WWE NXT Spotlight: 2/13/19 By Kurt Zamora (Ricochet vs. Adam Cole)

Welcome one and all to a Valentine’s edition of the NXT Spotlight here at TJRWrestling. Love is in the air as we all clearly love everything happening in NXT and all of the top storylines just continue to get better and better. We have a lovely gift tonight as well as we’re getting Ricochet vs. Adam Cole BAY BAY, a rematch from their awesome Takeover match last year. With all that said, let’s get to the action!

Dominic Dijakovic vs. Shane Thorne

If you hadn’t heard, Nick Miller who was Thorne’s partner in The Mighty, had asked for his release and was granted it. So here we are now with singles compeitition. Thorne starts things off by trying to work over Dijakovic’s left arm, bending it and twisting it over the ropes. Big dropkick by Thorne and then multiple kicks and stomps to Dijakovic. Thorne with a wrist lock and Dijakovic finally breaks out and then drills Thorne with a lariat. He gets Thorne up in a suplex and then tosses him across the ring. He guzzles Thorne and tries a chokeslam but Thorne goes back to the injured arm and then gets Dijakovic up in a Saito suplex. Thorne to the top rope but Dijakovic cuts him off. Dijakovic climbs to the second rope and tries a Superplex but Thorne again goes to the injured arm.

Thorne hits Dijakovic off but Dijakovic does a backflip, lands on his feet, and then superkicks Thorne to the floor. Dijakovic then with an impressive springboard twisting clothesline to the outside on Thorne. He gets Thorne back in the ring and its time to Feast Your Eyes and that gets the W.

Winner: Dominic Dijakovic

K-Tank’s Take: Dijakovic was working as a babyface here, which he had been working more of a heel since his re-introduction. I don’t think that it really matters, they’re still trying to see what he has in him. He carries himself as a heel but moves like a babyface, so it’s an interesting dynamic. He’s super talented, no matter what they do with him.

We go to the Undisputed Era inside one of the equipment trucks. They say they haven’t had a slow start in 2019. Everyone has a speed bump. But they’re going to work to get past that. They will win back their tag titles and become the greatest tag in NXT once again. It’s O’Reilly and Fish back together again, which excites Roddy because now that means he can go for singles gold and when Cole gets his title back, they can all be draped in NXT gold. Cole says that he faces Ricochet tonight and he is just a one trick pony. So tonight they show that 2019 is in fact the year of Undisputed.

We go back to last week when Bianca Belair, Io Sharai, & Kairi Sane defeated the Three Horsewomen. We then see comments from Sharai after the match. She says she showed that she can beat Shayna and she is coming for the NXT women’s championship. She will be NXT Women’s champion. Bianca shows up and says it’s cool that Io beat Shayna and she’s got no issues with either woman, but she’s the one that had Shayna defeated at Takeover, and she had Shayna beat in their match. So they need to fall into line behind her because she is UN-DE-FEA-TED.

We get prepared for our next match as Humberto Carillo and Stacey Ervin Jr are already in the ring. But Kassius Ohno walks out with a mic. He says he’s been in NXT for two years and it hasn’t been the best two years. He’s been looking at the cameras backstage and he can’t help but notice the same thing, the notorious Full Sail crowd. So he wants to tell them all that they make him sick. He detests each and every one of them. He hates their chants, he hates that they think they know everything. They don’t though. He’s out of here. He’s going to go somewhere that he can show that he’s the best to ever do this.

Keith Lee shows up behind Ohno and as Ohno turns around, Lee knocks him out with one of his own roaring elbows. Lee grabs the mic and says oh no. He says this could’ve been so much worse, he could’ve hit Ohno in the dangling bits like Ohno did to him. He tells Ohno not to let the door hit him in the ass on the way out of here. So pardon the interruption, let’s keep the show rolling.

The Street Profits vs. Humberto Carillo & Stacey Ervin Jr

Super funny moment when the Street Profits pass Lee and see Ohno knocked out and Ford lays down next to him, mocking being knocked out. Carillo and Ford start us out. Carillo with a shoulder tackle to start and then both men show off their freakish athleticism with a game of can you top this. It ends with both men going for a dropkick and we get to a stalemate. Carillo goes for a handshake and Ford accepts it, but then stomps him in the midsection. Dawkins tags in and hits an elbow before tagging Ford right back in.

Carillo escapes Ford in the corner and then a couple nice arm drags to get the advantage. Dawkins is able to make a blind tag and tackles Carillo when he didn’t see him. Carillo comes back with a roundhouse kick and tags in Ervin. They hit a sloppy double dropkick and then Ervin lands a standing shooting star press for a two count. Dawkins with a hard spear on Ervin. Ford tags back in as they beat Ervin down in the corner. Ford showing a little more aggressive streak as he works over Ervin. Ford absolutely breaks Ervin in half with a back suplex. The ref had to check on him and Ford yells at the ref to move. Dawkins tags back in and Ervin rolls out of the way to tag in Carillo

Carillo with a handspring back elbow on Dawkins and then a springboard arm drag on Ford. He goes to the top rope and hits a high missile dropkick on Dawkins. Goes for a standing moonsault and gets a two count. Ervin tags in now and hits a picture perfect moonsault, which Mauro calls a Tsunami-Sault. Ford breaks up the pin. Carillo with a knee to Ford but Dawkins drops him with a right hand. Dawkins catches Ervin in a powerbomb, turns it into an electric chair, as Ford is on the top rope. He tells Ervin to suck it and then comes off with a massive blockbuster for the win.

Winners: The Street Profits

Post match, the Profits get the mics and say they want a piece of the action as it pertains to tag title shots. The tenure in NXT has been a bit of roller coasters, but the thing about roller coasters, it’s always a fun ride. Make no mistake though, when they’re given the ball, they’re ready to go to war. So War Raiders, if war is what you want… The music of Fabian Aichner and Marcel Barthel cut them off. Barthel says that opportunities around here are sacred. So no one deserves an opportunity more than them. So the Street Profits need to stand aside. That brings out Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch. All three teams are in the ring and arguing with one another.

The horns of the War Raiders blare and here comes the champs. Rowe says there’s a lot of talking about their titles but no fighting. Hanson says to make a move if they want the titles. The champs start to make their way to the ring but here comes the Undisputed Era from behind. It’s everyone but Cole as they roll the champs in the ring and now the other three teams get a piece of the champs. The Era walk away as the champs manage to dispose of all the other challengers. Rowe gorilla presses Lorcan over his head and tosses him to the outside on top of everyone else.

K-Tank’s Take: Well, I was excited for the direction Street Profits were going, until they had War Raiders just dismantle the entire division in about 45 seconds. Not exactly a strong showing for teams that think they’re contenders. Ford is a singles star waiting to happen. His range of emotions during this match, from entrance to promo, was fantastic. That blockbuster looked like a beast too. I dunno that you want to be taking that consistantly.

We get a video to hype next week’s North American Title match between Johnny Gargano and Velveteen Dream.

Taynara Conti vs. Aliyah

Conti with a nice takedown into a quick pin to start things out. Aliyah gets up and starts talking trash, to which Conti just comes at her with a flying armbar attempt. Aliyah gets to the ropes and then does a hair takedown on Conti as Vanessa Borne makes her way to ringside. Fireman’s carry takedown by Aliyah and then multiple kicks to the spine. Conti catches one and then a double leg takedown into a pin. Aliyah kicks out but ends up getting tossed face first into the turnbuckles. Conti with Judo throws and then a pump kick to the face as Aliyah is on her knees. Conti to the second rope and ends up getting Aliyah’s arm in an armbar over the top rope. Conti tries to go to the top rope, but Borne grabs the leg to distract her as the ref wasn’t looking. Aliyah throws Conti off the top and then gets her in a Kimura lock with hard kicks to the side of Conti’s head and Conti has to tap out.

Winner: Aliyah

Post match, Borne raises Aliyah’s hand as we apparently have a new partnership. Shayna Baszler’s music hits and she makes her way quickly to the ring. Borne and Aliyah think better of it and go to escape, but Shafir and Duke come from behind them and attack them. Shafir and Duke with a double team move to Borne and then Shayna hits a twisting gutwrench suplex to Conti. Shayna says not to get in their way, don’t question them, and absolutely do not piss them off.

K-Tank’s Take: Didn’t exactly like this booking either. There were no signs of the Borne/Aliyah partnership coming, not that either is on TV very often, but you decide to make a point to bring them together, only to be fodder for the Horsewomen who are apparently now pissed off after last week.

Now it’s another video to hype next week’s match, this time from The Dream’s perspective.

Ricochet vs. Adam Cole

Just over 15 minutes left in the show as the bell rings. Tie up to start with no one getting the advantage. No clean break though as Cole stomps Ricochet. Ricochet with a loud back elbow agains the ropes. Both men trading shots and then Ricochet with his handstand headscissors and a dropkick to send Cole to the floor. Ricochet with a dive to the ropes, he gets caught up in the ropes a bit, but still lands on Cole. Punches on the ramp before throwing Cole back in the ring.

Cole with a boot and tries to go to second rope but Ricochet hits a step up enziguri. Cole ends up trying a sunset flip powerbomb but Ricochet holds on. Cole lets go and superkicks the knee of Ricochet instead, which leads to his left leg getting caught up in the turnbuckle. Cole now focuses his attack on that knee. Nigel calls Percy a stupid idiot for complaining about Cole attacking that leg, which was great. Cole with a dragon screw out of the corner. Ricochet misses an enziguri and Cole just slams the injured knee into the canvas.

Ricochet escapes a submission but ends up walking into a dropkick to the knee by Cole. Ricochet escapes a back suplex but his knee keeps giving out. He manages to land a huge clothesline to get some separation. Cole gets thrown into the turnbuckles and Ricochet lands a 619. Ricochet to top rope and comes off with a European uppercut. Standing moonsault by Ricochet and gets a two count. Cole puts Ricochet on the top rope, hits an enziguri and then connects with a Tye-Breaker across the knee but Ricochet kicks out at two.

Cole tries a suplex but Ricochet blocks it. Cole misses an enzugiri and Ricochet hits a Northern Lights suplex, tries to combo it with a vertical suplex, but he can’t hold Cole up. Cole counters it into another neckbreaker over the knee and gets a two count. Cole pulls down the knee pad for the Last Shot but Ricochet gets out of the way and rolls Cole up for a two count. Cole with a superkick to the knee and then tries another superkick but Ricochet moves and hits a sick looking reverse hurricanrana. Cole landed right on his head.

Ricochet tries to springboard off the top rope, only had one leg to do it and ends up landing on Cole’s legs instead of landing it cleanly. Cole kicks out of a pin attempt. Both men start trading blows. Cole back to the knee and then lands a pump kick. Ricochet with a pump knee. Cole with an enziguri. Ricochet misses a back flip into something, which leads to Cole superkicking him for a two count. Cole puts Ricochet on the top rope but Ricochet escapes and turns it around to where they’re both on the second rope. Cole elbows him off to the apron.

Ricochet fights back up and now both on the top rope as Ricochet manages to land a hurricanrana. Ax kick followed by the Northern Lights combo into the vertical suplex. Ricochet gets Cole up somehow for the Vertigo and he scores the victory.

Winner: Ricochet

Here comes the rest of Undisputed Era for a beatdown. Aleister Black shows up to try and help, but Cole superkicks him and then Roddy nails him with the End of Heartache. The show ends with Undisputed Era standing tall. It was announced after the show that Black and Strong will face off next week.

K-Tank’s Take: This wasn’t as strong as their Takeover match, since Ricochet was selling the knee all match. But it’s Cole vs. Ricochet, it can’t be bad. I’m happy to see Black looks to be sticking around and now getting involved with the Era again. I really did think Phoenix was his swan song, but perhaps I’m wrong, and truthfully I hope I am.

Next week looks super strong with two big matches, so until next time…. don’t do anything I wouldn’t do, but if you do, name it after me!