Peter Kostka
From the NXT Arena at Full Sail University. Your commentators are Tom Phillips and Corey Graves.
We open with a video recap of the epic conclusion of last week’s episode where Shinsuke Nakamura challenged Finn Balor. We will find out more about that tonight.
“The Perfect 10” Tye Dillinger vs. Oney Lorcan
Oney Lorcan is the new name for Christopher Gerard and looks like somebody told him to pull tiles from a Scrabble bag until they told him to stop.
Dillinger gets control early and gives himself a 10, but Lorcan fires back and mocks his taunt. They work a headlock and Lorcan blocks a rollup attempt, charging into Tye with an uppercut that Graves calls “Cesaro-like”. Well, he does look like Cesaro if he was left in the dryer too long. A pissed off Dillinger sends him into the corner in response and goes to work but Lorcan answers with a clothesline and charges in with elbows in the corner, so Tye just superkicks his teeth down his throat in response but only gets 2. A frustrated Dillinger goes for the 10 punches in the corner, but the crowd chanting “10” distracts him which allows Lorcan to shove him off and hit a running blockbuster neckbreaker for the upset pin. Graves immediately turns on Tye, calling him “a 5 at best.”
Well….this is interesting. The crowd’s been chanting “10” at everything Dillinger does for months now, so having him be distracted by it enough to lose a match is kind of weird. I’m not exactly sure what the hell they are doing with Dillinger right now; he was pretty over as his current character, but for whatever reason they seem to have some different plans for him.
Cathy Kelley asks Austin Aries what is next for him. Aries knows you don’t lose greatness in one match; even Muhammed Ali lost a round or two. He doesn’t make excuses about Takeover — even if his ribs were hurt and Nakamura had home field advantage — he lost. But that has just motivated him more. No Way Jose interrupts him, telling him that Jose has learned a lot from him and tells him when live tells you “no”, you say “NO WAY!”
An excited Bayley stands in her gear outside Full Sail, saying that she has been cleared and is coming back tonight. I’d like to think she went to the doctor and was so excited she went directly home, put on her gear and went to Full Sail before anybody else showed up. Because I think Bayley would do exactly that.
No Way Jose squashes Josh Woods, finishing with his full-nelson slam. Aries comes to the ring and basically recaps the promo we just saw backstage (since the live crowd doesn’t see them), making sure to note that even though he had bruised ribs and was not 100%, he makes no excuses about losing at Takeover. He thanks Jose for his advice as it reminded him that they are out there to have fun and who he really is. Jose wants him to join him for some dancing and the beat eventually takes over like it always does. They dance up the ramp and up onto the announce table…and Aries levels him with a rolling elbow before beating the piss out of him and choking him out in the Last Chancery. Thus, A3 (Asshole Austin Aries) rises again. And the world is better for it.
GM Regal met earlier today with Shinsuke Nakamura. He notes that Finn Balor left him a note telling him to make the match, so he announces that it will happen in three weeks. Shinsuke will be honored to face NXT’s icon. Buddy Murphy suddenly barges in, wondering why he’s not being treated like the top star he is and why Regal is ignoring all his requests. Nakamura tells him his request will be granted tonight by the King of Strong Style….”mate.”
Nakamura is the greatest man walking this Earth.
Deonna Purrazzo vs. Bayley
The crowd seems pretty happy to see Bayley back. They fight over a hiptoss and trade rollups to start and Bayley takes her down with a Lucha armdrag and spears her in the corner, but the running elbow is avoided and Deonna hits a clothesline, followed by a running knee and legsweep for 2. Holy crap, when she isn’t getting destroyed by Asuka and Nia, Deonna is actually pretty good. She rams Bayley into the buckles but that just pisses Bayley off (though she still sells the move, which is awesome) and fires into her comeback, hitting the reverse elbow off the middle rope before the Bayley to Belly finishes. Really is amazing how much the crowd lights up whenever Bayley is in the ring because it really feels like she loves being out there no matter who she is facing and that enthusiasm is so infectious.
The Other Interview Girl talks to Carmella about her championship aspirations, but Alexa Bliss interrupts, saying that without Enzo and Cass, nobody knows or cares who Carmella is. Alexa left Blake and Murphy because she was the star of the group; Carmella was just an “accessory”. Alexa thinks she deserves to be women’s champion and notes she was never pinned in the triple threat a few weeks ago. Carmella fires up and tells Alexa to do something about it because she’s not going to let Alexa get in her way. Tremendous promo between the two ladies, I have to say. Makes you look forward to a future match between the two.
A Samoa Joe hype video leads into a lengthy recap video on the Takeover match between Nia Jax and Asuka. It honestly feels like they realized the episode was like 5 minutes short so they threw these in there to fill time, although it is really good filler.
Nia Jax will be in action next.
We get another hype video, this time for the Authors of Pain before we are informed that American Alpha will return to action next week.
Nia Jax vs. Liv Morgan
Liv is scrappy, but that just makes Nia really angry so she crushes Liv against the ropes before KILLING her with a powerbomb for the pin. Now THAT is a finisher.
Next Week: Carmella will face Alexa Bliss
Buddy Murphy vs. Shinsuke Nakamura
This week in The Plight of Buddy Murphy (According to Corey Graves): His favorite teams lost in the NBA Finals and the Stanley Cup Finals and his water was shut off. Oh and he’s facing Shinsuke Nakamura.
Nakamura just toys with him and pretty easily counters all of Murphy’s offense. He does Good Vibrations in the corner and obliges the crowd when they want it again. He goes in again but Murphy yanks him into the turnbuckle to briefly take control but decides to try some Strong Style and that goes about as well as you think. A whole bunch of strikes that probably didn’t feel good and one Kinshasa later (with Buddy almost landing on his head doing a flip to sell it) Nakamura gets the pin.
Nakamura celebrates with the fans as we fade.
OVERALL: Nothing groundbreaking to go out of your way for, but another really fun hour of NXT. We got both Bayley and Shinsuke Nakamura doing their thing which is always appreciated and we’re building to what should be some good (and in one case, great) matches over the next few weeks. It feels like they are almost wasting Balor vs. Nakamura on a regular NXT episode…but if you check the calendar the match will take place on the July 13th episode. That’s the last NXT episode before the Draft on the 19th so it’s probably the last time both Nakamura and Balor will still be in NXT and they should strike while the iron is hot.
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