NXT’s began with the NXT title match and the announcement that they would be commercial-free for the first thirty-minutes of the program.
ADAM COLE VS MATT RIDDLE FOR THE NXT TITLE
Riddle quickly hit a series of rolling gut wrench suplexes. Cole caught Riddle with a kick from the floor and sent Riddle into the steps. Cole hit an Ushigoroshi in the ring for a two-count.
Ranallo points out Cole is an avid scuba driver and conditioning won’t be an issue. Riddle started a comeback landing a Bro-ton and PK. Riddle continued with a Northern Lights Bomb and a big bridging German suplex for two. Cole was on Riddle’s back and turned it into a backstabber.
Riddle hit a release German and Cole came back with the Ushigoroshi for a huge near fall and the place was going crazy.
Riddle went for the Floating Bro and landed on Cole’s knees. Cole capitalized and hit the Panama Sunrise for a big near fall. He attempted another one, was caught and hit with the Bro 2 Sleep, knee strike and Floating Bro that Cole kicked out from.
Riddle was stopped with a superkick, Cole hit another Panama Sunrise but missed the Last Shot and was placed in the Bro Mission. Cole countered out of the hold, Riddle applied the Fujiwara armbar to the injured arm, Cole escaped and Riddle applied to the other arm.
Cole escaped, hit him with the cast and the Last Shot to win.
WINNER: Adam Cole at 13:50 to retain the NXT title
This was fantastic, one of the better matches on WWE television this year. They had phenomenal timing and felt like one of the best matches either have had in NXT. This was outstanding. You could argue they did too much given the kick-outs and escapes from their key finishes as this is a match you would hope they re-visit.
Finn Balor entered to a massive reaction confronting Adam Cole. He announced that he is NXT and Cole left with the title.
Velveteen Dream came out and said the Undisputed Era tried to take away “the climax of life” and said he has never complained about taking on more than one man at a time. He issued a challenge for the North American title against Roderick Strong.
It was announced that Drew Gulak will defend the NXT Cruiserweight championship against Lio Rush on next week’s show.
IO SHIRAI VS MIA YIM
Yim was in control and took Shirai to the floor. They went to break with picture-in-picture as Shirai took over. Shirai did a handstand and came down with her knees onto Yim’s sternum. Yim stopped her with an overhead belly-to-belly suplex.
Shirai hit the tiger feint kick (619) and a springboard dropkick for a two-count. Shirai kicked out from the Code Blue and rolled to the floor allowing Yim to hit a suicide dive.
Shirai hit a superplex and won with the moonsault from the top.
WINNER: Io Shirai at 14:47
This was another good match and a much stronger outing for Yim than the match with Shayna Baszler at TakeOver in August. Shirai has tremendous charisma.
Kevin Nash and Scott Hall were shown in the front row.
There was a promo for Tegan Nox.
JOHNNY GARGANO VS SHANE THORNE
Thorne’s first big sequence saw him land a cannonball in the corner and an Akira Taye style powerbomb for a two-count.
The announcers conveyed that this is Thorne’s biggest test and he’s having the performance of his life against Gargano.
Gargano caught him with the poison ‘rana and a DIY superkick to win.
WINNER: Johnny Gargano at 8:58
It was a hot match for the time given with more emphasis on Thorne rather than Gargano. It was a good showcase for Thorne, who performed well and then fell in the end.
SHAYNA BASZLER VS CANDICE LeRAE FOR THE NXT WOMEN’S TITLE
It was Baszler in control at the start, LeRae stopped her on the apron and hit three suicide dives in succession. LeRae was favoring her left arm, which was wrapped up at the elbow.
They had several commercial breaks the picture-in-picture handling of them.
Baszler applied the Kirifuda Clutch, which LeRae rolled on top to turn into a cover. LeRae was out and attempted a quebrada and landed back in the Kirifuda Clutch, Baszler switched arms and LeRae tried to get to her feet and fell back down.
LeRae struggled and finally tapped.
WINNER: Shayna Baszler at 14:48 to retain the NXT women’s title
The audience was behind LeRae and believing they would see a title change and LeRae overcoming the big obstacle but fell in the end.
It was a dramatic women’s match, I would not put it at the level of LeRae’s match with Io Shirai in August but this one had the high stakes and it was a very effective match.
This was the lone finish I was somewhat surprised by and thought it was a decent possibility that Baszler would lose.
Stephanie McMahon, Mark Henry, and Alundra Blayze were shown applauding the match from the crowd.
A promo ran to confirm WALTER vs. KUSHIDA for next week’s episode.
PETE DUNNE VS DANNY BURCH
Burch kicked out from a sit-out powerbomb. They each went for uppercuts and injured their arms in the process.
Burch hit a pop-up powerbomb, knee strike and draping DDT off the top for a two-count.
They traded strikes ending with Dunne snapping the fingers and hitting the Bitter End for the victory.
WINNER: Pete Dunne in 7:12
It is notable that even the “quick” matches are getting longer match times and this was the shortest match on the show but didn’t feel rushed.
Damian Priest showed up in the ring and attacked Dunne from behind to kickstart a program.
The Undisputed Era was backstage, Adam Cole said, “screw Finn Balor” and the goal to make sure the prophecy remains with Kyle O’Reilly and Bobby Fish retaining their tag titles.
The Street Profits entered through the crowd as Wale performed their entrance. All the fans had red cups, and this looked fantastic.
KYLE O’REILLY & BOBBY FISH VS THE STREET PROFITS FOR THE NXT TAG TITLES
Fish and O’Reilly got the advantage of Montez Ford. Ranallo compared Bobby Fish to Bobby Fisher but his chessboard is in the ring.
Ford was double-teamed as Undisputed Era had the ring cut off with Angelo Dawkins reaching out from the corner. They had the heat for a long time, including the entire commercial interruption.
Ford sent Fish over the top with a back body drop and hit a uranage to O’Reilly and attempted to tag but Fish pulled Dawkins to the floor.
Dawkins received the hot tag and fired up on both. O’Reilly leap-frogged allowing Dawkins to spear Fish. Dawkins was in the corner and Fish attacked his knee in the corner as Dawkins went down.
O’Reilly came off the top with a knee drop onto the injured heel and applied the kneebar. Fish applied a jumping guillotine on Dawkins and then crashed on top of O’Reilly and Dawkins to break the submission.
Fish dove off the top missing Dawkins and Ford landed a splash off the top for a two-count. O’Reilly chop blocked Dawkins’ bad knee while he had Fish on his shoulders.
Ford connected with a top con giro over the corner post on all three. Ford climbed to the top and was knocked down by Roderick Strong and Dawkins speared Strong.
Ford was left alone and was hit with the high-low combination and they won.
WINNERS: Kyle O’Reilly & Bobby Fish at 21:05 to retain the NXT tag titles
This was a fantastic main event and on par with the opener between Adam Cole and Matt Riddle.
I felt this was the best match from The Street Profits with a tremendous match layout and a hot crowd.
Adam Cole came out and held up the title. Tommaso Ciampa walked out and stared a hole into Cole while fixated on his title and that ended the show.
