NXT 550

February 19, 2020 – Winter Park, Florida

The Undisputed Era comes out to cut a show-starting promo, but they are interrupted by the Velveteen Dream’s voice. Then, Roderick Strong gets mad and says more things. Did we need this?

Jordan Devlin def. Lio Rush {NXT Cruiserweight Championship Match}
I am the victim of overdone, unreasonable expectations. This was quite good, but I think in part because of commercials Devlin’s control segment in the middle was less than epic. The final third of the match was a blast, with Devlin and Rush creatively countering each other’s finishers. I think they have an even better match in them, but it’s probably going to have to wait for a bit. Devlin gets the win with the Devlin Side at 18:33. ***½ 

Dakota Kai says that she has Gonzalez’s back now because Gonzalez got her back at Takeover more than anyone else ever had. That’s a sneaky great line from Kai that establishes the new alliance while crapping on her history with the babyface women. William Regal says Kai will fight Tegan Nox in a cage in two weeks so that Gonzalez can’t interfere. Of course, Gonzalez shows up in the match graphic, so of course she’ll interfere. 

Tommaso Ciampa interrupts an Austin Theory match and beats him up. He says that in order to get his life back he’ll have to put Johnny Gargano out of NXT. Then Ciampa beats the crap out of Theory. Later, we learn that Ciampa and Theory will wrestle next week. 

Finn Balor says he is ready to show us his next move. He’ll do so in the ring next week. It’s probably that he’s going to NXT UK, which really just means he’ll do one weekend of TV tapings and then take a few weeks off until Takeover: Dublin. 

Zack Gibson & James Drake def. Joaquin Wilde & Raul Mendoza
This was basically a squash, but a very fun one. The Grizzled Young Veterans won in 4:34 with the Ticket to Mayhem on Mendoza. After the match they put the American teams on notice. **¾

Matt Riddle & Pete Dunne def. Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch
Riddle & Dunne celebrated their new tag titles with the crowd (I couldn’t help but notice Dunne big-timing a girl in a wheelchair), and then Riddle jokes that their friend the Dusty Cup failed the WWE Wellness Policy and is suspended for thirty days. Just put these two on TV for the full two hours every week. They won with the Riddle End on Lorcan in 10:57. This was a really fun intense battle, which was a way more productive use of Burch & Lorcan than their weird non-run in NXT UK recently. I could have watched five more minutes of this. ***1/2 

Apparently, Wesley Blake isn’t injured anymore because the Forgotten Sons want to fight the Grizzled Young Veterans. So are they trying to turn the GYV babyface?

Keith Lee def. Kona Reeves
This happened because Reeves interrupted Lee before he could cut a promo. Lee took Reeves out immediately and then pinned him in 11 seconds with the Supernova. After the match, Dominic Dijakovic came out to say he almost won at Takeover. Lee says that almost doesn’t mean anything, but he likes the fight forever chants they get when they wrestle so he’s down for match #6 for the title. 

Chelsea Green def. Kayden Carter
It’s kind of weird that this is the only women’s segment in the ring tonight. Well, three minutes in Bianca Belair gets in the ring, doesn’t touch anyone, and rhymes her way to challenging Charlotte Flair to a match. Then she leaves and Green hits Carter with an inverted Killswitch for the win at 4:39 after interference from Robert Strauss. The match was nothing but the promo thing was kinda funny and I’m down for Belair vs. Flair. *½ 

Velveteen Dream def. Roderick Strong
I saw a lot of people complaining last week that Bronson Reed entered his match with Strong all angry and that it was lame that they just had a regular wrestling match. I don’t know if that bothered me as much as everyone else (it’s not like Reed got injured, he just got jumped backstage), but they certainly shouldn’t have that problem here. Strong fought plenty angry in the first half of this match. This got a little glitchy in the middle, but they got it back together and finished up nicely. Dream takes off his decoy tights to reveal tights with Marina Shafir on the crotch and butt. But then the Undisputed Era interferes and Strong almost wins. Dream quickly recovers and hits the Dream Valley Driver for the win at 15:37. The Era beats up Dream after the match. ***½