NXT is back in Full Sail University after concluding an epic Takeover event in Chicago during Money in the Bank weekend. The show saw Aleister Black retain his NXT Championship over Lars Sullivan, Kyle O’Reilly & Roderick Strong also retained the NXT Tag Team Championships over Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch, and Shayna Baszler also kept her NXT Women’s Championship by defeating Nikki Cross. Meanwhile, Ricochet pinned The Velveteen Dream while the main event saw Tommaso Ciampa get a devastating win over Johnny Gargano. Now it is time to deal with the fallout from Takeover, and it started with Black coming down to the ring for a promo.
Aleister Black came down the ramp and entered the ring while wearing a nice suit. He spoke about his match against Lars Sullivan and admitted that there were times in the match when Sullivan had Black cornered. Black said that Lars is indeed a freak, but he was still able to make him fade to black. Suddenly, his promo was interrupted by no music, but rather by a loud cacophony of boos from the Full Sail crowd as Tommaso Ciampa walked onto the stage.
Ciampa came out and made it clear that he wanted to be Black’s next big opponent. Tommaso said that Black barely even survived his Takeover match against Lars Sullivan. Meanwhile, Ciampa defeated Johnny Gargano in the main event of Takeover with one arm tied behind his back. He said that he wanted a shot at the NXT Championship. Before Aleister could respond, Ciampa warned him about what to say next because when he beats him, he will not only lose his title, but Black will also lose his mystique. Ciampa said that all he needs is one match and one moment to win the championship. Ciampa waved goodbye and left the stage as Black’s music filled the arena.
An x-ray taken showed that Lars Sullivan actually competed in his match against Aleister Black at Takeover with a broken jaw. It may be a while until Sullivan returns to NXT as a result of the injury.
Vanessa Borne was interviewed outside of the building, and she wanted to know why Kairi Sane dresses like a pirate when she comes down to the ring for her matches. Borne didn’t understand why Sane is admired by the fans and insisted that she should be receiving the attention instead. She vowed to defeat Sane so that she can be the name and face that is featured on posters and advertising.
Kona Reeves vs. Max Humberto –
Kona Reeves (remember him?) returned to NXT for the first time in weeks to take part in another short match against an enhancement talent. Reeves still calls himself “The Finest,” but he was booed rather heavily by the crowd.
Not a whole lot to this one. It started off with Reeves towering over his opponent and then wearing him down with a headlock. He then brought him back up on his feet only to slam Max back down to the canvas. Reeves mostly played around with Humberto for a few minutes before giving him a big boot. After hitting his Hawaiian Drop finisher, that was all that he needed to get another victory for himself.
Winner: Kona Reeves
Lacey Evans vs. Candice LeRae –
With a renewed focus on her own NXT career, LeRae returned to action to take on fellow Mae Young Classic competitor Lacey Evans. Evans has been receiving a lot more attention on NXT lately and has even gotten some big wins over the likes of Kairi Sane in the past.
Sure enough, this match started off with Evans getting the better of LeRae. Lacey got the chance to showcase some of her strong power-based maneuvers as she started off with match by immediately shoving Candice down to the canvas. As Evans went down to go get her, Candice grabbed her and proceeded to hit a series of arm drags. Despite this, Evans gave her a kick and was able to drive her back down once again.
Evans then spent a great deal of time focusing on injuring LeRae’s left shoulder. She wore down the arm in the middle of the ring for a bit before she tossed her into the corner of the ring and wrapped her arm around the top rope. Evans grabbed and pulled on the arm with great force, almost getting herself disqualified by the referee’s five-count in the process. After Candice LeRae fell back onto the mat, Evans tried as hard as she could to make her submit right then and there.
LeRae was able to fight out of the submission attempt by hitting a rolling neck snap. Now Candice LeRae had taken control of the match. She pushed Evans into the corner of the ring and began dishing out several punches and chops. LeRae then went up to the top of one of the ring posts in the corner and dove right onto her opponent before hitting a vertebreakter. Just to finish the match off right, Candice then executed an incredibly well done springboard moonsault.
Winner: Candice LeRae
Johnny Gargano was interviewed backstage and was asked about his wife’s big win over Lacey Evans. Gargano said that LeRae is his favorite wrestler, but he has not been able to stop thinking about his loss to Tommaso Ciampa in Chicago. He brought up the fact that Ciampa removed and spat on his wedding ring before tossing it into the crowd during the match. Gargano said that Ciampa does not get to walk away from this feud. Johnny promised that he would speak with William Regal and ask for another match against Ciampa. He doesn’t care if the match takes place next week or at Takeover: Brooklyn, but he knows that there will be one more match between them in the future.
Heavy Machinery recorded a video of themselves barbecuing when Otis brought up The Mighty. They said that they were not through with them yet and that they wanted to face them.
A tweet from General Manager William Regal was shown saying that Johnny Gargano needed to move on from his feud with Tommaso Ciampa. Regal also announced that he has booked a match between Gargano and EC3 for next week’s NXT.
Fresh off of winning the NXT Tag Team Championships during the United Kingdom Championship Tournament show on the WWE Network, Tyler Bate and Trent Seven of Mustache Mountain came down to the ring for a match against Dave Dixon and Carl Axelrod. The match never got started as The Undipsuted Era attacked Axelrod and Dixon on the stage. Kyle O’Reilly said that Mustache Mountain’s title win in the UK was a fluke before Roderick Strong called them phonies. Adam Cole promised to send them back to the UK without the NXT Tag Team Championships. The each surrounded Seven and Bate in the ring until Ricochet made the save.
Ricochet & Mustache Mountain vs. The Undisputed Era –
The NXT announce team informed fans that General Manager William Regal made a six-man tag team match between these men official. The match got started with Tyler Bate and Kyle O’Reilly sharing the ring together. Bate and O’Reilly went at each other with some basic back and fourth maneuvers before Trent Seven was tagged in.
He tried to go for the Seven Star Lariat early on but the move was blocked. He and Bate then took the time to lay out Adam Cole and Kyle O’Reilly. With both men laying beside each other in the ring, Ricochet entered and had Bate flip him onto them. With order being restored in the match (for a short while, anyway) Roderick Strong was tagged in and he got Bate in a half-nelson slam. Strong then grabbed the inaugural UK Champion and locked him in a headlock.
O’Reilly began to kick Bate around the ring before Roddy was tagged back into the match. Strong gave Bate a backbreaker, which was enough to get the new tag team titleholder down for a count of two. Then, with the ring once again starting to get crowded thanks to the interference of the other Undisputed Era members, Ricochet came in and went after everybody. He fought off every move thrown by both Adam Cole and Roderick Strong. He then began laying some shots into Kyle O’Reilly in the corner of the ring.
Trent Seven came back into the ring again and got the chance to beat down each member of The Undisputed Era for themselves. He also hit the Seven Star Lariat on Cole, but that was not enough to keep the North American Champion down. The match devolved into pure chaos after Ricochet and Cole were the legal men in the match. Bate and O’Reilly had a brawl until it was stopped by Ricochet, who instead beat down each member of The Undisputed Era with the help of his teammates. Ricochet kicked Cole down as every man in the match laid motionless on the canvas.
Back on their feet, each of these men began fighting each other. They kept themselves preoccupied by facing one member of the opposing group. As O’Reilly, Strong, Bate, and Seven gave out and fell back to the floor, Ricochet gave Cole another lariat. Both O’Reilly and Roddy tried to get involved in the match, but Ricochet pushed them all back down to the outside of the ring.
With Cole down and no one else in sight, now was the perfect time for Ricochet to finally go for his 630 splash finisher. He ran up to the top of one of the posts in the corner of the ring and was able to land the maneuver. Ricochet had the match won as he began to pin Adam Cole, but Kyle O’Reilly was able to pull Cole’s foot under the bottom rope just before the 3-count was made. Roderick Strong then pulled Ricochet out of the ring and gave him a backbreaker onto the apron. Roddy quickly rolled Ricochet back into the ring, allowing Cole to get the quick cover.
Winners: The Undisputed Era
NXT this week concluded with an excellent tag team match that made it clear that The Undisputed Era is still the dominant group in the NXT locker room. It will be interesting to see what the future of the NXT Tag Team Championships are. It will also be intriguing to see if Gargano vs. Ciampa III truly does take place at some point. It certainly looks like Ciampa will either be facing Gargano again or challenging Aleister Black for the NXT Championship at Takeover: Brooklyn, and either one of those matches definitely has the potential to be fantastic. That being said, Takeover is still several weeks away, and we’ll have to focus on the regular NXT show in the meantime. I’ll see you NXT time!