More From The Week That Was – NXT/205 Live/Even Main Event Recaps/Reaction

This week, NXT gave us a glance at what we can look forward to as the “Developmental” brand attempts to steal Summerslam weekend for the third consecutive year in Brooklyn.  This was probably the best hour NXT has presented since TakeOver: Toronto.

• Johnny Gargano vs Raul Mendoza:  Mendoza is going to be great, unless of course he gets the Ho Ho Lun treatment and is released, but Gargano is on the path to carve out his single’s run with the WWE.  Gargano wins via submission.  Another note, Gargano started to the ring to the DIY theme, but then held up to reveal a new theme song with female lead vocals.  I enjoyed it.
• Asuka cuts a promo, Asuka gets Eclipsed:  Asuka came out and stumbled through an effort to be an asshole and put down Ember Moon.  I don’t think she knows how to be a bad guy, like, is she legitimately just such a sweetheart that she can’t even pretend?  She even laughs a couple of times.  It is great though.  I don’t mind, just curious to know more about Asuka in real life.  Anyway, it drew Ember Moon, who could easily slide into a villain role because she looks like a vampire, all be it a bad ass vampire.  They scrap, Asuka thinks she got the better of the challenger for her title, but turns around to eat an Eclipse, after which she didn’t move and Ember refused to touch the belt laying in the ring because it’s bad luck, according to Mauro.
• Sanity will take on Authors of Pain for the Tag Team Championship at TakeOver: Brooklyn III.  We learned this in a pretty solid promo video.
• More of whatever the hell Street Profits is.  I don’t know, they’re loud, like I feel like my soundbar turns itself up during their promo videos, and it didn’t even feel that way when Mojo was on television.  I don’t know, they’re in action next week.
• Sonya Deville vs Jenna Van Bemmel:  I still don’t necessarily know why she’s now Deville and not Daria Berenato because everything else is still about the exact same, but she makes quick work of Van Bemmel (?) here.  Deville picks up the win via submission.
• Following that match, Hideo Itami is part way into a promo from the backstage area when he’s informed they need to cut to the ring for the next match.  He snatches the microphone and goes to the ring to hijack the segment.  Half way into this portion of his promo Aleister Black’s theme begins and his entrance runs to its entirety.  Itami appears to be leaving the ring, but when he turns around to throw a punch, Black lays him the f*** out with Black Mass.  Like, seriously, I think he knocked him out and they just ran with it.  Either way, they’ll have a match at Brooklyn III.
• Aleister Black vs Kyle O’Reilly:  This was the debut for O’Reilly, who Mauro and Nigel were incredibly excited over.  Percy didn’t necessarily know who he was but he did a damn fine job throughout the match of hyping Black, not that he needs the help.  This was a great match, in any event, with O’Reilly seeming like he would legitimately be the first person to put a notch in the L column for NXT’s newest attraction.  But again, as is customary, Black Mass on O’Reilly and Black picks up the pinfall.

Reactions:  This was a great show, and really got me more excited for Brooklyn.  While there was no Drew McIntyre, I don’t necessarily know that I need to see him to know that he’s a viable threat to Roode.  Those two will be in the ring next week for a “conversation” as Roode put it, but I expect Roddy to attack and this to inevitably become a Triple Threat Match at Brooklyn.  The Asuka-Moon exchange was great, and finally seeing Moon hit the Eclipse on the Empress was a great touch.  O’Reilly and Mendoza shined in their losing efforts.  All around a great show.  Keep this up.

Before we get into the events of 205 Live, I have a suggestion for the E.  Move 205 Live to the hour before Smackdown instead of after.  The live crowd is going to be hyped as ever if Cena, Orton or Styles comes out to close the show, but the audiences on 205 Live at being asked to stay for a full hour to watch guys that the majority of them don’t give the time of day during most weeks, so why stay when you could beat traffic out of the arena?  Instead of doing the dark match to get the crowd going, let the 205 Live athletes put on a great, full show to get them pumped up for the start of the televised show, and since most of us who watch 205 Live weekly don’t tend to watch it immediately, it wouldn’t affect anything, unless it allowed me to watch 205 Live while Smackdown got a bit ahead of me on the DVR so I didn’t have to watch 50 minutes of commercials for 70 minutes of WWE content.  Anyway, live from Cleveland:

• The Brian Kendrick vs Jack Gallagher:  I don’t know where they’re trying to get to with Gallagher, but he lost this match through sheer brutality after refusing to adhere to the referees order to break.  Kendrick wins via DQ.  Gallagher continued to beat him, even throwing him into the LCD screen on the front of the ring and grating his face over it until Kendrick was able to escape over the security wall and into the Universe.
• Tony Nese vs Gran Metalik:  I was very excited to see Metalik, as the last time I saw him was in a Main Event taping and his match was called on account of injury.  He is a fantastic piece of the 205 roster and I am glad he’s healthy.  That said, Tony Nese is the man.  His entrance now features him berating every human on Earth for not having his premier physique.  Everything about Nese is working right now, and I think he’ll be headed for the Purple Belt pretty soon.  Tony Nese wins with the Running Nese.  
• Dasha interviews Neville backstage about who he’d like to see win the Number One Contenders match, which was an odd bit of creative because he essentially telegraphed the ending of this match by saying he’d prefer to have another piece of Tozawa.  It was contrary to Neville’s character as well, as he should have held strong to the opinion that no one on the roster could even come close to The Neville Level.  This was just poor decision making, hopefully it can be spun in some way to get Daivari involved in that match, he definitely deserves it.
• Ariya Daivari vs Akira Tozawa to determine Number One Contender for the Cruiserweight Championship at Summerslam:  I, like Neville, telegraphed the ending of this match, as you should by now know that Akira Tozawa wins via pinfall.  It was a good match, but going into it with Neville basically saying Tozawa would win tonight took me out of it.  Akira works the shoulder injury well throughout, and Daivari is doing his part in being a champion for Iran, much like his Heavyweight counterpart Jinder is doing for India.

Reactions:  The opening two matches were good.  I’m a little confused with what exactly they’re doing with Gallagher, because he crossed the line a number of times when he was the one opposite Daivari but was still presented as a pure face character more often than not.  The closing match was good but I wasn’t really as invested as I would have liked.

I don’t ever really do Main Event recaps, because I don’t ever really watch Main Event.  It’s an hour of television and 40 minutes or better of each episode are just Corey Graves and Vic Joseph setting up recaps of Raw, and guess what, it’s all the same recaps of Raw you saw throughout the Raw broadcast.  It’s usually completely pointless.  But I do check the Hulu description to get an idea of what matches took place, just in case.  I was drawn in this week and thank a higher power that I was, because I got to watch:

• Cedric Alexander vs Tony Nese:  Remember my recent tirade about how I’m bored with Cedric Alexander?  Well, he was in CWC form for this one.  You may be able to chalk some of it up to just how good Tony Nese is.  This match was quite fantastic and the crowd was definitely into it, another reason I think moving 205 to a Smackdown Preshow would be a good idea as this was a setup for Raw on Monday.  Cedric Alexander wins via the Lumbar Check.  I don’t think it hurts Nese’s momentum as only myself and the people in attendance watched this episode of Main Event.