NXT Results and Recap: Sorting Out Crowded Title Scenes Before TakeOver
There’s nothing subtle about this week’s episode of NXT. There’s no time to waste before WrestleMania weekend, no time to spend on anything that’s not
The first match of the week is one of the semifinal matches in the Dusty Rhodes Classic, with Moustache Mountain taking on the Forgotten Sons. Tyler Bate and Trent Seven, former NXT Tag Team Champions themselves, beat the Street Profits to get to this spot, and they’re hoping they can stop the Forgotten Sons’ Steve Cutler and Wesley Blake from getting their first-ever shot at the titles. Bate squares off against Blake first, working him over with a few takedowns before Blake desperately tags in Cutler. Bate takes control of him too, grounding him with a snap suplex and an armlock.
Cutler fights back though, getting Bate into the corner and working with Blake to make quick tags, keeping Bate on the mat with stomps and submissions. It’s a strategy that doesn’t work for long though, as Bate makes the tag and Seven runs roughshod over the Forgotten Sons by using devastating knife-edge chops. Things are looking good for Moustache Mountain until the Forgotten Sons double team Seven and deliver a chop block that seems to aggravate a knee injury Seven only recently recovered from.
Seven really struggles to get any momentum back, getting worked over by one lower body submission after another. Cutler and Blake won’t let Seven get close to his corner until both Seven and Cutler lay each other out with clotheslines. That forces Cutler to crawl to his corner to make a tag, leaving Seven open to tag Bate. Once Bate’s in, he’s all over the Forgotten Sons, his incredible offense capped off by a great stretch where he lifts both men on his shoulders and spins them around before getting both of them to the outside, where he throws Blake into Cutler with an exploder suplex. Bate goes for the cover back in the ring, but Cutler breaks it up.
So, Bate tags in Seven, and they deliver a deadly combination clotheslines/dragon suplex. That should be it for Blake, but the third Forgotten Son, Jaxson Ryker, puts Blake’s foot on the bottom rope when the ref isn’t looking. The momentum shifts, the numbers game becomes too much to handle, and the Forgotten Sons lay out Tyler Bate with a double team finisher that sends Moustache Mountain packing, giving the Forgotten Sons a date in the Dusty Rhodes Classic finals against the winners of Ricochet and Aleister Black vs. DIY.
Before we find out who’ll come out of that match on top, it’s on to the #1 Contender match to determine who will face Shayna Baszler for her NXT Women’s Championship at NXT TakeOver: New York next month. Baszler sits in on commentary for this match, getting a good look at her two potential opponents. It’s more than a scouting trip though. She gets right to calling Io Shirai a “nobody from Japan” before running down Bianca Belair’s attempts to get another shot at the title.
As the match begins, Belair is all aggression. She gets her hands in Shirai’s face and sets about throwing her around with her patented strength. Perhaps Belair is a little too confident though, as Shirai dodges a bunch of her attacks and sends her rolling to the outside with a dropkick. She then goes for a high-flying move off the apron, but Belair counters by catching her in midair and then throwing her into the steel steps, taking control of the match.
Back in the ring, Belair gets a near fall with a shoulder block and a standing moonsault and stays on top of Shirai by keeping her on the mat with a handful of submissions. Shirai doesn’t need much space to execute some offense though, and she quickly comes back with a springboard double dropkick. Her propensity for high-flying moves gets her caught though, as Belair hangs her on the top rope and smacks her with that devastating hair whip.
In other words, it’s back and forth for most of the match, neither woman able to sustain any momentum. When Belair and Shirai both end up prone on the mat, Baszler takes the opportunity to get in the ring, end the match, and lock Belair in a choke. That brings out Kairi Sane, who also ends up on the mat after getting choked out. Shirai briefly fights back against the champ, but it’s all for naught. Baszler puts her to sleep too. It’s a massive statement during an important match, eliminating any competitors who think they could challenge for the NXT Women’s Championship.
The thing is, it’s a move that doesn’t actually work: As Baszler leaves the arena, William Regal announces that because of her actions, she’ll be defending her title against Kairi Sane, Io Shirai, and Bianca Belair at NXT TakeOver: New York. Talk about a strategy truly backfiring!
That brings us to our main event, as Aleister Black and Ricochet go up against the newly-reformed DIY, vying for the final spot in the Dusty Rhodes Classic, the winner of which earns a title shot against the War Raiders at NXT TakeOver: New York. Johnny Gargano is once again aligned with Tommaso Ciampa, but it’s not clear whether that’s enough to get some gold around his waist. Defeating Ricochet and Black is a tall task, but DIY do have the advantage of being a team for some time.
Ciampa and Black kick things off, with Black gaining an early advantage by using his brutal strikes. He grounds Ciampa and tags in Ricochet, who works the NXT Champion over before Gargano manages to make a sneaky tag. The two competitors, who once fought for the North American Championship, are incredibly evenly-matched. Neither man can gain the upper hand, so Ciampa decides it’s time to change things up. He double teams Ricochet with Gargano, and that puts control of the match firmly in DIY’s hands. They keep Ricochet in their corner, wearing him down with submissions, strikes, and suplexes.
There’s simply no escape for Ricochet. That old DIY magic is back, as if they’ve been a team this whole time. They tag again and again, and Ricochet can’t get any offense in. It’s only when Gargano and Ciampa try to once again double team Ricochet that he gets back in the match, using the teamwork against DIY and finding a way to his corner to tag Black. Black immediately hits a springboard moonsault on both men and then sets about taking down Gargano with knee strikes, including one in midair while Gargano is attempting his signature spear through the ropes.
It’s far from over for DIY though, as the match devolves into chaos and DIY uses it to their advantage. They isolate Black and lay him out with a flurry of moves, including Gargano’s patented DDT, and then lock in their submissions on both men, the move that won them the NXT Tag Team Championships way back at NXT TakeOver: Toronto. Ricochet fights out of the submission and drops Ciampa on Black and Gargano, seemingly injuring Gargano in the process. “Johnny Wrestling” rolls to the outside and sits against the barricade, clearly in pain, and Ciampa even takes a moment to check on his partner.
Eventually though, he has to get back in the ring, but he’s no match for Black and Ricochet without Gargano. Black lays him out with a Black Mass, and that leaves Ciampa prone to Ricochet’s 630. That’s it for DIY, their future uncertain, as Black and Ricochet move on to challenge the Forgotten Sons for a shot at the NXT Tag Team Championship. This likely isn’t the last we’ve seen of DIY though, as Ciampa and Candice LeRae carry the injured Gargano to the back, a moment that reaffirms their brotherhood…
Or not! This is Johnny Gargano’s revenge, his moment to finally get one over on Ciampa. That whole injury? A fakeout, one designed to lure Ciampa into feelings of camaraderie. When Ciampa eventually gets fed up with Gargano’s weakness—as his partner assumed he would—and goes to throw him into the LED display, Gargano stops him. He smiles, his knee suddenly feeling better, and he slams Ciampa into the display instead. “Johnny Wrestling” is back, and something tells me he’s after that NXT Championship and maybe a little revenge on the man who’s done nothing but
You can watch this week’s NXT on the WWE Network.