NXT SEPTEMBER 20TH 2017

The show opened with a graphic for Bobby Heenan.

Johnny Gargano vs. Tino Sabbatelli w/Riddick Moss
This came out of Gargano beating Moss last week, with Tino issuing a challenge to Gargano in a promo on WWE.com, which they showed here. If we’re keeping score, Sabbatelli showed me more than Moss did last week. He seems comfortable personality wise and did fine wrestling wise too. Gargano won this one a little more decisively than he did last week, with the Gargano Escape, although Sabbatelli took most of the match.

Strong spoke with Regal in his office about beating Roode and wanting a title shot against McIntyre. Regal agreed with him and said it’d happen in two weeks time.

Recap of Asuka vacating the NXT Women’s Title two weeks ago. Sonya was interviewed about the situation, claiming that Asuka had never stepped in the ring with her because she knew that if she did, there’d be no undefeated streak. Now that Asuka was gone, the title was as good as hers and if anyone had a problem with that, they could put their hair up and square up.

Lacey Evans vs. Bianca Belair
Belair dominated the majority of the match here. Evans got to make a brief comeback, but this was mostly about establishing Belair. She won after the ponytail whip which got a big reaction, probably because it sounds like it really hurts, before hitting an Alleyoop for the pin. A little slow paced, but solid.

Aleister Black came out to address the crowd. He said it had been a fifteen year journey to NXT and in those fifteen years, he traveled the world and experienced a lot. He talked about his tattoos before saying his journey in NXT was far from done and knew what he needed to do next. The Velveteen Dream, of all people, interrupted. Dream claimed Black was being blinded by his light now. He said Black was in pain and his biggest problem was fear. He was afraid to show emotion and he was afraid of the light. He knew Black had a heart, it was just in the wrong place. Black spinkicked the mic out of Dream’s hands and sat cross legged. Dream then got down on his knees in front of him and crawled back out of the ring seductively, which got quite the reaction from the crowd. This is a weird choice for a feud and a weird segment to start it, but I want to see the match.

Recap of Sullivan attacking No Way Jose last month and the three on one handicap match from two weeks ago, where Jose made the save for the three jobbers after the match but Sullivan hit his finish again.

Dakota Kai cut a promo, saying anyone who saw her in the Mae Young Classic knew how tough she was and she wasn’t afraid to kick heads in to make the NXT Women’s Championship her’s.

No Way Jose vs. Lars Sullivan
Jose tried to come at Sullivan from the opening bell, but it didn’t have much of an effect and pretty soon, Sullivan was completely on top. Jose did try and fight back late on, but again he wasn’t able to take Sullivan down. He hit a diving headbutt off the top and his side slam type move for the decisive win.

Tyler Bate and Trent Seven vs. Bobby Fish and Kyle O’Reilly w/Adam Cole
The crowd were behind Moustache Mountain here. I don’t get the impression that Fish and O’Reilly are really that over out of the gate with the Full Sail NXT crowd, which is interesting. Fish and O’Reilly isolated Seven for a while, with Cole getting involved to distract the referee at one point to allow Fish to tackle Seven into the barricade. Bate eventually got the hot tag and it lead to a really good finishing stretch to the match. Fish and O’Reilly hit Chasing The Dragon to Bate, who just about got his foot onto the bottom rope. It really looked like he was too far away, so the fact he got there was actually pretty impressive. Bate avoided a second one and Seven got the tag, running wild briefly. Cole pulled Bate off the apron though and hit a superkick, leaving Seven two on one to take the legsweep/flying knee combo for the pin. Interesting too that they finished the match with that and not Chasing The Dragon. Really strong match.

As Cole, Fish and O’Reilly celebrated, McIntyre came out, but the three bailed when he got in the ring and left through the crowd. Sanity appeared from a curtain behind them though, which was actually a cool surprise and they brawled to close the show, with McIntyre at least getting one shot in on O’Reilly so he wasn’t a proverbial third wheel. I guess it also confirms that Sanity are going to be faces going forward.

 

RECOMMENDED VIEWING: The streak continues, with another really good main event and a strong segment to close the show. Everything else on the show was good for what it was as well, so all in all a solid hour’s TV.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *