NXT 471

October 3, 2018 – Winter Park, Florida

Jesus Cross starts the show by saying the same stuff she said last week; she wants to finish what she started against Bianca Belair and she knows who took out Amsterdam Black.

Lacey Evans def. Candice LeRae
Mauro Ranallo says that Evans is riding a wave of momentum coming into this match, but she hasn’t won a singles match since July. This was a competent but vanilla match until Evans rips on LeRae’s husband and LeRae loses it. That leads to Evans taking advantage and hitting the Women’s Right for the win. Again, just decent. **¼

Tommaso Ciampa says that Velveteen Dream must be dreaming if he thinks he can just accuse Ciampa of attacking Black. He tells Dream to be careful and to keep his accusations to himself. This could be a very good feud if that’s the direction they’re going in.

Wesley Blake, Steve Cutler & Jaxson Ryker def. Vinny Mixon, Cesar Rise & Torry Kirsh
Cutler broke his nose in the Forgotten Sons’ match against the Street Profits so he has an on-theme protective mask on now. I don’t review squashes. N/A

Bianca Belair accepts Cross’s challenge.

Johnny Gargano def. Tony Nese
Is it a demotion to go from 205 Live to NXT? The place of 205 Live in the hierarchy of the brands is hard to pin down. This had a very believable false finish that existed before the final stretch, which uncommon for a non-main event TV match. I love when my expectations are subverted like that. I was taken in by this match more and more as it wore on, and I think you will be too. ***½

They show a video hyping Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch. It’s simple and kind of perfect, highlighting that during their tag title match, Chicago crowd was against them to start but totally in their corner by the end of the thing. That’s still one of the best tag matches I’ve ever seen, and the best tag match in NXT history, and underrated by everyone who doesn’t think it’s as good as I think it is. I’m hoping this means these guys are getting pushed again.

Lars Sullivan def. EC3
This was a fun, short brawl. The crowd slept on it but I don’t see why. These two beat eachother up but good, drawing hardway blood on Sullivan’s back and EC3’s brow and mouth. Not your typical NXT style match as it was quite a bit slower, but it was fun for a change of pace. EC3’s win/loss record in big matches is looking pretty bad. ***

Because the Cruiserweight Championship is now an NXT title I’m reviewing every title defense of the WWE/NXT Cruiserweight Championship and posting them on the NXT TV reviews that preceded them. Here’s the title defense from Super Show-Down.

October 6, 2018 – Melbourne, Victoria

Buddy Murphy def. Cedric Alexander {WWE Cruiserweight Championship Match}
Murphy was very over in his hometown. The heat for him was more interesting than most of the match. That’s not to say the match was bad or even boring, it was actually pretty damn good. But these two are capable of a lot more and even if given only ten minutes I’m surprised that they didn’t put together something truly mind blowing in front of Murphy’s countrymen for the big moment of a title change. Murphy won in 10:41 with Murphy’s Law. ***½