Welcome to WrestlePurists’ Coverage of the September 5th Episode of WWE NXT
NXT Women’s Championship Match: Tiffany Stratton Defeats Kiana James
After a couple of referee distractions, Tiffany Stratton rakes the eyes and hits the moonsault on Kiana James to retain the women’s title. This was a quick match with some solid fundamental wrestling and was a good way to get the night started.
After the match, Becky Lynch appears on the titantron and calls out Stratton. Next week we get Becky Lynch vs Tiffany Stratton for the NXT Women’s Championship! Unreal!
After a commercial, we see Diamond Mine backstage, celebrating their return to NXT. Suddenly, Tony D’Angelo and Channing Lorenzo show up to talk but are interrupted when Edris Enofe and Malik Blade arrive, demanding a title match causing an argument to break out between the two teams. Tony D and Stacks decide to stick around for the rest of the show, but leave the scene.
Ilja Dragunov Defeats Oro Mensah
Here we had another very physical battle involving Ilja Dragunov. No matter the circumstance, this man just absolutely throws down. This was the best Oro Mensah I’ve seen. He looked excellent in this match. Ilja wins by pinfall.
After the match, Wes Lee comes down to the ring. Lee tells Dragunov that he’s next up for a shot at the NXT Championship. Ilja disagrees. This brings out Caramelo Hayes. Hayes says he had a conversation last week with Shawn Michaels and he heard everything he needed to hear. He announces that next week it will be Ilja Dragunov vs Wes Lee. The winner will face Carmelo Hayes at “No Mercy” for the NXT Championship
We then see Dominik Mysterio in the locker room. He sees his purple referee shirt hanging on the locker and says “Thank You Mami.”
Mackenzie Mitchell is interviewing Nathan Frazer who calls tonight’s match a must win. He says he didn’t get this far by holding back and he isn’t about to start tonight.
Following a commercial we see Thea Hail hanging out backstage with Jacy Jayne. Gigi Dolin comes in and tells Thea that Jacy is just using and taking advantage of her. Suddenly Blair Davenport approaches and says that Thea is a child in sharf infested waters. Hail becomes upset. She tells Gigi and Blair that she can take care of herself and that she will show them tonight.
Global Heritage Invitational Match: Group B: Nathan Frazer Defeats Duke Hudson
This was yet another very physical match. Short but sweet. Nathan Frazer wins with a Phoenix Splash and picks up two much needed points.
After the match, Diamond Mine is in the Diamond Dojo talking to Hank and Tank Walker. Lucienne Price and Bronco Nima show up and say they are in NXT for tag team gold. Scrypts then appears and says that Lucienne and Bronco were made by the streets and that is something he can relate to.
Tyler Bate Defeats Dabba Kato
This was a quick match with a surprising result. After dominating early, Kato with a couple missteps allowed Bate to take advantage and swing the momentum towards a big pinfall victory.
We then see Dominik Mysterio backstage when he runs into Carmelo Hayes. He tells Hayes that it’s tough to be champion and that he is headed to the ring to find out who he has to face next.
In the women’s locker room, Lyra Valkyria and Roxanne Perez talk about how tired they are of Dominik Mysterio. Kiana James shows up, angry about her loss. Roxanne tells her she needs to relax. Kiana then brags about taking Roxanne’s title shot away and threatens to do it again causing a brawl to breakout between the two of them that is broken up by the rest of the locker room.
McKenzie Mitchell is interviewing Baron Corbin. She asks for a prediction for tonight’s match between Bron Breakker and Von Wagner. Corbin says that both men need to win if they want to play with the big boys. He says he doesn’t care who wins but he’s going to have fun watching them destroy each other and that he will be there to pickup the scraps.
We then see Tiffany Stratton who refuses to answer any questions about next week’s match against Becky Lynch.
NXT North American Championship #1 Contenders Match: Mustafa Ali Defeats Dragon Lee (Dominik Mysterio Special Referee)
This match had some high octane offense but ended quickly due to some shenanigans. When Ali rolled up Dragon Lee, Dom made a quick three count, allowing Ali to steal the victory. Ali was not happy about this and struck Dom before leaving the ring with Lee.
Backstage we see Trick Williams who is approached by Ilja Dragunov. Ilja says that he meant every word when he said Trick was more than a side kick. He then questions Trick’s confidence in Melo. Trick says he knows that Melo can beat him again. Ilja says he one week to figure out if he wants to stop lying to himself or stop lying to his best friend.
In a practice ring, Drew Gulak confronts Myles Borne for meeting with Fallon Henley, Josh Briggs and Brooks Jensen behind his back. Charlie Dempsey and Damon Kemp tell him that he is not ready and that next week is his one shot to make an impression.
When then see backstage footage from last week. Eddy Thorpe says he was ready for everything Dijak threw at him and that Dijak cannot win without taking shortcuts. He says that he is not done with him yet.
Global Heritage Invitational Match: Group A: Butch vs Axiom – Time Limit Draw
This was an excellent match between two phenomenal athletes that ends in a time limit draw. Both men are awarded 1 point as we finish out week two of the tournament.
We see Von Wagner who is talking about how much better things have been since he has had tables in his life. Stone comes in to get him and Von tells him that Bron is going to get tabled tonight.
Tony D’Angelo and Channing Lorenzo are chatting in the Diamond Dojo when Los Latharios interrupts. Angel Garza says that they are coming for the tag titles. After some trash talk from Tony, the two teams begin to brawl.
Thea Hail Defeats Gigi Dolin
After the action spilled outside, Jacy Jayne distracts the official as Blair Davenport comes down and attacks Gigi. This allows Thea to lock in another kimura and win the match by submission.
Kelani Jordan and Lyra Valkyria are backstage talking about Kelani’s loss when Dana Brooke comes in and accuses Lyra of trying to break them up. Lyra denies this and tells Kelani that she needs to make better friends.
Tiffany Stratton is then shown backstage. She says that she has done more in her first two years than Becky Lynch did, and while Becky may be a star, she is at the top of the industry and her championship is not going anywhere.
No Disqualification Match: Bron Breakker Defeats Von Wagner
These two massive men beat the hell out of each other. This was more of a slow burn type of battle as opposed to the high speed stuff we have seen throughout the rest of the evening. Baron Corbin was the guest commentator and was pretty entertaining as he roasted both wrestlers and mocked the fans. Wagner threw Bron through a wall that was a part of the production set and then powerbombed him onto the announce table. He brought him into the ring to finish him off but Bron hit a low blow. Bron then hits the spear and gets the pinfall victory.
After the match, Bron continues to attack Wagner. He puts Wagner’s head onto the stairs and then grabs the other part of the stairs. As he brings the stairs down onto Wagner’s head, the screen goes black. The last thing we hear is Corbin saying ” I can’t believe he did it.”
Final Thoughts
Another fantastic show tonight. So much energy from top to bottom of the card. Next week we get Becky Lynch vs Tiffany Stratton. They are really bringing in the A-listers to NXT and I am all here for it.
