Top 3 Performers of NXT (November 14, 2018)
In the final episode of NXT before we head to Takeover: War Games 2 this weekend, NXT sent the crowd home with a bang before their coming PPV. The episode kicked off with Bianca Belair taking on Mae Young 2 competitor Mia Yim. Yim got the stronger start against her undefeated opponent hitting a series of great dropkicks. After avoiding a dropkick, Belair was able to establish a dominance with a few submission sequences.
Yim created some separation and dropped Belair with a drop toe hold into the corner before Belair countered her next move into a vicious looking Spine Buster. Yim looked like she had the match won after hitting the cannonball on Belair and was setting her up Eat De-Feet finisher. Belair was able to hit a vicious forearm before Yim was able to execute the move, Bianca then quickly hoisted Mia up and hit her with a Burning Hammer for the finish, allowing for Bianca to maintain her strong undefeated streak.
The Yim v Belair fight was followed by a series of backstage interviews and video segments, firstly with Hanson volunteering to face Undisputed Era's Kyle O'Reilly for their match, with the stipulation of whoever wins gets the advantage to start the War Games with an extra member inside the caged rings.
Then, there was a video package going over the highlights of Johnny Gargano's attack on Aleister Black and re-traced their rivalry. Matt Riddle had a backstage interview which was interrupted by Kassius Ohno who once called the "bro-show" garbage and challenged Riddle to a fight. However, the highlight of the segment, and what many took away from it was the strange way that Riddle pronounced "debut".
Back to in-ring action, Karissa Rivera faced off against the lady of NXT Lacey Evans. Rivera received the jobber treatment, after getting the jobbers entrance. The match didn't last long as Evans hit her finisher, The Woman's Right, for the clean pinfall victory within a few minutes of the fight. Lacey grabbed a microphone after her match, calling out the NXT women's roster in a vague threatening promo.
After this, NXT cut to video packages highlighting some of the matches happening at Takeover: War Games, including Ciampa's defence of the NXT Title against the Velveteen Dream and Kairi Sane's rematch against Shayna Baszler in a 2 out of 3 falls match for the NXT Women's title.
Finally, the main event of the evening saw War Raider's member Hanson facing off against Undisputed Era's Kyle O'Reilly. Both men came to the ring without their team members, which was a strange look on Kyle O'Reilly, who is usually flanked by at least one of his team members. Despite getting a fast start, Hansen dominated the start of the fight with an incredible display of power. For his part, O'Reilly focussed his attacks on the legs, trying to chop down the bigger man.
Towards the end of the match, Adam Cole ran down to ringside to distract Hanson but he was taken out by Rowe as he got up on to the apron. Meanwhile, in the ring, the momentum of the match see-sawed. Rowe and Cole would be joined at ringside by the rest of Undisputed Era, with Pete Dunne and Ricochet joining the brawl at ringside later to even the numbers. While all of this was going on O'Reilly used the distraction to hit Hanson with the NXT Tag Team Titles from behind to get the pinfall victory.