NXT Results, Reactions & Reviews

It's the go-home show before NXT Takeover Brooklyn 4 on Wednesday, August 15th.

Street Profits vs. The Mighty

The Street Profits are oozing charisma. These guys work the camera, work the crowd, and just generally work their asses off. I feel each time they come out, they get a little bit more comfortable with their characters and really know how to pop the crowd. Personally, I'm not sold on The Mighty yet. It just seems to me that they have no idea how to act like heels, and instead they come out and act like 90s villains. Plus, they really need a music change if they are going to stay with this gimmick.

Overall, the action here was really solid for an opening match. Despite my feelings on The Mighty as heels from a personality perspective, their tag work is fantastic, they were showing off some really unique, collaborative moves that told a nice story. I felt the ending was a little rushed with the roll-up finish, but fine nonetheless.

Winner: Street Profits

Grade: 👍👍

Undisputed Era Promo

I had to comment on this because my goodness, are these guys just the absolute best? I love these segments so much, they do so much for their characters and they have this wonderful nostalgic feel to them. As good as the rest of the Undisputed Era is, how truly spectacular is Adam Cole? The way he delivers his promos, the way he commands the camera, what a master.

Grade: 👍👍👍👍

Kairi Sane vs. Aliyah

When Aliyah was on Breaking Ground, I honestly thought she had no chance of making it. And granted, she hasn't done much to this point, but I really like her look and workmanship. There's just something about her. It's strange though that she was meeting with Baszler before the match, and it just doesn't match Shayna's character.

This match was sloppy at points with a couple of strange spots, but I think it did what it was supposed to do. Aliyah showed off some great aggression, Kairi dropped that absurd elbow drop three times plus the unique submission to send a message, and a staredown set up what will ultimately result in an excellent cutscene for the pre-match promo for Takeover.

Winner: Kairi Sane

Grade: 👍👍👍

Velveteen Dream & EC3 Promo

Dream's entrance, his mannerisms, his expressions, his ring work, are delivered on a level that few in the industry have achieved. But his mic work to me has not developed to its potential. He's certainly comfortable, but I feel he hasn't fully committed on the mic to his character. Luckily, everything else is so beyond impressive that it's really splitting hairs. I'm really looking forward to Saturday to see how Dream and EC3's styles work together.

Grade: 👍👍👍

Aleister Black Attack

How delightfully professional wrestling is this? So obviously they took a real-life injury and turn it into a storyline of Black getting attacked in the parking lot. Which is easy enough. But how smart is the filming paired with Cathy Kelly's detective work to capture all the characters in the scene, doing random things in and around the attack? I loved this far too much.

Grade: 👍👍👍👍

Tyler Bate vs. Roderick Strong

Something I noticed during Roddy and O'Reilly entrance was the in-sync "boom" they delivered to each other while standing on middle ropes. That was pretty dope, look for it on Saturday.

I'm fairly certain these two are incapable of having a poor match, not just with each other, but with anyone that enters into the ring with them. Both Tyler and Roddy have insane, sneaky strength that makes for really surprising moments. When Roddy caught Bate off the ropes and transformed it into a backbreaker, that was subtle but freakishly strong.

Also, I'm just typing out loud, but are superplexes off the top rope banned? I feel as though it's always teased, but always reversed.

Anyway, back to the match. One thing I particularly loved about this match was the overall aggression. Bate and Roddy skipped the spot fest early on in favor of strong, fast and stiff blows to really sell the story of how much these guys hate each other. The pace picked up really nicely in the end for a fast, but balanced finish.

Winner: Tyler Bate

Grade: 👍👍👍👍