Cook’s WWE NXT Review 10.9.19

Hey hey! It’s your old buddy Steve doing the fill-in gimmick on the NXT coverage this week. At least I know what channel this show will be on, and there will be no crappy baseball getting in the way of my wrestling enjoyment.

Before we get started, I want to wish a Happy Eddie Guerrero Day to everybody. Latino Heat would have been 52 years old today, which means he would have been working that Brock Lesnar schedule with a major championship around his waist if he was here today. And I have no doubt that Eddie’s style would have aged well, he would have been smart enough to work to his strengths and he would have been one of those maestros that we hear about in lucha libre. I feel like if we replace “Columbus Day” with “Eddie Guerrero Day” it would fix a lot of problems, but maybe that’s just me. Let’s get to the action…

A recap of last week kicks us off. Mauro Ranallo, Beth Phoenix & Nigel McGuinness guide us through the next two hours…

NXT Cruiserweight Championship Match: Champion Drew Gulak vs. Lio Rush: I’m not big on Lio, but I am a huge Drew Gulak fan. This match may turn me against the rest of the show if it goes the wrong way for the Philadelphia Stretcher. Gulak misses in the corner early & Rush hits some big moves early. Standing shotting star gets a near-fall, then he hits a couple of big moves on the outside. Gulak counters in the ring with a slam, a clothesline in the corner gets a Rush kickout. Rush tries a rollup which leads into a Gulak submission attempt. Crowd is behind Lio. They’ve repeated “NXT Cruiserweight Championship” enough times to let us know that 205 Live isn’t a thing anymore. Lio tries a comeback briefly but gets pushed off the top onto the podium as we head to the commercial break where I’m asked to watch flexible women or NXT. Y’all know that is a tough choice for me. Lio is fighting back when we come back, but Drew hits a big ol lariat for two. Series of reversals leads to a near-fall for Rush, but then there’s the Gu-Lock! Rush manages to get out, then reverses into a Dragon Sleeper! This all leads to a Cyclone Crash by Gulak with Rush getting his foot on the ropes for two. Mauro drops a Mental Health Awareness Week reference, which is the best reference he’s ever dropped. Rush with a sideways Frog Splash! Another big move, and Rush goes back up, and there’s the Final Hour! Lio Rush wins! The crowd chants Lio, and the Man of the Hour is the man of the Cruiserweight Division. Like I said, I’m more of a Gulak fan, but I’m cool with Lio getting his redemption tour in NXT & silencing all of the nay-sayers he had in his main roster run. Good match.

-William Regal comes out to wrap the title around Rush’s waist, but Gulak insists on crowning the man himself. Of course he would, that’s how Drew Gulak operates.

-KUSHIDA & WALTER train backstage.

-We get a video package explaining to us new NXT viewers who Finn Balor is.

-Tegan Nox will be back next week on NXT!

Rhea Ripley vs. Alliyah (w/Vanessa Bourne): As much as I like Alliyah & Bourne’s act, going up against Ripley probably won’t go well for them. I mean, Alliyah’s getting some scratch offense in, but Ripley’s tearing this girl apart. Finally, Alliyah taps out after being stretched for days. No rating necessary here, it was Rhea tearing through hapless competition much to my delight. Wonderful girl, she is.

-Rhea tells Shayna Baszler that she’s coming, and we have no reason to doubt this.

Breezango vs… Well, Ever-Rise were the originally scheduled opponents for Breezango, but the Forgotten Sons took them out, and now we have…

Breezango vs. The Forgotten Sons: Poor ol’ Prince Pretty getting worked over by the Sons early. He gets the hot tag to Dango, and the man is kicking it. Hollycaust gets two. Breeze hits a sunset bomb off the top, but now Jackson Breaker is hitting people outside, which evens the score enough for Dango to get double teamed. The Memory Remains finishes Fandango off. Big win for the Sons here, and they managed to kill people before even getting into the match. They’ll get their chance pretty soon, and if they get their way…For Whom The Bell Tolls.

-Keith Lee promises we’ll bask in his glory next week. I don’t know about you guys, but I’m kind of tired of guys asking me to bask in their glory and to feast my eyes on them. I’m a very liberal guy, but it’s not my deal.

–BOA vs. Cameron Grimes: Welp. That ended sooner than I expected in a win for Grimes, and now Killian Dain is here to destroy DOA. I hope the Chinese government isn’t watching this, or WWE will be in serious trouble. I’m afraid to write any more about this. You think I want the Chinese government on me? Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck no.

-Damian Priest is out here calling out Pete Dunne. Sounds fun.

Non-Title Match: NXT North American Champion Roderick Strong vs. Isaiah “Swerve” Scott: As many platitudes commentary wants to drop Strong’s way, I still feel the need to say he’s been damn good for fifteen years. And now he’s facing one of the best indy stars of recent years…should be good! Swerve is getting some near-falls early here. I feel like Swerve has been watching Strong for a long time and is ready for this match. Strong keeps hitting backbreakers since he’s the Messiah of them. He also delivers some of the stiffest chops I’ve ever seen, but it’s the backbreaker he keeps going to in this match. We go to commercial whilst Roddy keeps dominating. Of course, once we come back, Scott starts firing back. Once this happens, we see the Undisputed Era guys come out to ringside, as they are obviously interested in the situation. Scott hits some big moves in the ring but Strong kicks out of them. The ol slingshot stomp MOMMA MIA! We go back into the ring and of course Strong takes advantage with the Buisaku knee, the Gibson backbreaker & the Stronghold. Big win for Roddy, and a good showing for Swerve.

-Adam Cole tells us that Swerve is good, but he’s nowhere near Roddy’s level. That’s why Balor & Ciampa came back, so they could measure up to the UE. Now we have Velveteen Dream chiming in. He wants to show Roderick what his reality is…in two weeks time, they’ll meet in an NA title match. We got talk about measuring up, and a picture of Roddy, and some silly nonsense. Here comes Tommasso Ciampa! He informs Goldy that Daddy’s home, and that’s all the incitement we need to know what’s going on.

-Some pretty guy tries to intercept the pretty NXT backstage interviewer before she interviews Ciampa. It doesn’t end well.

–Dakota Kai vs. Bianca Belair: I remember when people were telling me that Belair was a big contender & she’s being treated like a sack of meat early on here. Don’t yell at me. I’m just saying that one girl has been tossed aside at the expense of another girl, like most people tend to do because they are assholes. This seems like a weirdly pivotal match in the NXT women’s division that I’m not prepared to comment on. Kai keeps kicking kicks & Belair kicks out like she’s Charles Koch’s favorite son. Belair goes through Jazz’s finishing moves and can’t put Kai away. She does get the win with the burning hammer flacon arrow. Good win for the EST of NXT, and now she’s knocking on the door of everybody.

-Dijakovic claims to know the secrets of Keith Lee. Good luck with that.

Non-Title Match: WWE United Kingdom Champion WALTER vs. KUSHIDA: SHOULD I GO ALL CAPS FOR THE FULL RECAP? OR WOULD THAT BE RIPPING OFF ONEY LORCAN’S TWITTER GIMMICK? I GUESS I’LL LET HIM HAVE IT. Ahem. Anyway, here comes the Time Splitter. And here comes WALTER. Any entrance with classical music is automatically awesome. Das Ring General enters the ring! We’ve got a size differential here, but its what KUSHIDA asked for. KUSHIDA keeps evading the man, and I can’t imagine it will end well. We got people evading heavy strikes after the commercial break, and I don’t think that ends well for people evading offense from people of this era. WALTER realizing he’s the Big Van Vader of 2019 is bad news, until KUSHIDA hits a DDT. We’re past 10:00 ESTs and apparently this show gets an overrun now. KUSHIDA works WLATER into a submission but it gets broken out of. KUSHIDA RISES AGAIN. Reversals keep ending up with KUSHIDA refusing to quit. This match has been going on for too long now, just to create an overtime. They both collide off the top and theoretically WALTER is in a submission, but he’s really not. WALTER hits the dropkick, then the powerbomb, but KUSHIDA kicks out for no reason. The live crowd likes it. So of course WALTER finally hits a ripcord lariat to end the match. Imperium continues to reign supreme, and I’m not sure who gets in their way.

-Cathy Kelly tells us about some upcoming matches. I would tell you them, but I was distracted by Cathy Kelly.

7.0

The final score: review Good

The 411

Pretty solid episode of NXT this week. I can't say anything was terrible, which would have been easy to say about a lot of things WWE put out on the Network this week. They might even win the ratings battle this week due to baseball difficulties...if so, PUSH WALTER TO THE MOON AND THAT WILL CURE ALL TROUBLES. The guy's pretty awesome, right?