Welcome to WrestlePurists’ Coverage of the August 29th episode of WWE NXT.
The show kicks off with a highlight package from last week’s “Heatwave.”
Steel Cage Match: The Creed Brothers Defeat The Dyad
Before the match begins, Joe Gacy pushes Julius Creed alone into the cage with both Jagger Reid and Rip Fowler and shuts the door behind them. The rest of The Schism carry Brutus Creed away from ringside.
This match had one of the most insane spots I’ve ever seen. While Julius held Fowler in a standing leg lock, he then powerbombed Reid with his one free hand. I have no idea how this was done, but it was incredible and insane.
This was essentially a handicap match for The Dyad until Brutus finally fought his way back to the ring. He took out several masked members of The Schism while looking for the key into the cage. After Gacy reveals that he has the key, Brutus just rips the door off completely and uses it multiple times to beat down both Reid and Fowler. Another crazy moment in this match.
The Creed’s win this match by pinfall and are reinstated back into NXT.
After the match we see Roxanne Perez. She says she once had respect for Kiana James and Blair Davenport, but now she will do whatever it takes to win back the NXT Women’s Championship. She says she has been called the prodigy and has been told that she has such a bright future, but she wants what her time to be now. She says the road back to what she never lost in the first place begins tonight.
We then get a video package introducing the NXT Global Heritage Invitational. The winner of the tournament will get a shot at the NXT Heritage Cup Championship against Noam Dar at NXT No Mercy.
We return from commercial to see Tony D’Angelo and Channing Lorenzo talking backstage with Carmelo Hayes. After admiring their title belts for a moment, the Street Profits (Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins) walk into the room. They chat about how they used to run NXT back in the day. Suddenly a brawl between several of the female talent breaks out behind them. Dawkins jokingly says that NXT is “different now” before bolting the scene.
Global Heritage Invitational Match Group A: Butch Defeats Charlie Dempsey
This was a very good match that featured some excellent technical wrestling from both men.
Butch wins by pinfall and is awarded the first two points of the tournament.
Backstage, Mackenzie Mitchell is interviewing Dragon Lee. Mustafa Ali interrupts and tells him that Lee already had his title shot and lost. He says he is the one that deserves a shot and that NXT deserves someone like him to be champion.
Ilja Dragunov In Ring Promo
Dragunov says that he was impressed by Trick Williams last week and that he deserves everyone’s respect. He says that nothing stands in the way of his destiny and the NXT Championship. He is suddenly interrupted by Noam Dar and the Meta Four. Noam mocks Dragunov for not having a title while he is the reigning Heritage Cup Champion. Ilja threatens to walk up onto the group and removes his jacket. Dar stops him and challenges him to a match with Oro Mensah instead. Mensah enters the ring and the two begin to brawl.
We then see Von Wagner Backstage with Stone. Wagner says that Bron Breakker has been blindsiding him the past couple of weeks but next week he is going to be ready for him. He then challenges Bron to a NO DQ match.
Lola Vice & Elektra Lopez Defeat Dana Brooke & Kelani Jordan
Lola Vice & Elektra Lopez win this very brief tag match by pinfall.
After the match we see Gigi Dolin who says next week’s fatal four way match will be chaos. She says that Tiffany Stratton was smart for putting her four biggest threats into a match for a shot at her title but the stupidest thing she ever did was let her be in the match.
Trick Williams and Carmelo Hayes are together in the locker room. Hayes says he doesn’t want people to think the only reason he retained his title was because of Williams. Williams says that he needs to drown out the noise. He says that he thinks Hayes can beat Dragunov one on one but Hayes doubts him. After Hayes leaves the room, Williams says that he doesn’t think Carmelo can beat Dragunov, he knows he can.
Dijak Defeats Eddy Thorpe
Dijak scores the pinfall after landing a jab with a loaded fist. This was a short but decent match.
We then see Kiana James who says that her opponents are good but they all fall short. She says she doesn’t make excuses and that she will do whatever it takes to make sure her hand is raised.
Baron Corbin is backstage when Bron Breakker comes up and demands a thank you for saving Corbin from Von Wagner. Corbin says that he doesn’t care about Bron or Von Wagner. Bron then threatens to break Corbin if he gets involved in their match. Corbin then says”just try not getting put through a table.”
After a commercial we get a Los Latharios vignette. Angel Garza wakes up with a scratch on his chest. As he is washing off the blood, Humberto Carrilo shows up with the same scratch and says he had a dream about their grandfather, Humberto Garcia. They take this as a sign that they should start from “scratch.” The two return to NXT next week.
We are then shown the Bray Wyatt tribute package from Friday’s SmackDown.
We then see Blair Davenport who says she has been destroying women all over the world for a decade and that she is smiling not just because she knows that she will be number one contender, but also because she knows she will be inflicting pain onto her opponents.
We see a short video with Rhea Ripley and Dominik Mysterio. Rhea says that it doesn’t matter what happened at Heatwave because Dominik is going to have the North American title until he retires. Dom says that Mustafa Ali and Dragon Lee can fight it out so he can fight the winner. He then says that the match must have a winner and that he will be the special referee to make sure that happens.
Global Heritage Invitational Match Group B: Joe Coffey Defeats Nathan Frazer
The first half of this match was a little slow but the second half picked up pretty well. Joe Coffey gets the pinfall after hitting “all the best for the bells and is awarded two points to sit atop the Group B standings.
We are then in class at Chase University with an absent Thea Hail. Andre Chase asks Duke Hudson if he knows where she is. He says no but that he doesn’t think she is skipping. Chase then mentions Hudson and the Global Heritage Invitational. He reads the rules until class is over. Afterwards Thea shows up late and refuses to go studying in favor of hanging out with Jacy Jayne.
An NXT Anonymous Video shows Fallon Henley inviting Myles Borne to team with Josh Briggs and Brooks Jensen. He accepts the invitation.
We then see Wes Lee who is spending time in the desert to clear his mind. He says that he and Carmelo Hayes are done and that he didn’t lose, but that he beat himself. He says the outcome will be different when they meet again.
After a commercial we see Mackenzie Mitchell interviewing Tyler Bate. He quickly puts over the other talent in Group A and says that he and Butch have a lot of history. He says that the Invitational will be a welcome challenge. He then calls out Dabba Kato and says that it was a big mistake pushing him around. He then challenges him to a match next week.
NXT Women’s Championship Number One Contender’s Fatal Four Way Match: Kiana James Defeats Blair Davenport, Roxanne Perez and Gigi Dolin
The women’s division was given the spotlight and these girls worked very hard to put together an entertaining main event.
A surprise victory here for Kiana James who snuck back into the ring to stomp a vulnerable Roxanne Perez and score the pinfall. After the match Stratton comes into the ring, holding the belt high, standing face to face with James.
The show ends with Carmelo Hayes who walks into Shawn Michaels’ office and says “we need to talk.”
Another absolutely packed episode of NXT this week. I am really digging the vibe of the Global Heritage Invitational so far, and I think the rest of the tournament is going to be a lot of fun.
