The second installment of the Great American Bash under the NXT banner has come and gone, and it’s more clear to me now than ever that #NXTGAB is going to be more of a special on regular NXT TV rather than a Takeover style event, judging by how last night compared to the first GAB #NXTGAB in 2020.
In my opinion, the 2020 version came about primarily due to the situation exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic when the physical presence of fans was impossible and Takeovers were limited as a result. Even without the fans the 2020 GAB, hosted over two nights, had much higher quality matches, with Night 1’s main event a fantasy booking of Io Shirai vs. Sasha Banks and Night 2 concluded with a winner take all match between NXT Champion Adam Cole and North American Champion Keith Lee, which Lee won and ended Cole’s historic 400 plus day reign as champion.
By contrast, the 2021 GAB was only during one regular NXT programming time slot, did not feature the NXT Champion or Women’s Champion in action, and in all honestly felt very rushed through…although that could be chalked up to the one night format.
I was expecting one of the tag team title matches to commence the show, and to be honest was rooting for Ciampa and Thatcher all the way as I’ve felt the MSK duo since their move from Impact had become a bit stale. If they had more time, I would suspect the finish would be have been much better than a rollup pin by Wes Lee on Thatcher. The most telling part of that sequence was that Ciampa was thrown into his partner accidentally while Thatcher had a submission on Lee before that rollup, so perhaps there is a tease of an eventual split of this erstwhile team at some point.
We then had the ‘faceoff’ between Johnny Gargano and NXT Champion Karrion Kross, which set the stage for a championship match next week on NXT with Samoa Joe as the special referee, which can only mean shenanigans and fault finishes lie ahead. I was initially confused thinking that the two men were booked in a title match on GAB, but I concluded they would have this either next week or later on since there wasn’t enough time anyways.
Unfortunately, Kross’ promo gave way too much away in terms of his future plans. The NXT Champion stated that his goals, besides keeping the title, was to main event Wrestlemania and win the WWE Championship, which my colleague Mike Charlip surmised was a Vince McMahon written promo. Considering that Kross has had matches on WWE Main Event, word that Scarlett got her own tryout and that she was not at Kross’ side during this segment, I am sensing Mr. Kross’ time on NXT may soon be drawing to an end.
We saw the eight participants of this year’s NXT Breakout Tournament, and other than the former Blake Christian (now called Trey Baxter), I don’t really know any of the other competitors at the moment. Further research and watching some of these matches would help me provide a better opinion down the road. We also saw another backstage interview with Dakota Kai and NXT Women’s Champion Raquel Gonzales continuing their feud with Shotzi and Ember Moon, which is getting a little redundant. Considering who the new NXT Women’s Tag Team Champions are, I’m ready for Kai and Gonzales to move on and try to regain the gold again…before they eventually break up and start feuding themselves.
Speaking of the aforementioned women’s tag titles, that was probably the third most consequential event of the match between The NXT Women’s Tag Champions The Way (Candace LeRae and Indi Hartwell) verses the recently thrown together team of Zoey Stark and former NXT Champion Io Shirai. Stark and Shirai winning seemed almost like an afterthought, after a mid-match blackout interruption, followed by the strange battery icon that’s been shown for weeks on NXT which led to the return of…Tegan Nox, back after almost a year since LeRae took out Nox’s knee with a lead pipe, in case you forgot.
Wearing a plaid shirt that looked like it was actually made for Braun Strowman, Nox just stood there as LeRae looked on in shock while her partner was hit by Stark with some wicked modified GTS for the pin, making Stark a champion just months after her debut. For me, it was almost like the title change was lost in the background as Nox came down to the ring to chase away LeRae, while during the commercial break Dexter Lumis appeared and swept up an exhausted Indi in his arms. Looks like #InDex is back.
I freely admit I changed my prediction for the Cameron Grimes vs. LA Knight match, when initially I thought Grimes would win the Million Dollar Championship. I mean how could you not respond to that crowd reaction? Grimes really has gone ‘to the moon’ at this point. But when LA Knight managed to DDT Grimes’ head onto the title outside the ring, the momentum of the match shifted. This was exactly what I expected Knight to do as the sneaky champion in order to retain.
Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful said he was looking forward to the comedic gold that is going to come from Grimes’ skits with LA Knight as his new butler, but for me I’m not sure if Knight is looking for a butler or a plumber, as the former Eli Drake seemed weirdly obsessed that Grimes had his plunger and toilet cleaning products at the ready. My only other concern is Grimes’ having to cut his hair for the butler role, that would look incredibly strange.
Minus the forced castration we saw on Theon Greyjoy by Ramsey Bolton on Game of Thrones, I’m expecting what to unfold with Grimes as butler to Knight to generate the same kind of reaction before Grimes finally gets his comeback.
Before the much anticipated main event of Cole vs. O’Reilly II, we saw the North American Championship cypher celebration by Hit Row over Isaiah ‘Swerve’ Scott’s win over Bronson Reed last week. I found it interesting, although wrestling purist would be aghast wondering what rap was doing on a wrestling show.
In all honestly, I had to look up with a cypher was before this, but if I didn’t know, now I know 😉
The second match between Adam Cole and Kyle O’Reilly was as hard hitting and grueling as their unsanctioned match back on Takeover: Stand and Deliver, and the storytelling was just as significant. Walking into the match with a bum knee after O’Reilly heel hooked him last week, many thought Cole would be at a disadvantage. But Cole was able to superkick Kyle in HIS knee and work on his leg as well, giving both men a leg down disadvantage.
My take is O’Reilly has a lot of amazing submissions, but he doesn’t have that high impact move that he can really call a finisher, as he managed to beat Cole with a high knee at Takeover only after wrapping a chain around his leg as a weapon. But Cole managed to counter with a Panama Sunrise (Canadian destroyer) on the outside of the ring and another one later on in the closing moments of the match followed by the Last Shot knee to the head on O’Reilly for the win.
O’Reilly has won the first match, Cole has now won a straight up wrestling match to tie one on one. Is anyone NOT expecting a rubber match at the next Takeover? It’s the only way the Cole-O’Reilly feud will conclude.
An average professional doing the 9-5 grind who really loves wrestling across all platforms. Here's hoping wrestlers finally get some basic workers rights in 2021.
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