NXT Television Report Card - August 1, 2018

Gargano fad
Gargano faded to black at the end of NXT...

The landscape of NXT was flipped and turned inside out last week when Tommaso Ciampa became the new NXT Champion when he defeated Aleister Black in the main event last week. It was a rare sight to see the title change hands on the show at Full Sail as it hadn't been done since Bo Dallas defeated Big E for it in 2013.

Follow Sportskeeda for the latest WWE news, rumors and all other wrestling news.

With NXT Takeover: Brooklyn just a little over two weeks away, it'll be interesting to see if Black gets a one-on-one rematch with Ciampa or if Johnny Gargano figures into the equation. I honestly can see it going several directions because Black could get called up after SummerSlam; which enables the best feud of the year to continue, but this time for the title.

Outside of the NXT Championship picture, the rest of the card is set up for NXT Takeover: Brooklyn IV. Just added to the card this week were Ricochet v. Adam Cole for the NXT North American Championship and Moustache Mountain invokes their rematch clause against The Undisputed Era for the NXT Tag Team Championships.

This week's edition of NXT saw four matches and an explosive final segment when Ciampa entered the Full Sail Arena as NXT Champion for the first time.

As always on the report card articles, the best grade a segment or match can earn is A+, with the worst grade being an F. On the final slide, I will also give an overall grade for the show.

Let's kick things off with some NXT tag team action...


#5 Heavy Machinery take on The Mighty

Fire up the backho
Fire up the backhoe, it's time for some Heavy Machinery!

The feud between Heavy Machinery and The Mighty has been brewing over the past few weeks. First The Mighty took out Tucker Knight in the weight room, and then The Mighty took down Otis Dozovic in a handicap match.

The Mighty has made a lot of enemies lately, and that came back to bite them in this match. The Street Profits entered the arena and joined the NXT Universe to cause a distraction; which ended in Heavy Machinery landing The Compactor for the victory.

Definitely a good opener with two good tag teams.

GRADE: B

youtube-cover

#4 Moustache Mountain returns to Full Sail

Enter captio
Tyler Bate and Trent Seven are on the road to regain the tag titles...

The last time we saw Tyler Bate and Trent Seven at Full Sail, The Undisputed Era defeated them to regain the NXT Tag Team Championships. Moustache Mountain returned to Full Sail this week and took on a couple of jobbers as they looked to regain some momentum.

After their victory, they would grab microphones and let it be known that they talked to General Manager William Regal. At NXT Takeover: Brooklyn IV, Moustache Mountain invokes their rematch clause and will take on Kyle O'Reilly and Roderick Strong.

Though it's hard to grade a squash match highly, Bate and Seven looked phenomenal as a team.

GRADE: C+

youtube-cover

#3 EC3 takes on "The Finest" Kona Reeves

EC3 co
EC3 continues his crusade to turn NXT to NX3...

Since he returned to NXT with The Finest gimmick, Kona Reeves has been undefeated but faced his toughest test to date when he took on EC3.

Reeves would have the upper-hand early in the match before EC3 staged a comeback. Just when it appeared that EC3 had victory in his grasp, Velveteen Dream interrupted the proceedings.

Reeves took advantage of the distraction, but couldn't pin EC3. The match would end with EC3 recovering and nailing Reeves with the One Percenter; while we have another great Takeover match penciled in.

GRADE: B-

youtube-cover

#2 Candice LeRae gets a shot at the NXT Women's Champion

Bas
Baszler doing what she does best, inflict damage...

An altercation of words backstage led to the next match when Candice LeRae took on the NXT Women's Champion, Shayna Baszler. If LeRae would happen to get a win, she could potentially have the opportunity to get added to the championship match with Kairi Sane at Takeover, similar to what Charlotte Flair did on SmackDown.

Unfortunately for Candice, she couldn't overcome her injured arm and shoulder that Baszler worked on extensively. Candice missed the quebrada and landed right into Kirifuda Clutch of Baszler and had no option but to tap out.

Post-match, Baszler continued her attack until Sane came out to make the save. This was a really good match, borderline A grade.

GRADE: B+

youtube-cover

#1 Tommaso Ciampa taunts the NXT Universe as the new NXT Champion / overall grade

T
Those chants that start with A from the NXT Universe are quite fitting for Ciampa...

Like it or not, Tommaso Ciampa is on top of the food chain at NXT, and he came out in the final segment to rub it into all that despise him (and that list is quite long).

After doing some gloating about becoming champion, Ciampa got in the face of the AWESOME white-haired lady who he's gotten into great verbal confrontations of the past. I loved how he decided to go talk to her in this promo.

Aleister Black would come out to confront Ciampa, but before he could reach the ring, Johnny Gargano sprinted down to attack Tommaso. Ciampa would escape, but when Gargano turned around, he ran right into a Fade To Black from Aleister.

This was a phenomenal closing segment for those in the NXT Championship picture.

GRADE: A


Overall, it was another excellent edition of NXT television. All of the non-squash matches were solid, and the final segment was tremendous to build excitement towards the NXT Championship at NXT Takeover: Brooklyn IV.

OVERALL GRADE: B+

youtube-cover