This Week in NXT 7th Edition: News and Recap

Welcome to the 7th Edition of This Week In NXT. My apologies for missing last week. I had a busy week and didn’t catch NXT until late. Now I’m back and ready to talk about the black and yellow brand. Last weeks show was good. We had an awesome main event for the NXT tag-team titles between Danny Burch and Oney Lorcan vs The Street Profits. Both teams worked well together. The Street Profits retained. Io Shirai has turned a new leaf in NXT. She’s got some new music and told the crowd she doesn’t need them and she doesn’t need any friends. I like this new attitude from her. Let’s see where things go with her character in the coming weeks.

I finally have some NXT news for you guys. According to Fightful Select, Scott Hall will be at the performance center this week as a guest coach. The talent down there can learn a lot from Hall. He’s one of the best minds in the business. Many of the full-time coaches in NXT have started as guest coaches. I hope this leads to a full-time position for him. Hall has turned his life around big time over the years. DDP has been a big part of that transformation by inviting him to move to Atlanta with him. Triple H has already brought in two of his long-time friends to NXT (Road Dogg and Shawn Michaels). I don’t see why he wouldn’t bring a third in. We shall see.

Last weekend, the 10th-anniversary Evolve show aired live on the WWE Network. Some NXT talent appeared on the show. Matt Riddle was one of the NXT guys who appeared. He took on Drew Gulak. I had no idea these two had a history together. The had a good match. The NXT title was on the line as well. Adam Cole defeated Akira Tozawa in another good match. We even got an appearance from Johnny Gargano in this one too. I highly recommend going back and watching that show on the network. There’s a lot of talent over on the Evolve roster. Plus a lot of the guys you see now in NXT and on the main roster have worked there or are working there now. Especially on the NXT side. I recognize several guys. I’ll have to check out some more Evolve shows for sure.

NXT Takeover Toronto is fast approaching. It will take place on Saturday, August 10. I do have some news regarding the NXT Title. We do have a match in place for Takeover. After this weeks show, General Manager William Regal announced that Johnny Gargano will meet Adam Cole (Bay Bay) for the NXT Title in another two out of three falls match. This time, Johnny and Cole will each pick a stipulation for the first two falls. If it goes to a third fall, Regal will pick the stipulation. I wonder which one they will pick. That’s something to keep an eye on. Now let’s get into this week’s recap.

Our first match of the night was between Arturo Ruas and Matt Riddle. This was a very physical match with a lot of technical offense by both men. What stood out to me most was the ending of the match. Matt Riddle gets the win by technical knockout. That’s very rare into today’s wrestling scene. It felt more like an MMA or Boxing finish. I was confused by it all for sure. After the match was over, Riddle was attacked but the returning Killian Dain. He put a beating on Riddle. He came to make a statement. He surely did by driving Matt right through the middle of the stage. It was crazy. I’m glad to see Dain back and look forward to seeing what they do with him moving forward.

We get the Street Profits next for the latest edition of Street Talk. They talk about how Bobby Fish and Kyle O’ Reilly disrespected them and aren’t taking them seriously. They ask why didn’t they win the ladder match at the last Takeover. Dawkins ended it all by saying and that is undisputed. Montez Ford’s eyes got so big. These two together are money. This looks to be the next big feud for The Street Profits. It should be quite entertaining. Their segments on Raw and at Extreme Rules were good too. I’m happy for The Street Profits getting this extra exposure.

Up next we find Mia Yim in the parking lot attacking Marina Shafir. She even slams the car door on her. This was after a recent live event. I guess Yim is sending a message to Shayna Baszler that she’s coming for her title. She’s using her friends to make a statement. Jessamyn Duke needs to be careful. Mia’s coming for you. I can see this match taking at Takeover Toronto between Mia and Shayna.

The 4th match of the NXT Breakout Tournament took place next. Bronson Reed vs Dexter Lumis (formally known as Samuel Shaw in Impact Wrestling). Lumis is extremely creepy. He looks like someone you do not to mess with. I remember him when he wrestled for Impact Wrestling. He was creepy then too. He trained at the Dudley Boyz school so you know he got the best training possible with those guys working with him.

Now on to the match. I enjoyed it. Their styles worked well together. Reed moves very well for a guy his size. I always like seeing a big man who is light on his feet. The commentators (I believe it was Mauro) compared him to Bam Bam Bigelow. That’s high praise right there. Reed picked up the win to advance to the final four of the tournament. I hope they do one of these for the woman. This breakout tournament has been fun to watch. Plus its introducing new talent which is always a good thing.

Tyler Breeze was backstage doing a photoshoot. He was approached by Cathy Kelley. She asked him how he planned to bounce back after a loss to Roderick Strong a couple of weeks ago. Tyler starts mentioning about how everyone has a group now in NXT. Before he can finish his statement, he is approached by the Forgotten Sons. They pick on him a bit. Question his toughness. Jaxson Ryker gets up in his face and tries to intimidate him. Looks like this will be Tyler’s next feud. The question now is who will he get to team up with him? Maybe he could get some other NXT alumni to join him. That would be cool.

They show a brief highlight from last week of Io Shirai addressing the NXT universe with her new attitude. Next week she will be in action against Kacy Catanzaro. That should be a good match. Kacy is awesome. Very athletic and seems like a real sweetheart. I hope she gets more opportunities to compete on the weekly show.

Our next matchup is Kushida vs a returning Apollo Crews. Crews got a huge pop from the crowd. They were glad to see him back in NXT. This was another great match. The highlight for me was when both guys were on the top rope and did a flip and Kushida countered it into an armbar. That was insane. Kushida picks up the win by submission. Crews should stay in NXT. I always felt they called him up to soon. He’s not doing anything on the main roster. He never gets a pop on Raw or Smackdown like he got this week. Tyler Breeze did it. I feel other alumni should do the same.

Cathy Kelley is interviewing Keith Lee backstage. They are talking about him being in NXT for a year now and what's next for him. I thought he may turn heel here. He could use the fact that he hasn’t been used like he should be to get angry and turn up the intensity. Lee mentions Damian Priest. You could see the spark in his eye. Lee now knew what he had to do. Next week it will be Priest vs Lee. That’s gonna be a good one. Hopefully, this is the feud that will give Lee the momentum he needs.

In the main event, Adam Cole is scheduled to defend the NXT Title. Cole comes out and grabs the mic. He talked about the championship tour he’s been on and how he’s showing everyone how to be a champion. He mentions how the rest of the Undisputed Era has been holding things down while he was away. Cole talks about how he wants to be a fighting champion. It turns out he is gonna challenge Twan Tucker. The kid from the school Johnny visited earlier this year back in Cleveland.

Cole tells Twan that it will be the two of them one on one with no Undisputed Era getting involved. Twan says that’s good but he didn’t come alone. I’m thinking he was gonna have some kids from the school come out with him. Cole visited there not too long ago and insulted those poor kids who were training. I figured this would be a chance for payback. Outcomes Johnny Gargano. Gargano and Cole brawl all over the arena. They end up back in the ring. Johnny hits a couple of superkicks to Cole. He ends up putting him in the Gargano Escape and would not let go until the referees broke it up. What a great way to close out the show.

This was another solid week of NXT. Takeover Toronto is around the corner. We already have Cole vs Gargano III set up. I have a feeling we will also see Mia Yim vs Shayna Baszler for the NXT Woman’s Title, The Street Profits vs The Undisputed Era (Bobby Fish and Kyle O’ Reilly) for the NXT Tag Team Titles, Velveteen Dream vs Roderick Strong for the North American Title, possibly Matt Riddle vs Killian Dain. That makes 5 matches and that’s the usual amount we get for a Takeover. Let’s see if I’m right on these. I have a good feeling about these predictions. Until next time, take care and continue to support NXT.