NXT Cleveland live results: Johnny Gargano returns to his hometown

Submitted by reader Adam Scraga

– Heavy Machinery defeated Adrian Jaoude & Cezar Bononi

Heavy Machinery were very over, with Otis Dozovic getting lots of chants. They won with the Compactor.

– Shayna Baszler defeated Dakota Kai

Kai was cheered and Baszler received a mixture of cheers and boos. Baszler did her best to make it seem like she was trying to injure Kai by doing moves like stomping on her elbow and finger.

Kai came back with a flurry of kicks near the finish, but Baszler caught her in the rear naked choke for the submission win.

– Lars Sullivan defeated Kassius Ohno

The crowd was definitely behind Ohno here. The match was hard-hitting as you would expect, with Sullivan hitting the Freak Accident for the win.

– Aleister Black cut a promo on the video screen about facing Velveteen Dream later, referencing their TakeOver match and saying he’s going to make him Fade to Black.

– Adam Cole defeated Christopher Dijak

Cole got a huge pop and didn’t have Bobby Fish and Kyle O’Reilly with him. Cole picked up the win after a really good back-and-forth match.

– NXT Tag Team Champions Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly defeated The Street Profits to retain their titles

Before this started, Vic Joseph announced that William Regal had just made it a Tag Team title match. The Street Profits got a lot of cheers for their entrance, but the crowd reaction for them kind of died out during the match except for their high spots.

Fish and O’Reilly retained after a distraction finish and a roll-up.

– Velveteen Dream responded to Black in a promo on the video screen, insulting Cleveland and calling the people low class. He said that made it the perfect place for him to defeat Black because he has no class either.

– Kairi Sane defeated Lacey Evans

Evans did a heel promo on the screen during intermission where she also insulted Cleveland and said the cold weather made her sick, but she was still going to win.

They had a good match. Sane got lots of crowd support and won with the Insane Elbow.

– Aleister Black defeated Velveteen Dream

This was the best match of the night. The crowd seemed split over who to support, but there were very loud chants for both wrestlers.

There was a great near fall where Dream hit a spike DDT, but Black kicked out and eventually connected with the Black Mass for the win.

– Johnny Gargano & Candice LeRae defeated NXT Champion Andrade “Cien” Almas & Zelina Vega

Almas and Vega entered first and Vega attempted to cut a promo, but the crowd chanted “Johnny Wrestling” for about seven minutes while she was trying to talk. It was so loud that you could barely hear Vega screaming on the mic for everyone to shut up. It was the loudest chant/crowd reaction I’ve ever heard at a wrestling show.

They eventually gave up on trying to cut the promo and left the ring, walking towards the entranceway and acting like they were about to leave. Gargano and LeRae then entered and LeRae did a short promo. LeRae rushed at Vega before she finished a sentence about beating her up but was cut off by Almas stepping in front of Vega to protect her.

They had a very good match, with Gargano and LeRae getting all of the love from the crowd that you would imagine. LeRae hit Almas with a top rope hurricanrana and later connected with a flurry of punches that drove him into the corner.

For the finish, Gargano and LeRae simultaneously locked on the Gargano Escape and Almas and Vega both tapped out at the same time.

Following the match, Gargano talked for about 15 minutes. He said he made sure to tag with LeRae in his last independent match at AIW in Cleveland because he didn’t know if he would be able to again, and now it’s a year and a half later and here they are.

He thanked his parents (who were in attendance) for waiting hours in line to buy him tickets to WWE shows when he was a kid, painting Shawn Michaels on his wall, and always supporting him. He thanked Josh Prohibition (who was also in attendance) as well for training him.

He also thanked John Thorne and Chandler Biggins of AIW. The crowd chanted for Biggins (who passed away last year), with Gargano saying he knows Biggins had the best seat in the house and is watching down and smiling right now.

Gargano concluded by saying he doesn’t know what the future holds, but he never could have gotten to this point without the love and support of all the fans here. He and LeRae walked around ringside signing autographs and taking pictures as the show ended.