WWE NXT Spotlight: 9/5/18 By Kurt Zamora (Johnny Gargano vs. Velveteen Dream)
Welcome one and all to the latest installment of the NXT Spotlight here at TJRWrestling. Last week saw the start of new storylines and the continuation of others as we go past Brooklyn on the way to Los Angeles and War Games. Tonight we have, what hopefully should be a great main event, when Johnny Gargano takes on Velveteen Dream. Let’s see what the Black & Yellow Brand has in store for us tonight!
Kassiuus Ohno vs. Kona Reeves
Ohno starts things off with a neck wrench until there is a clean break in the corner. Reeves shoves Ohno in the back of the head and declares himself the Finest until Ohno smacks him right in the face. Then a nice knee drop to Reeves’ face. Reeves comes back though with a kick and then comes off the second rope with an ax handle. He tries for a pin and Ohno kicks out. Reeves tries the Hawaiian Drop but Ohno slides out and delivers a Roaring Elbow and that ends it.
Winner: Kassius Ohno
Post match, Ohno with a mic and says when he came back to NXT, there was so much buzz. Until there wasn’t. Kassius Ohno became an afterthought. It tore him up originally but now he gets it. There’s always going to be someone new and fresh. To whoever the next guy is, Kassius Ohno going to be the first one to welcome them and knock them to the back of the line.
K-Tank’s Take: Interesting promo by Ohno, especially since it lends to what I’ve been saying about him for weeks. Perhaps he’s set up to be Keith Lee or Matt Riddle’s first feud in NXT.
The Forgotten Sons vs. The Street Profits
The Forgotten Sons consist of Steve Cutler on the left, Jaxson Ryker in the middle, and Wesley Blake on the right. Ryker is the former Gunner from TNA and Blake was of course the forgotten member of Blake & Murphy with Alexa Bliss as their manager, which of course culminated in being NXT Tag Champions at one time. Blake and Cutler will be the participants in this match. Blake and Montez Ford start the match. Blake is a little heavier than I remember from his time with Murphy. Street Profits gets the early advantage by dropkicking both members to the floor. Ford then does a beautiful somersault dive over the top rope onto both of his opponents. Dawkins and Cutler become the legal members once they get back in the ring. Dawkins sends Cutler into his corner shoulder first and then tags in Ford. Ford works over that arm but Cutler is able to get the blind tag to Blake and he catches Ford by surprise with a huge lariat. Blake follows that up with a great springboard knee drop as it looked like Ford had moved out of position but Blake covered for it perfectly. The Sons now work over Ford. Big neckbreaker by Cutler for a two count. Cutler drags Ford over to the apron and Blake comes down with a jumping legdrop over the back. Ford kicks out of another pin as they continue to beat him down. Ford sneaks in a backslide pin and then avoids Blake coming in with an elbow drop to finally make the tag to Dawkins. Dawkins is all over both of his opponents with a dropkick and big punches. He drops Blake with a hot shot over the top rope and then a facebuster. He lands his avalanche 360 splash in the corner, but Cutler pulls him out of the ring before he can do anything more. Ford drops Cutler with a DDT, but then two men in masks come and steal Ford’s jewelry and drink cup. Ford stops one of them and reveals it to be Shane Thorne. Before he can do anything though, Ryker comes from behind and lays him out with a huge clothesline on the ramp. Ryker shoves Ford back in the ring, which sets up a double team reverse DDT and big stomp from the 2nd rope. Cutler is bleeding from the nose, not quite sure if it’s broken or when it happened.
Winners: The Forgotten Sons
K-Tank’s Take: I like the look of The Forgotten Sons and there’s obviously some real talent in the unit. I’m a sucker for a good 3 man group, so I definitely hope there’s more to come with these guys. Blake’s offense looked really good specifically. It’s crazy to think of where Murphy and Bliss have gone since that team (granted, Murphy took some time himself before 205 Live established him) and Blake has been waiting a long time to get another opportunity.
I hope all you reading this will join us on Patreon as TJRWrestling continues to grow and find ways to add content for all you fine people. John Canton and myself just finished recording our first retro podcast, spending right at 90 minutes, covering the fantastic Fully Loaded 2000 PPV that will be up on Friday. Next week we’ll be doing a WCW show and we’ll also be doing ECW in the the future. So if those are companies you wanted to see covered more, Patreon will have you covered!
We go to William Regal’s office, where he questioning Heavy Machinery. Otis confirms that he broke a toilet in the performance center. Regal says they provided video content that has been very helpful. Tucker says that the only thing the video didn’t show is Ciampa hiding in the bushes near Black’s body.
We then see a recap of last week with Ricochet and Pete Dunne losing to Undisputed Era. We see footage backstage after the match where Ricochet & Dunne are arguing about what took place last week. They have decided they need to settle this in a champion vs champion match, which will take place in two weeks.
There is now a vignette for War Raiders that is shown. They declare that the War is here for Undisputed Era.
Non-Title Match
Kairi Sane vs. Trish Adora
I don’t know if this will be an every time feature of Kairi’s reign as champion, but in this entrance there was a treasure chest at the top of the ramp that she opened up to find the NXT women’s title inside. Don’t know anything about Adora except that she’s a former rugby player according to Percy Watson. Kairi with a go behind, but can’t do anything due to the size difference. Kairi ends up tripping Adora down and then a big stomp to the spine. following by a couple running blockbusters. Kairi trying for the stretch muffler but Adora gets the ropes. Big double foot stomp to the back by Kairi. Adora with a forearm and tries for a Sky High, but Kairi gets out and lands a back fist. Kairi walks the plank and nails her sliding forearm smash. Up to the top and it’s InSane Elbow drop time for the win.
Winner: Kairi Sane
Post match as Kairi is celebrating, Shaya Baszler’s music hits and she comes out with a mic. She knocks the treasure chest over before speaking. She tells Kairi to enjoy it while she can until Shayna enacts her rematch clause. Shayna gets in the ring and asks if this pirate can swim, and then charges her. She lays out Kairi with a clothesline. Kairi gets up and has a serious look on her face and now is fighting back with multiple strikes and then a spinning back fist, followed by a spear that sends Shayna out of the ring.
K-Tank’s Take: Good stuff by both Baszler and Sane here. I would expect their rematch to be at Evolution, as it’s already been announced that the NXT women’s title will be on the line that night. The treasure chest idea for Sane was pretty unique. I wouldn’t mind her getting the title from there every time during her entrance.
We go to another backstage video that Tomasso Ciampa has provided. He wants to discuss why he has not been seen in Full Sail since Takeover Brooklyn. He says he doesn’t have a #1 contender. He truly is the last man standing. The reason he’s filming this on his own time is because he’s tired of hearing everyone’s opinion. He is at the top of the food chain and he knows the world is listening to every word he has to say. There’s only a few though that truly hear his message. He tells us to follow the lead of our NXT champion.
Back to Regal’s office, who now has Lars Sullivan. Sullivan says he did not properly tell Regal when he was medically cleared, but he is in fact that. They ask Lars why he was there that night when Black was taken out because he’s a main culpret. Lars admits he was there for Black since he owed him a visit. Before he could get to Black though, he heard a scream and then came across Black already laid out. All he saw was Undisputed Era driving away. If he had taken out Black, he’d still be standing over him. Ask EC3. Regal says that EC3 isn’t medically cleared but since Lars attacked Raul Mendoza last week as well, he has a match with him next week.
Johnny Gargano vs. Velveteen Dream
We have about 18 minutes left in the show as the bell rings. Dream is wearing a Johnny Failure shirt and throws it in Gargano’s face. Gargano has his right knee taped up, but nothing extraordinary following the injury scare from Takeover. Both men trying to outwrestle the other to start. Gargano avoids a leapfrog in the corner and smacks Dream with a forearm smash. Gargano stomping a mudhole in Dream. Dream trying all he can to go after that knee, but Gargano kicks him to the floor and follows him out there. Big chops from Gargano on the guardrails. They get back in the ring but Dream catches him with a stun gun over the top rope. Now it’s Dream all over Gargano in the corner. Gargano comes back with some chops but Dream shoots him to the other side and Gargano flips over and hits back first on the turnbuckles. Dream follows that up with a neckbreaker. Dream comes off the second rope as Gargano is laid out on the bottom turnbuckle and comes crashing down over Gargano’s lower back. Big boot by Dream and gets a two count out of it. Gargano gets up but Dream quickly locks on a sleeper hold. Gargano gets out and both men start to trade blows. Dream goes to the second rope but Gargano catches him and eventually drops Dream with a reverse neckbreaker. Gargano off the second rope with a hurricanrana and then an enziguri that sends Dream to the floor. Dream comes back in but turns into Gargano’s spear through the ropes for a two count. Both me end up on the apron and Gargano superkicks Dream off, and then hits a cannonball, which really misses and makes it look more like a blockbuster, off the apron. Both men back in the ring and Dream avoids Gargano rolling kick and comes back with a fameasser for a two count.
Gargano gets caught off the second rope and Dream rolls through Gargano for an attempt at his Dream Valley Driver, but Gargano gets out with a sunset flip. Big kick by Gargano, followed by a boot by Dream, followed by a lariat that turns Dream inside out for a two count. Great sequence there. Both men back on the apron as Gargano tried going to the top rope. Back and forth shots. Big boot by Dream and then tries for the DVD on the apron, but Gargano slides out once again. He tweaks that knee though, and then Dream sends him legs first into the steel steps. Both men back in the ring and Dream hits his DDT out of the Sister Abigail position. Great near fall there. Dream now going after that knee repeatedly. Gargano gets to the apron and hits an enziguri, but Dream with a superkick. Gargano down on the apron and Dream wants to finish him with the Purple Rainmaker like he did to EC3, but Gargano moves and Dream wipes out hard. Gargano then locks on the Gargano Escape on the floor. He lets it go before the 10 count ends. Dream on the apron now and Gargano tries bringing him back in with a draping DDT, but Dream fights it off. Gargano decides on a superkick instead and then goes back to the floor, where he wants to do the draping DDT off the apron now. The ref is telling Gargano to bring it back in the ring as Gargano fights with himself on what he wants to do. Mauro calls him a tortured soul right now. Both men back in the ring and Gargano wants to hit the running knee as Dream yells at him that he’s a failure. Gargano says he’s not a failure and charges Dream, who catches him and in one motion rolls him over with the Dream Valley Driver, and that gets the suprise 1-2-3!
Winner: Velveteen Dream
Post match, Dream leaves and his music stops so that we can hear the fans doing dueling chants of “Johnny Wrestling” and “Johnny Failure”. The Johnny Failure chants are honestly louder. Gargano looks up the rampway and instead walks through the crowd and behind the announce table to leave. Some fans are chanting the “na na na goodbye”, but Johnny looks back one last time as the crowd chants “Johnny”. He just shakes his head no and walks off as our show ends.
K-Tank’s Take: First off, that was a FANTASTIC match. Takeover worthy. Dream with a huge win here, arguably his biggest yet. I honestly don’t know what they’re doing with Gargano, nor do I get it. The crowd has turned on him, which seems incomprehensible when you see where he was before Brooklyn. Maybe that’s the adversity they’re wanting and it’s playing into their story perfectly, but I truly don’t get it. I think this is a product of waiting too long to give him the title and now it’s too late. What do you guys think? Sound off in the comments!
Thanks for tuning in another week and be sure to check out all the content on Patreon! Until next time, don’t do anything I wouldn’t do, but if you do… name it after me!