Top 3 Performers of NXT (November 14, 2018)

In the final episode of NXT before we head to Takeover: War Games 2 this weekend, NXT sent the crowd home with a bang before their coming PPV. The episode kicked off with Bianca Belair taking on Mae Young 2 competitor Mia Yim. Yim got the stronger start against her undefeated opponent hitting a series of great dropkicks. After avoiding a dropkick, Belair was able to establish a dominance with a few submission sequences.

Yim created some separation and dropped Belair with a drop toe hold into the corner before Belair countered her next move into a vicious looking Spine Buster. Yim looked like she had the match won after hitting the cannonball on Belair and was setting her up Eat De-Feet finisher. Belair was able to hit a vicious forearm before Yim was able to execute the move, Bianca then quickly hoisted Mia up and hit her with a Burning Hammer for the finish, allowing for Bianca to maintain her strong undefeated streak.

The Yim v Belair fight was followed by a series of backstage interviews and video segments, firstly with Hanson volunteering to face Undisputed Era's Kyle O'Reilly for their match, with the stipulation of whoever wins gets the advantage to start the War Games with an extra member inside the caged rings.

Then, there was a video package going over the highlights of Johnny Gargano's attack on Aleister Black and re-traced their rivalry. Matt Riddle had a backstage interview which was interrupted by Kassius Ohno who once called the "bro-show" garbage and challenged Riddle to a fight. However, the highlight of the segment, and what many took away from it was the strange way that Riddle pronounced "debut".

Back to in-ring action, Karissa Rivera faced off against the lady of NXT Lacey Evans. Rivera received the jobber treatment, after getting the jobbers entrance. The match didn't last long as Evans hit her finisher, The Woman's Right, for the clean pinfall victory within a few minutes of the fight. Lacey grabbed a microphone after her match, calling out the NXT women's roster in a vague threatening promo.

After this, NXT cut to video packages highlighting some of the matches happening at Takeover: War Games, including Ciampa's defence of the NXT Title against the Velveteen Dream and Kairi Sane's rematch against Shayna Baszler in a 2 out of 3 falls match for the NXT Women's title.

Finally, the main event of the evening saw War Raider's member Hanson facing off against Undisputed Era's Kyle O'Reilly. Both men came to the ring without their team members, which was a strange look on Kyle O'Reilly, who is usually flanked by at least one of his team members. Despite getting a fast start, Hansen dominated the start of the fight with an incredible display of power. For his part, O'Reilly focussed his attacks on the legs, trying to chop down the bigger man.

Towards the end of the match, Adam Cole ran down to ringside to distract Hanson but he was taken out by Rowe as he got up on to the apron. Meanwhile, in the ring, the momentum of the match see-sawed. Rowe and Cole would be joined at ringside by the rest of Undisputed Era, with Pete Dunne and Ricochet joining the brawl at ringside later to even the numbers. While all of this was going on O'Reilly used the distraction to hit Hanson with the NXT Tag Team Titles from behind to get the pinfall victory.

#3 Bianca Belair

NXT's latest female signing Mia Yim went head to head with the "EST" of NXT after their backstage confrontation on last week's episode. The fight built perfectly with Mia Yim getting a great jump on her opponent. Despite Bianca Belair being undefeated until this point, it genuinely looked like, at points throughout the match, she was going to suffer her first defeat in NXT.

The hard-hitting fight had several changes of momentum throughout, with Yim hitting a series of kicks only for Belair to counter with a bone-shaking Spine Buster. However, Yim fought back and looked like she had the fight won.

As Belair laid prone in the corner, Mia hit her with a Cannonball Senton and picked her dazed opponent up and was setting her up to hit her finisher, Eat De-Feet, when she was struck by a stiff forearm by Belair. She then quickly picked up Mia and hit her with a vicious Burning Hammer for the win.

#2 Hanson

It's was strange seeing Hanson come to the ring not flanked by his War Raiders tag team partner in Rowe, but it was obvious from the outset that he would eventually come out. There was no way that the Undisputed Era was going to let this be a fair fight, and there was no way Rowe would allow Undisputed Era to get the numerical advantage on his tag team partner.

However, the singles match between O'Reilly and Hanson was given the full chance to develop in its own regards. Hanson was always going to be the bigger of the two and in an out and out strength contest, O'Reilly wouldn't have stood much of a chance.

While O'Reilly played towards his strengths by using quick strikes, Hanson was able to show off surprising agility of his own from time to time, such as hitting a Tope Suicida between the ropes and almost landing a picture perfect Moonsault that would have made Vader smile.

While it's unlikely that Hanson will see a singles run, he showed that he was highly capable of having one if the WWE decided to split the War Raiders.

#1 Kyle O'Reilly

O'Reilly is the most under-appreciated member of the Undisputed Era stable, along with maybe Bobby Fish. O'Reilly is a gem both inside and out of the ring but is often overlooked in favor of his more recognizable stablemates in Roderick Strong and Adam Cole. This performance against the War Raider's Hanson was another piece of evidence that Kyle O'Reilly is a great, not only in tag team competition but also, as a singles competitor.

While O'Reilly was the smaller man in the fight, he used his quickness and agility to try and cut down his bigger opponent. O'Reilly started the match by aiming a series of low kicks at the much bigger Hanson's knees and shins as a way of trying to get the bigger man down. It was clear that throughout the match, this was going to be O'Reilly's plan.

When momentum was on O'Reilly's side he would intentionally target the legs, making it hard for Hanson to establish a power base. O'Reilly also used a series of takedowns relating to the leg in order to avoid his opponent's clear strength and size advantage.

While the tactic didn't factor into the finish, it certainly made it look like O'Reilly was going to try to win the fight cleanly but with the referee's back being turned, he still resorted to using the title belt as a weapon. In the ultimate heel move, O'Reilly could have fought clean but still decided to use the weapon anyway.