NO WAY JOSE vs. THE VELVETEEN DREAM- 5.75/10
Fun opener. I’m seriously regretting not voting for The Velveteen Dream for Best Gimmick in 2017. He’s taken a character that should have been a total joke and made him serious without ever straying from the original character.

WILLIAM REGAL ANNOUNCES THE RETURN OF THE DUSTY RHODES TAG TEAM CLASSIC- The winners will get a tag title shot at Takeover: New Orleans. The tournament starts in two weeks, which seems like they really won’t have much time for it.

VANESSA BOURNE vs. NIKKI CROSS- fine squash

TITLE VS. CAREER MATCH: Andrade “Cien” Almas (NXT Champion) (w/Zelina Vega) vs. Johnny Gargano(career) (w/Candice Le Rae)- 9/10
They told an excellent story and built their match extremely well, but ultimately, we all knew that there were only two possible ways this match could end, and unfortunately, we got the one that involved Tommaso Ciampa costing Gargano the match, the title, and his career. They did an excellent job of letting this all sink in, and that final shot of Ciampa stoically- and yet somehow also mockingly- waving goodbye to Gargano was pure gold.

An excellent episode of NXT. It will be quite interesting to see how they take it from here and get Gargano back… or if they even ever do. Ciampa vs. Gargano would work just as well on 205 Live or even on Raw as it would on NXT (well… maybe the crowd won’t be quite as hot for it on 205 Live, but I have a feeling that might change in a few months).

Yeah he could just end up on Raw, or if Regal just overturns it or something because of the circumstances.

KILLdozer wrote: ↑Feb 23rd, '18, 07:20 Yeah he could just end up on Raw, or if Regal just overturns it or something because of the circumstances.

Regal overturning it just because of the finish doesn't seem like the sort of thing that NXT would do. We might get something like Gargano jumping the guardrail to attack Ciampa and Ciampa eventually begging Regal to reinstate Gargano, and that, plus the circumstances of his loss, could lead to him being rehired.

Big Red Machine wrote: ↑Feb 23rd, '18, 07:38

KILLdozer wrote: ↑Feb 23rd, '18, 07:20 Yeah he could just end up on Raw, or if Regal just overturns it or something because of the circumstances.

Regal overturning it just because of the finish doesn't seem like the sort of thing that NXT would do. We might get something like Gargano jumping the guardrail to attack Ciampa and Ciampa eventually begging Regal to reinstate Gargano, and that, plus the circumstances of his loss, could lead to him being rehired.

Just throw a mask on him...

He's a goofy lookin dude anyway and "Gargano" is hard to pronounce... "Mr. Wrestling IV", it'd go over like rover in NXT and they could sell some masks.

Comes in in a La Sombra mask just to giant troll.

KILLdozer wrote: ↑Feb 24th, '18, 07:59 Comes in in a La Sombra mask just to giant troll.

That would be funny.