WWE NXT results: Tyler Bate defends his title
The Big News: Tyler Bate defeated Jack Gallagher to retain the WWE UK title.
The Medium News: Nikki Cross and Ruby Riot brawled all over creation on multiple occasions.
The Little Beaver-sized News: The new backstage interviewer, Christy St. Cloud, introduced herself, which stunned me to the point that I didn’t realize she never actually asked Ruby Riot a question.
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The show started with Nikki Cross running into the ring during the opening theme song, looking out of control. She left the ring and went to the ring announcer and called out Ruby Riot to “come out and play.”
This brought out Riot, who cautiously got in the ring. The fans chanted “fight” as the two women gave them what they wanted. They went clobbering on each other, with referees finally interfering when Cross threw Riot into the ring steps outside the ring. Riot didn’t stay down and they continued to slug away on each other. Every time they seemed to part, Cross would dive off the ring steps onto Riot.
The fans wanted them to keep fighting as the referees finally succeeded in dragging Cross to the back.
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We were reminded of last week’s angle where Hideo Itami returned and laid out the glorious NXT Champion, Bobby Roode, with a Go to Sleep.
Fast forward to today and Kayla Braxton tried to interview Roode, but she was cut off by the champion. Roode said things have changed and this is his NXT. Itami can challenge him all day long, but if he wants a championship opportunity he is going to have to earn it.
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Drew McIntyre defeated Andrade “Cien” Almas
This match was set up last week when Almas was bullying McIntyre at the WWE Performance Center. Thankfully, Heavy Machinery was filming it because we may not have believed such shenanigans and not had this match because of it.
Almas was all about the shenanigans again, but McIntyre was having none of it. The early highlight was Almas laying in the ropes, as he’s prone to do, but McIntyre gave him a running boot.
McIntyre exploded from there, punching Almas down in the corner and coming off the top rope with an elbow to his standing foe. Almas got in some chops, but McIntyre caught him and dropped him with a powerslam before picking up the win with the running boot.
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Mr. William Regal announced Ruby Riot vs. Nikki Cross for later on tonight.
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We had part one of a series of video packages, asking the question “Who is Roderick Strong?” He’s been on NXT for over six months and we’re finally getting introductory videos for the guy.
As always when they do these videos, this was very good and worth going out of your way to see:
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Aleister Black defeated Kona Reeves
The former Noah Kekoa and Noah Pontjes was back to square off with the undefeated Aleister Black. Reeves attacked at the bell, and it was pretty much downhill for him from there. Black blocked his attempt at a turnbuckle smash and kicked him in every part of his body before winning with Black Mass.
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A new announcer, Christy St. Cloud, literally introduced herself before interviewing Ruby Riot. That was so shocking I didn’t even notice that she didn’t actually ask Riot a question. Anyway, Riot said that she rebels against the norm, like SAnitY, but the difference is SAnitY wants everyone else to conform.
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Braxton was running out of the arena to try to ask Almas about losing to McIntyre earlier, but Almas (who showered and dressed in 15 minutes) was leaving the arena with a plethora of women.
Being the person he is, he did offer Braxton a chance to be part of his groupies, but Braxton ignored him the same way Almas ignored her question.
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The match between Nikki Cross and Ruby Riot never actually started
Riot was walking to the ring when she was attacked by Cross. They resumed their crazy brawl from earlier, but this time got to do it by the stage. Finally, a bunch of referees ran back out in an effort to throw them in the ring. Well, this is why you don’t use referees as lumberjacks.
Riot dove off the stage onto Cross, which was as much as the officials would allow, as Riot was dragged away and then Cross was literally carried away by four people.
This might be the first time in wrestling history that you need a cage match just to keep the two of them in the ring.
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Mr. Regal talked to Asuka backstage and told her that we will have a battle royal next week to determine her next challenger. Asuka completely blew it off and walked off.
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WWE United Kingdom Champion Tyler Bate defeated Jack Gallagher to retain his title
This is Bate’s second official title defense. I know he defended it at Axxess and I know he defended it on non-WWE shows. I am literally just repeating what was said to me on TV.
As expected, these two put on an excellent wrestling exhibition. These two, almost mirror images of each other, reversed each other’s moves and holds and then reversed their reversals. Back from commercial, Gallagher had taken over with an armbar. Bate tried to fight out of it, but Gallagher held onto that armbar for an extended period of time.
Bate was somehow able to turn it into a test of strength that neither could get the advantage of, and they both had to bridge out of a double pin. Bate got a near fall with the hesitation German suplex, but ended up in another armbar when he went for a suplex.
Bate took over and sent Gallagher to the outside, but when he went for a suicide dive, Gallagher met him with a headbutt and then another one inside the ring for a two count. Can people stop using headbutts? Seriously. Anyway, Bate hit his rolling kick and the Tyler Driver ’97 for the win.
We saw several of the UK wrestlers in the front row after the match. The only one not clapping was Pete Dunne. Instead he just stared a hole through Bate’s head.
Before we go, I just want to say that WWE Network needs to work on their buffering issues. This show went off the air at 8:52 and it took me until 9:14 to watch the whole thing with the constant buffering. I never have issues with other streaming services or with anything in WWE’s on-demand section.
Let’s hope they clear things up, but that will do it from here. I want to thank everyone for reading, and until next week, remember to say your vitamins and take your prayers!