.
The Authors of Pain vs. The Street Profits –
This was a semi-final match in the the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic tournament. It saw The Authors of Pain work a great deal of this match as Akam and Rezar beat down Angelo Dawkins and Montez Ford in the early stages of the match. They destroyed the team with some strikes for a while. Eventually, the Profits did receive some momentum after Dawkins was tagged in and slammed down the two giant men. It seemed like the two may have actually had a shot at winning… that is, until Montez Ford got involved.
Ford was so excited at the thought of winning the match that he picked up his signature cup and began to dance around the ring. He then bumped into the Author’s manager, Paul Ellering, who sternly stared at the young wrestler. Ford offered Ellering a sip out of his cup, but Ellering swiped the cup out of his hands and sent it crashing onto the floor. Ford was outraged and began to intimidate the old man up the ramp, but this proved to be a distraction for Dawkins. As this was going on, the Authors recuperated and hit the Last Chapter on Dawkins to win the match.
Winners: The Authors of Pain
Backstage, William Regal confirmed that the second participant in the ladder match at Takeover will be Adam Cole. Before he could leave, The Velveteen Dream arrived and insisted that Regal put him in the match as well. Regal acknowledged that the Dream has been impressive lately, so with little hesitation, he officially declared him to be the third member of the match.
Lars Sullivan vs. John Silver –
It has literally been months since the large monster known as Lars Sullivan has been seen on NXT programming. Luckily, he has returned to do what he does best: absolutely destroy every individual smaller than he is. In this case, Sullivan went up against a skinny, local enhancement talent named John Silver. Unsurprisingly, this did not end well for Silver.
Lars immediately sent him crashing down to the ring canvas and repeatedly began to strike him while he was down. Silver was thrown into the corner for an avalanche before Sullivan hit a powerslam on his already exhausted opponent. Interestingly enough, the large lad named Lars went up top for a high-risk maneuver and hit a huge diving headbutt on Silver. That was all that he needed to hit the Freak Accident and give himself the win.
Winner: Lars Sullivan
Not too much longer after this, Regal appeared backstage and came face to face with Sullivan. He welcomed him back and put him in the ladder match at Takeover. Lars said that he wanted to face Killian Dain, to which Regal responded by inserting Dain into the ladder match as well. He also said that Sullivan will face Dain in a singles match on NXT next week.
Dakota Kai came out for a match that never got started after footage from outside of Full Sail University showed Andrade “Cien” Almas savagely beating Aleister The announcers had been wondering why Black was late to the show all night, but it turns out that Almas had ambushed his challenger at NXT Takeover: New Orleans. Almas threw him all over the campus, and also tossed him into a cooler and into a door before dragging him to ringside in front of the live crowd while Zelina Vega cheered him on the whole time. Almas forced Black into the ring and held the NXT Championship over him as the crowd booed.
SAnitY vs. “The Bruiserweight” Pete Dunne & Roderick Strong –
The makeshift tag team of Pete Dunne and Roderick Strong managed to score a win over Danny Burch and Oney Lorcan on NXT last week. This time, they had to deal with former NXT Tag Team Champions Eric Young and Alexander Wolfe of SAnitY. The winners of this match would advance to the finals of this year’s Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic tournament.
Each member of the two teams began to take turns fighting each other, which caused the referee to separate them both on two different occasions. Dunne gained the upper hand by taking control of Young’s arm and working it over for much of the early stages of this match. Young struggled to escape Dunne and make a tag to Wolfe, and he was unable to do so for quite some time. However, Young was finally able to fight out of a failed kimura attempt from Dunne.
Seeing what Young had in mind, Dunne went right after Strong and both men tagged in their tag team partners as the same exact time. Wolfe and Strong went back on fourth with blows to the head for quite a bit, much to the delight of the audience in attendance. Wolfe then hit a European uppercut on Strong, but the latter retaliated with a knee. Wolfe bounced off of the ropes and hit a Death Valley Driver. He made the tag back to Young and they worked together to nearly beat Strong, but Dunne ran back in the ring and broke up the pin with just moments to spare.
Wolfe tried to go for a top rope maneuver, but Dunne forearmed him. Young then tried to go for his own high-risk move until Strong caught him and attempted to hit a superplex on him instead. Eric Young sent Strong crashing down hard to the canvas before hitting an incredibly high elbow drop. This was not enough to put the former NXT Championship contender since Strong still found a way to kick out. Young was absolutely shocked that Strong was still able to fight.
Regardless, Strong continued to build momentum by hitting a backbreaker on Young before going for another pinfall attempt. Once again, the pin was broken up when Wolfe ran back in and saved Young. Wolfe was just about ready to suplex Dunne until Strong intervened and gave the German superstar the End of Heartache, taking care of Wolfe for the rest of the match. With just one more tag, Dunne was able to get the pin and score himself and Roddy a spot in the finals of the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic tournament.
Winners: Roderick Strong & Pete Dunne
Before the show went off the air, Cathy Kelley stood outside William Regal’s office hoping to get confirmation on the final participant of the ladder match at Takeover. Regal stated that he just finished signing the sixth competitor to the match and that he will be introduced soon. Moments later, Ricochet emerged from the office and simply stated “see you at Takeover.”
What to take away from this show, you may be asking? Well, we now know that the North American Championship will be coming to NXT very soon and it will be defended in a ladder match in New Orleans. EC3 and Ricochet have officially arrived in NXT as well, and also, stars like Lars Sullivan have returned to the program. Perhaps most importantly, Johnny Gargano now has a shot to get his job back by facing and defeating Tommaso Ciampa in what promises to be a thrilling match in New Orleans on April 7th.
Until then, The Authors of Pain and the team of Roderick Strong and Pete Dunne will face off next week in the finals of the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic tournament. Who will go on to face The Undisputed Era for the NXT Tag Team Championships at NXT Takeover: New Orleans, we should have that question answered very soon. I’ll see you NXT time!