Kyle O’Reilly becomes #1 contender to Finn Bálor’s title

The main event on NXT was the Gauntlet Eliminator - basically a fatal 5-way elimination match where two people start and a new person enters every four minutes.

The match started with Kyle O’Reilly and Kushida. Bronson Reed would be next.

We’d the first elimination soon after when Velveteen Dream attacked Kushida with a Dream Valley Driver (the referee’s back was turned, but it was no DQ so it wouldn’t have mattered anyway). Reed followed this up with a big splash and Kushida was eliminated.

Next in the match was Timothy Thatcher, leaving Cameron Grimes to be the final entrant.

Bronson Reed would use his power to hold the ring for awhile. Thatcher, O’Reilly, and Grimes would each try to take him down, but he was just too much beef for them. After dispatching them to the outside individually, Big Thicc would deliver a suicide dive to all three of them outside the ring. It was wild.

Reed continued his dominance despite some attempted team ups. They’d finally get the job done when Thatcher rolled out of the way of a big Bronson splash and O’Reilly delivered a top rope knee to the big man to get the pin.

With the big man out, the three remaining would take it to each other, with a good deal of Thatcher and his Catch style against O’Reilly and his BJJ background. It ended up being O’Reilly who eliminated Tim. Thatcher was trying to hook the leg and KOR leveraged a pin for the win.

After the pin, Grimes immediately hit Kyle with the Cave In, which normally would be the end. But O’Reilly was close enough to the ropes to be able to get his foot up and stay alive. Grimes was despondent.

Cameron and Kyle took it to each other and O’Reilly found an opportunity to dragon screw Grimes’ leg. That would come into play soon after when he avoided another attempted Cave In. That missed finish would tweak Grimes’ leg that Kyle targeted. KOR immediately locked in a heel hook submission, forcing the Carolina Caveman to submit.

Adam Cole and Roderick Strong joined Kyle to celebrate after the match. At the closing moment, Finn Bálor walked out and pointed to his Oct. 4 opponent.

This should be a fun match up with some new blood in the main event scene. It’ll probably lead to whatever program Kyle really has in his future, but the match that gets us there should be very good.

You can find the results from tonight’s NXT at the live blog here.