The show opens with the famous music of Sami Zayn. It’s the first time he’s been on the show in person since losing his belt to Kevin Owens almost six weeks ago. Zayn cuts a promo stating that Kevin Owens showed him that he is not the guy he used to be and that he’s different. Zayn claims to have a plan for Owens and the first step of that plan is to cash in his rematch clause. Zayn then drops the mic and exits to his music.
It was refreshing to see Zayn, but this was a typical WWE promo. They tease you with something big and then nothing really happens and we are left to wait. HHH loves slow burns, but it seems every burn is slow these days and they often fizzle out. Perhaps next week Zayn’s plan will be more clear, but it was refreshing to see him back. He’s a huge star in NXT and every time he takes time away it only makes him more of an attraction.
Rhyno was out next in a pure squash match that lasted about a minute. He gored his opponent and then collected the 3 count. Post match he cut a promo basically calling out all the top dogs in NXT.
It will be interesting to see where they go with Rhyno. He’s capable of putting on a good match even at this point in his career. It might seem logical for him to become a foil with Corbin, but the direction is still unclear. He might be the bounce back opponent for Finn Balor.
After recapping Owens win over Balor from last week they cut to Owens backstage post match cutting a promo. Owens expresses his happiness in winning and continues the trend of being the biggest jerk in the world. It’s something he does very well.
The next match up is Bayley and Emma. They are matched together because Emma slapped Bayley a few weeks back. She’s been trying to help Bayley unlock a darker side to her personality. Emma’s doing this all while appearing to turn heel. The crowd was mostly dead for this match and the finish was nothing special with Bayley reversing a pin attempt. Post match Bayley had a show of respect with Emma. Emma acted a bit weird like she’s headed for a breakdown.
This crowd was largely tuned out for this match. Again that was a symptom of them probably not being aware of the backstage issues between these two because of the NXT taping schedule. This has been an ongoing issue for NXT the past few weeks. The live crowd is unaware of what happened the past few weeks because it hasn’t aired on TV yet. With Banks clearly headed to the main roster at some point this year it would appear that the powers that be are grooming Bayley to finally win her title.
Becky Lynch cuts a promo about her desire to win the Women’s title from Sasha Banks. It appears she will be next in line for a shot.
The refreshing part of NXT is that they take the time to allow everyone promo time. It might only be a minute or two, but it helps the character connect with the audience. Contrast that with Raw this past Monday where Daniel Bryan didn’t get a second of promo time on a three hour show the night after winning the IC title and then winning a great match with Ziggler. Creative needs to do a better job of that with the main roster product.
Blake and Murphy are out next to take on the Lucha Dragons in a non-title match. The announcers point out that Blake and Murphy have spent a lot of time kissing up to Carmella lately and they hope that’s not hurting their focus. The Dragons are strong for most of the match, but Blake and Murphy use some underhanded tactics to gain control. They connect with a Frog Splash on Sin Cara to pick up the win.
Blake and Murphy are way better as heels, and wins like this help them without question. The more people see them winning the better it will get for them. The Dragons are moving up to Raw so this match doesn’t really matter for them in the grand scheme of things.
They cut to a promo of Zayn being interviewed backstage, but before he can speak Rhyno cuts in. Rhyno claims that guys looking to move up in NXT have to get in line behind him. They cut away before Zayn says anything at all.
This was just a little build for a match between the two. NXT wants to have the next Owens Zayn match down the road a little further, so putting roadblocks in between them is smart.
Tye Dillinger is out next to take on his former tag team partner Jason Jordan. The announcers are really putting over Jordan as being a super athlete. Jordan grabs the upper hand early and dominates most of the match. He hits a big overhead slam that leads to a pinfall victory.
NXT and the WWE clearly have plans for Jordan, and it seems like Dillinger has a long way to go before being pushed. This was a total squash match.
Tyler Breeze and Hideo Itami are out next to have their two out of three falls match. Itami wins the first fall hitting his Rocket Kick. This fall came only 3 minutes after the opening bell. The referee restarts the match, but will not let Itami get his hands on Breeze since Breeze appears to be out of it. Itami presses and suddenly Breeze shows he was playing possum and hits a Beauty Shot to even up the match at one fall a piece.
After a quick break the match is resumed. Itami gets in some really good offense and they have a much more balanced match then the first few falls. Itami gets Breeze in the corner for his running drop kick, but Breeze bails out. Itami is able to set it up again and this time connects. He picks Breeze up and sends him into the ropes for another Rocket Kick, but Breeze hits the Beauty shot and gets the decisive fall.
There was absolutely no point in make this two out of three falls if they were going to have the match be this short and have the first two falls come that fast and be kind of pointless. That being said it was noticeable that Itami is closer to be the finished product. He looked really good here despite the loss. Where they go with Breeze is anyone’s guess. He’s not going to be match up with Kevin Owens, so it will be interesting to see what they will do.
New week NXT is going to be a behind the scenes look at NXT Fans Axxess, which happened last weekend. It’s unclear if there will be matches or interviews.
This was another solid show. Major story lines were moved along and certain stars were not shown, which helps keep them fresh. It looks like it will be two weeks before there is anything major that happens in the world of NXT.