1. It’s NXT time and the first round of the Dusty Rhodes Tag Classic concludes tonight!
2. First up we’ve got DIY, better known as Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa taking on Hoho Lun and Tian Bing. DIY are masters of making their opponents look good, which covered up some of Bing’s limitations, but he and Lun never really looked like a threat. Hoho’s strikes seem a little weak, and big guy still needs a lot of work. DIY pick up the win in short order.
3. Hey, TJ Perkins is teaming up with Kota Ibushi, whose strikes are anything but weak! They’re taking on Lince Dorado and Mustafa Ali later tonight, and as I have no idea who Mustafa Ali is I’m going to guess he’s taking the fall.
4. Samoa Joe interview next, and he talks about having a profound effect and waging psychological warfare on Shinsuke Nakamura. An interesting take on the situation considering he got his ass kicked last week…
5. Now it’s time for Aaliyah to take on Billie Kay accompanied by Peyton Royce, who really should be known as the Aussie Mean Girls. After a few minutes of mediocrity Liv Morgan appears and attacks Peyton, allowing Aaliyah to get the roll up victory. Post match Morgan hits the ring and beats down Billie, which then become a brawl between the four women. At the end of it all the Aussie Mean Girls came out on top, but Liv Morgan certainly looked good in the process.
6. Tye Dillinger is taking on Bobby Roode at Takeover Toronto (which should be good) but before then he has to get past Noah Potjes. Noah is from Hawaii, which we know because he has Aloha written on his tights. Dillinger is over as hell with the crowd, and after about 10 years in developmental it’s about damn time. Dillinger gets the win with the Tye Breaker.
7. After the match Tye calls out Roode and gets jumped from behind for his troubles, capped by Roode hitting the implant DDT on the stage. After the break we get an Interview with TM61, who are charmingly incoherent. They fight with one fist, apparently.
8. Newcomer Tia Trinidad is facing Asuka next, and Tia is looking remarkably chipper considering her impending pummeling. Nasty German suplex variation into a Fujiwara armbar gets the submission win for Asuka. Post match, William Regal announces that Mickie James will be returning at Takeover to take on the champ. Asuka looks excited, which is awesome.
9. It’s Paul Ellerimg, and he’s with his Authors of Destruction. They’re taking on Rich Swann and No Way Jose next week, which is not really a match that really compels me to watch, despite the presence of the always entertaining Swann.
10. Our main event is the final match of the first round of the Dusty Classic, as Mustafa Ali and Lince Dorado take on Kota Ibushi and TJ Perkins, who used to be from the Philippines but is now from California, because you don’t want too much diversity in a match, do you WWE? It seems NXT is basically becoming the CWC, and I have no problem with that at all. Fun flippy match with all four men getting their spots in, lots of near falls and a great performance from Mustafa Ali who eventually taps out to Perkins knee bar as predicted.
Another fine episode of NXT.
