Cook’s WWE NXT Review 2.13.19

Cook’s WWE NXT Review 2.13.19

OFFICIAL RESULTS:
-Dominik Dijakovic beat Shane Thorne (**)
-The Street Profits defeated Humberto Carillo & Stacey Ervin Jr. (**)
-Aliyah beat Taynara Conti (*)
-Ricochet defeated Adam Cole (***3/4)

-Hello friends, it’s Wednesday night, so it’s time for some NXT reviewing! No Tommaso Ciampa or Johnny Gargano this week to lord over Full Sail University, so let’s see who fills their void…

-In Memory of Pedro Morales (1942-2019)

–Dominik Dijakovic vs. Shane Thorne: I would question Dijakovic’s name change from the simpler “Dijak”, but they’re going to drop either the first or last name when he gets called up anyway. He physically dominates Thorne early, but Thorne uses superior intelligence & starts working the left arm. Took long enough for Mauro to namedrop Dijakovic’s fellow Croatian, Mirko Cro Cop. Didn’t take long for Dominik to regain the advantage. That arm’s still bothering him, but he can still toss Thorne across the ring with ease. Thorne’s getting more offense than a typical Dijakovic opponent though. That back suplex also affects the left arm. Dijakovic follows Thorne up top, but Thorne goes back to that arm. Back flip off the top by Dijakovic, he kicks Thorne off the top rope and hits a goshdarn CORKSCREW PLANCHA! He tells the crowd to Feast Their Eyes, and delivers the Feast Your Eyes for the three count. Nice performance by Dijakovic here. It’s been awhile since he had to sell something. & he did a good job with that arm pain. You also gotta appreciate a good corkscrew plancha. Thorne wasn’t the priority here, but he played his role well. (**1/2)

–Adam Cole & the rest of Undusputed Era discuss their future plans. Bobby & Kyle are getting back together while Roderick will return to the singles ranks. Adam talks about Ricochet being a flash in the pan & how 2019 will be the year of the Undisputed Era.

-Io Sharai is coming for the NXT Women’s Championship. Kairi Sane is supportive, but Bianca Belair says the title is hers because she’s undefeated. (She’s not undefeated)

–Humberto Carillo & Stacey Ervin Jr. vs… Kassius Ohno?: The two gentlemen are waiting for their opponents when Ohno appears on the stage with a message for the Full Sail crowd. He detests & despises their chants & their belief they know everything. Ohno says he’s out of here and going somewhere to show that he’s the best that ever did it. Keith Lee comes out and delivers a rolling elbow. He tells Ohno not to let the door hit him in the ass on the way out & says to keep the show rolling.

–Humberto Carillo & Stacey Ervin Jr. vs. The Street Profits: Montez Ford & Angelo Dawkins are all about mocking the prone Ohno, which is pretty humorous. Carillo with a bit of a passing resemblance to Ricardo Rodriguez, minus about thirty pounds or so. We get some indy standoff action between Carillo & Ford, and a handshake! Ford with the boot of course, and Dawkins comes in to deliver some offense. Frequent tags! Carillo with some fun gymnastics & deep arm drags. The blind tag by Dawkins leads to Carillo getting tagged. Kick, and Carillo finally tags Ervin in. Ervin can do a standing shooting star for two, but that’s about all he does before the Profits take over. Ford with an intense chinlock, and he nearly dumps Ervin on his head with a back suplex. Fortunately Ervin avoids another one and tags in Carillo. Gymnastics! Missile dropkick and standing moonsault get two. Ervin tags in and hits a tsunami-sault, which is a really high moonsault. It’s not too long before the Profits finish him off with the super blockbuster. Carillo is quite the gymnast, and Ervin seems to have some of that in him too. He didn’t do much, but what he did was pretty. Profits seem to be moving up the ranks. (**1/4)

-Ford & Dawkins want a piece of the action, and the crowd thinks they deserve it. Ford does much of the talking and says they want to go to war. They call out the War Raiders, but get the European Union instead. They claim they deserve the opportunity against War Raiders, so that leads to Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch coming out. They skip the talking part & get in everybody’s face. War Raiders are next out. Rowe notes there’s a lot of talking about their titles but no fighting. Hanson tells them to make a move. War Raiders get blindsided by the Undisputed Era before they can make it to the ring, but once they get in there it’s no problem for them to wipe out the rest of the tag teams. Looks like we’re getting more Undisputed Era (Fish & O’Reilly this time) vs. War Raiders & the rest of these boys will have to find something else to do. None of the other guys came off as any kind of a threat.

-Johnny Video Package will defend the North American Championship against Velveteen Dream next week.

–Taynara Conti vs. Aliyah: Two youngsters going at it here! Conti tries to go for a cover early, but Aliyah gets out of that only to end up in an armbar. Fortunately it isn’t Ronda’s or Becky’s armbar. Vanessa Borne appears at ringside while Aliyah pulls some hair and lands some kicks. Conti comes back & does some judo throws before a bicycle kick. Conti with a rope-assisted armbar, then Borne grabs Conti’s ankle while she tries to climb the ropes. Aliyah tosses Conti off the top, gets her in Total Aliyahnation (some repeated kicks) and Conti has to tap out. Conti’s about as green as her ring attire & it’s going to take her some time to be ready. Hey, that’s what NXT & developmental are here for. Aliyah’s at least made some progress with her entrance since the days of Breaking Ground. (*)

-Borne raises Aliyah’s hand, and they both bail out when Shayna Baszler comes down. Doesn’t matter, as the other Horsewomen attack from behind. Borne, Aliyah & Conti all get smacked down & tossed out of the ring. Baszler tells everybody not to piss them off. I’m guessing they get pissed off pretty easily. The Aliyah/Borne pairing had one of the lamer debuts of a group in recent memory. Within a minute of their first pose together they’re getting beat down. Rough times.

-Velveteen Video Dream.

– Ricochet vs. Adam Cole BAY BAY: The fans chant for “Boththese Guys”, who I’m not familiar with but must be feuding with these two or something. It’s pretty early in the match when Ricochet is hitting tope suicidas & punching away on Cole on the ramp. They go up top, and Richchet’s left ankle gets caught in the turnbuckle at an awkward angle. Time to work the leg, bay bay! Cole does just that for a few minutes, which is different from most Ricochet matches I’ve seen. Cole has words with Referee Drake, which makes me wonder when and where that match took place in the indies. PWG? Ricochet trying to fight things off and landing on his feet, and having mixed success. He does hit a nice clotheline, a big boot with the good leg, and can still kick through the ropes and go up top with a diving uppercut. Still hits the standing moonsault for two. Can’t lift Cole on his shoulders though. Cole comes back with a kick and hits a DVD neckbreaker for two. Ricochet fights back, but Cole cuts him off and hits another one of those neckbreakers for two. He puts the kneepad down for the Last Shot, Richochet avoids it, back & forth into a DANGEROUS reverse rana. He then Swantons Cole’s ankles for a two count. Not the ideal landing spot there. Ricochet still can’t lift Cole, and they fire back and forth. Kicks & knees back and forth, Cole with the SUPERKIIIIIIICCCKKK for two. The fans request that the wrestlers fight forever, but we’ve not got much time left. They fight on the top rope and Ricochet falls onto the apron. He gets back up, and hits the rana off the top! Axe kick with the healthy leg, a Northern Lights Suplex, vertical suplex, and Vertigo get the three count for Ricochet! You would expect this to be really good, and it was. It didn’t hit the high points of a Takeover match, but it certainly delivered. Ricochet’s selling as about as good as you could expect…he probably shouldn’t have been hitting some of those high spots like he was, but it’s not a Ricochet match without them. (***1/2)

-Undisputed Era attacks afterward! Aleister Black comes on down to help, but proves to be of no help to Ricochet. Vertical suplex into a backbreaker by Strong puts Black down and they hit their hand signal as we fade to black.

-Thanks for reading.

ATTENTION!

6.5

The final score: review Average

The 411

Total one match show this week, but at least the one match delivered! Ricochet & Cole went out there and tore it up, ending NXT's week on a good note. I liked seeing Undisputed Era getting more shine this week, as it seems like they haven't had much going on lately. They seem to be getting their groove back...TakeOver: Brooklyn Season is a good time to be doing that. Most of this show was passable, but watch the main event.