NXT

NXT Championship: It’s a pretty safe bet that Aleister Black is NOT happy with Johnny Gargano, who played a crucial, if unintended, role in Black losing the NXT World Heavyweight Championship to Tommaso Ciampa two weeks ago. So, to vent his frustration at the man who, by his own admission, is the reason Ciampa won the NXT World Heavyweight Championship, Black and Gargano met up in singles competition this week.

This was a brutal, but very good fight. Both men had plenty of reason to be angry with the other. However, Ciampa, in a foolish attempt to get the upper hand on Black, attacked both Gargano and Black, which resulted in a free for all.

Finally, General Manager Regal comes out to stop this before it gets out of control and decides that he can’t stop Black, Ciampa, and Gargano from destroying each other, but he can channel this hatred. He makes Black’s rematch into a Triple Threat Match for TakeOver Brooklyn, much to Ciampa’s horror.

However, after NXT went off the air on Wednesday night, we were informed on Twitter that Aleister Black was found unconscious in the parking lot of Full Sail University. On Thursday, William Regal announced that there was no way for Black to be medically cleared in time for TakeOver, so the Triple Threat match has been made into a one on one encounter between Tommaso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano for the NXT World Heavyweight Championship.

NXT North American Championship: Ricochet, who will be vying for the North American Championship against Adam Cole at TakeOver, was supposed to be in action tonight, instead he got jumped by Cole and the Undisputed Era before the match started. Cole seemed to be offended at Ricochet calling him a coward and that Adam Cole doesn’t hide behind anyone, though he had to wait until Ricochet was outnumbered and laid out to show his face. He vowed that Ricochet laying battered and beaten and himself standing tall is what’s going to happen at TakeOver.

NXT Women’s Championship: Neither Shayna Baszler or Kairi Sane were in action this week, nor was there any announcement of anyone being added to the Women’s Championship match at TakeOver: Brooklyn. Although we did get a recap of the Baszler/Candice LeRae match and face off between Baszler and Sane. We’re also told that Sane will face Aaliyah Wednesday on the Go-Home Show.

NXT Tag Team Championship: The only time the NXT Tag Champs, Undisputed Era, were featured was during Cole’s promo on Ricochet. However, Roderick Strong will face Tyler Bate on Wednesday’s go home show.

EC3 vs Velveteen Dream: Last week, Velveteen Dream invited EC3 to enter his world and talk about their issues. 3 agreed and we got a surreal segment that seemed like the opening to an adult film based on either Miami Vice or CSI: Miami. Needless to say, not a lot got settled, they’re still going to fight in Brooklyn, and I’m not really sure what the whole point of it was.  However, we did get to see 3 drop Dream into the pool.

Nikki Cross vs Amber Nova: NXT’s Twisted Sister (thank you, Mauro) was in action against Amber Nova, who didn’t seem to fully grasp who she was up against, though the crowd did try to warn her by chanting “Nikki’s going to kill you!”

The Daughter of a Mechanic wasn’t daunted, but all her attempts just seemed to piss Cross off, which isn’t wise. However, this was a really good match and Nova did a great job. Cross is a really great competitor, bat crap crazy gimmick aside.

This wasn’t a squash match, Nova got in some good offence, but there was no stopping Nikki Cross, who picks up the pinfall.

Keith Lee: For several weeks, we’ve been seeing vignettes for the ‘Limitless’ Keith Lee, who made his debut tonight against Marcel Barthel, another NXT prospect.

This wasn’t a squash match, Barthel and Lee got in their fair share of offense, but Keith would pick up the victory. For a heavily hyped debut, it wasn’t as good as I thought it should be, and I wasn’t really impressed with either guy, but hopefully, that’ll change.

Final Qualifying Match for the Mae Young Classic – Vanessa Borne vs Taynara Conti: Before her match, Borne gave a quick interview stating that her goal was to win the last spot in the Mae Young Classic because she didn’t want to deprive the world of seeing her compete.

Why both of these ladies were considered contenders for the Mae Young Classic is pretty obvious. This was a great, if short, match and could work as a non-title feud in NXT on its own. At first glance, this looked to be Borne’s match to win, but Conti showed that she was more than a pretty face and was able to not only outlast Borne but kick her ass as much as Borne kicked hers. Ultimately, Conti got the win and will be representing Brazil in the Mae Young Classic.

Street Profits vs The Mighty: Street Profits hosted an episode of Street Talk, where they mocked The Mighty and we’re told that it’s going to be The Street Profits vs the Mighty next week.

Kassius Ohno vs Adrian Javode: Kassius Ohno was in action again Adrian Javode, who has a pretty badass pedigree in martial arts.

This wasn’t quite a squash, but it was close. Javode got a little offense, but it was all Ohno after that. He flattens Javode with two knockout punches and it’s all over.

Tiffany’s Take

This was a week of ups and downs for the SummerSlam build. RAW is still struggling a little with trying to keep momentum going with all but one of their title matches already planned. They did a pretty good job this week, but there were some rough spots.

On SmackDown, they seem to be having the opposite problem. It almost feels like they waited too long to start the build for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. Thankfully, Samoa Joe and AJ Styles are seasoned pros, which is what’s keeping the build from feeling rushed.

205 only has one match for SummerSlam, but that build has been going nicely, as have the other feuds on the show. I’m also really interested to see what happens with Itami and Ali after Ali’s collapse on Tuesday.

NXT’s World Title situation suffered a little from the fact that NXT tapes their shows a month or so in advance, which can cause problems if someone in a major title situation gets hurt. The ‘Black got jumped in the parking lot’ storyline is a good cover and Ciampa vs Gargano for the NXT Title will be a barnburner, but the whole thing still feels awkward.

Overall, I was happy with the builds this week, I’m pretty excited for SummerSlam. Time will tell if WWE can keep things going as we enter the last week before SummerSlam.

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