WWE NXT Review - November 14, 2018

​By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Bianca Belair def. Mia Yim

Belair continues to impress/amaze me every chance she gets. She has a hell of a presence about her, she's gradually getting better and better in the ring, and she just screams "star." Yim is pretty good herself and I was happy that she looked like more of an equal to Belair than almost anyone else Beliar has faced since her debut. This was a quality contest that saw Belair remain undefeated (or however she says it).

Lacey Evans def. Karissa Rivera

Speaking of wrestlers who are making strides, I present you with Lacey Evans. Her character didn't originally wow me, and there's still room for improvement, but she is quickly coming into her own in every respect. Building her up with short and simple squashes such as this one are effective, especially when her finisher looks as devastating as it does. It's interesting both Belair and her are in the midst of pushes right now, making me think that Kairi Sane will regain the NXT Women's Championship at TakeOver: WarGames II.

NXT Tag Team Champion Kyle O'Reilly def. Hanson in a WarGames Advantage Match

Hanson had yet to be showcased on his own since coming to NXT, so it was cool to see him get the spotlight for a change and have an entertaining outing with O'Reilly. O'Reilly is the more established singles wrestler of the two, but this was an evenly matched fight for the most part and the crowd was into it. The shenanigans involving the rest of Undisputed Era and their TakeOver opponents was expected, leading to O'Reilly's victory that will give the heels the WarGames advantage (which is only logical).

Overall Show

In addition to everything listed above, there were a handful of video packages promoting every match on the TakeOver card with the exception of the WarGames main event (probably because it received enough hype with O'Reilly vs. Hanson). Each of those video packages were excellent and succeeded in getting me more excited for TakeOver than I already was. The matches were well-wrestled and served a purpose, too. Furthermore, Matt Riddle vs. Kassius Ohno was set up for next week's show, eliminating any possibility of it happening on the TakeOver card. That's not a big deal, but I'm curious as to how they will fill out the two hours with just four matchups.