TakeOver Portland is over, but there are still many extremely interesting things going on in NXT. Let’s take a look, as we do every week, at the black and gold brand.
Imperium Interrupts Balor
The first major moment of the night, came at the hands of Finn Balor. Balor came out to address Full Sail after defeating Johnny Gargano at TakeOver Portland. Balor essentially says he has conquered everything. He is then interrupted by Marcel Barthel and Fabian Aichner. They tell Finn that they are there to give greetings from UK Champion, Walter. They then attack Balor and while he fights them off for a bit, the numbers become too much.
NXT UK’s next TakeOver is in Dublin, so you have to think this is leading to Walter vs. Balor at TakeOver Dublin for the title. Walter has done nothing with that belt, and Balor holding it would raise it exponentially. Walter also does really good work with smaller guys. I really hope that is what we are leading to, Finn as NXT UK Champion would be amazing.
Gargano Shows His True Colours
Moving on from that, Tomasso Ciampa took on Austin Theory, after he attacked him last week. The match was good but the significance took place after. Ciampa got the win which was expected, but was quickly attacked by Johnny Gargano. Gargano looked Ciampa in the eyes, and hit him with a nasty superkick. He then sat on the apron, mocking his ex-tag partner. I am going to wait and see with this feud. I am not totally excited with us getting this feud again in reverse, but we will see where they go. The feud did end abruptly with Ciampa’s injury, so It makes sense to tie it up here.
Charlotte Returns.. With Flair
In a match that I legitimately could not wait for, Charlotte Flair returned to NXT to face Bianca Belair. I see a lot of parallels between how Charlotte and Bianca wrestle in the ring. This was everything I expected it to be, a fast-paced, athletic match. This was really a star making performance for Bianca, Flair made her look like a million bucks. Although it is only March, I am loving this Flair-Ripley build up. Flair won as expected, but as I said, Bianca had her moments and got in a lot of offense.
Rating
Not the best show if I’m honest, there was a lot of good stuff but also some I could do without. Strong vs. Dream, and Nox vs. Kai was announced for next week, both in a steel cage.
Grade: B-
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