NXT SEPTEMBER 11TH 2019
The show began with Rhea Ripley arriving at the arena.
Damian Priest vs. Boa
This seemed to suffer from the late in the taping crowd, but the fans did at least try and get into Boa during his very brief comeback attempt. Other than that, this was a convincing win for Priest, winning with the Reckoning. I’m pretty sure Priest is a heel, but outside of grabbing someone’s ears during a match, it’s really hard to tell, especially when all he’s doing at the moment is random matches.
Video hyping Dream versus Strong next week.
Gargano came out, to address his future on NXT. He got a mostly positive reaction coming out, with a long Johnny Wrestling chant then starting that seemed to pipe down the couple of people booing him. Gargano thanked the fans and said he loved everything about NXT, before being interrupted by Shane Thorne as he was teasing announcing his decision. Thorne complained that this was more time was being wasted on Johnny, before telling him NXT was going to be just fine without him and with him in the spotlight it was going to be even better. Gargano responded to being asked to leave by saying he wasn’t going anywhere and laying him out with a superkick, before just about drawing ‘NXT 4 L’ in the air. The air drawing needs some work, but I’m excited for a Gargano/Thorne match and feud.
Forgotten Sons got a short video package.
Pete Dunne vs. Angel Garza
This was a fun pairing and while the match never really kicked into the next gear, it was a nice little TV match, with two people the crowd are clearly into and, at least to an NXT crowd, are still fresh. Garza still has some room to improve overall, but he’s gotten over with the NXT crowd in quicker fashion than many wrestlers more experienced and with more name value have before him, so he’s doing something right. Dunne got the win with an armbar and a finger snap to force the tap.
A Street Profits promo from Monday saw them talk about being on Raw in Madison Square Garden, but the only thing missing was the NXT Tag Team Titles. Ford said they’d make a live statement on the first show on USA, by showing up and taking back their titles.
Raul Mendoza vs. Cameron Grimes
Fast paced match, with Mendoza getting the majority of the offence, but Grimes stealing the win with the jumping double stomp.
Candice went to Regal in his office, asking why Io was being rewarded. Regal didn’t disagree and added Candice to the number one contenders match next week, before suggesting that if Rhea beat Baszler he might make it a five way.
Video on Dakota Kai, promoting her return from injury.
Rhea Ripley vs. Shayna Baszler
As a match, this felt a little flat, given how impactful Rhea’s debut was. On pure personality, they’ve surely got a big match on their hands between these two, but this wasn’t really it. It didn’t help that, after Shayna was dropped face first on the steps, Marina and Jessamyn came out for the run-in. Rhea dealt with Marina, then blocked a chair shot from Baszler and hit her with the chair herself, resulting in the DQ win for Shayna. The crowd did react well to Rhea post match, so clearly the DQ worked, but I’m not sure it was worth doing this match now for. I assumed the reason for doing it so soon was to give Ripley a win, but evidently not.
The show ended with an Undisputed Era promo about next week and Strong’s chance to fulfill the prophecy of them holding all the titles, with Cole saying when they had all the titles that no-one would be able to stop them and that was undisputed.
RECOMMENDED VIEWING: Nothing really to seek out this week, besides the Gargano and Thorne segment.
NXT WEEK: Dream versus Strong for the North American Title in the first live episode on USA and Matt Riddle against Killian Dain in a Street Fight on the second hour on the WWE Network.