Tonight’s show finds us at Full Sail, for the first episode from a taping (spoilers from which are here) which starts the build out from TakeOver: Brooklyn III in earnest. Here's what to expect.
The Headliner(s)
It was an eventful trip to New York for new NXT champion Drew McIntyre. Not only did he defeat Bobby Roode to claim the belt, but he didn’t even get a chance to celebrate before he was attacked from behind by the debuting Adam Cole.
We haven’t heard from Cole and his cohort of Kyle O’Reilly and Bobby Fish since TakeOver, but we did get word from Roode that he still plans to exercise his rematch clause - regardless of his recent promotion to the SmackDown roster.
So Drew has a lot to address when he returns to Florida...
The era of new @WWENXT Champion @DMcIntyreWWE begins on an ALL-NEW episode of #WWENXT THIS WEDNESDAY at 8/7c on @WWENetwork! pic.twitter.com/6ut9mCboPo
— WWE (@WWE) August 29, 2017
Anyone taking bets on if Drew will be able to finish his address without interruption? Roode still has business with Roderick Strong to finish - especially after Roddy mocked him by blowing a kiss in the aftermath of losing the title - but Cole and company seemed pretty focused on gaining NXT gold as soon as possible.
The Title Scene
The Women’s title is in vacant’s hands for now. Not sure yet if we’ll see the segment where Asuka hands the belt to General Manager William Regal this week or next, but the news is out there. Now we await word on whether she’s headed to Team Red or Team Blue, and more importantly for this preview, how the first new champ in a year-and-a-half will be decided.
Even before they helped Cole to close the show, O’Reilly and Fish made a statement of their own by jumping new tag team champions SAnitY moments after they beat Authors of Pain for the straps. Seems like the kind of thing Eric Young and company will take in stride and to which they’ll issue a thoughtful mannered response, right?
It’s not being covered elsewhere, so let’s track Pete Dunne’s UK championship here, shall we? The Bruiserweight and Wolfgang defeated Trent Seven and Tyler Bate in Brooklyn, and Wolfie seemed to be arguing that should merit him a title shot. Will Regal and Dunne agree?
Other stuff to keep an eye on:
- He seemed a little frazzled by his loss to Andrade “Cien” Almas, but Johnny Gargano vows to not let his fans down. Cien and his associate Zelina Vega find the whole thing - victory, getting into Johnny Wrestling’s head by reminding him how Tommaso Ciampa betrayed him - hilarious.
- Having come up short in his quest to earn the respect of the world by beating Aleister Black, Hideo Itami better start watching his back for the return of Kassius Ohno. KO hasn’t been seen since Itami put him to sleep on the steel steps, but his recovery has to be pretty far along by now...
- She picked up a win over the impressive Sarah Logan before TakeOver started, but Peyton Royce (and Billie Kay) still may have issues with Ruby Riot stemming from their mocking the Punk Rock Ragdoll back at the Performance Center.
- Lars Sullivan doesn’t play well with others, and he doesn’t care what anyone thinks about it. And that includes Regal, No Way Jose and conga dancers everywhere.
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See you tonight for NXT, Cagesiders!