NXT JULY 19TH 2017
Ember Moon vs. Ruby Riot
Crowd were split between the two. They ended up having a really fun match, starting out very even and building into what would have been a suitable main event. This was Riot’s best showing so far and a bit of a return to form for Ember, who very clearly does her best work in the ring. Riot got a couple of near falls, before Ember strung together a couple of really brutal looking shots to the face with a roundhouse elbow and a running dropkick, leading to hitting the Eclipse for the win.
Ohno was interviewed earlier in the day in the locker room, with Itami interrupting to ask if Ohno had asked for the match that had apparently been booked between them. Ohno admitted he had and said he told Itami he was going to take action. Itami said something to Ohno in Japanese and kicked a bin on his way out of the door.
They showed another quick video of Street Profits goofing around at a live event.
Danny Burch vs. Oney Lorcan
Interestingly, they gave this a short build-up before going to break, showing quick highlights of both guys. Which I guess goes to show, they see the value in these guys, even if they are there to make others look good most of the time. They started out wrestling, but it didn’t take long for Burch to get fed up of that and get physical. Burch hit a Tower Of London, before Lorcan got back into things. They traded shots at the end and the crowd, who weren’t into things early, were suddenly going nuts, which I guess is the story of a lot of Lorcan’s matches. Burch ended up with a busted nose, which seems to happen in Lorcan matches quite a bit too. Lorcan ended up getting the win with a rolling half crab. Once they stepped up the intensity this won people over. Lorcan offered his hand afterwards and Burch accepted, but pulled him back in and asked for one more match, which Lorcan accepted.
Dain was shown outside the arena.
No Way Jose vs. Cezar Bononi
They showed Bononi’s surprise win over Almas two months ago. Having a guy win and not show up for two months is probably not ideal, but obviously it was to further Almas’s character as much as it was giving Bononi something. At least they replayed it though. Bononi got a brief spell of offence in here, but Jose ultimately won fairly comfortably with a pop up punch.
The reason for all this became a little clearer after the match, as Almas showed up at ringside with his lady friend and attacked Bononi. Almas then dared Jose back into the ring, but Almas quickly slid out of the ring and left with his unidentified friend.
Drew was shown backstage ahead of the main event.
#1 CONTENDERS MATCH
Drew McIntyre vs. Killian Dain
The winner of this would face Roode at Takeover Brooklyn 3. Commentary covered that both were still undefeated in NXT coming into this. Dain still has his weird Sanity remix theme with the Irish flute which is just too silly. I’m not particularly keen on Drew’s hard rock plus bagpipes theme, but it’s less jarring than Dain’s at least. Not sure where this was in the tapings, but this was what I’m terming No Wind In The (Full) Sail. Zero heat and it completely hurt the match. Dain isn’t particularly over, but I’m reluctant to fault either guy for this because this is becoming a trend. Drew tried to pick things up towards the finish, but when Drew is hitting an air raid crash onto someone Dain’s size and nobody reacts, you’re fighting a losing battle. Dain got two counts with a Vader Bomb and a second rope fisherman’s suplex, before Drew hit the Future Shock DDT and Dain kicked out at one. Drew followed up with the Claymore and Dain pretty much got straight back up, so Drew hit a second for the pin. They did their best to protect Dain in losing, but the match just fell flat sadly. Drew shouted out to Roode after the match that it wasn’t his NXT anymore and he was coming for his title.
RECOMMENDED VIEWING: Ember and Ruby was a lot of fun and up there with the better women’s matches on NXT recently. Lorcan versus Burch was solid as well, with the hard hitting finish.
NXT WEEK: Hideo Itami versus Kassius Ohno.