NXT – May 8, 2019: There’s Certainly A Dispute
IMG Credit: WWE
NXT
Date: May 8, 2019
Location: Full Sail University, Winter Park, Florida
Commentators: Percy Watson, Nigel McGuinness, Mauro Ranallo
We’re suddenly racing towards Takeover, which is less than a month away thanks to the schedule changes. In this case we’ll be seeing Matt Riddle vs. Adam Cole as part of the ongoing Johnny Gargano/Riddle vs. Undisputed Era issues. The Takeover card needs to start filling in but NXT knows how to do this in a hurry. Let’s get to it.
Here are last week’s results if you need them.
We get a quick main event preview.
Opening sequence.
Mia Yim vs. Bianca Belair
The fans are behind Mia here, as expected. They trade armdrags to start and then block each others’ armdrag attempts, causing them to say they see each other. Belair knocks her down and tries that UN-DE-FEA-TED line until Mia kicks her in the head. A ram into the corner puts Mia down and it’s off to a cravate to keep her down.
Belair’s forearm to the back sets up an Alley Oop onto the top turnbuckle for two and she does that dance of hers. Mia doesn’t like being mocked so Belair slams her down again and grabs another cravate. A splash hits knees though and Yim dropkicks her into the corner. Mia tries a sunset flip but Belair sits down on it and wraps her hair around the ropes for the pin at 7:37.
Rating: C-. She’s an athletic freak but there is something missing about Belair and it shows in every match she has. It was missing again here and I still can’t put my finger on what it is. The cockiness makes perfect sense with how she’s dominated athletics for so long so that checks out. It might just be her rather weak talking abilities, as she rarely says anything memorable aside from the UN-DE-FEA-TED line.
The Forgotten Sons attacked the Viking Raiders at the Performance Center.
Shayna Baszler was coaching Jessamyn Duke and Marina Shafir at the Performance Center when Io Shirai ran in to attack her. A bunch of trainees broke it up.
Raul Mendoza vs. Riddick Moss
This is Moss’ return match after tearing his Achilles last year. He now follows the Riddick Regimen, which seems to be a workout plan. Moss powers him into the corner to start but Mendoza pushes him away, meaning it’s time for the posedown. Hang on though as Moss pulls out a massager and works on his shoulder for a second.
Mendoza handspring backflips over him and hits a springboard hurricanrana, setting up a running shooting star for two. Back up and Moss plants him down but hang on as we need some hydration. Moss charged into a dropkick to the knee to send him into the buckle and a headscissors does it again. A springboard corkscrew splash gives Mendoza the upset win at 4:40.
Rating: C. I liked the Regimen thing as it’s something that has been done before but Moss having various things to pull out made it better. That being said, Mendoza had to win a match at some point as he loses nearly every time he’s in the ring. He’s probably not going to be a top star but he’s a heck of a hand in the ring and needed something to keep him going.
We look back at Kushida’s debut last week. He’s in action again next week.
Matt Riddle vs. Adam Cole
Riddle easily wrestles him down but Cole bails to the floor before the Bromission. Back in and Cole isn’t sure what to do here so he grabs a headlock, which is reversed into one from Riddle. A backsplash to Cole’s back gets two and some rolling gutwrench suplexes make it even worse. The fans aren’t sure who to cheer for as Cole takes him down again for some knees to the back into a figure four necklock.
Back up and an elbow to the face drops Riddle so Cole calls him a joke and nothing. Riddle strikes away until a jumping enziguri staggers him, only to snap off a German suplex to put Cole down as well. It’s Riddle getting the better of things with running forearms in the corner and an exploder suplex, setting up a running kick to the chest for two. The deadlift German suplex gives Riddle two more but Cole is right back with a fireman’s carry backbreaker.
Riddle throws him up into a fireman’s carry but Cole spins out into a Backstabber. A strike off goes to Riddle and he takes Cole down for the Bromission, which is reversed into a fisherman’s buster. Cole is right back up with the brainbuster onto the knee but the middle rope Canadian Destroyer is blocked.
Instead he hits the Last Shot for two on Riddle and Cole can’t believe the kickout. Riddle is right back with a knee to the face and a GTS, followed by another knee to send Cole outside. Cue Roderick Strong, who gets kicked in the face as well, but the distraction lets Cole superkick Riddle’s head off. That’s good for two, but the kickout pulls Cole into the Bromission for the tap at 13:45.
Rating: B. They had a good story here with Cole not being sure what to do to beat Riddle but managing to survive the athleticism and get in some offense to break him down. The ending was a good way to advance the stories going forward and with the Undisputed Era showing some cracks, Riddle could be moving up the ladder fairly soon.
Cole and Strong are about to come to blows with Bobby Fish and Kyle O’Reilly playing peacekeepers. Cole and O’Reilly leave with Cole ranting about how he wins things by himself but Strong screws everything up to end the show.
Overall Rating: B-. It wasn’t the most in depth show they’ve done but what we got was entertaining enough and should set up some more stuff going forward. That being said, they need to start getting ready for Takeover as the show is in less than a month and there hasn’t been a single match set up for it. I trust NXT to pull it off though as setting up five matches isn’t the hardest thing in the world.
Results
Bianca Belair b. Mia Yim – Sunset flip with a grab of the ropes
Raul Mendoza b. Riddick Moss – Springboard corkscrew splash
Matt Riddle b. Adam Cole – Bromission
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