After sending Shinsuke Nakamura to ‘hospital’ last week, what did Samoa Joe have in store for us today? We also needed to find out who Asuka’s next opponent would be along with an update on Nakamura’s health.With the CWC winding up last week, would we see any more cruiserweights showing up on NXT this week?
NXT put on a jam-packed episode this week that feature matches from Andrade Almas and Austin Aries along with some great action from the women’s division. We’re also on the road to the first Canadian NXT TakeOver and we saw some feuds get taken to the next level. Stick around for the 5 main points to note from this week's episode of NXT.
5: Oney Lorcan impressive in defeat/Itami and Aries’ feud heats up
Oney Lorcan took on Austin Aries last night on NXT. The Boston native may have lost the match in the end after tapping out to the Last Chancery, but he was mighty impressive during the match with his unique offence. It’s fair to say that he came close to upsetting Aries before the veteran dug deep and pulled off the win.
Following the match, Aries called out Hideo Itami, who he called a coward. Aries said that he was a real man and Itami was too scared to come out. How wrong was Aries? Itami came out immediately and Aries scurried away as soon as Itami entered the ring. Itami and Aries’ feud began at NXT TakeOver Brooklyn II and it’s really heated up in recent weeks.
4: Re-building the women’s division
The NXT women’s division got gutted when Nia Jax, Carmella, Alexa Bliss and Bayley got called up to the main roster. However, NXT is well and truly on its way to rebuilding the division. It may look a little light at the moment but the future of the division will be secure in the deadly hands of Asuka – the NXT Women’s Champion.
Apart from Asuka, we have the extremely impressive Ember Moon who debuted at Brooklyn II. We also have Billy Kay and Liv Morgan who’ve been pushed recently and feature on last night’s episode with Billie Kay defeating Aliyah and Liv Morgan calling out Asuka. Apart from these two we also have Daria Berenato, Mandy Rose, Peyton Royce and Aliyah coming up through the ranks.
We also have Nikki Glencross in the division who’s only debuted recently. Glencross was one of the top women of the British indies, wrestling under the name Nikki Storm before she signed with NXT.
3: Andrade ‘Cien’ Almas’ run isn’t going well
When it was announced that Manny Andrade had signed with NXT, it was considered a huge deal. Andrade’s was one of the most talented luchador’s in Mexico and it looked like WWE had signed their next big Latino Superstar.
However, his run in NXT as Andrade ‘Cien’ Almas has almost been a disaster. The crowd chanted for his opponent Tye Dillinger on his NXT debut and his terrible gimmick with suspenders and a fedora didn’t help. There is no doubt that Almas is talented but the Full Sail crowd does not like him and another loss last night against Cedric Alexander only highlighted how underwhelming Almas’ NXT career has been so far.
2: Liv Morgan’s big mistake
Liv Morgan was backstage talking about her recent run of victories when she called out NXT Women’s Champion Asuka. She said that she came to NXT to take on the best and that she didn’t come up from the bottom to go back to the bottom.
Asuka interfered during the interview and told Liv Morgan to be careful about what she wished for and announced that she’d have a match with Liv Morgan. Asuka is still undefeated and it doesn’t look like anyone can overcome the ‘Empress of Tomorrow’. Live Morgan just made a huge mistake by asking for and receiving a match with Asuka so soon.
1: Sociopath Joe
Samoa Joe looks like he isn’t done with what looks like a complete mental breakdown since his loss to Shinsuke Nakamura at NXT TakeOver Brooklyn II. After last week’s vicious attack that left Nakamura ‘hospitalized’, Joe came out this week with a copy of Shinsuke’s medical record.
Joe announced that Nakamura would be out for 6 to 12 weeks and called out Regal to either strip the title of Nakamura or to give him a match with Nakamura. Regal came out and refused, to which an enraged Joe responded by saying that unless Regal changed his mind, Joe would take out every member of the NXT roster – one by one.
