Grading This Week's Episode of NXT (9/26/18)

Last week on NXT, NXT Champion Tommaso Ciampa faced Otis Dozovic of Heavy Machinery in the main event. The Mighty hoped to finish their rivalry with the Street Profits. NXT Women's Champion Kairi Sane and Lars Sullivan were in action as well.

An NXT North American Title Triple Threat match between Ricochet, Adam Cole, & Pete Dunne was announced for the October 10, 2018 edition of NXT. An NXT Tag Team Title Match between the Undisputed Era and the War Raiders was announced for the October 17, 2018 edition of NXT. 3 matches were announced for this week's edition of NXT.

Lars Sullivan vs Victor Orchant

Lars Sullivan's scheduled match did not go as he planned.

Result: Lars Sullivan defeated Victor Orchant via disqualification after EC3 attacked him. EC3 then stood tall and sent him backstage.

Grade: B+

Analysis: This was a regular Lars Sullivan squash match. He looked as dominant as usual. What was important here was the angle after the match. EC3 showed some much-needed fire as he took out Lars Sullivan.

EC3 finally looked like the valiant face that NXT has tried to portray him as. It is also nice that Lars Sullivan put up a fight and wasn't jut beaten up by EC3 after the match. It will be interesting to see a match between these two.

The Mighty vs Street Profits

NXT's tag team division was showcased in this matchup.

Result: The Mighty defeated The Street Profits via pinfall with a jackknife cover.

Grade: B+

Analysis: This was a pretty good match. The heels used good psychology to make Montez Ford look like a sympathetic figure. Montez Ford excellently selled the damage to his knee.

The Mighty looked like an opportunistic team that took advantage of an opportunity to damage the knee of Montez Ford. The Mighty also won clean as they just took advantage of Montez Ford tweaking his knee to roll him up for the win.

It is not clear if this is the end of this feud but it is likely that we will see The Mighty challenge for the NXT Tag Team Titles in the future.

Kairi Sane vs Vanessa Borne

Vanessa Borne was given a big opportunity against the current NXT Women's Champion.

Result: Kairi Sane defeated Vanessa Borne via pinfall with the Insane Elbow Drop.

Grade: C+

Analysis: While it is fun to see Kairi Sane squash opponents, this is nothing we haven't seen before. It would've been nice to see Vanessa Borne put up a little more of a fight since she has been heavily featured on NXT over the last few months.

The angle after the match was pretty predictable. However, Kairi Sane vs Shayna Baszler has the potential to be a great match at Evolution. It also seems right that we will see a rematch from the finals of the first Mae Young Classic at Evolution.

Otis Dozovic vs Tommaso Ciampa

Otis Dozovic received the biggest opportunity of his career.

Result: Tommaso Ciampa defeated Otis Dozovic via pinfall with the Draping DDT.

Grade: A

Analysis: Who could have expected this? Otis Dozovic and Tommaso Ciampa had an excellent back and forth matchup. It actually seemed like Otis Dozovic could get the upset at times. Otis Dozovic went through his entire moveset (and some new impressive moves) and almost put Tommaso Ciampa away many times in this match.

His power was excellently showcased in this match. Heavy Machinery has definitely improved since they first arrived at the performance centre. This match showed that Heavy Machinery is both charismatic and surprisingly excellent in the ring.

Tommaso Ciampa also looked good in this match as he was the opportunistic champ that took advantage when he could. He simply outsmarted Dozovic, it was not because he was simply the better man. While both superstars benefited from this match, Heavy Machinery's stock just massively increased.