July 26, 2020 / By mobanmarket
Tonight’s edition of NXT still comes to us from the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. The matches on this show were taped right before Takeover from Saturday night. These shows usually deal with the fallout from the Takeover events and not much else, but there were a few noteworthy takeaways from this shows: TM-61 have officially returned, and an excellent main event has determined who the next challenger for Pete Dunn’s United Kingdom Championship will be. As usual, there was some post-Takeover notes given on this show and a few other matches also took place as well.
Nikki Cross vs. Lacey Evans –
Only a few weeks after defeating Aliyah with a punch before declaring herself “The Lady of NXT,” Lacey Evans has returned to take on SAnitY member Nikki Cross. Unfortunately, this was not exactly a dominant performance from Evans.
The match started off with Evans immediately getting laid out with some punches. Cross then shoved Lacey into the ring skirt and struck her repeatedly once again.
It wasn’t all bad for Evans though, she did get to thrown Nikki down to the mat. Evans attempted to pin Cross twice in a row, but neither attempt proved to be successful. She then hit Cross with a Thesz Press before going for a moonsault.
Nikki Cross got out of the way just in time and hit a swinging fisherman neckbreaker to win. Very simple match with Nikki coming out looking dominant.
Winner: Nikki Cross
A video recapping the Tag Team Championship match between The Undisputed Era and the Authors of Pain from Takeover was shown.
Another video showing off the Takeover match between Shayna Baszler and Ember Moon aired. They also flashed an image of Ember Moon participating in the women’s Royal Rumble match from this past Sunday night.
Yet another brief recap video aired for the brutal Extreme Rules match from Takeover featuring Adam Cole and Aleister Black. Afterwards, Bobby Fish and Kyle O’Reilly were shown helping Cole around backstage. They were furious that he lost the match, but Cole blamed SAnitY for costing him the match. He instructed them to face them and avenge his loss. Eric Young and Alexander Wolfe will face Kyle O’Reilly and Bobby Fish for the NXT Tag Team Championships next week.
Guess what was next? Another recap video from Takeover! It was for the match between Kassius Ohno and The Velveteen Dream this time around. Dream was interviewed backstage to address his failed promise to knockout Ohno within the first 30 seconds of the match. Although he knows what he said, he advised Kayla Braxton to read his trunks. She read “Dream Over”, to which Dream replied “now you know.”
TM-61 vs. The Ealy Brothers –
For those who may not remember Nick Miller and Shane Thorne. The two Australian wrestlers competed on NXT for some time before they missed over a year’s worth of television time due to an injury to Thorne. They were reintroduced through a series of video packages on NXT, but now they have returned to the ring against the twin team of Gabriel and Uriel Ealy.
Thorne and Miller worked together early on to get the upper hand on the brothers. Thorne hit a standing moonsault very early on in this match, and then he topped himself by hitting another moonsault on the brothers outside of the ring. Back in the ring, the two Aussies hit corner clotheslines on Uriel Ealy.
The result of the match began to tip in favor of the brothers when Gabriel illegally replaced his brother despite a tag never being made. The twins then tagged in and out repeatedly as they took turns beating down Nick Miller.
Of course, Miller fought them off and managed to tag Thorne back in. Leg lariats to both men and a cannonball in the corner of the ring led to Miller hitting another moonsault. The pin was broken up at the very last second. Not long after this, TM-61 still secured the victory by hitting their Thunder Valley maneuver.
After the match, Thorne and MIller briefly appeared backstage for an interview. They encouraged fans to forget everything that they knew about them from their previous NXT run. They promised that everything will change now that they are back in the tag team division.
Winners: TM-61
The final Takeover recap for the excellent Johnny Gargano vs. Andrade “Cien” Almas NXT Championship match aired. A brief image showing Almas in the Royal Rumble match was also shown. Zelina Vega and Almas were even interviewed after he was eliminated from the match. Vega predictibaly hyped up the champion while Almas said that he was just getting started. He then presumed that poor lil’ Johnny Gargano must be watching the Royal Rumble pay-per-view from his home on TV. Vega and Almas cackled maniacally and walked away.
Mauro Ranallo confirmed that former Impact Wrestling standout EC3 has officially signed with NXT.
The announcers also briefly discussed Adam Cole’s appearance in the Royal Rumble match. In addition to next week’s tag team title match, Cole will be facing Killian Dain on NXT next week.
Tyler Bate vs. Roderick Strong –
Roddy and Bate were both fighting for the chance to become he number one contender to “The Bruiserweight” Pete Dunne’s United Kingdom Championship.
It all began with a simple wristlock from Bate. He worked Strong’s wrist for a bit before instantly locking Strong in an Airplane Spin, which got a big reaction from the crowd in Philly. Bate appeared to be going for a slingshot spear through the ropes, but Strong caught him and delivered a draping backbreaker on the young British wrestler.
Strong does what he does best: he went from corner to corner and chopped up his opponent. One chop after another to the first-ever UK Champion was administered. He then launched Bate into the corner and pinned him down to the mat for a two-count. With little time to waste, Strong kept his momentum going by stretching Tyler Bate over his back in one brutal looking submission move.
This was not enough to put Bate away, he did manage to fight his way out of the move. The two then exchanged some stiff strong styles strikes. Bate gained the upper hand in the scuffle by kicking Roddy in the back of the neck. He hit a bridging suplex for another close near fall. Again, this did not slow Bate down. He instantly picked up Strong and hit an exploder suplex before kipping-up and landing a shooting star press on Strong. Nope! Still not enough to put Strong away.
With not much left in his arsenal, Bate then decided to go up to the top of one of the corner ring posts, but Roderick attempted to prevent him from hitting the high-risk move. Although he initially fought him off, Strong quickly grabbed Bate by the boot and delivered another backbreaker.
That’s still not enough to make Bate give up! He delivers a hurricanrana on Strong before landing a lariat for a near fall. Finally, he decided to go for the Tyler Driver ’97, but his back suddenly gave out as he attempted to lift up Roderick Strong. It looked as though all of Roddy’s backbreakers had been effective after all.
Bate attempted a roll up out of desperation, but Roddy fought out of this and then promptly delivered two knee strikes to the jaw. Strong then hit an enormous backbreaker on Bate (which actually may have sent him a few feet into the air) before he finally got the man down for the three-count.
Winner: Roderick Strong
Roderick Strong may not be the NXT Champion right now, but he now has a shot at becoming the first-ever American UK Champion. That combined with the fact that he will be debuting on 205 Live next week in a tournament match for the Cruiserweight Championship clearly shows that Strong could be holding championship gold in WWE soon enough.
NXT returns to Center Stage in Atlanta next week in what promises to be a show loaded with SAnitY and the Undisputed Era. NXT Takeover: Philadelphia is now behind us, so do this mean that we are now on the road to a possible Takeover show in New Orleans this April. Of course it does, and with the recent return of Tommaso Ciampa, it definitely would not be surprising to see the buildup to a match between him and Johnny Gargano finally take place. We’ll have to wait until next week’s show to know for sure though. I’ll see you NXT time!
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