To start tonight's show, we get a quick update from the UK show that aired the previous Tuesday. It turns out that Mustache Mountain secured themselves an NXT tag title shot, and made the most of it, as Trent Seven and Tyler Bate are your NEW NXT tag team champions. It was about time for that shuffle, honestly. As an aside, I feel like we should all just retroactively pretend that was Takeover, and mostly just forget about Chicago, a kind of half-assedly assembled show where almost nothing of note happened.
Anyhoo, we'll catch up with them later tonight, but first, Aleister Black is out to...say very little of note, frankly. Thankfully, Tomasso Ciampa is here, and you can probably figure out why. He calls himself the devil (hey, that guy in Chicago was right!), then proceeds to point out that while Black barely won his match, Ciampa won his with his hands tied behind his back. That's a bit facetious, Tommy. Ciampa wants a shot at the title, but Black's going to leave it up to GM Regal to figure out who gets the next shot.
They show an X-Ray to let us know that Lars Sullivan wrestled most of his title match with a broken jaw. I think we've got an image for his TitanTron video now.
We catch up with Vanessa Bourne, for some reason. She wants to know why Kairi Sane is dressed like a pirate all the time. No one has the guts to shout out "She likes boats!" and I feel like that's the greatest missed opportunity in NXT history.
Kona Reeves is out to face Some Jobber, and look, I can't be bothered with this nonsense. Match Rating: What Did I Just Say?
Candace LeRae has a match against Lacey Evans. Evans looked really strong in her feud with Sane, but LeRae really needs to start generating some momentum, or she'll never go anywhere. Evans shows off her power early with some shoulder tackles, but after a little back and forth, Candice appears to be getting the better of it with her superior speed. That is, until Evans wraps Candace's arm around the post. That alone is good for a two count, so Evans goes to work on the arm in a variety of ways, ultimately applying the Cobra Clutch that's become one of her signatures. Candace eventually escapes, and from there she just rips into Evans. She lands a back elbow, followed by a snap mare/rolling neck snap combo and a dropkick. With Evans stunned, she starts tearing into her with punches and chops, followed by another elbow/snap mare pairing. Candace goes up top and lands a flying bulldog, then an Unprettier. FYI, both Nigel and Mauro opt for completely separate names for the move, so I'll stick with it's WWE-approved variant until some consistency is established. Anyhoo, that puts Evans down hard, and Candace goes to the ropes for a beautiful lionsault to get the win. Match Rating: NOW We're Starting To See What Candace Can Do.
Johnny Gargano is backstage. They just want his comments on his wife's match, but he's having some difficulty concentrating, thanks to the match with Ciampa. He just keeps focusing on the wedding ring spot (legitimately the most despicable act in the last 20 or so years of wrestling), and so he wants Ciampa to know that this is far from over. Ciampa doesn't get to win, and Johnny Gargano is going to end him.
So, it's starting to look like we're finally going to get that Black/Ciampa/Gargano triple threat at Brooklyn. Sign me right up for that.
Heavy Machinery are grilling out and talking shit about The Mighty. Fair enough use of a free summer afternoon, I suppose.
Looks like Johnny Gargano's going to have to wait a bit on Ciampa. Regal wants him to cool off, so he'll be fighting EC3 next week. Meanwhile, Candace wants us to know that, while she's still concerned about her husband (both physically and mentally, we're told), right now she's just going to focus on her own angles and potential title programs. This is awkward AF, but honestly, they really need to move her out of Gargano/Ciampa and over into her own stuff, so I'll take it.
And now, our brand new tag champs are out. They have an exhibition against Some Jobbers planned, but the Undisputed Era runs out and murders those poor chumps for no reason. That's uncalled for, fellas. Anyhoo, they call Mustache Mountain's win a fluke (FYI, they actually beat them twice on back-to-back nights), and tell them they only won due to a home-field advantage. So tonight, they're just going to beat the shit out of them. They surround the ring, but before they can make their move, Ricochet of all people is out. I guess he's a solid choice to work an NA title program with Cole. This naturally leads to a six-man tag match, and with that many bodies, and especially these particular individuals, play-by-play becomes nearly impossible. We get some graps with Riley and Bates to start, and then Seven comes in to do some cool power stuff, and there's a neat bit where Bate assists Seven with a senton, then assists Ricochet with a standing moonsault. It's all fun stuff, but then Strong hits a knee strike and we go into the heat segment. Bate gets clobbered here, eating, among other things, a snap suplex from Cole and a shoulder breaker from Strong. He finally manages to pop an exploder suplex on Riley, though, and makes the Hot Tag to Ricochet. Ricochet rolls out his tandem DDT/neckbreaker spot, then nails a massive springboard European uppercut. He hits a Northern Lights suplex on Riley, but when he goes for the floatover, Riley catches him in a guillotine. Ricochet still manages to get to his feet and then to his corner, and Seven comes in with a full nelson. Riley escapes and hits a forearm, only to be met with a returning backfist and a Michinoku side slam for two. Seven eats a knee from Strong, then and ushigoroshi for two, and right about here is where this whole thing breaks down into an almost completely un-recappable pile of flying bodies. Eventually, we find ourselves with Ricochet as the legal man in the ring, being set up for the high/low. Ricochet does a cool super dodge where he jumps the low sweep then backflips to avoid the high strike, nails Cole with a flatliner, and then absolutely kills him with a 630. That would do it, except that Riley makes the save here. Ricochet heads out of the ring to deal with him, but has lost sight of Strong, who nails an End of Heartache across the apron and rolls him back in. That's easy pickings for Cole. Match Rating: A Fully Fun And Entertaining Spectacle.
The Era probably needed to pick this win up after the UK matches, and now it looks like we've got two more matches for Brooklyn. Throw in, oh, I don't know, Dream v. EC3 and Baszler against any one of Sane/Candace/Toni Storm (seriously, go watch that match from the UK special), and you've got a real winner of a card.
Originally posted by Tenken347As an aside, I feel like we should all just retroactively pretend that was Takeover, and mostly just forget about Chicago, a kind of half-assedly assembled show where almost nothing of note happened.
I get what you're saying here and you're not wrong, but I think Oney Lorcan and his broken orbital bone deserve better.
Could that match have happened on a regular episode instead of a Takeover with the same result? Sure. But would they have gone as balls-to-the-wall crazy as they did? Well, Orcan & Burch probably would have, but I'm not convinced the Undisputed Era would have cranked it up quite as high.
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