OPENING VIDEO- We get some blurbs telling us how well last week’s show did. This was a lot less desperate-seeming than when the main roster does it, but doing this inherently feels desperate to me, no matter who is doing it. I firmly believe that a quality product will always speak for itself.

KEITH LEE vs. DONOVAN DIJAK- 7/10
The “Tale of the Tap” graphic was great. Extremely sports-like.
At one point Mauro informed us that Keith Lee was about to climb “all the way to the top,” after which Lee immediately stopped climbing and hit a moonsault from the second rope instead, making Mauro look silly.
These two have a real knack for making every move count and making their matches feel like they escalate very well. While their matches in the first half of 2017 were often the same, since then they have done a great job of finding new things to do, and the way the shoulder tackle over the ropes and the sit-up spot were great examples of that in this match. This was a great match and the crowd was absolutely on fire, but I do have to get all indy smark on you and tell you that it’s probably the worst match I’ve seen these two have. Checkout their matches in EVOLVE and PWG from 2017.

STREET PROFITS PROMO- good
They’re getting their title shot next week. They say they’ll win.

DAKOTA KAI vs. TAYNARA CONTI- 3/10
Yes, Taynara Conti has become the latest WWE wrestler whose loss of a name I refuse to recognize out of protest at this utter stupidity. There were many kicks in this match. Dakota won with a Go To Sleep that Mauro called the “GTK,” which apparently stands for “Go To Kick.” That name is f*cking terrible.

SARAH SCHREIBER RELAYS NEWS FROM MR. REGAL’S OFFICE- Said news was that in the second hour of tonight’s show we will see Aichner, Wolfe, & Barthel of Imperium take on KUSHIDA and two partners of his choosing. Obviously, this has me very excited, but I also feel the need to comment on the production aspect of this. Specifically, I LOVED the fact that they had her standing somewhere in front of the fans. Or maybe it was a green screen of the arena, but the point is that it felt like she was there in front of the people like an actual sideline reporter rather than pitching to some sterilized backstage set. It feels very different from the main roster, and that’s what NXT needs.

JOHNNY GARGANO VIDEO- This was just some clips and did nothing to really explain who Johnny is other than Mauro calling him “the heart and soul of NXT.” If you’re going to show this, at least tell us when he’s going to wrestle next.
#1 CONTENDERSHIP STREET FIGHT: Matt Riddle vs. Killian Dain- 8.25/10
This was a sufficiently brutal blow-off that played into the various bits of the feud very well. Riddle could have sold better, though.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- good
Cole came down and got in Riddle’s face so Riddle put him in a Fujiwara armbar. Undisputed Era came out to chase Riddle off. This was a fine segment that gave us a reason to believe the challenger has a chance of dethroning the champion.

(At this point we switched over to the WWE Network)


RHEA RIPLEY vs. KAYDEN CARTER- 4/10
Kayden Carter is the former Lacey Lane, so WWE is back to changing people’s names even if they have appeared under that name in a high-profile situation before (like the Mae Young Classic theoretically is). This was a very good (for the time it got) big mean heel vs. underdog babyface match.

EVER-RISE vs. DANNY BURCH & ONEY LORCAN- 4.25/10
Ever-Rise is yet another name for 3.0. Burch & Lorcan beat them cleanly.

CHELSEA GREEN & DEONNA PURRAZZO ARE SHOWN IN THE CROWD- They had the same graphic and Chelsea’s had was on Deonna’s shoulder, so I assume they’re a unit now.

CAMERON GRIMES vs. RAUL MENDOZA- 5/10
A good win for Grimes, with Mendoza looking good in defeat.

KUSHIDA, TYLER BREEZE, & FANDANGO vs. IMPERIUM (Fabian Aichner, Marcel Barthel, & Alexander Wolfe)- 7.5/10
We got the weird entrance order of KUSHIDA first, then Imperium, then the reveal of the mystery partners. Why not just have Imperium enter first so that you can still have the mystery partners at the end but not awkwardly split up the babyfaces’ entrances?
This was a great six-man tag with all of the usual stuff. KUSHIDA won with a flash pin, but was attacked by WALTER at the top of the ramp.


This was a decent episode of NXT. The stuff that was great was great and the rest of it was short matches that quite honestly felt random. They’re obviously building Grimes for something big and they’re trying to push Dakota, too, but it feels like the undercard has drastically changed from just a few weeks ago, and I can’t even put my finger on who is missing.

I HATED that Lee vs Dijakovic. Just seemed like spots for spots and moves. I remember not liking the finish and how it came about.

KILLdozer wrote: ↑Oct 1st, '19, 22:26 I HATED that Lee vs Dijakovic. Just seemed like spots for spots and moves. I remember not liking the finish and how it came about.

It seems to have been a pretty divisive match.

Big Red Machine wrote: ↑Oct 1st, '19, 23:40

KILLdozer wrote: ↑Oct 1st, '19, 22:26 I HATED that Lee vs Dijakovic. Just seemed like spots for spots and moves. I remember not liking the finish and how it came about.

It seems to have been a pretty divisive match.

I can see that. Either "GREAT match full of high crazy spots with two guys going outside of their size range, doing EVERYTHING THEY CAN!", or, "just Two guys hitting big moves and kicking out and then a ridiculous finish."

Didn't he hit the top rope destroyer and then a Moonsault right after then Keith Lee just sits up out of the pin and hits the finish? I may be off on the sequence but I know he sat up out of the cover like nothing happened.
Worst.. No sell. Ever.

KILLdozer wrote: ↑Oct 2nd, '19, 00:18

Big Red Machine wrote: ↑Oct 1st, '19, 23:40

KILLdozer wrote: ↑Oct 1st, '19, 22:26 I HATED that Lee vs Dijakovic. Just seemed like spots for spots and moves. I remember not liking the finish and how it came about.

It seems to have been a pretty divisive match.

I can see that. Either "GREAT match full of high crazy spots with two guys going outside of their size range, doing EVERYTHING THEY CAN!", or, "just Two guys hitting big moves and kicking out and then a ridiculous finish."

Didn't he hit the top rope destroyer and then a Moonsault right after then Keith Lee just sits up out of the pin and hits the finish? I may be off on the sequence but I know he sat up out of the cover like nothing happened.
Worst.. No sell. Ever.

Worst no-sell ever? No. Sh*t much more eggregious than this happens multiple times on every PWG show, and most New Japan shows as well. Watch some Ishii matches and then tell me that this was worse no-selling than his horse-sh*t.

To your point, I thought they sold well enough. You are definitely missing a sequence in there. You are also missing the recovery time between the moves, which is when they were selling. They paced the match out in order to be able to do all of that stuff.

Big Red Machine wrote: ↑Oct 2nd, '19, 17:28

KILLdozer wrote: ↑Oct 2nd, '19, 00:18

Big Red Machine wrote: ↑Oct 1st, '19, 23:40
It seems to have been a pretty divisive match.

I can see that. Either "GREAT match full of high crazy spots with two guys going outside of their size range, doing EVERYTHING THEY CAN!", or, "just Two guys hitting big moves and kicking out and then a ridiculous finish."

Didn't he hit the top rope destroyer and then a Moonsault right after then Keith Lee just sits up out of the pin and hits the finish? I may be off on the sequence but I know he sat up out of the cover like nothing happened.
Worst.. No sell. Ever.

Worst no-sell ever? No. Sh*t much more eggregious than this happens multiple times on every PWG show, and most New Japan shows as well. Watch some Ishii matches and then tell me that this was worse no-selling than his horse-sh*t.

To your point, I thought they sold well enough. You are definitely missing a sequence in there. You are also missing the recovery time between the moves, which is when they were selling. They paced the match out in order to be able to do all of that stuff.

They sold sure, just not very much when he got up right during the pin at the end.

KILLdozer wrote: ↑Oct 2nd, '19, 19:30

Big Red Machine wrote: ↑Oct 2nd, '19, 17:28

KILLdozer wrote: ↑Oct 2nd, '19, 00:18

I can see that. Either "GREAT match full of high crazy spots with two guys going outside of their size range, doing EVERYTHING THEY CAN!", or, "just Two guys hitting big moves and kicking out and then a ridiculous finish."

Didn't he hit the top rope destroyer and then a Moonsault right after then Keith Lee just sits up out of the pin and hits the finish? I may be off on the sequence but I know he sat up out of the cover like nothing happened.
Worst.. No sell. Ever.

Worst no-sell ever? No. Sh*t much more eggregious than this happens multiple times on every PWG show, and most New Japan shows as well. Watch some Ishii matches and then tell me that this was worse no-selling than his horse-sh*t.

To your point, I thought they sold well enough. You are definitely missing a sequence in there. You are also missing the recovery time between the moves, which is when they were selling. They paced the match out in order to be able to do all of that stuff.

They sold sure, just not very much when he got up right during the pin at the end.

He sat up out of it. That was him getting his shoulders up.

Big Red Machine wrote: ↑Oct 2nd, '19, 19:31

KILLdozer wrote: ↑Oct 2nd, '19, 19:30

Big Red Machine wrote: ↑Oct 2nd, '19, 17:28

Worst no-sell ever? No. Sh*t much more eggregious than this happens multiple times on every PWG show, and most New Japan shows as well. Watch some Ishii matches and then tell me that this was worse no-selling than his horse-sh*t.

To your point, I thought they sold well enough. You are definitely missing a sequence in there. You are also missing the recovery time between the moves, which is when they were selling. They paced the match out in order to be able to do all of that stuff.

They sold sure, just not very much when he got up right during the pin at the end.

He sat up out of it. That was him getting his shoulders up.

When does anyone ever "sit up out of it getting their shoulders up" and jump up and hit the finisher for the win?


Idk. I'm probably biased because I'm not very interested in this, Kevin Lee...

KILLdozer wrote: ↑Oct 2nd, '19, 21:55

Big Red Machine wrote: ↑Oct 2nd, '19, 19:31

KILLdozer wrote: ↑Oct 2nd, '19, 19:30

They sold sure, just not very much when he got up right during the pin at the end.

He sat up out of it. That was him getting his shoulders up.

When does anyone ever "sit up out of it getting their shoulders up" and jump up and hit the finisher for the win?


Idk. I'm probably biased because I'm not very interested in this, Kevin Lee...

I thought they did it in a way that worked, because the way he say up also grabbed Dijak to hit the finisher.