NXT JUNE 7TH
Heavy Machinery vs. Victor Andrews and Lars Sullivan
Sullivan you may, but probably don’t, remember as Dylan Miley who they debuted on April 12th against DIY. He beat up his partner for losing the match and then apologised to him on a video they put up on Youtube. And he has giant hands. Anyway, they changed his name, which is a good move. Dylan Miley is not an intimidating name. So, before the math started, they gave Andrews an inset promo, saying he was nervous about teaming with Sullivan, but this was the biggest opportunity of his life so he didn’t have time to be nervous. Sullivan then stuck one of his giant hands on his shoulder and asked if he was ready. Some fascinating body shapes in this match, between Sullivan and Dozovic. This told a similar story to the DIY match. Sullivan was doing fine against Tucker, Andrews asked to be tagged in and got dominated, Heavy Machinery won with the Compactor and Sullivan destroyed Andrews after the match, finishing with a Canadian backbreaker submission. This is an efficient way of doing things. You give a tag team a win and you get Sullivan’s character over in the process. Win win.
Recap of No Way Jose’s return last week. They showed Christy interviewing Sanity as they came backstage, with Dain saying nobody was safe, especially Jose.
Strong came out to the ring. He said the past year or so had been a roller coaster for him and thanked the fans for their response to sharing his story with them. Strong said his life had never been better, but there was one thing he wanted and needed and that was the NXT Championship. He said his family motivated him to be more inspired, more passionate and more driven than ever to become champion, which brought out Roode, who pretended to cry. Roode said Strong had a lot of good things going for him, he was winning matches, finally, he had a marginally hot fiance and his son was somewhat normal. He claimed Strong wanted to play the Bobby Roode lottery, but things didn’t work like that in his NXT. He called Strong a good hand, told him to stay in his lane and maybe one day they could take a selfie together so he could show his son who the champ was. Roode told Strong not to play the Bobby Roode lottery because he wasn’t man enough to win and left, leaving Strong looking frustrated. Roode was great here and hopefully people get behind Strong because there’s the makings of a strong feud here.
Nikki Cross was shown on the roof, ranting about Asuka and Ruby and telling them let’s play again.
Another Paul Ellering and his book video. Heavy Machinery, Sabatelli and Moss and Sanity were shown, before clips of The Authors Of Pain, with Ellering ending by saying their fate was in their hands.
Sarah Logan vs. Peyton Royce w/Billie Kay
This was solid and Logan looked pretty good. Nigel was building her up as a tough competitor on commentary and she got a bit of a comeback in, before Royce stepped things up and won with a nice looking fisherman’s suplex.
Recap of Almas’s upset defeat to Cezar Bononi last week. Almas was then shown leaving the show with three women, ignoring Christy’s attempts at an interview. He ran into another woman, who wasn’t identified, but was Thea Trinidad. She asked if this was who Almas was now and slapped him.
Hideo Itami vs. Oney Lorcan
They showed Christy interviewing Hideo earlier in the day, saying he wasn’t considering going back to Japan because of one loss and he wasn’t done yet. This was going on fairly low key and a bit underwhelming, until they all of a sudden stepped up the intensity and Lorcan threw in some hard strikes and a brutal looking somersault dive off the top to the floor, which woke up the crowd. Itami sold like he was hurt but caught Lorcan with a kick as the referee was holding him back. Itami put together a flurry of strikes and hit three GTSes, before Ohno ran out to stop him. Itami shoved Ohno and Ohno shoved him back, with Itami backing down and Ohno checking on Lorcan.
McIntyre hype video.
Christy interviewed Ember about the Womens Title match next week. Ember said she lost her first opportunity and she missed out on her second opportunity due to injury, so she needed time out to re-evaluate who she was and what she wanted. Ember referenced her run-in with Billie and Peyton, but she’d be watching next week and her next opportunity would be the opportunity.
No Way Jose vs. Killian Dain
Dain has his own theme and I don’t know what to make of it. It’s basically Sanity plus flutes and panpipes. Young and Wolfe came out with Dain, but went to the back. Like Dain’s theme, I’m not really sure what to make of the match. It wasn’t great and I don’t think these two made for great opponents. Dain controlled things for most of it, before Jose escaped the Ulster Plantation. Jose would hit a TKO for two and set up for his wind-up punch, but Dain hit a headbutt to block. Dain then hit a Jon Woo dropkick and the Ulster Plantation for the win. Not a hot finish to an otherwise decent show.
RECOMMENDED VIEWING: This was on the way to a good all round episode of NXT. From the opener to Itami and Lorcan you had solid matches and story progression. The main event was the only thing on the show that really underdelivered. Itami/Lorcan and the Strong/Roode segment were the highlights, but the opener was effectively done as well.
NXT WEEK: Asuka versus Ruby versus Nikki in an elimination match for the Womens Title and Drew McIntyre in action.