Twenty years after Mankind won the WWF title from The Rock, Halftime Heat is making a return.
WWE has announced that a six-man tag match with wrestlers from NXT will air live on the WWE Network, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, WWE.com, and the WWE app during halftime of next Sunday’s (February 3) Super Bowl. It will be Velveteen Dream, Aleister Black & Ricochet vs. NXT Champion Tommaso Ciampa, NXT North American Champion Johnny Gargano & Adam Cole.
The six-man tag was set up with a brawl that took place after NXT TakeOver: Phoenix. As Ciampa and Gargano were on the stage, Velveteen Dream interrupted them. It led to Cole, Black, and Ricochet getting involved and officials trying to break it up. The brawl spilled to the back and into Gorilla position, with Triple H making an appearance and attempting to settle things down.
It was noted that Shawn Michaels will be doing guest commentary for the match.
The New England Patriots and Los Angeles Rams are facing off in this year’s Super Bowl. Maroon 5 are headlining the halftime show, with Travis Scott and Big Boi joining them.
The first Halftime Heat aired in 1999 and featured Mankind defeating The Rock in an empty arena match to win the WWF title.
– Velveteen Dream cut a cellphone promo where he was in front of Prince’s Paisley Park.
– Jessamyn Duke (w/ Marina Shafir) defeated Candice LeRae
The crowd saw Shayna Baszler’s spade on the screen and popped, but then Duke and Shafir’s names came on the screen and they got quiet quick. It was mentioned that they are a part of the Four Horsewomen.
Duke is much bigger than LeRae. The match was pretty boring and Duke is really green, but she won with an impressive high kick after a distraction from Shafir.
– Bobby Fish defeated Humberto Carrillo
The crowd didn’t know who Carrillo was at the beginning, but his flips and dives got them on his side really quick. Fish won with a finishing sequence of a spear into the corner, knee lifts, and an exploder suplex in the corner after Carrillo missed a moonsault.
Carrillo got a standing ovation as he left the ring.
– A video package was shown of Kona Reeves riding the zip line at the Mall of America. He then cut a heel promo on the Minnesota Vikings.
– Dominik Dijakovic defeated Kona Reeves (w/ Dan Matha)
Dijakovic is huge and ripped. Matha interfered a lot and there were a few good near falls.
The finish was super hot. Matha introduced a chair and Reeves was about to hit Dijakovic with it, but the referee took it away as Reeves reared back. Dijakovic superkicked Matha off the apron, superkicked Reeves through the ropes, hit a running roll-over dive on both, rolled Reeves back into the ring, and hit a torture rack Death Valley Driver into a high knee for the win.
The loudest reaction so far was when Dijakovic got the pin. That was a lot of fun.
– Aleister Black defeated Johnny Gargano
There were dueling chants for both before the match. Gargano was definitely wrestling as a heel. These two were super polished and crisp, and it was amazing that we got this quality of wrestling at an NXT house show. This got the first “This is awesome” chants of the night.
Black won with Black Mass in the best match so far.
– NXT North American Champion Ricochet & Heavy Machinery (Otis Dozovic & Tucker Knight) defeated The Undisputed Era (Adam Cole & NXT Tag Team Champions Kyle O’Reilly & Roderick Strong)
Dozovic and Knight were doing big man comedy spots early, with the crowd eating it up. Ricochet is absolutely incredible, no surprise. Undisputed Era got the heat on Ricochet forever. Dozovic got a huge reaction for a hot tag and was awesome.
Dozovic was cut off and then gave Ricochet the super hot tag — and he was awesome. Ricochet pinned Strong with a fireman’s carry Michinoku driver with one of the legs hooked.
This match was fine and had a lot of submissions. Sane hit her elbow drop, but Duke and Shafir came out and caused the disqualification by breaking up the pin.
LeRae came out to help Sane dispose of the Horsewomen. She hit a couple of nice dives.
– NXT Champion Tommaso Ciampa defeated Velveteen Dream to retain his title
There were lots of pre-match shenanigans with Dream taking the belt from the referee and posing with it. They had a fun match with a lot of crowd interaction. At one point, Ciampa hit a White Noise from the second rope. They got a “This is awesome” chant.
Ciampa mocked Dream’s poses a lot. He looked to flip off the crowd after they did the Vikings “Skol” chant during the match. Both wrestlers kicked out of big moves, and Ciampa hit the draping DDT for the clean win.
Ciampa cut a great, emotional promo after the match. It looked like someone from WWE was recording it. Ciampa said NXT drew better this year than last year in St. Paul and said NXT was the “A show” and he was holding the most important title in sports entertainment.
Riddle won via roll-up. Dan Matha came out after and cut a heel promo before getting a running knee to the face from Riddle.
– Kairi Sane & Dakota Kai defeated Jessamyn Duke & Marina Shafir
Sane got the pin after hitting her elbow drop. Duke and Shafir looked great.
– Bobby Fish defeated Humberto Carrillo
Fish won with an exploder suplex. Carrillo got a standing ovation after the match.
– Dominik Dijakovic defeated Kona Reeves
Dijakovic hit a chokeslam to win.
– Aleister Black defeated Johnny Gargano
This was very similar to their match at TakeOver: WarGames. Black won with Black Mass.
– North American Champion Ricochet & Heavy Machinery (Otis Dozovic & Tucker Knight) defeated The Undisputed Era (Adam Cole & NXT Tag Team Champions Kyle O’Reilly & Roderick Strong)
Ricochet got the pin with a modified Michinoku driver. The crowd went nuts for Dozovic — the guy is everything Wisconsinites love. The faces had Packers gear and cheeseheads. Knight even downed a beer right after the match.
– NXT Women’s Champion Shayna Baszler defeated Candice LeRae to retain her title
Baszler retained with the Kirifuda Clutch.
– NXT Champion Tommaso Ciampa defeated Velveteen Dream to retain his title
Ciampa got the victory with a rope-hung DDT. He cut a babyface promo after the match, putting over Dream as a prodigy and giving praise to Milwaukee. It was cool to see.
It has been a long time since I got the chance to wax rhapsodic (shoutout two years of AP English) about NXT, and man does it feel good to be home. It’s nice to know that no matter how laughably bad a majority of WWE is, NXT keeps churning out quality, ever improving content.
Most of the players from TakeOver: Brooklyn appear on this card, but in dramatically different situations. NXT Champion Tommaso Ciampa has moved past Johnny Gargano (for now) and on to Velveteen Dream. Dream himself has done, well, done nothing dramatically different and is now a pure face. Gargano is a complete lunatic now, and his run in NXT is unlike anything we have ever seen. Shayna Baszler is still there and still the scariest person in NXT regardless of gender. We also get to welcome back Aleister Black and Bobby Fish between the yellow ropes. What a time to be alive!
A lot has been going in WWE lately with most of it being less than great. There’s no need to dive into something that has been talked about constantly over the past few weeks and I’m not going to rehash it. But, I do want to share some great advice I got some months back. I was meeting with a professor of mine from grad school and I was talking about how I was incredibly unhappy in my job. She listened to me complain about how awful my direct report was, how bored I was, and how I could feel the unhappiness I felt at work bleed into my personal life. When I finished, she simply said, “If you don’t like your job, get a new job.”
It was a statement so small in length, but it carried so much weight. And that’s what I want to say about WWE. If you don’t like WWE, dont watch WWE. If you don’t like Raw, there’s always NXT. If you want your wrestling to be full of long-term nuanced stories, watch New Japan. If you want your wrestling to be full of insane matches and moves, watch PWG or any of the other incredible indie promotions across the world.
I’m not someone that has an emotional relationship with wrestling. Wrestling was never there for me when I was going through hard times, Daddy. That’s not to say that my fandom, or how I came into my fandom, is better or worse than anyone else’s. It’s just there; it just is. There is a lot, a lot, of crappy things happening in the world right now, and we should really embrace each other now more than ever. Just because someone likes wrestling in a different way than you doesn’t make you right and them wrong. It just is. Embrace those people and each other. Open yourselves up to accept and enjoy other ways of thinking. Yes, I know this kind of meandered off but I felt the need to get those thoughts out somewhere, and this seemed like as a good a place as any.
ANYWAY, Saturday’s card only offers us four matches, but all four would be the main event of any TakeOver. With the report that the fifth match was cut so these could get the necessary time, there is the possibility we are in for one of the best TakeOvers of all time with each match getting 20-30 minutes to really put on a show.
Now like we always do at this time, let’s run down this card match by match and see what NXT has for us on Saturday — this time with no Liv Morgan jokes! She’s actually okay now!
NXT Women’s Champion Shayna Baszler vs. Kairi Sane: 2-out-of-3 falls
Who says WWE can’t tell long term stories? This story started during the summer of 2017 and will, in theory, end a good year later. They have told the story in so many ways, which is a huge credit to the performers. Baszler has come so far in such a short time it’s incredible, and a true testament to the quality of the developmental system.
Sane deserves credit for her part in the story as well. Her gimmick is, in a vacuum, outrageous even for wrestling standards. She is a yachting enthusiast, who is also a pirate, who is also a princess, who comes to the ring with the wheel of a ship. In what world does that ever work? It’s like when you ask a 4-year-old what they want to be when they grow up and they say a pilot, a firefighter, a baseball player, and a strawberry. It doesn’t make any sense, but it makes all the sense in the world.
The reason it works is because the character fits the performer. Think of Randy Orton. Orton as a face is the dirt worst, just awful. That’s because it doesn’t fit with who he is as a person. Let’s be real, he is not the nicest dude around and it shows. So when he leans into his arrogant and cocky side, it works. It’s the same thing with Kairi. She’s a bubbly, effervescent person and it totally makes sense that she would like the ocean, pirates, and princesses. And I think that’s really makes this feud so compelling: the authenticity. Both Kairi and Shayna are staying true to who they are as people. Shayna is an IRL badass who can hurt someone bad, and I’ve already gone over Kairi. They aren’t being forced into a box that is uncomfortable, bu are given the room to let their characters breathe and succeed because of it.
NXT doesn’t usually mess around with 2-out-of-3 falls matches. They are saved for special occasions, and usually blow off a feud. The rub is that the feud needs to deserve the stipulation. It isn’t just thrown around to blow off TM61 and Heavy Machinery. The matches mean something and are usually incredibly well received. People still talk about Sami Zayn and Cesaro’s match from 2013. That was five years ago and GIFs of it still regularly circle the internet wrestling hive.
All of their matches to this point have been good to very good, but this has the potential to be better. All of their history means there is so much for them to draw on and call back to. It makes all the sense in the world for Shayna to lose the belt and move on to something involving Ronda Rousey and the Horsewomen, so let’s say Kairi takes this one. The next group of NXT women seem to be heels like Lacey Evans – who might be the new Liv Morgan of this column because she just doesn’t do it for me, and Bianca Belair who is a star waiting to happen. Let them come at the royal pirate and see what happens.
Johnny Gargano vs. Aleister Black
Hot take: Black was the worst NXT champion not named Bobby Roode. Follow up take: the, umm, ‘groin injury’ was best thing that ever happened to him. It’s weird that a character as objectively interesting as Black was so…boring? I think he just became what every standard WWE face is ‘supposed to be’. He made corny jokes about people’s height, mailed in a few matches, and everyone called it a title reign. He is capable of so much more, and what better opponent to bring it out of him than the 5-Star Lord himself?
Remember how I asked earlier about WWE being able to tell long term stories? So, about that, apparently this TakeOver is just all about proving that idea wrong. This Gargano rise and fall story started in 2016 in the second Dusty Rhodes Classic which started his ride in NXT. There is an argument, and it is the correct one, that he is the best performer in the history of NXT. When I say that, I mean just what he’s done in NXT, not other performers who have done big things elsewhere (Nakamura, Balor, etc).
Just look at what Johnny has done without a belt:
NXT tag team champion
Has the most Paramore theme song in WWE
Gone from the most popular babyface in the company to maybe the most hated
Got a haircut that defies physics and description
Had 4 of the best 10 matches in the history of the company
I’d say that’s a fairly exhaustive and impressive list of accomplishments, one that no one that can touch. This seems like the start of the last chapter in his story. He went from being the beacon of light and hope to someone lost in the darkness of their own heart. It’s appropriate that his first match as a fully recognized heel is against someone whose very character alignment is chaotic neutral. It’s actually a cool and fairly layered character matchup: someone who has just embraced their inner darkness against someone who is wholly unafraid of the dark.
It feels repetitive to say ‘This match is gonna be great’ at the end of all of these write ups, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. It will be, it’s going to be, and I can’t wait. If it was up to me, I’d have Johnny lean into his newfound wicked nature and steal a victory here. I can see this being the beginning of a run that ultimately ends up with him main eventing the TakeOver before Wrestlemania and having a sendoff fitting of the best performer ever to wrestle in the yellow ropes.
WarGames: The Undisputed Era (Adam Cole, Bobby Fish, Roderick Strong & Kyle O’Reilly) vs. Pete Dunne, Ricochet & War Raiders (Hanson & Rowe)
Before I get into how much this match is going to rule, let’s talk about the War Raiders. Are they really doing it for anyone, anywhere? Even when they were with Ring of Honor, or wrestling as singles, they never really set my world on fire. The best thing I could say about them is that they were always fine. Their matches were always solid, but very rarely approached spectacular.
There is nothing wrong with that! Wrestling needs plenty of solid workers who can wrestle different styles. But with NXT essentially being an all star team of pro wrestlers, is that enough to matter? They don’t have the magnetic personalities to make up for that. I couldn’t tell you one ‘classic’ EC3 match, but that doesn’t matter. His personality is so spectacular that he can get by on less in the ring. But if you aren’t spectacular in the ring, or on the mic, or with your character, there’s a better than average chance you’ll get overlooked. And yes, I realize I just wrote like 150 words about an average tag team but whatever, it’s my column.
Four guys who emphatically do not have the problems that plague the War Raiders are the Undisputed Era. With Bobby Fish returning, the Era’s final form can truly take shape. The most unintentionally (or intentionally?) GIF-able group in wrestling heads back to WarGames looking for a repeat of last year’s result. The match fits their strengths perfectly, allowing them to run around stringing moves together and slapping their legs as hard as they possibly can. The only drawback to a WarGames match is that there are no stakes. Similar to how Survivor Series is for bragging rights, WarGames effectively means nothing but at least it’s an exciting nothing.
Last year’s WarGames match was absolutely fantastic and the competitors in this are even better. Any match is going to be massively improved when Ricochet and Pete Dunne are added to it, but still. A match like this is made for highlight packages, and really made for dudes like Ricochet. He’s going to jump off everything, onto everyone, and do a bunch of outrageous flips. It’s going to be great. There’s also like a 95% change he does some huge moonsault off the top of the cage onto the other seven dudes in the match. Let’s just say Undisputed Era wins for the second year in a row, but it really doesn’t matter as this is just fodder for spots and to set up the next tag team feud.
NXT Champion Tommaso Ciampa vs. Velveteen Dream
*Exhales slowly* Wooooo boy, is this gonna be good. I started and stopped this section at least three times and then decided to save it for last, mostly because I needed to compose myself before I just babbled for paragraphs on end.
If there was a phrase that summed up everything about this match — the characters, the stakes, the stage — it would be, ‘Who saw this coming’? Who saw Ciampa becoming goddamn Tommy Sports Entertainment aka The Greatest Sports Entertainer of All Time ™? His evolution from a decent worker to this supernova is beyond incredible. I’d say he has a unique type of charisma, but that description better fits his opponent in this match.
What he is, above all else, is convincing. The conviction in which he speaks, and the deliberate nature of his matches, makes you believe. He believes what he’s saying, so we believe it. He commands the ring every time he’s in it, and brings a kind of desperation to his matches. He was overlooked and underappreciated for such a long time, he doesn’t know how to feel any other way. Even at the top of his company, he carries that chip on his shoulder. He remembers that everyone thought he would never get here. He remembers that everyone said Gargano would be the Shawn Michaels of #DIY. He remembers everything and forgets nothing…plus he’s pretty good at this whole wrestling thing.
Do you remember where you were the first time you heard of Velveteen Dream? I don’t recall exactly, but I do remember my reaction. I have a running Gchat with some of my wrestling bros and vividly remember saying “How is this anything but an NXT gimmick?” It reeked of Tyler Breeze, it stank of Adam Rose. It had all the makings of something that might be popular in NXT, but would shrivel up and die on the main roster. I was wrong. I was wrong in every way. And you know what? I don’t feel bad about it.
I’m not mad that I missed this, because again, who saw this coming? Who saw a dude who had good mic skills on Tough Enough – heck who even watchedTough Enough? – and said “This guy is going to be the best thing in pro wrestling.” Patrick Clark has transcended what it means to be a superstar. It has been years since there has been anyone like him and years since there has been anyone with his talent, his skillset, and his unique gimmick. But there he is and here we are. We are living in the Dream’s experience; let the purple smoke envelop you and take you away.
The build has been as standard as can be, and honestly, even a bit lackluster. Heel champ comes out to cut a promo, and the other guy comes out and challenges him. It’s been done for years and will be done for years after I’m done getting column space on the world wide web. But they put their own spin on things, they gave it their individual accents and made it into something special and into something I can’t wait to watch. It still seems too early for Ciampa to lose the belt and for Dream to ascend to his rightful place as the King of everything the light touches, so look for the belt to stay where it is…unless Johnny Wrestling gets involved and costs Tomasso the belt, setting us on a course for the last chapter in their rivalry, one that ends WrestleMania weekend.
Li had a great showing here and won with a spinning kick.
– Matt Riddle defeated Punishment Martinez
They did everything you’d expect of these two. Martinez used torture racks, and Riddle hit the Bro to Sleep and Bro Stone. There were a lot of power moves and counters until Riddle won it with a knee strike.
– Humberto Carrillo & Raul Mendoza defeated Danny Burch in a handicap match
Burch claimed he didn’t know where Oney Lorcan was and faced these two alone.
– Lars Sullivan defeated Luke Menzies
Sullivan hit a pair of Freak Accidents to please the crowd.
– NXT UK Women’s Champion Rhea Ripley defeated Candice LeRae to retain her title
Great matchup — I’d like to see this on TV. Ripley was just too powerful for LeRae.
– War Raiders defeated Boa & Rocky (w/ Mansoor)
Mansoor berated Boa and Rocky for losing the match and then issued an open challenge, which was answered by Babatunde.
Three matches have been added to next month’s TakeOver event.
During tonight’s episode of NXT, General Manager William Regal made the announcement that the Velveteen Dream will challenge Tommaso Ciampa for the NXT title. After he made that announcement, Aleister Black walked up to Regal and demanded that he get a piece of Johnny Gargano, who revealed himself to be Black’s attacker last week. Regal said Gargano was at home tonight, but would make the match for TakeOver.
A third match was made at the end of the night when a huge brawl outside of the Full Sail arena erupted between all four members of the Undisputed Era and the team of Pete Dunne, Ricochet and the War Raiders, which eventually made its way to ringside. Once the Undisputed Era were sent packing, William Regal came out and made the match between the four for TakeOver inside the WarGames cage.
NXT TakeOver: WarGames will take place at the Staples Center in Los Angles, California on November 17, one day prior to Survivor Series.
– The Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins & Montez Ford) defeated The Forgotten Sons (Jaxson Ryker & Wesley Blake)
Ford had his left knee heavily taped but moved fine and worked well. The Forgotten Sons worked over his knee throughout the match and Ford sold it after.
Ford was very over with the crowd and the star of the match.
– Kassius Ohno defeated Raul Mendoza
The crowd was in favor of Ohno, but Mendoza was able to get over with them. Mendoza provided most of the offense and got a standing ovation as he left.
Kai took most of the offense, then LeRae got the hot tag and eventually pinned Aliyah.
– Johnny Gargano defeated Lars Sullivan by DQ
Really strong match. Gargano won by disqualification when Sullivan pushed the referee.
– NXT Tag Team Champions The Undisputed Era (Kyle O’Reilly & Roderick Strong) defeated Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch
– NXT North American Champion Ricochet defeated Adam Cole to retain his title
They did a spot on the outside where Cole delivered a wheelbarrow suplex to the edge of the ring, which looked brutal. There was plenty of back and forth in the match. Ricochet retained with the Shooting Star Press.
– NXT Women’s Champion Kairi Sane defeated Lacey Evans to retain her title
– NXT Champion Tommaso Ciampa defeated Velveteen Dream to retain his title
Every match on this card felt like just another match — except for this one. If this is the match we get at TakeOver, it’s going to be a damn good one.
Dream worked Ciampa’s knee throughout the match. He dragged Ciampa to the ring post to do a figure four like Bret Hart did to Steve Austin at WrestleMania 13. The referee went out of the ring to pull Dream off and did the five count as Ciampa was under the ropes. While the ref was down there, Ciampa tapped out. It obviously didn’t count as the ref didn’t see it and Ciampa had a rope break.
Ciampa brought the NXT title belt into the match. Dream caught him, and when the belt fell, Dream did his modified Sister Abigail move onto it. The ref noticed the belt was involved in the move. Dream looked shocked and then just went for the cover — and the ref counted a two.
While it was a house show and you know the title wouldn’t change hands, every near fall had the crowd invested. I heard many fans discuss the way Samoa Joe won the title back in NXT, and that one instance had fans feel like it could happen again. There were near falls off the rolling Death Valley Driver and Purple Rainmaker.
The finish was Ciampa retaining with the rope-hung DDT.
Fantastic match that felt like it was worthy of a pay-per-view. If they do that at TakeOver, I think people will love it. They had about 20 minutes at this show and could probably do better at TakeOver.
– Heavy Machinery & Jessie Elaban defeated The Forgotten Sons (Jaxson Ryker & Wesley Blake) & Lacey Evans
– Lars Sullivan defeated Keith Lee
– Shayna Baszler, Marina Shafir & Jessamyn Duke defeated NXT Women’s Champion Kairi Sane, Candice LeRae & Dakota Kai in an elimination tag match
Sane was eliminated first when Duke accidentally hit Baszler with a chair and tossed it to Sane behind the referee’s back for the disqualification. LeRae was pinned by Shafir, and Kai was choked out by Baszler to end it.
– Johnny Gargano defeated Velveteen Dream
This was said to be one of the hottest crowds for a Florida loop main event in quite some time. A tilt-a-whirl set up the Gargano Escape for the finish.
– The Street Profits (Montez Ford & Angelo Dawkins) defeated Kassius Ohno & Dominik Dijakovic
Good opener. Ohno and Dijakovic teased a heel role, but it turned out to be a babyface vs. babyface match. Ford pinned Dijakovic after hitting a frog splash.
– Reina Gonzalez defeated Xia Li
Short match. Gonzalez won with a lariat.
– War Raiders (Hanson & Rowe) defeated The Mighty (Shane Thorne & Nick Miller)
War Raiders mostly dominated this match, with The Mighty playing off them well. War Raiders were probably the second most popular act on the show, only behind Ricochet.
– Dan Matha defeated Jeet Rama
Matha cut a heel promo before the match and challenged an international member of the roster. They had a very basic, and thankfully short, match. Matha won with a delayed suplex that looked like it was intended to be a jackhammer.
Decent but uneventful. Shirai pinned Evans with a moonsault.
– Keith Lee defeated Kona Reeves
Reeves still works the same match he did before the gimmick change. There was lots of playing to the crowd, and Lee won with his fireman’s carry into a powerslam.
– Raul Mendoza defeated Mansoor
They had a sloppy match, but it was decent. Mendoza won with a fisherman buster.
– NXT North American Champion Ricochet & Kacy Catanzaro defeated Velveteen Dream & Vanessa Borne
Good match, but the restrictions of the mixed tag rules made some false tag spots meaningless. Ricochet took out Dream on the floor with a plancha and assisted Catanzaro on a Sliced Bread #2 for the win.
NXT’s Velveteen Dream will be wrestling outside of a WWE ring at a couple of shows in September.
EVOLVE Wrestling, one of the promotions that WWE has a close working relationship with, announced today that Dream will be in action at EVOLVE 112 at the MCW Arena in Joppa, Maryland on September 7 and EVOLVE 113 at La Boom in Queens, New York on September 8. WWE revealed that Dream will be facing Austin Theory in Joppa and taking on Darby Allin in Queens.
Adam Cole also wrestled for EVOLVE in June, defeating WALTER in an NXT North American Championship match. Cole vs. WALTER didn’t air live on the iPPV broadcast but was taped for potential future use.
The show in Joppa will be a homecoming for Dream, who started his career in Maryland Championship Wrestling.
Dream defeated EC3 at TakeOver: Brooklyn IV earlier this month. He then faced Johnny Gargano at the most recent set of NXT television tapings, with that match set to air next Wednesday.
Submitted by Chris Roberts from Friday night’s house show in Evansville, Indiana
– War Raiders defeated TM61
Good choice for a starting bout. It was a basic War Raiders match like they’ve been doing on television, with some heel shenanigans by TM61.
– Candice LeRae defeated Aaliyah
LeRae got a decent reaction. It was another basic match. Aaliyah missed hip drops in a comedic fashion.
– A promo aired with Fabian Aichner confronting Raul Mendoza backstage. Aichner dissed Mendoza and a local pizza place in the area, and promised that he’ll buy the crowd pizza if Mendoza manages to pull off the victory.
– Fabian Aichner defeated Raul Mendoza
The hook got people into the match, including lots of “We want pizza” chants. Mendoza showed off his athleticism and got the crowd more into it. Aichner kept cutting him off and shaking his arm, yelling “No pizza.”
Aichner got the victory after some near falls and a nice Spanish Fly by Mendoza, who was really impressive here.
– NXT Tag Team Champions Kyle O’Reilly & Roderick Strong defeated Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch to retain their titles
The crowd wasn’t too familiar with the challengers and booed them for the most part, while cheering the Undisputed Era. The match went 15-20 minutes, with Undisputed Era using cowardly heel tactics. The audience wasn’t very receptive to Lorcan and Burch’s technical style at first, but lots of teamwork and near falls got them into it.
The crowd applauded Lorcan and Burch after the match. They challenged O’Reilly and Strong back into the ring for more, then got double submissions on and held the belts high heading into intermission.
As usual, Cross was being very wacky before this started. The match didn’t gel together at all, with them getting the heat on Sane for far too long.
– NXT North American Champion Adam Cole defeated Kassius Ohno to retain his title
It was a toss-up between this and the Tag Team title match for best bout. Cole was very over, with the crowd indifferent to Ohno.
They did lots of grappling to start, then lots of hard hits throughout the match. After the loss, Ohno mentioned this being his 20th year in wrestling, thanked the fans, and brought up his early days at the Evansville Coliseum in IWA:MS fighting the likes of Necro Butcher.
– Aleister Black & EC3 defeated Lars Sullivan & Velveteen Dream
An e-mail was sent out still advertising Ricochet in EC3’s place, so I think the crowd was less enthused about the match when they realized that EC3 was the new partner. It was very strange seeing him work as a face. Velveteen Dream was pretty over, but Sullivan wasn’t as much. Dream was wearing a Ricochet shirt to mock his opponent for TakeOver.
There were spots where Dream wanted to bail but Sullivan threw him back in the ring, where he would be double teamed by the faces. Then most of the match was the heels getting the heat on EC3, with Dream sneaking tags in from Sullivan. Black got the hot tag, Dream wanted to bail, but Ricochet’s music hit and they brawled. Dream retreated into the ring and was hit with Black Mass for the finish.
As the faces celebrated, Ricochet got on the mic and apologized for being unable to compete two hours from his home. He assured us that he’ll be ready for TakeOver.
Black said Sullivan will fall again in their title match. EC3 took the NXT Championship when the referee brought it in, as did Ricochet, then Black finally took it back, teasing future feuds.
Overall, this was a good show but not a great one.
