Tag: Roderick Strong

The fallout from TakeOver: Portland will take place on tonight’s episode of NXT.

Sunday’s TakeOver special ended with Adam Cole retaining his NXT Championship against Tommaso Ciampa. Johnny Gargano turned heel on Ciampa at the end of the match, and WWE will follow up on that tonight.

We’ll also see the fallout of Rhea Ripley and Charlotte Flair’s NXT Women’s Championship match becoming official for WrestleMania 36. Charlotte attacked Ripley and accepted her WrestleMania challenge after Ripley retained her title against Bianca Belair at TakeOver. On her way to the back, Charlotte also threw Belair into the steel steps.

Three matches have been announced for tonight. After returning two weeks ago, Velveteen Dream will face off with Roderick Strong. Dream has taunted Strong’s family over each of the past two weeks.

NXT Cruiserweight Champion Jordan Devlin will defend his title against Lio Rush. Rush got the title shot by defeating Angel Garza in a number one contender’s match last Wednesday.

Plus, the Robert Stone Brand will “relaunch” with Chelsea Green facing Kayden Carter in a rematch after Carter defeated her three weeks ago.

**********

The Undisputed Era came out to kick off the show. Adam Cole said he’d told everyone so, he told everyone that he’d beat Ciampa and walk out of TakeOver: Portland still NXT champion. He then passed the mic to Roderick Strong who was going to talk about his match with Velveteen Dream later that night, but the lights went out and Dream did a voiceover promo as his logo appeared on the titantron. Strong said Dream would regret ever coming back to NXT.

Jordan Devlin defeated Lio Rush to retain the NXT Cruiserweight Championship

Crisp lockup between the two early on. They had a quick exchange, less than a minute, before NXT had to cut to a commercial break, though the match continued in the inset screen. It looked Rush took much of the offense during the break, wearing Devlin down in the corner with strikes, and later tried grounding Devlin with submission holds.

Devlin turned the tables on Rush when we were back from commercials, sticking a turnaround Arabian press onto Rush back inside the ring. Devlin took much of the next part of this match, at one point launching Lio Rush across the ring with a half-and-half suplex, and later landed a brutal-looking kitchen sink knee that earned a replay.

Tonight’s Full Sail crowd was loud in their support for Rush, so Devlin leaned into his heel role hard, torturing Rush with stiff strikes and getting heat with mean-looking submissions. Devlin continued working over Rush as NXT cut to their next commercial break.

Back from the break and we caught both Rush and Devlin crash mid-ring when they both attempted cross-body blocks.

Devlin returned quickly with a cutter which sent Rush out to the floor. Devlin went for an Orihara moonsault to the floor but missed; Devlin rolled through and landed on his feet. Rush responded with a springboard corkscrew moonsault.

Rush caught Devlin a Koji Clutch submission and the crowd started chanting “TAP!” at Devlin, who got his ankle on the bottom rope for the break.

Rush landed an avalance poisonrana, then the Come Up for a very close nearfall. Devlin again got hs foot on the ropes for the break. Rush then for a frog splash but missed, and moments later, Devlin was able to land his Devlin Side back suplex for the win. Excellent match.

-Dakota Kai and Raquel Gonzalez were interviewed backstage next. Gonzalez said explained that she knew how Kai felt while Gonzalez herself was at the Performance Center, constantly being looked over, which was why she decided to help Kai out this past weekend during Kai’s street fight with Tegan Nox. Kai said that since Gonzalez proved she had her back on Sunday, that now Kai would have hers, and together they’d be unstoppable. NXT commissioner William Regal appeared in the shot next and explained how Kai would be facing Tegan Nox in a rematch, only this time, the match would be inside a steel cage.

-Tomasso Ciampa was shown outside the venue before the next commercial break.

-Back from break and we caught a post-match interview with Rhea Ripley after her match last Sunday. With regard to Charlotte’s attack on her ahead of their match at Wrestlemania, she said that the joke is on Charlotte because Ripley is the one who got what she wanted.

-Austin Theory came out next, presumably for a match, but Tomasso Ciampa followed him out during Theory’s entrance. Ciampa grabed the mic and started talking about Portland: TakeOver, but when Theory came up to him to ask what was going on, Ciampa responded with “Not tonight.”

As Ciampa tried explaining how he knew why Johnny Gargano did what he did at TakeOver on Sunday, Theory went to turn Ciampa around, but Ciampa laid him out with a right hand. Ciampa then said that Gargano needed to be gone from NXT.

When Ciampa began walking to the back, Theory again went after him. Ciampa beat then proceeded to beat tar out of this kid. He had to have whipped him into the ringside barricades at least five or six times before walking to the back.

-Chelsea Green was at a photo shoot with manager Robert Stone before the next break. Their “brand relaunch” is later tonight, whatever that means.

-Finn Balor said NXT is his chessboard. After defeating Gargano this past Sunday, he said to keep an eye out for his next move.

Grizzled Young Veterans (Zack Gibson and James Drake) defeated Raul Mendoza and Joaquin Wilde

Wilde was formerly known as Zema Ion in Impact. He wore a funky hat/helmet thing to the ring, something that sort of looked like Invader Zim. Mendoza has been on 205 Live more than NXT lately and looks like he’s in the shape of his life right now.

Wilde and Drake were off to the races when the match got underway. Grizzled Young Vets went out of their way to ground the more aerial team of Wilde and Mendoza and more or less did early on. Lots of creative double team work from GYV.

Mendoza made a hot tag midway through and cleaned house, wrapping one sequence with a nice springboard missile dropkick to Gibson, but it was short-lived: GYV took Mendoza out only moments later after Gibson landed codebreaker with an assist from Drake for the win. Solid match.

Gibson got on the mic and said that they weren’t in the “land of the free” but the “land of the neckbeards” and yanks. They said they’d be taking over NXT before heading backstage.

-The Broserweights, Pete Dunne and Matt Riddle, celebrated with fans in the crowd as they made their way to the ring. Dunne said that Riddle got their golf cart impounded at TakeOver. Riddle said they both partied hard in Portland, but the Dusty Cup didn’t partied too hard with them and passed the company’s Wellness Policy. The Cup will be out for 30 days. “It’s a thing here, it’s a thing here,” Riddle explained.

The Broserweights (Matt Riddle and Pete Dunne) defeated Danny Burch and Oney Lorcan

Dunne and Burch were in first a few minutes, followed by Riddle and Lorcan next. Everyone looked natural together and just as things were warming up, production had to cut to another commercial break. It’s not the fault of WWE/NXT, and the same thing has been happening during AEW’s Dynamite, but there’s almost no way around it: Commercial breaks during live matches will almost degrade the quality of said matches.

We saw Lorcan with a half-Crab locked on Riddle when we returned from break. The crowd was quiet. Things heated up when Riddle tagged out to Dunne, who used a diving stomp onto Burch’s fingers, then locked him into a cross armlock. Burch reached the bottom rope for a break.

Riddle and Dunne hit an assisted power bomb/high kick combo for two; Lorcan ran in and saved his partner, Burch, from the pin attempt.

Burch rallied back and leveled Riddle with a lariat, then locked on a cross facelock submission. Dunne then cracked both Lorcan and Burch with hard low kicks, the latter kick breaking Burch’s submission attempt on Riddle.

The Broserweights scored the win soon after they landed the Riddle End combo finish on Lorcan. They went back into the crowd and celebrated with fans afterwards.

-Roderick Strong was with the rest of Undisputed Era backstage and insisted that tonight in his match that he didn’t need their help. He explained that his match with Dream needed to be taken care of himself, without any help from his friends.

-The Forgotten Sons cut a selfie promo next. They were backstage saying that they were offended by what the Grizzled Young Veterans said about neckbeards and yanks, implying the teams will be in a match together sometime soon.

-Clips of Keith Lee on WWE Backstage aired. He came to the ring and was about to cut a promo until Kona Reeves came out. Before Reeves could take him out, Lee knocked him into the corner.

Keith Lee defeated Kona Reeves

Lee pinned Reeves after Ground Zero.

-Dominik Dijakovic got into the ring and told Lee he wanted another shot at Lee. He said that it he had Lee beat at TakeOver: Portland until his lower back gave out. Lee responded with saying that if Dijakovic can get it approved by William Regal then Lee would gladly “fight forever” against Dijakovic.

Chelsea Green (w/ Robert Stone) defeated Kayden Carter

Stone introduced Green before she came out. On commentary, Stone was described as a “marketing genius.”

Carter went for a couple of pin attempts early on. The crowd disappeared in this. Green made a comeback midway through and stretched Carter with a camel clutch.

When Green started stomping on Carter’s hair, Bianca Belair appeared in the ring from out of nowhere. Belair grabbed the mic and said she was going to whoop Charlotte’s ass, then left.

All right then. The match restarted and Green went for a pin off the bat. When the match went to the floor, Robert Stone interfered by tripping Carter, which created an opening for Green to land her version of the Unprettier for the win.

This was much better from their match from a few weeks ago, though I’m not sure how necessary the Belair run-in was. I’m still unsure of how much a role Robert Stone will play in the future, either as Stone’s manager or as a wrestler eventually.

-Two announcements for next week’s NXT TV: Austin Theory vs. Tomasso Ciampa, plus Finn Balor will make an appearance. Additionally, Dakota Kai and Tegan Nox will have another rematch in a steel cage two weeks from today.

Velveteen Dream defeated Roderick Strong

Dream and Strong began scrapping early on. The match would modulate between fisticuffs in the ring followed by either Strong or Dream rolling to the floor to disrupt the floor, psychological tactics. Dream tried whipping Strong with his belt before the ref ordered it removed from the ring.

In the early middle of this, Strong ripped Dream across the chest with a sharp chop, then used a pendulum backbreaker that had Dream retreating to the floor. He sold it loudly. Dream returned some of Strong’s offense on the floor and whipped him into the barricade before the show went to their final commercial break.

The match went on in the inset screen during the break. Dream choked Strong with a fan’s green sign. Strong rallied back with another backbreaker outside the ring, and a lateral suplex from the apron into the ring.

Strong had Dream locked in a chinlock when the show returned. Dream fired up and threw a flurry of punches and was able to brawl his way back into the match.

The crowd dipped in and out of this towards the end, but started clapping minutes later when Dream went to the top rope and landed a double ax handle. When Dream went back to the top for something, Strong shoved him off, where Dream landed chest-first onto the ringpost. Strong was then able to land a top-rope backbreaker onto Dream next, dropping Dream back-first onto the top turnbuckle.

Dream knocked Strong out of the ring at close to 10:03 EST. There wasn’t much urgency or drama until Dream ripped off his bodysuit to reveal tights with Marina Shaffir on the back of them. Undisputed Era came to the ring and Dream dove onto them. Back in the ring, Dream did a springboard but Strong caught him with a knee for a two-count. In these final moments Dream was able to steal a pin away from Strong to win the match, but there wasn’t a celebration because the Undisputed Era came into the ring and took Dream out. They posed over him as the show went off the air.

Final thoughts:

Good show despite a burnt out crowd. Devlin vs. Rush, was terrific and is something readers should probably go out of their way to watch if they havent already.

There wasn’t anything that bad on this, if bad at all. The Bianca Belair’s run-in was a headscratcher in terms of placement, but it seemed to work, and even give a bit of life to Green and Carter’s match. Ciampa’s segment with Austin Theory left me with similar feelings, though those were fleeting as NXT announced the payoff to that segment in their match for next week.

Again, it was a good show, though it didn’t feel like must-see television, for what that’s worth. Does it have to be after such a well-received TakeOver? Maybe not. Tonight was a steady show that featured a few longer-term plans that will pay off at the next big NXT show, and, importantly, a few hours of quality action.