WWE NXT Review - August 28, 2019

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Io Shirai def. Cami Fields

Shirai has been a totally different competitor since turning heel a few months ago and now I look forward to all of her appearances. She dominated Fields, and although she could have won with her signature moonsault, she was adamant about submitting Fields for the victory. She almost beat her down with a kendo stick after the match before Candice LeRae made the save, who looked as intense as I've ever seen her. I'm glad their feud isn't over because that first match in Toronto was so damn good.

Dominik Dijakovic def. Keith Lee

It was great to see Dijakovic back in action after a long layoff. He was building real momentum before getting hurt in the spring, so here's hoping he can pick up where he left off. Based off what we saw from him here, I assume he will. Lee and Dijakovic have worked wonderfully together in the past and this was another certified banger from them. I enjoyed every second of this and am still amazed they are capable of half of the things they do despite their size. I wish they would have gotten more time, but it's possible they face off in a rematch on an upcoming episode of NXT or even at the next TakeOver. Either way, I'm dying to see more from these two monsters because this was awesome.

Rhea Ripley Confronted NXT Women's Champion Shayna Baszler

Baszler never ended up speaking in this segment, but if she was going to brag about beating everyone in the NXT women's division, she wouldn't have been wrong. I honestly didn't know who would step up to challenge her after TakeOver: Toronto II and Ripley never came to mind, probably because she is also a heel. Then again, this crowd didn't treat her like a heel. That's likely because they weren't expecting to see her and realize she's a star, but if this means she's moving to NXT full-time (since she's done everything she can do in NXT UK), then I'm all for it. Baszler vs. Ripley could be a lot of fun.

Undisputed Era def. Street Profits to Win the NXT Tag Team Championship

While I thought the TakeOver: Toronto II match these teams had was better than this, I was still thoroughly entertained by this outing. They worked a nice pace, the storytelling was solid, and the crowd was invested in the action. Street Profits once again proved they could hang with an elite team such as Undisputed Era but couldn't put them away for a second straight time. Title changes like this will make the weekly show feel more must-see. Undisputed Era's prophecy is nearly complete, and as for Street Profits, I could certainly see them moving up to the main roster full-time sooner rather than later.

Overall Show

NXT is usually a treat to tune into, but this was the most memorable episode in some time. Obviously, this was taped before it was officially announced that NXT would be airing live on Wednesday nights on USA Network starting in September, but this is the type of programming they need to produce weekly in order to compete with AEW and just drawn in casual viewers in general. In addition to everything I wrote about above, there was a cool career retrospective on Johnny Gargano and a brief interview with Pete Dunne discussing his goals in NXT. This was practically a perfect show with everything serving a purpose and somehow exceeding my already lofty expectations. I came away from this hour of wrestling incredibly satisfied and we still have Adam Cole vs. Jordan Myles for the NXT Championship to look forward to next week.