Good recap of the first matches in the Cruiserweight Tournament. The Round Robin is a great way to build a division instead of using a stand single knockout tournament.
Nice to have Mauro back on commentary.
ISAIAH SCOTT VS. EL HIJO DEL FANTASMA – NXT INTERIM CRUISERWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP TOURNAMENT MATCH
The abduction storyline has made me invested in Fantasma as a character after he was able to fight them off last week. I want to see how it moves forward.
Interesting to see Swerve get frustrated with Fantasma early on.
I am likely the team of Phillips, Mauro and Beth.
Isaiah is showing a more aggressive style now.
Vicious running knees to Scott by Fantasma in the corner.
When was the last time you hear someone call it the Frakensteiner?
Beautiful Frog Splash by Fantasma. Weird to anyone yet that we don’t hear Eddie chants after every frogsplash and three amigos?
Interesting to have Fantasma get pinned by Scott and lose his second match. Adds a major twist to the tournament.
How does everyone in the tournament need it more than everyone else in the tournament? Good promo by Swerve after the match though.
Dominik Dijakovic made some great points in tearing down Johnny and Candice. I actually want to see that match between him and Johnny.
Nice to see they are furthering the angle by having the men get in the arena now to try and take Fantasma.
CANDICE LERAE VS. KACY CATANZARO
LOVE Candice’s new entrance. Sucks that it took her turning Heel to get an actual push. Is Johnny Gargano the new best Hype Man in WWE without Lio Rush around?
Kacy is one of the wrestlers that is interesting to see how they adapt to no crowd as a lot of her stuff is playing to the crowd.
WORST trash talk at the start of the match.
Kacy is so smooth in the ring for someone in the business for such a short period of time.
Nice counter to the wheelbarrel by LeRae.
What a vicious new finisher with the Wicked Step Sister by Candice LeRae which led to the pinfall victory.
Interesting touch to have Candice attack Kacy after the match.
Damian Priest makes me want to fast forward every time the guy starts talking.
Can we get the belts off Matt Riddle already so I don’t have to hear the bro promos anymore.
Seriously? Byron AND Riddle in the same segment and it is a goofy show with laugh track and everything?
Worse Wake and Bake hidden reference.
The only good thing about this segment is that we are getting to develop some of Thatcher’s character.
Is there a video of the Triple Threat in the Laundry Mat?
THANK YOU IMPERIUM!
Great attack by Imperium. Loved that they are able to do sick shots like dropping Riddle on the “concrete.”
Could Imperium get the NXT Tag Team belts before ever getting the NXT UK Tag Team Titles?
Nice that we don’t have the swimming pools promos from Adam Cole anymore. Good that they are spreading out the title matches over the episodes so not to over load one episode when there is no takeover to build to.
CHARLOTTE FLAIR VS. MIA YIM
Will be interesting to see how they book this match and how Charlotte acts. It should be clear how Charlotte’s character will be going forward by the end of this match.
Candice and Kacy need to listen to Charlotte and learn what trash talk sounds like.
Like that while Charlotte was doing a heel cocky move Mia was just waiting for Charlotte to turn around. Shows which is taking this more serious than the other.
Not sure it is ever a good idea to taunt Charlotte Flair.
Great to see the return of the Tarantula.
So Soul Food is what Mia Yim now calls Eat Defeat?
Great job of keeping Mia Yim look strong in this match.
Great match but Charlotte gets the eventual win with the Figure 8. Mia should have waited a second longer to tap as Charlotte hadn’t finished putting the hold on.
Good to see Io make an appearance after the match to build to her and Charlotte. Would have liked them to wait one more week so that we didn’t have the Women’s and Men’s championships defended on the same show.
Would have been better if no one was attacking Finn and it was the Demon returning.
DEXTER LUMIS VS. SHANE THORNE
I am loving that Dexter Lumis is getting such a good push now. Seeing him every week now.
I don’t have a good feeling about Shane Thorne’s chances in this match against Lumis.
How the wrestlers react to Lumis is such a great way to help develop Lumis’ character.
Looked the offense from Thorne only flipped the crazier switch inside of Lumis.
Lumis gets the win with the Knockout from the choke after the his slam.
How creepy to pet the head of Thorne.
Love that they are still showing how Devlin, the real champion, is reacting to the tournament.
Great sell job by Keith Lee on the throat injury caused by Priest last week during his promo.
DRAVE MAVERICK VS. TONY NESE – NXT INTERIM CRUISERWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP TOURNAMENT MATCH
Hoping I feel less awkward this week watching Drake Maverick wrestling. At least I want to hate Tony Nese.
Finally doing something with Nese as a character I can be invested in with him being a Bully Gym Rat.
Would like to see Drake get a lot more offense in at the start and not just being beatdown by Nese. Does nothing for putting over what Maverick can actually do in the ring.
At least WWE is letting Drake show off his selling skills.
Great Trash Talk by Nese.
Great moment with Maverick snapping to gain the advantage in the match.
Great angle for the Diving Bulldog into the pinfall victory for Drake Maverick over Tony Nese. They didn’t bury Nese but kept you believing that Maverick as a chance. Nese is eliminated with the loss.
By the rules, Kushida has to win in his next match so his match against Maverick will be to determine the winner from the group as a 2-1 Maverick gets the win in a tiebreak in that situation against a 2-1 Kushida but Atlas beating Kushida would mean Atlas beats Maverick in the tie break.
Even with the highlight video of the build to this match I don’t care about a Damian Priest match.
DAMIAN PREIST VS. KEITH LEE – NXT NORTH AMERICAN CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH
Not much you can do to counter a guy the size of Keith Lee just throwing his entire body at you.
Nice to see a new spot using the hardest part of the ring with Lee throwing Priest on to it.
Once again time to ask, why do they still have Barricades when they have no fans to keep back?
Great looking dead lift by Lee on Priest until the reversing of it.
That was one rough landing for Keith Lee after the Corkscrew to the outside on Priest.
Great strength by Priest but still don’t buy him as champion and winning this match.
It’s cool when guys come diving over the top in the corner but they need to limit how many times it is done to keep its aura.
That kick from Priest off the top rope was not the greatest looking thing.
An even more impressive deadlift by Keith Lee bringing Priest into the ring from the outside. Pretty sure I heard someone say “let’s go home” right after that though.
The more I see them have Priest go for shortcuts the less I buy him as a legit threat.
Keith Lee gets the pinfall victory and remains champion after two powerbombs.
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