There is a big announcement due tonight. William Regal announced the announcement earlier, and Triple H and Shawn Michaels will be announcing the actual announcement on the show. Sounds like it’s going to be huge. Also on the card for tonight, Finn Balor versus Cameron Grimes, Matt Riddle & Timothy Thatcher defend the tag titles against Imperium, and Rhea Ripley is popping in for a chat.

 

Results

Imperium def. Matt Riddle & Timothy Thatcher

Tegan Nox def. Indi Hartwell

Jake Atlas def. Tony Nese

Cameron Grimes def. Finn Balor

Jack Gallagher def. Isaiah ‘Swerve’ Scott

Kayden Carter def. Aliyah

Matt Riddle def. Timothy Thatcher

 

 

Review

Matt Riddle & Timothy Thatcher vs Imperium – NXT Tag Team Championship match

Straight into the title match, which is always a nice way to start instead of a lot of talking. Matt Riddle got caught in Imperium’s side of the ring for a long time, with Marcel Barthel using Riddle’s trunks to pull him back way too often. When Riddle did get close to a tag, he accidentally flipped Barthel into Thatcher and knocked him off the apron. Thatcher got cross and walked out of the arena, leaving Riddle alone. He tried to carry on, but the double-team European Bomb from Aichner and Barthel got them the win.

Imperium are the new NXT Tag Team Champions.

Backstage, Timothy Thatcher said he got sick of Riddle’s antics and called him a ‘hot mess’. Riddle arrived and asked him what happened and it immediately turned into a pull-apart brawl.

 

Tegan Nox vs Indi Hartwell

It was nice to see Indi Hartwell get a chance to show what she’s about. I don’t know anywhere near as much about her as I should, but I like her. She and Tegan Nox had a decent match, with Hartwell having the best of the early going. Tegan Nox turned it around and the finish came via the Shiniest Wizard.

 

There was a segment titled Championship Chaos, which was a look at the entangled rivalries of Charlotte Flair, Rhea Ripley, and Io Shirai. It led into a Rhea Ripley promo where she said Charlotte Flair having the title sickens her. Io Shirai had a good go against Flair, but Ripley is the one who will bring it back to NXT. If she has to beat it into Shirai, so be it, but she’s not done with Flair.

 

Matt Riddle got William Regal to agree to him having a match against Thatcher tonight. He was confirming it when Thatcher attacked him from behind. After being pulled back from the first attack, Thatcher hit Riddle with a tv.

 

Tony Nese vs Jake Atlas – Interim NXT Cruiserweight Championship Tournament match

The Drake Maverick storyline is still being sold hard. Jake Atlas managed to crowbar it into his pre-match interview with a hope Maverick could beat Kushida to force a points tie, if he could do his bit and beat Tony Nese to stay alive in the competition. Tony Nese is already out of contention, but he still clearly wanted to take Atlas out too. Atlas was bleeding by the time he delivered the truly beautiful Rainbow DDT and got the win.

If Drake Maverick beats Kushida it will tie Atlas, Maverick, and Kushida on 2-1. If Kushida wins he wins group A.

 

Undisputed ERA had a video chat. There was a moment before Roderick Strong joined the chat where they were celebrating just being the original three. They talked about Velveteen Dream and decided unanimously that Strong should be the one to deal with Dexter Lumis.

 

Karrion Cross had a promo segment. I’m quite excited to see what he’s going to do next.

 

Dakota Kai told us in her promo video that her attitude started to change after her injury. She mentally wasn’t tough enough and got tired of being overlooked and pushed aside. When she came back she was still in other people’s shadows. That changed at WarGames and it felt good. She talked up Reina Gonzalez and Gonzalez got to say her piece as well. She knows what’s it’s like to be outcasts and that’s their common bond. This is the hurt business and they are going to hurt a lot of people.

 

Isaiah ‘Swerve’ Scott had a backstage interview where he said he feels untouchable. He threw some shade at Tony Nese by saying if he’d gone through the whole tournament without winning a match he would quit wrestling.

 

The Big announcement from Triple H and Shawn Michaels, in full DX mode, was NXT TakeOver In Your House on June 7th. It celebrates the 25th anniversary of the first In Your House, which is tomorrow. Road Dogg joined them for the segment as well. It was funny and it’s great they’re reviving the PPV name (I don’t really get the big deal about old PPV names but I know people like them), but as far as announcements go, it wasn’t worth the hype.

 

Finn Balor vs Cameron Grimes

It was a good match, but it got interrupted by Damian Priest. Balor knocked Priest down once, but he got back up and took Balor’s knee out with the pipe when the ref wasn’t looking. Cameron Grimes capitalised and got the win with his Cave In finisher.

Once Grimes had left, Priest threw a chair into the ring, delivered a Reckoning to Balor on the chair, then unfolded it and sat on it with the chair across Balor’s neck. He confessed to being the one who attacked Balor three weeks ago, because if he wants his name to live forever why not take out a prince.

 

Jack Gallagher vs Isaiah ‘Swerve’ Scott – Interim NXT Cruiserweight Championship Tournament match

Tony Nese attacked Swerve before he even got to the ring. As a result, the first part of the match was all Jack Gallagher. He made the briefest of resurgences but got knocked out and pinned by Gallagher.

As group B stands now, Akira Tozawa leads on 2-0. El Hijo del Fantasma sits on 1-1, and Isaiah Scott and Jack Gallagher are both out of contention on 1-2.

 

Kayden Carter vs Aliyah

No prior beef between these two that I can recall, so this match was largely to show off Aliyah’s new aggressive streak. Robert Stone came out to watch Aliyah and she tried to show off. It backfired spectacularly, and she found herself tapping to Carter shortly after.

Stone walked away after the match. Aliyah tried to stop him with a hand on his arm, but he removed it and held a hand up to deter her from following him.

 

We joined Johnny Gargano and Candice LeRae having dinner and gloating over their victories. It looks like Gargano will be going after Keith Lee. LeRae has her sights set on Mia Yim because of Yim’s ‘undeserved’ opportunities.

 

The final two Interim NXT Cruiserweight Championship Tournament round-robin matches take place next week. As does Rhea Ripley versus Io Shirai.

 

Matt Riddle vs Timothy Thatcher

Riddle looked to be sufficiently recovered from Thatcher’s attack, and extremely anxious to get some payback. It was a bad-tempered affair, but fun to watch. They are much better opponents than teammates. Matt Riddle got the win by pinfall almost unexpectedly when they were

Timothy Thatcher put Riddle in the Fujiwara armbar after the match, released him when he tapped, then locked it on again. Riddle was still in the armbar when NXT went off air.

 

 

 

Final word

It made sense to switch the tag titles to Imperium tonight with Pete Dunne unlikely to be back in the US for quite a while yet and Thatcher too valuable to be stuck playing Riddle’s straight man. It made for a good main event though.