NXT is back at their home base of Full Sail Live, where they'll tape matches and segments for their regular Wednesday night series on WWE Network.
Tonight’s show (April 5) is the first scheduled taping after last Saturday’s TakeOver: Orlando event. It’ll give us our first show since the main roster call-ups of Shinsuke Nakamura, Tye Dillinger & The Revival, and might give us our first look at Drew McIntrye’s second run with WWE, as it starts the build toward May’s just announced TakeOver: Chicago.
We’ll know more when results start rolling in from Winter Park, Florida. We'll be updating those here live, starting at the scheduled 6:30PM Eastern bell time:
- Angelo Dawkins & Montez Ford over Riddick Moss & Tino Sabbatelli in our the dark match for the evening.
- NXT proper begins with a new intro and theme song!
- Aleister Black over Corey Hollis, and quickly, too.
- Tye Dillinger is interviewed and says he still has business with Eric Young. A steel cage match is scheduled for “next week”.
- #DIY (Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa) over Dylan Miley & Michael Richard Blaze.
- After the match, Miley destroys Blaze for losing the match.
- Ruby Riot over Kimberly “Kimber Lee” Frankele. Nikki Cross comes out during the match to watch, staring her down after before leaving.
- Andrade “Cien” Almas over Danny Burch.
- Drew McIntyre over Oney Lorcan, in a rematch of the DGUSA Open the Freedom Gate Championship match from Evolve 43. Sadly, for those of us who were, like me, hoping for a return to Broken Dreams, he has new music.
- Drew cuts a promo about having built up a reputation where he could have went to Raw or SmackDown but says he wanted to be on NXT. He’s here to go through the entire roster if he has to, in order to win the NXT Championship.
- Shinsuke Nakamura comes down to cut a promo. He says he came to NXT a year ago despite being very successful in Japan, but he wanted to change himself and compete with the best. He puts NXT over, from the coaches, to the wrestlers, to the fans, and says it’s a unique place. He gets a standing ovation from the NXT roster when he’s finished, as well as hugs from Finn Balor, Hideo Itami, and HHH.
- Authors of Pain (Akam & Rezar) over Kassius Ohno & Roderick Strong.
- Jeet Rama over John Skyler
- Bobby Roode comes out to say that he made WrestleMania week glorious. He says he single-handedly sold out the Amway Center and put on the show of a lifetime, and he controls the future of NXT. He goes on to say that he saw Nakamura’s farewell and it was pathetic, that Shinsuke didn’t choose to leave NXT, but rather Roode embarrassed him so bad he had to leave. Bobby says that neither the fans nor the wrestlers who appeared on the stage with Nakamura deserve to be part of his NXT.
- Enter Hideo Itami, who slaps the taste out of Roode’s mouth. Roode’s fighting mad, takes off his jacket... and walks right into a Go 2 Sleep.
- Tyler Bate (c) over Jack Gallagher to retain the WWE United Kingdom Championship.
- Aliyah & Liv Morgan over Billie Kay & Peyton Royce.
- Nikki Cross asks Ruby Riot to come to the ring and be friends, so of course she comes down and they brawl and have to be pulled apart by security.
- Drew McIntyre over Andrade “Cien” Almas.
- Aleister Black over Kona Reeves.
- Nikki Cross blindsides Ruby Riot during her entrance for a match, and once again they have a brawl where they have to be separated.
- Tye Dillinger over Eric Young (Steel Cage Match) by escape in the main event of our evening.
- Tye celebrates by locking SAnitY in the cage and cutting a promo, telling SAnitY that they’re even now before thanking the crowd. He says he lost his first chance in WWE and nearly lost this one too before the crowd embraced him and helped him get the opportunity he has. He asks the crowd to show other wrestlers the love they’ve shown him and that’s the show, folks.
There you have it, folks
Another couple weeks of NXT TV to take us towards Chicago. Like what you see, Cagesiders?