This went a shockingly long time, which is a good sign for how they see Lacey Evans developing. Lacey worked the back and Dakota actually looked like a real babyface for a change and not a pathetic loser, so that’s improvement, too. Evans got down in Dakota’s face after the match and verbally abused her, like Steve Austin after a stunner.
CATHY KELLEY INTERVIEWS RICOCHET- good
He calls Adam Cole out for rarely defending his North American Title, and says he wants to get a shot at Cole’s title.
STREET PROFITS TRAINING VIDEO- fine.
They’re coming for TM61.
EC III WALKS AROUND… SOMEWHERE- He takes a selfie with a fan, then gives another fan a t-shirt. Then he bumped into a third fan- no, wait, that’s Kona Reeves. My bad. Kona said Ethan’s stuff wasn’t as fancy as his so Ethan cut a promo on him, but Kona wasn’t willing to fight. Ethan walked off, but then Kona Reeves muttered angrily to himself, so he’s going to be going after Ethan at some point.
CIAMPA/BLACK RECAP VIDEO PACKAGE- fine
KASSIUS OHNO vs. A JOBBER- GREAT squash
Ohno just obliterated the poor jobber with a single Rolling Elbow.
UNDISPUTED ERA PROMO- good
They feel Ricochet is being a little presumptuous, so they’re going to do something about out.
WAR RAIDERS VIDEO PACKAGE- excellent. With lots of indy footage, plus pictures from ROH courtesy of Scott Finklestein, who ROH probably wishes hadn’t let WWE use his pictures, at it let them basically tell the truth about War
VELVETEEN DREAM VIDEO PACKAGE/PROMO- This didn’t really serve any sort of purpose.
#1 CONTENDERSHIP MATCH: Kairi Sane vs. Candice LeRae vs. Nikki Cross- 7.75/10
Bianca Belair was supposed to be in this match but she is “not medically cleared.” They gave no details of any sort on what happened to her.
Shayna Baszler came out to commentary for this match. There were a number of times where they cut to show us Baszler on commentary when there was action going on in the ring. Her ability to put the wrestlers and the match over while simultaneously being casually dismissive was excellent.
The match was GREAT, and Baszler vs. Sane is definitely the right match to go with in Brooklyn. In fact, you could argue that it’s too big and feels like it has to main event, which would be yet another show where Aleister Black and the NXT title don’t main event… and yet maybe that’s the best way to go if Gargano is going to get involved in the finish, both so that the main event will have a clean finish and so that they can use the idea of Black not getting Takeover main events as storyline fodder (Ricochet, ECIII, and TVD all come off as opponents who could cut promos playing into that). The only thing I didn’t like here was Candice getting pinned instead of Cross. Cross should logically be on her way out, so she should be the one putting people over.
Another good episode of NXT, building towards Takeoer and just being a generally fun wrestling show.