The show opens with the big man, the Gator, and someone who's partner has been superkicked off a guy in a bunny outfit in the past few weeks - Titus O'Neil. He tells Full Sail that he's here to hold-up the show, and he might go for a wee nap while he's in the ring. Rightly so, the Main Ztayn shows up to put big Titus in his place. He hardly had a chance to issue a challenge to the big man when Adrian Neville joins the party, to tell Sami that if anyone was going to be defending NXT tonight, it would be the champ himself, and not oor Zayn. The bold Tyson Kidd feels his presence is required next, and he comes out to give us some FACTS. Both Neville and Zayn are losers. FACT. Zayn is raging at how Neville retained the title at Takeover. FACT. William Regal just came out to make a tag team match for tonight. O'Neil and Kidd vs Zayn and Neville in the main event... FACT.
Charlotte vs Emma
Emma, it's yersel! The kleptomaniac returns to NXT, to a very warm reception off the Full Sail faithful. Her opponent is the NXT Women's Champ, Charotte, who off the back of a great defense against Bayley last week, didn't want her belt thieved, so she hid it ringside, before thinking "Ach it's fine, she's been in rehab!" and decides to flash the belt in Emma's face. Canny wave a bevvy at an alky but, and Emma sees red, tries tae grab the belt out Charlotte's hand, but it goes flying out the ring and we have us a match. Charlotte starts off strong, locking in the Figure 4 Headlock, and rolling Emma about for a bit, until Emma manages to turn it into a bridging pin for two. Emma gets choked on the bottom rope, but she rallies with a kick to Charlotte's gut. Some stiff forearms from Charlotte next, and she goes up top for a moonsault, which Emma blocks. A roll up for another near fall from Emma, before some hard forearms, and a splash while Charlotte is propped against the bottom turnbuckle. Up top goes Emma, and hits a crossbody for two, but Charlotte rallies with a cracking neckbreaker, and then hitting Natural Selection for the win. All theft jokes aside, it's nice to see Emma back and working a good match in NXT, hopefully she stays there for a while and manages to get back up soon, to work beautiful matches with Paige for the Divas title.
Justin Gabriel vs Hideo Itami
The most anticipated debut in NXT history... the in ring debut of Hideo Itami. It was an interesting topic of conversation. Would he use his trademark finishers? Apparently not, based on this match, but we saw exactly why he will be a force to be reckoned with. Those kicks. Early on though, it's Gabriel who takes the initiative, with a side headlock, followed by a stiff shoulder block. Itami leapfrogs him, and while Gabriel is mid air, Itami hits a beautiful single leg dropkick. Gabriel gets back in the ascendancy, hitting a double underhook suplex. Itami proves a tough opponent though, hitting a flurry of kicks and forearms, before mockingly kicking Gabriel in the face. A big boot is followed by a springboard dropkick, then a dropkick in the corner, before Itami puts Gabriel away with a double stomp from the top rope. A solid debut, but did we expect any less? It won't be long until Itami is in the title picture, no doubt, but he needs to deal with the Ascension first, who feel the need to gain some retribution for Itami getting the better of them at Takeover. They attack Itami from behind, before hitting the Fall of Man.
CJ Parker vs Baron Corbin
It was never going to go any other way unfortunately. A rematch from Takeover, CJ Parker requested this match. Bad move. To put it into perspective, CJ Parker is a big guy... and Baron Corbin dwarfs him completely. The look of fear in Parker's eyes is clear, and with good reason, because after trying to catch the big man out with some forearms, Parker is halted with a huge uppercut, and Corbin puts him away with the same finisher he used at Takeover, called End of Days. He then leaves the ring nonchalant, and cracks a grin as he looks at what used to be a CJ Parker lying in a heap. Obviously, we can't judge him quite yet, but if he plays the role of the quiet monster as well as he has the past couple of weeks, and keeps the NXT crowds on side, no reason Baron Corbin can't be a success.
The realest guys in the room, Enzo Amore and Colin Cassidy, are at the Performance Center working out, giving it aw the patter, when someone tells Enzo his sister is there to see him... but Enzo doesn't have a sister. Instead, it's their pal Carmella, who gave them the hair removal cream for the hair vs hair match. She tells them she's been fired because of them pouring the cream over a client's dog, and she wants to come to NXT for a fight. Enzo laughs it off, but she picks up a medicine ball and duly launches it at Enzo's ribcage.
Tyson Kidd & Titus O'Neil vs Sami Zayn & Adrian Neville
Main event time. Zayn and Kidd start off, but during the feeling out process, Neville tags himself in and looks to get the action started instead. Zayn's like "nut" and tags himself in as well, and hits a cheeky wee standing moonsault on Kidd, having a wee dig at his pal Adrian. Neville is rightly raging with the stealing of moves, and looks around himself, suspecting Emma is to blame for this carry on. He couldn't find her but, so tags himself in again and hits a standing corkscrew on Kidd. A headlock by Neville on Kidd, but Tyson forces him against the ropes, where Sami chooses the opportunity for another blind tag. Neville sends Kidd outside, and looks for a dive over the top, but Zayn is the legal man, and he blocks him off mid stride to hit a springboard moonsault onto Kidd on the floor. After that, there was a long period where Titus and Tyson beat Zayn down a lot, and I skipped a bit of it, because it's Titus O'Neil, and that's all the reason I need for skipping some action. When I came back to the match, Zayn was hung up on the top rope, and was still being dominated. Kidd tries to choke him on the bottom rope, but he avoids a stomp and scrambles for a tag. Titus gets back in though and stops him, hitting a big powerslam. Kidd gets back in and hits a stinger of a kick for two. A spinning kick from Kidd is followed by Titus getting in and hitting a solid leg drop. They get complacent though, and Zayn manages to make the tag. Neville hits a big uppercut and then a low dropkick. He hits a picture perfect standing moonsault, and looks to have it won, but Titus gets in and breaks up the pin. Sami Zayn gets a burst of life and runs in to clear out O'Neil, but off the ref getting distracted by Zayn, Titus throws Neville off the top rope onto the waiting knees of Kidd, who uses that to cover Neville and pick up the win. Tyson and Titus look a formidable team, and Zayn and Neville's friendship seems to be hanging on by a thread, but with no real animosity between the two to close the show, I guess we'll see this story progress next week.
Another cracking episode of NXT. Nothing else to really say about it apart from... it was gid. As always. Goodbyeeee.