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WWE NXT Report: Can Someone Get Finn Balor Some Adderall, Please?

With NXT Takeover XXX less than a week away, it's time for NXT to sell us on the most important match in NXT history: Adam Cole vs. a football punter! With that in mind, The Undisputed Era occupied the ring at the end of the first hour of NXT. The show goes on…

WWE NXT Report for August 19th, 2020 Part 2

Pat McAfee and his crew of B- and C-list football players head to the ring and stand on the apron, with Undisputed Era inside. Adam Cole has his friends leave the ring and invites McAfee to enter. He does.

McAfee reminds Cole that he kicked his head off two weeks ago on NXT. "Shawn Michaels was checking your body for vitals next to stupid Tom Phillips…" You know what, Pat McAfee is growing on me. McAfee talks up Cole's career, which makes it all the more impressive how easily McAfee knocked him out. McAfee has never wrestled before but he still made Cole look amateur. McAfee says he's made a million bucks in seven different professions, and he could do the same in wrestling. On Saturday, Cole is gonna be left unconscious because he's on another level from Adam Cole. He's better than Cole as a human and an athlete. The match on Saturday will end with one swing of his punting foot and all the idiot wrestling fans will boo. McAfee tosses the mic.

Cole approaches McAfee but security guards get in the way. That lasts about five seconds before Cole takes them all out.McAfee backs up to the corner. His boys hop up on the apron. Undisputed Era gets in the ring. Cole wants a match with all of them. McAfee doesn't. Cole gets in McAfee's face and tells him he's gonna make him his bitch at NXT Takeover XXX. Undisputed Era leave. NXT goes to commercials.

Aliyah, Mercedez Martinez, and Robert Stone head to the ring. They'll be taking on Shotzi Blackheart and Rhea Ripley, who come out next.

Aliyah and Mercedes Martinez vs. Shotzi Blackheart and

• Aliyah and Ripley start the match off, which is a poor pairing.
• So as not to murder Aliyah too early, Ripley tags in Blackheart.
• Blackheart hits the Jeff Hardy style double leg-drop to Aliyah's vagina.
• Aliyah has had enough and tags in Martinez, who starts stretching Blackheart's face as NXT goes to commercials.
• Martinez and Aliyah work over Blackheart after the break.
• You know how the formula of these things goes.
• Blackheart eventually hits a DDT on Martinez and they both lay on the mat for a while.
• They slowly crawl for their corners.
• Blackheart gets the hot tag to Ripley at the last second.
• Ripley beats the crap out of Aliyah.
• Ripley goes for a pin off of a facebuster but Martinez breaks it up.
• Ripley tags in Blackheart and slams Aliyah while Blackheart climbs to the top.
• But Robert Stone distracts the ref and Martinez knocks Blackheart off the ropes.
• Ripley goes after Martinez and they brawl outside.
• Ripley powerbombs Martinez off apron over the barricade onto the floor.
• Blackheart hits a senton on Aliyah and gets the pin.

Good match, though I'm concerned for the momentum of Martinez, who just came back and is already getting punked. NXT goes to commercials.

We see a video package for Keith Lee vs. Karrion Kross. A long video package.

Then Finn Balor comes out. Then Velveteen Dream.

Finn Balor vs. Velveteen Dream

• In a few acrobatic exchanges to start the match, Balor comes out on top.
• Balor remains on top through a commercial break.
• Balor is motivated here, as his promo earlier indicated.
• Balor zeroes in on Dream's left leg and goes to work.
• Balor is really working submissions on Dream but can find nothing in his investigation.
• Dream finally gets out of a submission by slamming his leg into Balor's head repeatedly.
• Dream hits a knee strike and goes for a pin like that wasn't pretty much the first offense he got all match.
• Dream hits a bunch of strikes on Balor then mounts him in the corner and gyrates his dick in Balor's face.
• That sets Balor off and he strikes back at Dream, but Dream hits a double axehandle off the top rope and then does the Macho Man jump out of the ring and slam Balor's head into the ropes. Good old Velveteen Dream… he emulates Macho Man inside the ring and Jerry Lawler outside the ring.
• Cameron Grimes comes out to watch the match and NXT goes to commercials.
• Grimes is watching the match from on top a ladder while Velveteen Dream beats up Finn Balor.
• Balor makes a comeback and Dream heads outside to escape.
• Balor follows and stomps on Dream, but he becomes distracted by Grimes, who has taken the North American Championship from the top of the ladder and his posing with it.
• Dream slams Balor's face into the apron and brings him inside, but Balor once again comes back.
• Balor hits his dropkick and goes up for the Coup de Grace, but once again gets distracted by Grimes.
• Come on, man. You're supposed to be a veteran.
• Dream runs up and hits a superplex on Balor.
• Johnny Gargano comes out and pushes the ladder over, sending Grimes tumbling into the ring and into the ref.
• Balor and Dream both take out Grimes.
• Outside the ring, now Johnny Gargano has the championship.
• He tries to leave with it, but Bronson Reed comes out.
• Gargano runs into the ring and backs away from Reed… right into Damian Priest.
• Priest and Reed beat up Gargano and toss him out of the ring.
• Priest kicks Reed in the face.
• Dream superkicks Priest out of the ring.
• Reed clotheslines Dream out of the ring.
• Balor clotheslines Priest out the other side of the ring and then hits a dive on the rest of the guys.
• But Timothy Thatcher comes out of nowhere and attacks Balor, then tosses him in the ring.
• Dream hits the elbow drop and the groggy ref counts the pin.

It was so fun the first time, after the match, Gargano kicks off another round of "everyone in the ladder match takes turns hitting moves on everyone else." It ends with Bronson Reed standing tall with the belt.

It was a very good main event match, and it went nearly a half-hour too. The match was somewhat spoiled by Balor playing the classic WWE role of really stupid babyface who can't help but be distracted by a heel, and by an interference sequence that we've seen a million times before. Overall, it was a good episode of NXT but didn't necessarily make me more excited for Takeover. As it stands, I'm looking forward to Dynamite on Saturday, and even SummerSlam, more. I'll watch and it'll be some great wrestling, no doubt, but I just don't know that any of the angles going into Takeover are all that compelling.

Well, it's 10 PM on a Wednesday (as I'm writing this) and for the first time in months, I don't have another two hours of wrestling to recap. I'm not sure what I'm even gonna do with myself!

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