OPENING SEGMENT- Tommaso Ciampa comes out to brag about injuring Johnny Gargano and say he has ended his career. Candice LeRae came out and recited the grand speech that was written for her. It wasn’t, like, terrible or anything, but it was pretty clear that this was not Candice speaking off the top of her head. Ciampa says some very hurtful things about Johnny Gargano’s manhood. Ciampa finally got her to slap him, but it sounded like she mostly got the mic. Ciampa basically no-sold it and Candice walked off angrily, with Ciampa grinning. This segment did nothing for me. It just feels like they’re killing time until they bring Gargano back rather than doing something else with Ciampa for a few weeks.

BRANDI LAUREN vs. LACEY EVANS- no rating, meh squash
Lacey Evans hit a moonsault… then picked her opponent up and hit her with… a punch… and then hit her opponent with… a punch. Then she pinned her.


POST-MATCH SEGMENT- Kairi Sane attacked Lacey Evans to get revenge for Lacey’s sucker-shot a few weeks ago, but Lacey escaped before she could hit the InSane Elbow.

ALEISTER BLACK PROMO- decent build for his eventual match with either The Velveteen Dream (and/)or Ricochet.

DAKOTA KAI PRESS CONFERENCE- Nikki Cross showed up. I can’t do this justice so go watch it yourselves, but it managed to be both goofy and cringe-worthy at the same time. Dakota Kai needs a lot more practice before she cuts any more promos.

THE VELVETEEN DREAM vs. RICOCHET- 4.5/10
They had a match that was hem very clearly trying to not do too much because the match was going to end in a Lars Sullivan run-in causing a double DQ.

KONA REEVES vs. RAUL MENDOZA- 3/10

RICOCHET & VELVETEEN DREAM WANT TO SEE WILLIAM REGAL AFTER BEING ATTACKED BY LARS SULLIVAN- I couldn’t hear a thing anyone said because the Cathy Kelly’s mic didn’t work and apparently no one realized this.

HEAVY MACHINERY SELFIE PROMO- they ran into TM61. The camera kept shaking, me nauseous. They’re going to have a match next week.

DANNY BURCH, ONEY LORCAN, & PETE DUNNE vs. THE UNDISPUTED ERA (w/Bobby Fish)- 7.75/10
Fun six-man tag. The babyfaces win, setting up a tag title match for some point in the future.

Lars Sullivan vs. Ricochet & The Velveteen Dream in a Handicap Match been announced for next week.

A decent episode of NXT.

Big Red Machine wrote: ↑May 18th, '18, 17:34 THE VELVETEEN DREAM vs. RICOCHET- 4.5/10
They had a match that was hem very clearly trying to not do too much because the match was going to end in a Lars Sullivan run-in causing a double DQ.

I felt like the match held back because the theme was "whatever you can do, I can do better..." and as much as I like Velveteen, he's not Ricochet...

Big Red Machine wrote: ↑May 18th, '18, 17:34 Lars Sullivan vs. Ricochet & The Velveteen Dream in a Handicap Match been announced for next week.

Wondering why they didn't do a Triple Threat instead, this doesn't do anything for Velveteen or Ricochet. Even Lars... didn't he beat Kilian Dain for a title shot a while back? Maybe he was just talking about the title when he did it... I don't remember, but even as punishment for interfering in their match, I don't think making him fight two guys that already don't like each other is much of a punishment...

Bob-O wrote: ↑May 20th, '18, 06:46

Big Red Machine wrote: ↑May 18th, '18, 17:34 THE VELVETEEN DREAM vs. RICOCHET- 4.5/10
They had a match that was hem very clearly trying to not do too much because the match was going to end in a Lars Sullivan run-in causing a double DQ.

I felt like the match held back because the theme was "whatever you can do, I can do better..." and as much as I like Velveteen, he's not Ricochet...

Big Red Machine wrote: ↑May 18th, '18, 17:34 Lars Sullivan vs. Ricochet & The Velveteen Dream in a Handicap Match been announced for next week.

Wondering why they didn't do a Triple Threat instead, this doesn't do anything for Velveteen or Ricochet. Even Lars... didn't he beat Kilian Dain for a title shot a while back? Maybe he was just talking about the title when he did it... I don't remember, but even as punishment for interfering in their match, I don't think making him fight two guys that already don't like each other is much of a punishment...

It depends how they play the stuff with Ricochet and Velveteen. I'll agree that it's more of a punishment on paper than in reality, but Regal could also do something to incentive the two of them to work together (like a #1 contendership match if they win).