I feel that before we get into the recap of tonight's broadcast of NXT, we still need to address that some of these stories will be for naught due to the extremely sad and incredibly unfortunate situation regarding NXT Champion Tommaso Ciampa, so when all is said and done, we can only wonder at what could have been as opposed to what story the show is telling. And tonight's show makes it even more bittersweet, but we'll get to all that later.
The show started with the first of the two semi-finals matches for the Dusty Tag Classic, and that was Moustache Mountain vs Forgotten Sons. During the match, there was one point where Percy Watson, the third wheel of the announce team on NXT, particularly when it comes to Nigel and especially Mauro, pointed out that he's glad to see this "new aggression" out of Forgotten Sons, and I had to actually shout at the screen, "What the fuck are you talking about?" It's not like Forgotten Sons were pushovers before. They've always been really aggressive. It's just one of those things that the less-skilled commentators say when they don't know what else to say. That being stated, he's still better than Vic Joseph. Anyway, I knew that this match was going to be relatively dull compared to most other matches that involve Trent Seven and Tyler Bate, and they clearly had to carry most of the match because no matter the size and brutality of Cutler, Blake and Ryker, Bate and Seven are just so much better. But again, if you're not going to give me a good match, tell me a good story, and the story here was two-fold; it was the problems with Seven's knee that the Sons took advantage of, and it was the story that Jaxson Ryker is the difference-maker when it comes to Forgotten Sons. Blake and Cutler can't really hang with the better teams, so they have Ryker on the outside to help out, and help out he did as he helped Forgotten Sons pick up the win over the Big Strong Boys, and will advance to the finals. Again, not a great match, but it told a good story.
Then we got Dasha interviewing Matt Riddle backstage about why he came out to interrupt Velveteen Dream last week and he reiterates that he was just out there to say hi and wondered what it might look like if he had that North American title around his waist. He's quickly interrupted by Adam Cole, who wonders why Riddle thinks he thinks he has a chance at that title ahead of him. Matt, being Matt, tells Adam, "You're good" to which Cole simply and hilariously matter-of-factly replies, "I know", but says that if they're going to discuss this further, they should discuss it in the ring. A fun segment to be sure, but for those of you who read the dirt sheets today know that this is going to change a bit for many of the people involved. It's still a good build to what will eventually be the match between Dream and the King of Bros at TakeOver NY.
Then we got the #1 Contender's match for taking on Shayna Baszler at TakeOver between Io Shirai and Bianca Belair, and we had Shayna on commentary. Shayna was heeling it up on the mic while Belair and Shirai went to war. Bianca and Io had a really solid match of one-ups-womanship, but Shayna would get all pissed off at the questions from the announce team about Io pinning her and she charged to the ring and pulled Io out of the ring, causing a No Contest, and put Belair into the Kirifuda Clutch. Then Kairi Sane ran into the ring and tried to stop Baszler, but to no avail as she ended up in the Kirifuda herself, and then when Io tried to break it up and send Shayna packing, she came back in and then put Io into the Clutch and it ended with Baszler standing tall over all three competitors. I was pretty upset by this at first. I felt that they were trying to take the easy way out with this as far as not having Shayna just take on one of the female competitors, but as I thought about it, it actually made more sense. So while I would have preferred a clean win for Shirai, we got a different path to TakeOver NY, which was confirmed shortly after the match as Dasha caught Shayna outside and revealed that, due to her actions during that match, her NXT Women's title would be defended at TakeOver against Kairi, Io and Bianca in a Fatal 4-Way. I actually like this booking, because it's ultimately going to make for a more explosive and dramatic match, and it should be great fun to watch these four go at it. I'll also be really interested as far as what they plan to do with how Kairi and Io will be able to put aside their friendship, but as they always say, it's the friends that always bring the best out of one another.
Then came the main event in Aleister Black and Ricochet vs #DIY (in their old blue #DIY shirts!) in the last semi-final for the Dusty Cup. And again, as I said last week, if you thought that this match would be anything less than stellar, you'd be wrong. The four best guys in NXT just proved why they were the four best guys in NXT. The physical output of this match, while fantastic, was not the story that was being told. #DIY tried for the double-submission that won them the titles back in 2017 as they had the MOTY against The Revival, but Ricochet would power out and drop the Psycho Killer onto Gargano's left knee. It left Ciampa to basically fight the remainder of the match on his own. Eventually Ciampa would eat Black Mass and get placed for Ricochet's 630 for the win, so it'll be Forgotten Sons against Black and Ricochet in the Dusty Cup finals. While the victorious pair headed to the back, Candace would come from the back to check on Johnny outside the ring, and Ciampa would join her. They would both help Johnny up the ramp, and Johnny would stumble, and he would stand at the top of the stage with his back to Ciampa, and...
Ciampa tries to put Johnny into the LED board!
But.
Not.
This.
Time.
Johnny stopped the attempted sneak attack by planting his supposedly-injured leg and shook his head at Ciampa with a big smile on his face, then turn it around and send Tommaso face first into the LED board!!! And as Ciampa was on his knees, Johnny hit him with a low superkick! I don't know about you, but I popped for this so hard. This was a moment that I've been waiting for since Johnny turned heel. We knew that eventually, Johnny would come back to being the babyface we've all loved for so long, and when he teamed with Ciampa to compete in the Dusty Classic, he told Candace that he had a plan, and this was it! Screw Ciampa out of potentially winning the Dusty Cup and then allowing Tommaso's natural instincts to eventually show themselves, and then turning his nefarious plan in on itself, and it was both a thing of true beauty and something that was beyond bittersweet to see. Because this was the natural culmination of over two years of storytelling between these two and it would be decided during TakeOver NY, but that is not to be. I truly wish Ciampa all the best in his future recovery and future health, and I hate to be that guy, but goddammit, I wanted this match so bad. But life has a habit of getting in the way of the best-laid plans, and this truly was one of the best-laid plans they could have had. Regardless, Johnny Freakin' Wrestling is back, baby! And I couldn't be more hyped to see what they're going to have in store for Johnny's future.
So that's it for this week! Don't forget to come back next week for more regular coverage of Raw, Smackdown Live and NXT!
Until next time, kids...
The show started with the first of the two semi-finals matches for the Dusty Tag Classic, and that was Moustache Mountain vs Forgotten Sons. During the match, there was one point where Percy Watson, the third wheel of the announce team on NXT, particularly when it comes to Nigel and especially Mauro, pointed out that he's glad to see this "new aggression" out of Forgotten Sons, and I had to actually shout at the screen, "What the fuck are you talking about?" It's not like Forgotten Sons were pushovers before. They've always been really aggressive. It's just one of those things that the less-skilled commentators say when they don't know what else to say. That being stated, he's still better than Vic Joseph. Anyway, I knew that this match was going to be relatively dull compared to most other matches that involve Trent Seven and Tyler Bate, and they clearly had to carry most of the match because no matter the size and brutality of Cutler, Blake and Ryker, Bate and Seven are just so much better. But again, if you're not going to give me a good match, tell me a good story, and the story here was two-fold; it was the problems with Seven's knee that the Sons took advantage of, and it was the story that Jaxson Ryker is the difference-maker when it comes to Forgotten Sons. Blake and Cutler can't really hang with the better teams, so they have Ryker on the outside to help out, and help out he did as he helped Forgotten Sons pick up the win over the Big Strong Boys, and will advance to the finals. Again, not a great match, but it told a good story.
Then we got Dasha interviewing Matt Riddle backstage about why he came out to interrupt Velveteen Dream last week and he reiterates that he was just out there to say hi and wondered what it might look like if he had that North American title around his waist. He's quickly interrupted by Adam Cole, who wonders why Riddle thinks he thinks he has a chance at that title ahead of him. Matt, being Matt, tells Adam, "You're good" to which Cole simply and hilariously matter-of-factly replies, "I know", but says that if they're going to discuss this further, they should discuss it in the ring. A fun segment to be sure, but for those of you who read the dirt sheets today know that this is going to change a bit for many of the people involved. It's still a good build to what will eventually be the match between Dream and the King of Bros at TakeOver NY.
Then we got the #1 Contender's match for taking on Shayna Baszler at TakeOver between Io Shirai and Bianca Belair, and we had Shayna on commentary. Shayna was heeling it up on the mic while Belair and Shirai went to war. Bianca and Io had a really solid match of one-ups-womanship, but Shayna would get all pissed off at the questions from the announce team about Io pinning her and she charged to the ring and pulled Io out of the ring, causing a No Contest, and put Belair into the Kirifuda Clutch. Then Kairi Sane ran into the ring and tried to stop Baszler, but to no avail as she ended up in the Kirifuda herself, and then when Io tried to break it up and send Shayna packing, she came back in and then put Io into the Clutch and it ended with Baszler standing tall over all three competitors. I was pretty upset by this at first. I felt that they were trying to take the easy way out with this as far as not having Shayna just take on one of the female competitors, but as I thought about it, it actually made more sense. So while I would have preferred a clean win for Shirai, we got a different path to TakeOver NY, which was confirmed shortly after the match as Dasha caught Shayna outside and revealed that, due to her actions during that match, her NXT Women's title would be defended at TakeOver against Kairi, Io and Bianca in a Fatal 4-Way. I actually like this booking, because it's ultimately going to make for a more explosive and dramatic match, and it should be great fun to watch these four go at it. I'll also be really interested as far as what they plan to do with how Kairi and Io will be able to put aside their friendship, but as they always say, it's the friends that always bring the best out of one another.
Then came the main event in Aleister Black and Ricochet vs #DIY (in their old blue #DIY shirts!) in the last semi-final for the Dusty Cup. And again, as I said last week, if you thought that this match would be anything less than stellar, you'd be wrong. The four best guys in NXT just proved why they were the four best guys in NXT. The physical output of this match, while fantastic, was not the story that was being told. #DIY tried for the double-submission that won them the titles back in 2017 as they had the MOTY against The Revival, but Ricochet would power out and drop the Psycho Killer onto Gargano's left knee. It left Ciampa to basically fight the remainder of the match on his own. Eventually Ciampa would eat Black Mass and get placed for Ricochet's 630 for the win, so it'll be Forgotten Sons against Black and Ricochet in the Dusty Cup finals. While the victorious pair headed to the back, Candace would come from the back to check on Johnny outside the ring, and Ciampa would join her. They would both help Johnny up the ramp, and Johnny would stumble, and he would stand at the top of the stage with his back to Ciampa, and...
Ciampa tries to put Johnny into the LED board!
But.
Not.
This.
Time.
Johnny stopped the attempted sneak attack by planting his supposedly-injured leg and shook his head at Ciampa with a big smile on his face, then turn it around and send Tommaso face first into the LED board!!! And as Ciampa was on his knees, Johnny hit him with a low superkick! I don't know about you, but I popped for this so hard. This was a moment that I've been waiting for since Johnny turned heel. We knew that eventually, Johnny would come back to being the babyface we've all loved for so long, and when he teamed with Ciampa to compete in the Dusty Classic, he told Candace that he had a plan, and this was it! Screw Ciampa out of potentially winning the Dusty Cup and then allowing Tommaso's natural instincts to eventually show themselves, and then turning his nefarious plan in on itself, and it was both a thing of true beauty and something that was beyond bittersweet to see. Because this was the natural culmination of over two years of storytelling between these two and it would be decided during TakeOver NY, but that is not to be. I truly wish Ciampa all the best in his future recovery and future health, and I hate to be that guy, but goddammit, I wanted this match so bad. But life has a habit of getting in the way of the best-laid plans, and this truly was one of the best-laid plans they could have had. Regardless, Johnny Freakin' Wrestling is back, baby! And I couldn't be more hyped to see what they're going to have in store for Johnny's future.
So that's it for this week! Don't forget to come back next week for more regular coverage of Raw, Smackdown Live and NXT!
Until next time, kids...
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