WWE NXT
Wednesday, March 20th
RESULTS:
*Adam Cole over Ricochet, Velveteen Dream, Matt Riddle, and Aleister Black
-This was a one-match show to determine who would face Johnny Gargano at TakeOver: New York for the vacant NXT title.
-Paul Levesque came out to begin the show and announce that Ciampa had undergone neck surgery. For context, this was taped on Wednesday, March 13th. Levesque announced the fatal five-way tonight with the winner facing Johnny Gargano in a 2/3 Falls match at TakeOver for the vacant title.
-They ran a video on Tommaso Ciampa with footage of him undergoing neck surgery. They interviewed Dr. Jeffrey Dugas, who is the co-medical director of the WWE and did surgery on Ciampa’s knee and shoulders prior to this operation. He said the neck issues had been longstanding for Ciampa but got a point that this surgery had to be done. The x-ray revealed that the spinal cord was being compressed with another surgeon explaining that one bad hit to the head could paralyze him with his neck in the state it was. They said it can take most people up to one year to fully heal.
-It was a very emotional video with Ciampa in the hospital with his wife and baby.
-Cathy Kelley got comments from Kona Reeves, Io Shirai, and Kairi Sane about the main event match. Bianca Belair confronted Shirai and Sane and was back to the heel version of her character. She knocked into Sane’s shoulder as she walked off and Shirai held Sane back.
-The Forgotten Sons were interviewed by Kelley to tee up the finals of the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic against Ricochet and Aleister Black, which airs next week.
-The main event went 14:44 with Adam Cole pinning Ricochet after hitting him with the Last Shot from behind.
-It was a fast-paced match with tons of saves and teasing each person with the victory throughout the match. The notable points including Riddle having the Bro Mission on Black and Cole and both times Velveteen Dream broke it up to heighten their issue. There was a big striking sequence and all five went down as the audience cheered on. The ending featured a cavalcade of moves with the Black Mass to Riddle, Dream Valley Driver to Black, Dream took a ‘rana from Ricochet to the others on the floor, Ricochet hit a shooting star press onto Riddle and Cole caught Ricochet with the Last Shot.
-The main event was nonstop action, reminiscent of the Halftime Heat match and the audience provided a lot for the 15 minutes they went.
