NXT AUGUST 14TH 2019
Forgotten Sons vs. Breezango
This was a good little opener and an impressive return for Fandango in particular. “-blank- looks better than ever” is pretty common announcer-speak when putting over somebody on their return, but they might have had at least a bit of a point saying it here, because Fandango seemed to be more trimmed down than ever and busted out a somersault plancha at one point which I don’t remember him doing too regularly. Ryker got involved twice and got thrown out after getting caught by the referee the second time, leading to Breezango getting the fall on Blake with a slingshot elbow drop from Fandango with Blake across Breeze’s knees. Forgotten Sons losing here is not a great sign for them, which is a shame, because they’re working hard to un-make-up people’s minds about them.
Recap of Dream retaining at Takeover. Cathy interviewed Dunne afterwards, who said he would have won if not for Dream stopping the referee’s count. Dunne said he’d do whatever it takes to take the title from Dream.
They replayed the video from last week of the Breakout Tournament so far, ahead of the final.
Corey Taylor from Slipknot enjoyed Takeover and also has an album.
Street Profits versus Undisputed Era recap. Fish and O’Reilly were shown backstage post match looking for Regal and Cathy interviewed them, with O’Reilly complaining that the illegal man was pinned.
We got a video package on Io Shirai and her recent change of character.
Recap of Baszler and Mia, with Cathy asking Baszler if anyone had pushed her as hard as Mia, but Shayna pretty much blew her off.
Gargano and Cole got the Takeover main event highlights treatment.
The last video from Takeover was the brawl between Dain and Riddle, with a match between the two announced for next week.
NXT BREAKOUT TOURNAMENT FINAL
Jordan Myles vs. Cameron Grimes
This whole tournament, Angel Garza aside, has played out to a pretty underwhelming reaction and this was no different, which has made this whole endeavour really forgettable. I’d expected that, because it was a Takeover crowd and because it was in a city that’s usually known for having decent crowds that there’d be more interest here, even if it was purely from people who recognised ACH and Trevor Lee. But really, there was next to nothing of that. People liked the impressive moves towards the end, which I guess was a constant with the Toronto crowd for Summerslam too and there was an incredibly token “This Is Awesome” chant after minutes of near silence which is always fun, but overall the crowd not being into this made it hard to get invested in. Myles won with the 450, so he gets a title shot of his choosing, hopefully after they’ve done something to make people care, because this tournament was not it.
RECOMMENDED VIEWING: Breezango’s return was fun.
NXT WEEK: Killian Dain versus Matt Riddle