This Week on NXT 1/23/19!

This weekend is going to be wild as hell for me as I'll be starting Saturday very early by going into Phoenix and heading to the Convention Center to go to Axxess to meet Finn Balor at 8 AM, and hang around while I'm waiting to head to TakeOver Phoenix, but before that, we have to go over what happened with NXT's broadcast tonight.

We started with a promo from Velveteen Dream, who sadly doesn't have a match on the TakeOver card this weekend, but he wants to go after the North American title again, and cue Adam Cole and Bobby Fish interrupting and they reiterate that they want the Undisputed Era to be all gold, so that means Cole will presumably be going after the NXT title and Fish would want to go after the NA title as well. And Dream told Bobby that he'd be willing to listen to him, but only if Adam let him off his leash. Fish and Cole attacked, but Velveteen got the upper hand and got out unscathed. This was not the best promo these parties have cut, but it created the main event for the evening and that's what we want for this go-home is to see Velveteen have a cool match.

Then we got Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch vs Fabian Aichner and Marcel Barthel in a hard-hitting tag match. This was a short but sweet showcase for both of these teams as it showed the heart of Lorcan and Burch and the tandem teamwork of Aichner and Barthel. It finished when Oney got the roll-up on Aichner while Burch held Barthel on the outside. Oney and Danny have really done a good job of getting themselves over with the NXT audience, especially since when I started watching NXT, Lorcan seemed to be the guy that would job out to many of the newcomers, but they really got over in their TakeOver match against Undisputed Era. Not a great match, but a really fun one. I'm hoping to see more of these two in the future.

Then we had Io Shirai teaming with her best pal, the returning Kairi Sane against Amber Nova and Tanea Brooks. Again, we had another showcase for Kairi and Io to show off their awesome abilities individually and as a team as they pulled out some very impressive tandem offense against their competitors. Their tag finisher was really awesome as they picked up the win. As they made their way backstage and outside, they were confronted by Jessamyn Duke and Marina Shafir who said that now that Kairi's back, they're going to want to take them out pretty soon. That's... not really a match I'm looking forward to until I see Duke and Shafir in a few more matches against some enhancement talent.

Then we got the main event match of Dream vs Fish with Adam Cole out there once again for support. Dream really took it to Fish from the opening bell and seemed to completely have the upper hand until Fish hit Dream's leg with a Dragon Screw on the outside, and that was the story for the rest of the match. Again, this is why even their zero-stakes matches are still better than anything on the main roster, because they understand the simplicity of just telling a solid in-ring story. Eventually, Dream overcame and hit the Purple Rainmaker from the top rope and held Fish down for three. It was another really fun match that really showed off Dream's in-ring talent and his ability to sell winning from underneath.

Then came the real main event, which was the massive promo hyping up the two main events at TakeOver Phoenix when Ricochet came out to let the world know that Johnny Gargano has finally shown his true colors and Ric's always been exactly who he is. Johnny interrupted, saying that all Ricochet was trying to do was to get Johnny to fall prey to his emotions, which culminated in him trying to hit a cheap shot on Ric but he was expecting it. This then brought out Tomasso Ciampa who assaulted Ricochet, which of course brought out Aleister Black. The faces got stomped and the audience went insane, chanting "DIY!". This is just more evidence that NXT' is so invested in the long-term storytelling of the ongoing tale of Ciampa and Gargano that they're still willing to give it the time it needs to finally culminate one way or the other. Johnny still has that mesmerized look whenever he's looking at Ciampa, and he honestly doesn't seem to be fully in control of his own actions. It led to a standoff between the two where no one knew what to expect, but Candace La Rae came out to lead Johnny into the back, and to basically try to get him out of the thrall of Ciampa. It's just more great stuff from the Black and Gold brand and it's really gets you pumped for Saturday, which is going to be off the goddamn chain and I cannot wait.

I'm sorry that this is a little late, but it's been a weird 24 hours, and this was really the soonest I could get this all done. I was hoping to do a Hopes and Predictions for TakeOver Phoenix column, and I might still do that tomorrow, so keep an eye out.

Again, since I'll be at all these events this weekend, look for a column recapping these events on Monday afternoon or evening!

Until next time, kids...

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