It’s less than two weeks to NXT TakeOver: Back 2 Brooklyn one week away from Saturday and things are heating up. A lot of storylines are nearing their crescendo and the main attraction of this week’s show was the contract signing between Asuka and Bayley.
They show started off with a backstage shot of Bobby Roode with NXT GM William Regal. Roode looks pleased as Regal heads to the ring for the opening segment.
Asuka and Bayley contract signing
The show kicks off with a contract signing segment between Bayley and NXT Women’s Champion Asuka. William Regal is in the ring at the beginning of the segment to introduce the signees and to make sure that order was maintained. Bayley came out to the usual warm reception that she is used to. Bayley came out looking more determined than we’ve ever seen her. She had a steely resilience behind her smile. She was followed out by the still undefeated NXT Women’s Champion Asuka.
Bayley started with a promo saying how she’s beaten every top woman in NXT’s history from Sasha Banks, Charlotte, and Paige to Nia Jax. She said that even after those wins she was seen as an underdog, till a year ago at Brooklyn when she defeated Sasha Banks to achieve her dream of winning her first NXT Women’s Championship. However, she says that her dream turned into a nightmare in Dallas when Asuka beat her for the Championship. Bayley said that she wasn’t prepared, in hindsight, but now she is. She also said that she’ll beat Asuka at Brooklyn on August 20th to reclaim her championship.
Asuka just replied that Bayley didn’t have it and she extends her hand as a gesture of respect. Bayley refused to shake Asuka’s hand and told her to take her hand and sign the contract for the match.
Following the signing of the contract, Bayley slapped Asuka’s hand away and left the ring. She then turned around and gave Asuka a stare before running back into the ring and going nose to nose with Asuka. A determined Bayley showed us a new fire that we haven’t seen from her before. Will she have what it takes to beat the Empress of Tomorrow at NXT TakeOver: Back 2 Brooklyn?
Authors of Pain vs Rob Ryzin and Adrian Nails
Authors of Pain come out with Paul Ellering, looking as menacing as ever with their opponents, Rob Ryzin and Adrian Nails waiting in the ring. There was not much to take note of in this match apart from it being your basic squash match. The Authors of Pain dominated the whole match without giving their opponents an inch. There was a really neat tandem powerbomb spot near the end where Nails and Ryzin got powerbombed into each other first before getting powerbombed onto the mat.
Authors of Pain def. Rob Ryzin and Adrian Nails
Authors of Pain continued the beat down following the match before TM-61 came out to the rescue. TM-61’s rescue failed spectacularly however as the Authors of Pain soon overpowered and took out the much smaller Australian attackers.
Andrea D’Marco is backstage with Shinsuke Nakamura following the match and she asks him to respond to Joe’s threats from last week. Nakamura responds only as Nakamura can, and replies that he(Nakamura) isn’t hard to find. Nakamura also says that when the time is right, he will go find Joe himself.
Andrade “Cien” Almas vs Angelo Dawkins
Before we get into the match I’d just like to say that Almas is talented as hell. However, his stupid gimmick is not working at all and will hold him back if it doesn’t change. He came out to a lukewarm reception from the crowd to the point where Angelo Dawkins might have gotten the bigger reaction of the two. That’s absolutely devastating, especially for someone who’s debut was so recent and hyped so much.
The match itself was nothing special and barely lasted three minutes. No particular moment from this match was memorable at all and it really looked like Almas and Dawkins were resting on their laurels a little. Almas capitalized on a missed 360o corner splash from Dawkins to isolate him in the corner and finish off the match with the corner running knees. Almas pulled off a new finisher to finish off Dawkins, an impressive looking hammerlock DDT.
Andrade “Cien” Almas def. Angelo Dawkins
Bobby Roode came out following the match while Almas was still celebrating. Roode tells Almas that even though the match wasn’t very good, he still wanted to congratulate Almas for the victory even though it was rough around the edges. He informed Almas that he was lucky and honoured, because at NXT TakeOver: Back 2 Brooklyn, Roode’s first opponent in NXT would be him, Almas. Roode also went on to take a jab at Almas’ English while telling him the crowd at Brooklyn would be there to see one man and one man only, the GLORIOUS Bobby Roode.
We see Austin Aires and William Regal in Regal’s office following the match. Aries is upset that he isn’t on the Brooklyn card in two weeks so Regal sets him up in a match with No Way Jose on the 20th. Aries doesn’t look very happy but promises to teach Jose a lesson.
Billie Kay vs Liv Morgan
NXT women’s division action was up next. Billie Kay took on New Jersey native Liv Morgan. This match was all about rebuilding NXT’s women’s division. Both women got the time to show what they could do in the ring and the match went back and forth for the most part with both of them pulling off some nice sequences. The match ended with Billie Kay countering a spin kick from Liv Morgan and delivered a very Charlotte-esque big boot for the win.
Billie Kay def. Liv Morgan
After the match, we saw Rich Swann, Jack Gallagher and Noam Dar in the crowd.
A video of Gargano and Ciampa’s Cruiserweight Classic match was shown next which led to a backstage segment where Gargano and Ciampa are with William Regal in his office. Regal wanted to know if they were on the same page because he had booked them in a match for the NXT Tag-Team Championships at NXT TakeOver: Back 2 Brooklyn.
Johnny Gargano & Tomasso Ciampa vs Tucker Knight & Patrick Clark
Gargano and Ciampa come out to a great reception from the crowd. The completely dominate the opening stages of the match with some devastating combination moves between them. Ciampa for one is in full flow and delivered some devastating strikes and kicks to his opponents. Gargano for his part used his superior speed when tagged in and was all over the much bigger Tucker Knight including a mid-rope spear. The match finished with two devastating combination team strikes, the latter of which was a tandem superkick/running knee combo to the head to finish off Tucker Knight. Gargano and Ciampa looked really good in this match and showed why they’re the #1 contenders.
Johnny Gargano & Tomasso Ciampa def. Tucker Knight & Patrick Clark
Mojo cuts a fiery pre-match promo on Samoa Joe, and for once, he says it’s not about getting hyped. This is a side of Mojo we’ve never seen before. Could it help him defeat Samoa Joe just weeks before Joe’s title defence against Shinsuke Nakamura?
Mojo Rawley vs Samoa Joe
Rawley starts the match by taking the fight straight to Samoa Joe. The two trade punches in the beginning before Mojo somehow gets the better of Joe who scampers to the outside. He follows Joe to the outside and continues. Joe then moves out of the way as Mojo missed his spear and crashes into the steel steps.
With the action back in the ring again, Joe delivers a devastating Enzeguiri which has Rawley on his knees. He then delivers a series of devastating kicks which are followed up by a running elbow drop. The crowd get behind Mojo but nothing he does can thwart Joe. Samoa Joe then sets Rawley up for the Muscle Buster which Mojo countered with an elbow drop. Mojo follows it up with a modified full nelson slam for the near fall. Mojo went for one corner splash too many after this and Joe caught him with another Enzeguiri. He followed it up with a Muscle Buster to lay out Rawley. He follows it up with a Coquina Clutch for the win.
Samoa Joe def. Mojo Rawley
He locks up the Coquina Clutch again after the bell which draws Nakamura out in Rawley’s rescue. Nakamura dances his way to the ring before security stopped him. Security got in the way and kept Nakamura and Joe apart. Nakamura taunted Joe repeatedly before eventually leaving, with Samoa Joe seething in the ring.
