WWE NXT results: An arrival and a departure
The Big News: The NXT fans and the locker room got to say goodbye to Shinsuke Nakamura in an emotional final segment.
The Medium News: We prepared to say goodbye to Tye Dillinger, who will face Eric Young in a cage match next week.
The Little Beaver-sized News: Drew McIntyre beat Oney Lorcan in a fun match.
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A new theme song and video package opened the show, with a completely new graphics package. The show hadn’t changed in three years. I guess the commercial for TakeOver did randomly say “change is coming.”
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Aleister Black defeated Corey Hollis
Aleister Black was here to kick off the show, going one-on-one with Corey Hollis.
Black apparently does not get paid by the hour. He stood peacefully in the middle of the ring, then when Hollis came near, Black laid him out with Black Mass (a spinning roundhouse kick) and pinned him in 10 seconds.
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Tye Dillinger cut a promo about how great it was to debut on SmackDown last week. He has a nagging feeling that he still has unfinished business, so next week he is going to wrestle Eric Young in a steel cage match.
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Drew McIntyre makes his “NXT debut” against Oney Lorcan tonight, which isn’t totally correct. I am not expecting any sane person to know this off the top of their head, but he competed in Full Sail back in 2012 for a match or two.
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DIY defeated Dylan Miley & Michael Blayze
Miley is huge and got a bit more offense than your average jobber du jour. He picked Johnny Gargano up for a suplex — and then walked around the ring carrying Johnny Wrestling for almost a minute before dropping him.
Blayze did not fair so well. Percy Watson’s key comment was asking if Michael was Alundra’s brother. DIY beat Blayze with the running knee strike/kick. Miley looked pissed that his partner blew it for him.
It turned out that Miley didn’t just look pissed after the match as he assaulted Blayze and laid him out with an iron claw slam and a powerslam.
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Next up was more in the ongoing story of Asuka and Ember Moon. After NXT TakeOver, the crew had taken down the set and the ring and Moon just wandered out, sad because this was supposed to be her moment and her opportunity to win the title.
Moon was on the verge of crying as she talked about how Asuka will do anything to retain the title and vowed to be the one to win the championship from her.
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Ruby Riot defeated Kimberly Frankele
Ruby Riot cut a pre-match inset promo, saying that she came to NXT to become the Women’s Champion and tonight she starts that path. Frankele got an entrance to make her different than the other jobbers tonight. The ring announcer pronounced Kimberly’s last name as “Frankly” and Tom Phillips said “Frank-elle” — so who knows?
Riot quickly laid out Frankele and was probably on her way to victory, but Nikki Cross randomly appeared at ringside to distract her. Frankele got in a little bit of offense, culminating in a knife edge chop. You need to go check out the look on Riot’s face when that happened. It was a pure look of “I am going to kill you for that one.”
Riot did try to kill her, winning with a Pele kick. Cross just laughed and walked away.
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Peyton Royce and Billie Kay were going through the WWE Performance Center earlier today, making fun of everything. They finally found Liv Morgan and Aliyah and mocked them for being losers. Morgan shoved Kay into a tub of water. Royce was operating the camera, so she didn’t help Kay out.
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Drew McIntyre defeated Oney Lorcan
It took until the main event, but we finally got a competitive match!
McIntyre has new theme music and Watson talked about how McIntyre and Wade Barrett were the first FCW Tag Team Champions. Lorcan got knocked outside the ring early, so he got back in the ring and knocked McIntyre out of it.
However, when Lorcan went for a top rope dive, McIntyre caught him and slammed him on the ring apron.
McIntyre looked really good here; he has definitely improved in the years since leaving WWE. Lorcan hit his running blockbuster for a two count. They battled on the top rope and Lorcan caught McIntyre in the Tree of Woe, but McIntyre sat up and used a Belly-to-Belly throw.
Lorcan slapped him, so McIntyre dropped him with a reverse Alabama slam and won with a running boot.
After the match, McIntyre cut a promo saying he could have gone anywhere, including Raw and SmackDown, but he doesn’t want to be anywhere but NXT.
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We ended the show with a ceremony where Shinsuke Nakamura said goodbye to NXT.
Last year he came to NXT from Japan to prove that he is the best. He said that he learned a lot from the NXT wrestlers, coaches, and especially the fans. Nakamura said NXT is its own brand, its own energy, and its own life. NXT created something new, something unique, and he called the NXT Universe crazy. The fans were proud of being called crazy.
Nakamura said the fans created the chants and the singing and how it’s different than others. They created their own style. Nakamura said he will always be NXT and led the crowd in chanting “We are NXT.”
There were fans crying as the entire NXT locker room, led by William Regal and Hideo Itami, walked out onto the ramp to clap and cheer on the two-time former NXT Champion.
Nakamura held his arms open and mouthed “Thank you” to the wrestlers, most of whom looked genuinely happy for Nakamura. Not saying any of them weren’t, but there were a few with smiles as big as Nakamura’s.
The fans chanted “Thank You Shinsuke” as he made it up the ramp, shaking hands with Regal. Finn Balor then suddenly showed up for a hug. Balor was hiding in the group and fans popped again seeing him.
So that is it from Orlando. Thank you all for reading, and until next week when we say goodbye to Tye Dillinger, remember to say your vitamins and take your prayers!