Ava kidnapped after her TV singles debut, ransomed for a steel cage match

Ava (who many still know as The Rock’s daughter) had her first televised singles match on Aug. 22’s Heatwave edition of WWE NXT. The roughly two minutes match with Ivy Nile was designed to let the fourth-generation wrestler hit her moves at her pace, with what Vic Joseph called a scorpion s kick at ~1:10 of this clip probably being the highlight.

The biggest improvement over Ava’s past appearances in mixed tags is probably just that she seemed more confident. That played nicely into the finish, which saw her get caught by a dragon sleeper counter that gave Nile a submission victory.

She only got a couple minutes in the ring, but this was part of a story that’s been going on for a while — and that continued throughout the show. Ava invited Ivy to meet her under the Schism tree, thinking the pair who saved her from Nile post-match were fellow Joe Gacy followers who’d help her get revenge. As the rest of us figured out weeks ago, those masked men were The Creeds.

After getting screwed in a Loser Leaves NXT match with The Dyad back in June, Brutus & Julius Creed infiltrated Schism waiting for this moment. Kidnapping Ava got them a steel cage rematch with Rip Fowler & Jagger Reid, and if they win this time they’ll officially be back on Tuesday nights.

And don’t worry everybody. Ava’s okay.

That steel cage match is one of three things announced for the Aug. 29 NXT:

• While Becky Lynch teases coming after Tiffany Stratton and the NXT Women’s title, Roxanne Perez, Blair Davenport, Kiana James & Gigi Dolin will have a #1 contender 4way next Tuesday.

• Noam Dar reclaimed the Heritage Cup last night, and learned his next defense is at Sept. 30’s No Mercy PLE. His next challenger will be determined via an eight-man tournament, the NXT Global Heritage Invitational, which starts on the 29th.

Thoughts?