Pat McAfee brought his kicking days back to WWE by hitting Adam Cole
One of the major talking points before this week’s NXT was Adam Cole and Pat McAfee apparently patching up after a bit of a scuffle recently.
However, all that went down the drain in the main event as Cole and McAfee clashed. While the storyline was alright, the finish wasn’t all that great.
There were some other bits and pieces that caught our attention too, and here are the hits and misses from this week’s show.
Misses
1) Cole out cold
Starting off with the big one. Cole poured water onto McAfee and that enraged the former footballer. It was fine that he was upset and a brawl broke out after the pair had seemingly buried the past.
However, McAfee getting a free kick at Cole and knocking the former NXT Champion out cold didn’t make sense.
Cole has taken much worse punishment that this in his WWE career, and one kick, even from a former NFL star, shouldn’t have knocked him out.
This does increase the rivalry between the pair but this segment wasn’t great for NXT or Cole.
2) Grimes gets beat up
Another week, another match where Cameron Grimes gets beat up. This time it was Keith Lee, and well, it was expected that the NXT Champion would get the win.
However, Grimes is being super underutilised by WWE as they don’t know what to do with him. We have brought this up several times in the past, but either WWE wants to keep Grimes for such matches or they really don’t know how to make the best use of the Technical Savage.
Hits
1) Martinez makes her mark
Rhea Ripley vs Dakota Kai was going well until Mercedes Martinez made her mark. She kicked Ripley and cost her a shot at Io Shirai’s NXT title.
While the newest member of the Robert Stone brand might be a couple of months old on NXT, she is taking some big shots.
Ripley is one of the best female talents in WWE, and Martinez making a beeline for the former champion is a huge statement.
She is someone who doesn’t take nonsense, not even from Robert Stone. And this should be a great rivalry if WWE plays its cards right.
2) Era vs Imperium
Kyle O’Reilly and Bobby Fish took on the NXT Tag Champions, Fabian Aichner and Marcel Barthel of Imperium.
While the ending featuring Cole and McAfee was the main talking point from this segment, the match wasn’t bad.
Imperium vs Era should be a clash that WWE books soon as all eight men are great in the ring. While this was a teaser of what should come, it left many wanting more.
3) Triple threat madness
Damien Priest, Ridge Holland and Oney Lorcan fought for a spot in the Ladder Match for the NXT North American title.
While Priest won the clash, the other stars also made their presence felt. Holland was especially impressive in the biggest match of his NXT career, and Lorcan was great as usual.
It will be interesting to see who from the other two makes it into the Ladder Match as Dexter Lumis picked up an injury and has been ruled out.
This might not have been the main event of the show, but it probably was the best match of the evening.
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