Dominik Dijakovic vs. Keith Lee
The same ol' song & dance with these two. It's the exact same match they always do, and it has long lost its charm & impact on me -- this time it went on for way too long too, making it all the more forgettable. **
Dakota Kai vs. Tegan Nox
Good little Street Fight with them playing up their feud in it very well; good sense of disdain & dislike throughout + I do think the ending w/ Raquel Gonzalez coming out of nowhere to help Dakota get the W was handled in very good fashion. ***
Finn Bálor vs. Johnny Gargano
This was absolutely awful. Gargano is a complete nerd w/ how he emotes & acts throughout, and then you got Bálor, who is dull as shit w/ everything he does, a complete robot (with the exception of the finishing stretch, which was actually pretty neat) -- and OF COURSE they go almost 30 minutes. Of course. Neither guy feels like a pro-wrestler as they have no in-ring presence or charisma -- or at least they showed none here. Easily & by far my least favorite match of the night. *1/4
Bianca Belair vs. Rhea Ripley
This was actually my favorite match of the night. It might be getting a boost because it followed the garbage that was Gargano vs. Bálor, but hell yeah this was very good. Bianca got lots of time to shine & delivered one of her finest performances to date, and it actually felt like both women had something to prove & wanted to WIN throughout -- those are a couple of simple things that many "big" matches in NXT are lacking these days. Awesome post-match as well. ***1/2
The BroserWeights vs. The Undisputed Era
I wasn't into this as much as I had hoped I would be, but it was definitely a good match. Riddle's hot tag was excellent, O'Reilly was great throughout & actually my favorite moment of the entire match was when he delivered that top rope knee drop to Riddle's knee, followed by a knee-submission for some awesome drama. The finishing stretch was some good stuff as well. ***1/4
Adam Cole vs. Tommaso Ciampa
Nowhere near as bad (wasn't bad at all in my eyes actually) or ridiculous as I thought it would be. The beginning with Ciampa kicking Cole's ass all over the place was awesome; Ciampa was his usual intense self & it just works in sections like that. Cole getting back into the thing with that sickening Wheelbarrow Suplex was great in all of its brutality -- now Cole sure isn't all that interesting on top, but Ciampa from underneath rules. They do go into the full on bomb-section shortly after, and sure there's too many nearfalls & some bad selling of those said bombs, but comparing this to Cole's matches vs. Gargano for an example, it's nowhere near as silly or bad. Or bad at all, really. The bombs are actually pretty damn awesome & like I implied, while they go into the overkill-zone with them nearfalls, I am just thankful they didn't go into Gargano-levels w/ 'em. Enjoyed this way more than I thought I would. Maybe my 2nd favorite match of the night. ***1/4
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