WWE NXT recap for September 11, 2019: Is Gargano NXT for life?

On this week’s WWE NXT, Pete Dunne is in action, Johnny Gargano makes his choice and Shayna Baszler and Rhea Ripley collide in the main event.

This week’s edition of WWE NXT had a lot of action in it for the last taped episode for (seemingly) quite some time. We had some announcements of potential returns to the brand as well as a proclamation from the Undisputed ERA regarding next week’s episode.

Without further ado, let’s get right into this week’s NXT recap.

Ripley arrives and Priest dominates

NXT opened up this week with a pre-recorded video earlier in the day outside of Full Sail Live with Rhea Ripley showing up at the building. Nothing was said. She just looks menacing as she walked into the venue. We think it was done to let everyone know that she is, in fact, a star whether you know who she is or not right now. They hope by the end of the evening that she will be.

They waste no time going right to the ring for the first match of the evening, where Damian Priest goes one-on-one with BOA, who competed in the NXT Breakout tournament earlier this year. Judging by the reaction of the crowd they didn’t quite remember him, which is a bit disappointing for him.

We aren’t sure if the match did BOA any favors either because, besides a nice comeback spot late in the match, this was very much a showcase for Priest. He mostly dominated the match from start to finish, ending the match with the Reckoning to pick up the three count.

The Experience comes to the USA Network

We then get a brief video package covering the feud between Roderick Strong and the NXT North American Champion the Velveteen Dream. This lead to the official announcement that the two men will compete for the North American Championship next week live on the USA Network.

https://twitter.com/WWENXT/status/1171940028114538497

Since the show’s second hour will be on the WWE Network for the first couple of weeks we imagine that the title match will occur in the first hour of the broadcast. But only time will tell.

Johnny Wrestling is NXT

Johnny Gargano returned to NXT programming for the first time since NXT TakeOver: Toronto. While the Full Sail crowd over the course of 2019 definitely had mixed feelings on Gargano, he was universally loved tonight. The minutes-long “Johnny Wrestling” chant before he began his promo was a sight to behold.

Gargano pretty much had to laugh it off and inform the crowd jokingly that he promised management he wouldn’t take up too much time. He said he wanted to come out there tonight to address the rumors about his future with the black and gold brand. Gargano said he appreciated all the fans in Toronto cheering for him and that without fans like that there would be no Johnny Wrestling.

He said he wanted to come out and say thank you to everyone and that he loves everything about NXT. Gargano says he’s been there for a very long time and that he’s seen a lot of people come and go. Johnny Wrestling said that as far as his future goes he has made his choice and that he is officially going to —

https://twitter.com/WWENXT/status/1171942183902990336

Before we get that answer, Shane Thorne’s music hits as he makes his way to the ring and downplays everything Gargano has done for NXT. He tells Gargano that the brand will be better off without him. He tells him to have his bow and take a walk.

Gargano looks like he’s going to leave but ends up superkicking Thorne instead. He stood over him and essentially announced that he’s staying by spelling out the letters NXT in the air, much like Bret Hart did when he left WWE for WCW.

On his way out of the ring, Gargano said right to the cameraman that he was NXT “for life” and that they were taking over the world. It was a good segment to establish that Gargano will be a pillar for the black and gold brand for seemingly years to come.

The Sons are quickly Forgotten as the Bruiserweight is in action

There was a video package for the Forgotten Sons talking about how they won’t be forgotten anymore. It’s really the same thing with these guys over and over again. They are all very talented wrestlers but they need a fresh, new gimmick and should drop the whole “Forgotten Sons” trope as soon as humanly possible.

After that, “The Bruiserweight” Pete Dunne returned to Full Sail Live to go one-on-one with Angel Garza, who also competed in the NXT Breakout Tournament this year. It doesn’t seem like Dunne taking the pinfall in Toronto hurt his credibility at all with the Full Sail crowd and we predict he will be one of the staples of the brand moving forward.

Garza tried to start the match by taking off his entrance gear pants, but Dunne wasn’t having any of that and put on a wrestling clinic with Garza for a few minutes before the Bruiserweight was tossed to the outside allowing Garza to get rid of this rest of his entrance gear.

It was a pretty good match between these two, with Dunne picking up the tapout victory via the triangle choke and finger snap. Unlike the previous match on the show, this one was a lot more competitive. Garza got in a decent amount of offense and more than we expected so it seems apparent to us that Garza has a brighter future with the black and gold brand than, let’s say, BOA does at the moment.

Garza looked furious after the mat staring up at Dunne, who just gave him a cocky shrug as if it say, “Hey, I won. What are you gonna do about it?” It was a pretty fun moment at the end of a match that they could most certainly come back to in the future if they wanted this to turn into a feud.

Street Profits returning to the black and gold brand?

In a segment no one saw coming this week, we had a prerecorded promo from the Street Profits when they were in New York City on Monday prior to Monday Night Raw in Madison Square Garden.

The two were in Central Park standing on top of a large rock talking about how important and precious it was for them to get to appear on Raw this week from the Garden. It’s clearly a bucket list item for any wrestler in the industry to appear and compete within the hallowed halls of MSG.

Dawkins said, however, that despite all the great things happening to them right now, it just didn’t feel right without the NXT Tag Team Championships around their waist. Ford suggests they return to NXT next week when the black and gold brand goes to USA and take back their tag titles. Dawkins agreed it was a good idea, and it looks like we have another match officially announced for next week’s show.

The segment ended with Ford and Dawkins trying to figure out how to get down from the rock they were standing on without jumping off of it. It was pretty funny. The Street Profits returning to NXT makes a lot of sense right now as they can be showcased in a more prominent way there instead of being hype men for Raw on Monday nights. This is a win for the Street Profits.

Grimes and Mendoza have a great match while LeRae gets her wish

In what was the most evenly-matched bout of the night so far, Cameron Grimes went one-on-one with Raul Mendoza. This was fast-paced and action-heavy from start to finish. We’re not sure of the weight class of these two men but with the rumors of 205 Live‘s Cruiserweight Championship essentially merging into the NXT brand these two would fight into that division perfectly.

After a really great match, Grimes picked up the win with the standing double stomp. We really like that finisher because no one else in the company does anything close to it. Grimes made good on his tantrum promo last week and picked up a solid win this week as his climb up the NXT ladder begins all over again.

After the match, we head backstage where Candice LeRae barges into William Regal’s office wanting to know why Regal keeps rewarding Io Shirai for the way she’s been acting as of late, attacking the other women and attacking her. She ends up getting a chance to compete for a shot at the NXT Women’s Championship.

LeRae warns Regal that Shirai might not make it to next week. Regal admitted that she was correct and he wanted to make it right. He ends up adding LeRae to the match next week making it a fatal four-way. He then quipped that if Ripley won later on tonight he might have to make it a five-way. LeRae was cool with that, just happy that she was going to be able to get her hands on Shirai next week.

Kai is on her way back as Baszler and Ripley go to war

Prior to the main event, we get a video package on Dakota Kai, who has been out for quite some time due to injury. Long story short, the message is delivered that Kai will be returning to the ring soon but no date was given. Kai is a very popular wrestler in the black and gold brand and her return to NXT will do nothing but greatly help the currently blossoming NXT women’s division.

After that, we are taken to the main event of the evening where Shayna Baszler goes one-on-one with Rhea Ripley in a non-title match. The commentators were quick to point out once again that if Ripley were to win here tonight that she would likely be added to next weeks matchup, making it a fatal five-way.

The story of the match was simple enough, that Baszler was being overwhelmed by Ripley for a majority of the match and when the champion was in spot where it looked like Ripley was going to put her away and pick up the victory, Marina Shafir and Jessamyn Duke rushed the ring to try and gets involved. But Ripley fought them off and essentially snapped as she ended up attacking Baszler with a steel chair to signal the end of the match.

So, Baszler escaped with a disqualification win. Ripley, by not winning, won’t be added to the fatal four-way next week but still looked strong regardless as she took that loss essentially by choice in favor of punishing the champion instead. We have a feeling this is just the first of many times we will see Ripley and Baszler square off throughout the rest of 2019 and beyond.

A closing that is Undisputed

When we thought NXT was finished for this week we go to a promo from the Undisputed ERA. The foursome talked about how the prophecy will finally be fulfilled next week on the USA Network, as Strong will take the North American Championship from The Velveteen Dream.

Strong talked about getting Dream’s attention by setting his couch on fire and commented about how much he hated it. Adam Cole said NXT is getting bigger and better and it’s all because of the Undisputed ERA. He let everyone know that once they have all the gold next week that there would be no one on Earth who could stop them.

And with that, the final pre-taped edition of WWE NXT comes to a close. It truly is the end of an era, and next week the black and gold brand goes on a new journey. No longer can people call NXT the developmental brand anymore. They are truly a third brand for WWE and that is (shall we say) undisputed.

What did you think of NXT tonight? Are you excited for the brand’s debut on USA next week? Sound off in the comments section below!