NXT JUNE 14TH 2017
Drew McIntyre vs. Rob Ryzin
Drew played nice to start, until Ryzin shoved him. After that, this was mostly Drew, aside from one superkick from Ryzin and a slap which made him mad again, finishing him off with the running sick kick. This was the flatest of Drew’s matches since coming back, a quiet crowd didn’t exactly help either.
Replay of the segment two weeks ago when Iconic were filming at the Performance Center and Ember signed her medical release form in front of them. They then announced Ember versus Peyton for next week.
Highlight video for Aleister Black.
The Authors Of Pain vs. Anthony Dominguez and Wilmer Freyday
Interesting twist, as Akam wrestled the entire match two on one, while Ellering stood outside talking with Rezar and writing something down for him. Akam threw the one guy over the top onto the ramp and hit the other with a pumphandle DVD for the win.
After the match, Ellering had Rezar throw the first guy back into the ring so the AOP could hit the Super Collider. Ellering then said Heavy Machinery were as foolish as they were large, saying the AOP were undefeated for one year, they beat American Alpha, TM61, The Revival and DIY and they wanted to write the first chapter in their book of dominance, but Heavy Machinery wouldn’t even make a footnote. Heavy Machinery came out and the two teams squared off, but Ellering called the AOP off. So it seems they’re going straight to this match. I guess there’s nobody else to go to, but it seems a little sooner than would be ideal.
Recap of Roode interrupting Strong last week and a tweet from Strong about the situation was shown.
Profile video on Sonya Deville.
Velveteen Dream vs. Raul Mendoza
Pretty good. Mendoza, who was Bryan Kendrick’s first round CWC opponent, got to look competitive and showed some flashes. Velveteen isn’t all the way there yet, but he’s got star potential. He hit a rolling DVD and the flying elbow off the top to pick up the win. I’m already into Velveteen and hopefully there’s more to come once he’s put in with the Ohnos and Strongs of NXT, because the potential’s there.
Recap of Ohno stopping Itami after he’d hit three GTSes on Lorcan. Kayla interviewed Ohno, who said he didn’t know where his friendship with Itami stood, but he shouldn’t have sunk to his level and pushed him last week. Ohno said Itami wasn’t a bad guy, he was frustrated and he needed to get over it. Ohno said he’d be facing Aleister Black next week and he’d lead by example.
Ember Moon highlight video, including clips of Asuka injuring her shoulder.
NXT WOMENS TITLE, TRIPLE THREAT ELIMINATION MATCH
Asuka (c) vs. Nikki Cross vs. Ruby Riot
Nikki came out without an entrance. It seems like her and Sanity are being booked more and more like separate entities, she doesn’t come out with them and vice versa. Whether that’s just the case while she’s in the title picture or they plan to use her separately going forward we’ll see. She was still announced as being part of Sanity, they’re just not on screen together much lately. They referenced that Asuka was 174-0 after Takeover and had surpassed Goldberg’s record, which I’m pretty sure they haven’t mentioned before in those terms. After a frenetic start, Asuka tried to take out Riot while she was pinning Cross in a callback to the Takeover finish, but Riot caught the kick this time. Cross hit a fisherman’s neckbreaker on Asuka at one point, but Asuka rolled to the floor to avoid being pinned. Cross would end up eliminating Riot with a hanging swinging neckbreaker after Asuka had tried to break up a move by Riot, leaving Cross and Asuka as the final two.
Things seemed to pick up a bit when it was down to Asuka and Cross. Asuka avoided the hanging swinging neckbreaker and hit a hip attack off the apron. They fought near the stage and went backstage, causing the referee to throw the match out and call it a no contest. Asuka and Cross were then shown fighting outside, backstage and back into the arena. They fought into the tech area, with Cross hitting a crossbody which sent Asuka and herself through two tables. Quiet crowd hurt this match too, so them doing something different and non-conclusive at the end was actually a welcome move.
RECOMMENDED VIEWING: A skippable episode really. The main event and Velveteen Dream’s squash match were both watchable enough, but nothing spectacular.
NXT WEEK: Ember versus Peyton, Ohno versus Black and Sonya Deville in action.