NXT Results and Recap: Velveteen Dream Adds Gold to His Purple Reign
This week’s episodes of RAW and SmackDown saw the atmosphere of the WWE change. Triple H came out on Monday night and introduced the Red and Blue brands to a bunch of new talent from NXT. The likes of Aleister Black, North American Champion Johnny Gargano, NXT Champion Tommaso Ciampa, and Ricochet all found their way to the main roster and immediately made an impact. That left one question: What would that mean for this week’s NXT? As it turns out, there are more than a few scores still to settle.
One of those scores comes in the form of Aleister Black looking to get one last bit of retribution against The Undisputed Era, who beat the “Dutch Destroyer” down just last week when he attempted to lend a hand to Ricochet during a post-match beatdown from Undisputed. Specifically, he wants to get his hands on Roderick Strong, and this week’s show begins with a match between the two. There’s a ton of technical wrestling to start. Strong goes right for the legs of his taller opponent, executing a few takedowns before Black fires back with a flurry of strikes. Kicks and elbows are his specialities, and they put Strong on the ropes early.
Strong fights back though. He takes Black to the outside, hits him with a nasty chop, and then drops him back first on the steel steps. It’s a focused, purposeful strategy from Strong; if you take away Black’s back and legs, you take away the deadly Black Mass. Strong is an architect in the ring, always knowing how to attack opponents in a specific way. He rams Black into the apron, once again targeting the back. When Black, later, tries to counter a superplex into a powerbomb, his back gives out, and that allows Strong to capitalize with another backbreaker.
With some of his power taken away, Black has to adjust. He fights back with brutal knee strikes and a high-flying springboard moonsault. Running on adrenaline, he hits Roddy with a brainbuster and gets a very close two count. The two vy for the upper hand from there. Black connects with more strikes, but Strong regains control by delivering a pop-up gutbuster and a backbreaker onto the turnbuckles. Black looks worn down, far away from delivering the retribution he so desperately craves.
Strong is relentless. He doesn’t give Black any room to breathe, following up running knees with powerful suplexes, but Black won’t stay down. It looks like Strong is on his way to victory if he can just keep up the onslaught. The thing is, Black only needs a single second to get a victory. There’s the briefest of openings when Strong can’t hit a suplex, and it’s enough for Black to hit the Black Mass and snag the win.
That brings out the other members of The Undisputed Era, ready to deliver another beatdown, but this time it’s Black and his pal Ricochet, who comes to his rescue, that stand tall in the ring. Black and Ricochet may be finding their way to RAW and SmackDown, but there’s a good chance this feud isn’t over just yet.
After Mauro announces that the next edition of the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic will start in two weeks, it’s on to a match between two women looking to make their way up the ranks of the women’s division, as Mia Yim squares off against Xia Li, who most recently competed in the Royal Rumble. After a sportsmanlike handshake the two lock up, latching on to each other and trying to find an early advantage. They seem evenly matched though, trading roll-throughs and armlocks until they’re standing toe-to-toe in the middle of the ring.
Yim gets her down for a moment, using her strength to get her shoulders on the mat, but Li kicks out. She then counters with a
Now, the main event. There are few performers in NXT like Velveteen Dream. At just 23 years old, he’s clearly the future of the WWE, a wrestler who has every gift you could ever want in this business. He’s been lighting it up in NXT for a while now, but he’s yet to capture championship gold. He’s come close, especially in his recent title match against Tommaso Ciampa, but he’s always fallen short. This week, he gets another chance. Having won a title opportunity of his choosing by winning the Worlds Collide Tournament, Dream challenged Johnny Gargano for his North American Championship. Finally, this week, the match happens.
Still, Dream is all confidence, literally standing tall over Gargano and working to use his size advantage to keep the champ at an arm’s length as the match begins. Dream knows that letting Gargano in close is dangerous, and sure enough, “Johnny Wrestling” manages to ground his opponent by sneaking into a number of submissions early on.
It’s all technical wrestling to start until Gargano runs straight at Dream and gets hit with a massive right hand that rouses the NXT Universe. From there, Dream dictates the pace of the match, slowing things down and keeping Gargano in the middle of the ring with one headlock after another, then goading Gargano into chasing him around the ring before he delivers another right hand.
Dream goes to work on Gargano’s back, hitting him with a few forearms, but when he goes for a move off the top rope Gargano cuts him off, throwing out his legs and getting Dream on the mat. Gargano then isolates Dream in the corner, wearing him down with chops and strikes. The champ is aggressive and angry and clearly taking this all seriously, not wanting to lose the title he just won. It really looks like Dream doesn’t stand a chance for a while. Gargano is in complete control, working over Dream’s arms and shoulders with a ton of vicious submissions.
Perhaps that amount of control goes to Gargano’s head. He sends Dream to the outside and then spends a lot of time in the ring just basking in the crowd reactions, both good and bad. Is he wasting time? Is he allowing Dream to catch his breath? Back in the ring, Dream tries to fight back. He hits Gargano with a few fists, but it’s not long before he’s locked in an abdominal stretch. Dream gets his space when he sneaks out of that and lays out Gargano with a spinebuster. That gives Dream room to work. He goes right after Gargano, hitting him with a few kicks and punches before clotheslining him to the outside.
Then, he heads to the top rope and hits Gargano with a double axe handle, and back in the ring, he gets a two count off a Fameasser. Again though, Dream gets caught trying to go to the top, and Gargano nearly gets a win off a spinning flatliner. It’s back and forth, with no end in sight. The two collide in the corner, both collapsing to the canvas, and we’re back to even. The two fight to the apron and Gargano hits Dream with a superkick but then misses with a punch. He fires again, then goes for a slingshot spear, which Dream counters into a spinning DDT. The two trade huge blows, each one getting a near fall. Seriously, in the span of 30 seconds, it looks like each man has the match won numerous times, only to come up short. The crowd is eating it up, watching the best match NXT’s weekly show has delivered so far this year.
So, Gargano heads to the top rope, desperate to end this and retain his championship. Dream catches him up there though, stunning him with a right hand. Then, he loads him up and delivers an Avalanche Dream Valley Driver. That looks to be it, but Gargano kicks out again! The Full Sail crowd is losing their minds as Dream heads to the top rope, looking for the Purple Rainmaker. Gargano rolls to the outside, but Dream follows him off the top. Gargano hits him midair with superkick, suplexes him on the ramp, and then lays him out with his signature slingshot DDT, the one that’s ended numerous men before. But Dream kicks out, and the match continues, each man digging deep.
Gargano goes for one more superkick, but Dream counters into the Dream Valley Driver. He’s not content though. He rolls through and hits him with another Dream Valley Driver. Then, with the champ prone, Dream heads to the top rope and comes flying down with the Purple Rainmaker.
The future is
You can watch this week’s NXT on the WWE Network.