We open NXT from Full Sail with Enzo and Big Cass. They cut a promo on the Lucha Dragons declaring they are in their way on their road to the NXT Tag Titles. The Lucha Dragons are out for a match. The announcers remind the fans that the Dragons knocked off the Ascension who held the tag titles for over a year. It appears the Dragons are out of favor these days as they are clearly booked to put over the SWAFT boys. The announcers also share that the match is a #1 contenders for the tag titles match.
The Dragons hit a nice combo splash move on Enzo. Kalisto catches a hot tag and lands an impressive series of moves. He’s almost a spitting image of a young Rey Mysterio with his speed and move set. This is not a bad thing. There is lots of Enzo and very little Cass for a majority of the match. Cass saves Enzo and forces a hot tag. He immediately hits his East River plunge and then tags back Enzo who hits a splash off the top for the win.
This was a poorly booked match. It’s unclear if they are protecting Cass from being exposed in the ring as Enzo did most of the work. The flow of the match was largely in favor of the Dragons, but things fell apart in a flash when Cass interjected himself. It was not a hot enough tag and the Dragons were in control for all, but a minute or two in this match. This is developmental, but they could have worked a better finish than this.
Cut to a promo of next week’s show promoting the matches being from the Arnold Classic. Owens will apparently wrestle Alex Riley and they give away an altercation between the two later in the very show that is still happening…whoops. It looks like Alexa Bliss will be in a match with Sasha Banks as well.
After that they run an Alex Riley video package going over his short career. He will take on CJ Parker later on the show. They then cut to a video package of Kevin Owens. They show clips of all four, that’s right, four, of his televised NXT matches. Amazing that Owens seems to have done so much when he has really wrestled so little since December.
Carmella is out looking as good as ever. She takes on Alexa Bliss who apparently is going over because they already promoted her for next week against Banks. NXT needs to do a little better with their promotions of the following week show. Bliss is out to a moderate pop. Good reversal exchange by these two that starts with Carmella on the top rope, but landing on her feet. Carmella plays to the crowd well and has a natural appeal as a heel. The crowd is pretty dead for Bliss in the early going. They exchange lots of basic moves that are well executed.
This match perhaps needed a promo to help drum up some crowd interest. Both ladies are working hard, but there’s no story here. Bliss hits the sparkle splash off the top rope and gets the win. Decent match, but again it wouldn’t have hurt to do a one or two minute promo backstage to promote that match. Both ladies have plenty of promise.
Riley cuts a promo about how he’s dedicated to the business and he’s happy Owen motivated him to come back to in ring action. He claims he’s fighting for his life and he’s ready to rage.
Tyler Breeze cuts a selfie promo, that’s really nothing to talk about.
CJ Parker is out to take on Alex Riley. Riley is acting very aggressive like he has a major chip on his shoulder. Albert admits he’s pulling for Alex Riley. Riley wins a quick match where only his finisher was worth talking about. The Ladies match was longer and Riley was only mildly impressive.
Owens music hits. He points out how bad Riley’s back tattoo is. He has a point there. Owens promises to prove that Riley’s decision to return to the ring will be a huge mistake. Riley breaks down in the ring after Owens leaves likely due to the crowd giving him a nice ovation.
Owens did mention Finn Bálor and their upcoming match. NXT is likely trying to get past that match since it appears Bálor will be going to the main roster right after WM31. They probably don’t want people to remember that Owens will get over on him. Bálor and Owens should be a really big deal, but NXT probably wants to protect Bálor’s luster by keeping that match low on the radar.
Breeze is out for the main event with his selfie stick. Breeze has perfected his entrance at this point. It’s a wonder he’s still in NXT, but he seems like a Ziggler lite so maybe it’s better he stays in NXT. Itami is out. Hideo won their last two matches pretty clean, so this is a big match for Breeze as a third loss would really hurt him.
Breeze appears to have Itami better scouted as he avoids a bunch of his moves, but gets killed by a clothesline on the outside. The crowd is treated to a few rest holds.
A quick break where they air a replay of the promo for next week’s show. Bliss will take on Banks. Owens will take on Riley.
Breeze hits a nice Supermodel kick, but cannot get the pin fall. Breeze gets pulled into the pole and is out of it on the floor. Itami hits a top rope knee to the back of the head of Breeze. The crowd wants a GTS. Itami hits a series of kicks, but misses the big drop kick in the corner. Breeze hits the beauty shot into a nice cover for the win.
A good match overall, but Breeze getting the clean win was not a good thing for Itami who needed to build on his win at the last Takeover special. They obviously needed a main event and they decided to run these two back again. Breeze couldn’t lose again, but winning clean was probably not the way to go.
This was a C- episode. The opening match was booked poorly and they told a terrible in ring story. It was obvious that the push is on for Cass and Enzo, but if they really want to get the crowd behind them they needed to work from underneath more and have a longer match.
The ladies match could have used some additional hype, but in the end Bliss got over. Carmella is certainly headed to the top of the division down the road. She displays great in ring charisma. The Riley match was yet another squash of CJ Parker, which is getting old in a hurry. Parker has been squashed by Itami, Owens, Crowe, and now Riley. The sad part is that CJ’s a good worker and confident on the mic. He deserves better.
WWE continues to foster the .500 record situation by beating Itami. These two both deserve to be pushed, but they should have been kept apart. Itami and Breeze are big enough stars that their losses should be saved for title shots and Takeover specials. They should not be losing on the weekly show.
NXT should probably never run a show that does not include a match from Bálor, Neville, Zayn, or Owens. Every show should at least feature a match with one of those guys while they are down there. Its just good business.
In the end next week’s show looks like it will be highly entertaining. Any card that has Banks and Owens is sure to be a success. Hopefully NXT will feature those two matches for a majority of the show and spare us any quick squashes. Just like Lucha Underground NXT would probably be better served by 2 hours of show time a week. The general fan base would probably not mind that at all.