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WWE NXT had a big show last week where Keith Lee relinquished his NXT North American Championship for the greater good of the brand. Bronson Reed grabbed the opportunity presented with both hands as he defeated Roderick Strong and Johnny Gargano in a Triple Threat Match to become the first man to progress to the NXT North American Championship Ladder Match at NXT TakeOver XXX.
This week, another big match was set to allow another NXT Superstar to progress to the Ladder match as Finn Balor, Timothy Thatcher, and Dexter Lumis competed in a Triple Threat Match. Also, Lee was out in the middle to address Karrion Kross following his actions last week during the match against Dominik Dijakovic.
The women of NXT were set for a big tag team match which turned out to be the highlight of the night, while Gargano managed to get his hands on Strong following their loss last week.
That's not all, as Mercedes Martinez picked up a big victory over Shotzi Blackheart, and Isaiah Scott got back in the game by picking up a victory over Jake Atlas.
In this article, we will look at the 5 things WWE NXT got right on this week’s show.
#5 Imperium & The Undisputed Era returns to WWE NXT
The WWE NXT Tag Team Champions had been missing for some weeks, and they returned to television this week to pump up the NXT tag team division.
Fabian Aichner and Marcel Barthel were prepared to compete against Chase Parker and Matt Martel, known as Ever Rise, and make an immediate impact.
Barthel and Martel started the match to allow the commentators to have some fun with their rhyming names and confused a few viewers watching at home. While Ever Rise tried to take the upper hand in the match, the NXT Tag Team Champions were too good for them throughout the contest.
After some technical exchanges and big moves, Imperium finished their opponents off with the European Bomb to make the impact they were looking for.
As the two heels celebrated their victory, The Undisputed Era arrived and attacked the duo. With Kyle O’Reilly back in the mix, it was great to see all four men of the Undisputed Era together again. Bobby Fish and O’Reilly seem to have their eyes set on the titles once again, and this could turn out to be another interesting rivalry for the titles that the Undisputed Era made great.
With The Indus Sher out of the mix again and Breezango looking to make inroads in other storylines, Undisputed Era seems like the most logical challengers for the titles once again.
#4 Johnny Gargano and Roderick Strong light up WWE NXT
After losing to Bronson Reed in a Triple Threat Match on last week’s WWE NXT, Johnny Gargano and Roderick Strong were booked to compete against each other during this week’s show.
Both men are NXT veterans and are amongst the finest wrestlers in the world. They showed just how good they are by starting the match with some great technical holds and takedowns.
The two men had some great exchanges, after which they shoved each other and got back to countering each other’s moves.
The action picked up late in the match as The Messiah of the Backbreaker hit a backbreaker on Gargano and started dominating the match. The two men had some great exchanges and Strong hit Johnny Wrestling with a few backbreakers.
However, Gargano was smart enough to use his heelish tactics and got the upper hand late in the match, following which he hit the One Final Beat to pick up the win.
This was a good match between the veterans who are currently fighting to stay relevant to a brand that is looking to build new talent.
With Tommaso Ciampa out for some time, it’s good to see at least some of the veterans get some matches and perform their hearts out to show what they’re made of.
#3 The women of WWE NXT shine yet again
The opening match of the night was arguably the best one from this week’s WWE NXT, as Tegan Nox and NXT Women’s Champion Io Shirai teamed up to compete against Dakota Kai and Candice LeRae.
Kai once again attacked Shirai from behind as the Joshi Judas was making her entrance, and Nox and LeRae immediately came out to join the fight.
After the referee called for the bell, the match started with Nox and LeRae looking to gain an early advantage for their teams. The Poison Pixie came in with renewed energy and took the fight to the babyface early on.
After the NXT Women’s Champion was tagged in, the heels tried to corner her and worked on her for as long as possible. However, Shirai managed to break out with a big German Suplex to Kai and the babyfaces got back in the match.
In the final moments of the match, Nox hit LeRae with the Shiniest Wizard and Shirai hit a moonsault to pick up the victory for her team.
This was a great match that showed just how good all four women are in the ring. While Shirai is absolutely the best there is in WWE NXT, Nox and Kai have shown time and time again that they are up there amongst the best too.
This was an entertaining first match that did well to pull in the viewers early on and made them stay glued to their screens.
#2 The WWE NXT Champion meets his match
Last week on WWE NXT, Karrion Kross made the biggest statement possible by taking out one of NXT’s biggest men with ease. The newest heel on the block took out Dominik Dijakovic during a match that almost put an end to the big man’s career.
Keith Lee wasn’t too happy with the way Kross had manhandled his friend and came out this week to address Kross and the entire NXT Universe.
Lee updated the fans about Dijakovic, claiming that he’s a grown man who will be fine. However, he stated that he could not get past what Kross did to his friend last week, and confirmed that Kross had his attention now.
Suddenly, Cameron Grimes came out of nowhere and trashed talked, claiming that he’d take Lee’s NXT Championship away from him first. Lee pulled him into the ring by his neck with one hand and beat down the trash-talker.
Suddenly the lights dropped and Scarlett appeared on the stage. Grimes once again tried to attack Lee but met with a Spirit Bomb for his troubles.
Finally, Kross appeared on the big screen and taunted The Limitless One for watching his friend suffer at his hands last week.
The Herald of Doomsday gave Lee an ultimatum. He asked for a match for the NXT Championship or threatened Lee with dire consequences. Lee did not hesitate to accept the challenge.
This was a great way to build the next NXT Championship match with NXT TakeOver XXX drawing closer. While Grimes should not have been made part of the segment, the creatives probably just wanted to show how angry the NXT Champion was. Otherwise, the entire thing worked perfectly well and built towards a big rivalry.
#1 Dexter Lumis looks to haunt the entire WWE NXT locker room
The final match of the night was a big one as three men competed for a spot in the North American title match at NXT TakeOver XXX.
The Triple Threat Match consisted of three equally good and unique performers in the form of Timothy Thatcher, Dexter Lumis, and the veteran Finn Balor. As the most accomplished man in the match, Balor had a clear advantage even though he was the smaller and physically weaker NXT Superstar.
The opening spot of the match was incredible as we saw Lumis stand completely still as Balor and Thatcher locked horns. Lumis threw both men out of the ring and then did a flip over the top rope and landed on his feet outside the ring.
The Artist controlled the bout early while The Prince kept finding a way out and kept getting back into the match. Thatcher worked on his opponents’ joints and kept on setting up towards a final submission hold that could bag him the victory.
While all three men did a good job at trading the action, Lumis sneaked up on Thatcher while he had Balor in a hold and locked in the kata gatame to make Thatcher pass out and win the match.
It was interesting to see Thatcher take the fall to allow Lumis to rise in such a high-profile match, and even though The Artist seemed like the underdog, he too progresses to the NXT North American Ladder Match following Bronson Reed.
NXT has been mixing up the results really well in recent months, and this showed that Triple H and his men are ready to give the new men a chance.
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