NXT delivered another entertaining two hours of television tonight as the brand looks to recapture the excitement of its glory days. For the most part, the in-ring action was decent, with the exception of the main event between NXT Cruiserweight Champion Kushida and Kyle O'Reilly, which was predicable brilliant. A much-hyped new stable finally debuted, and the recently returned Samoa Joe teased potential matches with the likes of Karrion Kross and Pete Dunne. With The Great American Bash on the horizon, WWE's black and gold brand needed to make the most of its TV time tonight, and that's exactly what they did. Another solid show that set up some tantalizing feuds and angles.
Winner: Carmelo Hayes
The show opened with the self-professed "King Of The Brand" Adam Cole declaring that he would not be choosing an opponent despite being instructed to do so by the NXT General Manager last week.
Enter exciting young upstart Carmelo Hayes, who paid homage to John Cena's main roster WWE debut by referencing "ruthless aggression" and delivering a firm, dry slap to the side of Adam Cole's head.
The two men wrestled a decent match, which Cole won by hitting Hayes with a Panama Sunrise, but Hayes fought valiantly against his much more experienced opponent. It's clear the WWE has high hopes for Hayes, and they're doing the right thing by building him up because he clearly has the 'it' factor.
Loser: Austin Theory's Fingers
Johnny Gargano and his The Way crony Austin Theory came to the ring so Gargano could brag about he outperformed NXT Champion Karion Kros during last week's Fatal Five-Way NXT Championship Match at TakeOver: In Your House.
Gargano had just declared himself the number one contender to Kross's title when "The Bruiserweight" Pete Dunne appeared with Oney Lorcan in tow. Dunne said Gargano was stupid for thinking he was the number one contender but Gargano refused to rise to the bait. HE could tell that Dunne was trying to lure him into a fight and wanted no part of it.
Gargano and Theory were vacating the ring when Dunne did the finger snap thing on Theory's digits. Later, Gargano and Theory complained to William Regal, who informed them that they would have to battle Lorcan and Dunne in a tag match later in the night.
Gargano and Theory defeated Dunne and Lorcan, but Gargano was jumped by NXT Champion Karion Kross while he celebrated.
Winner: The NXT Women's Tag Division
Io Shirai joined forces with the continuously impressive newcomer Zoey Stark to take on the Robert Stone Brand's Jessi Kamea and Aliyah in tag team action. Shirai and Stark got the win, but after the bell, they were confronted by three other tag teams: The NXT Women's Tag Team Champions Candice LeRae and Indi Hartwell, NXT Women's Champion Raquel Gonzalez and her partner Dakota Kai, and former tag chams Ember Moon and Shotzi Blackheart.
All the teams started fighting, and NXT's new enforcer Samoa Joe had to intervene. He made his way down the ramp followed by a team of referees and backstage personnel and order was soon restored to the Capitol Wrestling Center.
Later in the night, it was confirmed that Gonzalez/Kai, Blackheart/Moon, and Shirai/Stark would compete in a Triple Threat match to determine the number-one contenders to the NXT Women's Tag Team Championship. NXT could probably do with a few more female tag teams, but it's good to see the hungry tag teams they do have attempting to stake their claim to the gold.
Loser: The NXT Women's Singles Division
The NXT Women's Champion is currently embroiled in an angle in which she is one half of a tag-team that hopes to win tag-team gold. On its own, this isn't a particularly egregious booking decision since it makes sense that Gonzalez would want to capture as many titles as possible. What is strange is that there are currently no contenders for her singles title because many of the women on NXT's roster have been paired up in order to bolster the tag division.
Hopefully, a worthy challenger to Gonzalez's NXT Women's Championship will emerge soon.
Winner: Frankie Monet
The artist formerly known as Taya Valkyrie followed up her in-ring NXT debut a few weeks ago with another victory in what was build as her 'World Premier Encore'. Monet defeated newcomer Elektra Lopez (aka Karissa Rivera) in a solid but brief match that did exactly what it was intended to do, which is to build Monet up as a legitimate threat.
Earlier in the night, Monet was seen talking to Jessi Kamea and Aliyah backstage, in what was a follow-up to a segment last week in which they teased a Kamea and Aliyah ditching Robert Stone in order to link up with Monet. Monet's NXT tenure is off to a great start, and with Kamea and Aliya by her side, she will be truly formidable.
Winners: Hit Row
Swerve Scott's stable continues to dominate as Ashante Thee Adonis and Top Dolla convincingly defeated Ever Rise in tag team action.
We all know what Swerve is capable of, so it was good to see Ashante and Dolla do their thing. Both men have been very impressive, and Top Dolla's Vader-esque big man spryness is particularly noteworthy.
Earlier in the night, Hit Row confronted NXT North American Champion Bronson Reed backstage, with Swerve making it clear that he has his sights set on Reed's gold.
Winner: Diamond Mine Debut
Following the non-title main event between Kyle O'Reilly and Kushida (which O'Reilly won, Adam Cole emerged and been scuffling with O'Reilly. While Samoa Joe and his team of peacekeepers were distracted, Kushida was jumped by three mystery attackers who revealed themselves to be Roderick Strong, Tyler Rust, Hideki Suzuki, and Malcolm Bivens -- aka, The Diamond Mine.
The Diamond Mine has been teased in vague vignettes for several weeks now, but few people can be disappointed with the well-executed reveal.