WWE NXT Review - April 17, 2019

​By Graham "GSM" Matthews

NXT North American Champion Velveteen Dream def. Buddy Murphy

This was set up via social media the same night Murphy lost the WWE Cruiserweight Championship at WrestleMania 35 when Dream mocked Murphy over his loss backstage. I believe this marked Murphy's first on-air appearance for NXT in nearly two years and it was great to see him. He and Dream worked wonderfully together and produced a gem of a match. Murphy turned a lot of heads with his recent run on 205 Live and I'm happy he had the chance to return to NXT one more time before he heads to SmackDown Live.

Undisputed era Attacked NXT Champion Johnny Gargano

Gargano making his first entrance as NXT Champion was as cool of a moment as you'd expect. It wasn't long before he was interrupted by Adam Cole, however, who claimed he beat Gargano fair and square at TakeOver: New York. They went back and forth for a bit before Roderick Strong ambushed Gargano from behind, setting up a match between the two for next week. This was an entertaining verbal exchange and I'm glad their feud isn't over yet.

Dominik Dijakovic def. Aaron Frye

Dijakovic beat Frye with one move in a matter of seconds. Holy shit. That is how you establish someone as a star. He cut a promo afterward about how it was his family who brought him to America and that they had to make sacrifices during his upbringing. That led him to challenging NXT North American Champion Velveteen Dream afterward. That's a good feud for him if Keith Lee is still out injured.

NXT Women's Champion Shayna Baszler def. Kairi Sane by Disqualification

These two have had some awesome matches in the past, but this never felt like it left first gear. Then again, I don't think it was ever intended to. They weren't given a ton of time, but it was enjoyable while it lasted. More importantly, Baszler kept the title, Sane was written out of storylines with the post-match attack, and Io Shirai appears to be next in line for a shot at the championship. This was well done.

Overall Show

This new era of NXT is already off to a strong start after the success that was TakeOver: New York. The brand has lost a lot of top talent lately to the main roster (Aleister Black, Ricochet and Kairi Sane, among others), but there are plenty of stars waiting in the wings to take their spots. Hell, Kushida will be debuting in two weeks on NXT, so that's exciting. This was an excellent edition of NXT TV with Sane's swan song, a quick Dijakovic squash, Gargano and Undisputed Era furthering their feud, and Dream and Murphy kicking off the night on a high note with their tremendous match.