WWE NXT recap for October 2, 2019: Balor and Ciampa return

On this week’s WWE NXT we saw three titles matches, two returns and one Velveteen Dream experience.

This week’s edition of WWE NXT was a huge step forward after last week’s edition that fell off badly in the second hour. There were definitely moments on this broadcast that had shades of an NXT TakeOver. It was a great episode to kick off the two-hour shows on the USA Network and how the brand will be perceived going forward.

So let’s not waste any more time and get right into it; this is your NXT recap for October 2, 2019.

Cole and Riddle kick off the show

NXT kicked off this week in a big way with Adam Cole defending his NXT Championship against Matt Riddle. It’s obvious the black and gold brand wanted to get off to a strong start out of the gate, mentioning that the first 30 minutes of the show would be completely commercial-free. Smart move in our opinion.

Cole and Riddle worked incredibly well together, the match had a great back and forth feel to it and both men got their time to shine. It’s very clear as you watched the match that both Riddle and Cole knew exactly what was on the line tonight and how much not only this match but the entire episode of NXT meant for the brand as a whole.

After several false finishes, Cole picked up the victory with the Last Shot to win cleanly without the help of the Undisputed Era. Some would argue that Cole used the “cast” on his wrist to pick up the victory but it looked like heavy tape more so than anything else. Cole hit his finish and retained his championship. It was really that simple and it was a fantastic match to kick off the show.

Enter Finn Balor

Before Cole could truly celebrate his victory we got the first big surprise of the evening, as former NXT Champion and former WWE Universal Champion Finn Balor returned to Full Sail as part of the black and gold brand.

Balor confronted Cole in the ring face-to-face and made it short and sweet, telling the champion that he was officially back with NXT. Clearly a match between these two is coming in the future and we can’t wait to see it. There’s no doubt that it could end up being one of the greatest NXT title matches of all time.

One has to question at this point if Balor’s return to NXT is the first of many more to come. What other members of the Raw and SmackDown roster will fight to be moved back to the brand that made them a star under the WWE umbrella to begin with? If Balor’s new run in NXT proves to be as successful as we think it will be, the sky is the limit for the future of this brand as far as its roster is concerned.

Following this was a video package highlighting the women’s title match for later on in the evening between Shayna Baszler and Candice LeRae. It was a good piece of business and definitely got you up to speed and prepared for the match if you weren’t already.

The Velveteen Dream Experience

Up next we had a … well … what many would describe as an interesting segment with the former NXT North American Champion, the Velveteen Dream. The lighting and stage props made the entire segment come off a bit weird, but we guess at the end of the day that’s just part of the overall Experience.

We can’t help but feel this segment would have come across better as pre-taped and not in front of the live crowd, but we get NXT wanting to put the Dream in front of the Full Sail crowd because it’s obvious how much they all love him.

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He used his time to call out the now-current North American Champion Roderick Strong, demanding a rematch for the title that he lost. We guess the ball is in Strong’s court now but one would have to believe that this rematch will happen sooner rather than later.

After the Dream’s segment, we got a video package hyping the Cruiserweight title match on next week’s show between Lio Rush and Drew Gulak. As far as we can recall, this will be the first time ever that the WWE Cruiserweight Championship is defended in the confines of the black and gold brand. This should be a fantastic matchup!

The HBIC against the Genius of the Sky

In the first unannounced match up of the evening, we have women’s action as Mia Yim went one-on-one with Io Shirai. We’re pretty sure this is the first time these two women have ever faced each other in singles competition and they didn’t disappoint.

These two had a fantastic match and we were blessed with the picture-in-picture commercial breaks during this match so we didn’t have to be torn away from the action. After the excessive commercial breaks during the Riddle and Dain match last week, this was a most welcome change and we hope this will be the new norm for the black and gold brand on the USA Network going forward.

The finish of the match saw Shirai pick up the win with top rope moonsault in a fantastic contest. Both women shined here and hopefully there will be more high-profile matches for both of these performers going forward.

After the match, we see Kevin Nash and Scott Hall, the Outsiders, sitting at ringside enjoying the show. Since this is truly the kick-off of the Wednesday Night Wars, to see two men that really helped kick off the Monday Night Wars between WWE and WCW was pretty cool.

We then have a video package on Tegan Nox, who unfortunately has suffered one injury after another over the last couple of years. She recently returned to the ring with NXT UK and it appears she won’t be confined just to that brand if what we just saw was anything to go on.

Johnny NXT on USA

Johnny Gargano had his first match with NXT since the brand has moved to the USA Network and he went one-on-one with Shane Thorne. This match was set up a few weeks back when Thorne pretty much tried to dismiss Gargano and encouraged him to leave the black and gold brand for Raw or SmackDown. Luckily, Thorne got a superkick for his problems and Gargano declared he was NXT for life, which led to tonight’s match.

Thorne got a surprising amount of offense in the match, more than anyone could have ever expected going in. It’s clear NXT management must see something in Thorne as a singles competitor. He had a fantastic showing against Johnny Wrestling this week.

But in the end for Thorne, it wasn’t enough as Gargano picked up the victory with his standing side kick, shades of his DIY tag team finisher with Tomasso Ciampa. Perhaps this was a sign of things to come later?

The NXT Women’s Championship is on the line

From Mr. Gargano to Mrs. Gargano tonight as the next match of the evening has Shayna Baszler defending the NXT Women’s Championship against Candice LeRae. This match took a commercial break relatively quickly, and while it started with the picture-in-picture feature for some reason it went away. This is no good. They have to remain consistent with this feature. Oddly enough it returned after a few commercials so maybe it was a glitch? We aren’t sure.

There were a lot of commercial breaks throughout this bout but luckily the picture-in-picture saved it. It seems like every time these two get into a ring together their matches get better and better. LeRae and Baszler play off of each other very well. These two had a really fun hard-hitting match and there were several points where you thought we were about to see a title change.

Unfortunately, for LeRae it was not to be and Baszler retained her title via submission. One has to question at this point just who is going to be the one to step up and take the championship from the Queen of Spades? There isn’t one woman in that division right now that stands out as the obvious choice. Maybe Rhea Ripley or even Toni Storm, who is rumored to be coming over from NXT UK, but beyond that? We just aren’t sure who has been built up as enough of a credible challenger to take the title away from the Submission Magician.

After the match, we see Stephanie McMahon, Alundra Blayze and Mark Henry in the front row enjoying the show. Clearly the stars of WWE are out tonight enjoying the NXT product and rightfully so.

We then got a video package of Imperium with the announcement that we will be getting KUSHIDA versus WALTER next week on NXT. So that’s two matches we now know for sure are set for next week’s show. The show is already stacking up to be a great one.

Long live the Bruiserweight

NXT has put an incredible spotlight on the former NXT United Kingdom Champion in recent weeks and they continued to do that here tonight as Pete Dunne went one-on-one with Danny Burch. This match wasn’t incredibly long but it was used to once again showcase and spotlight the Bruiserweight to the potential new audiences that are seeing him for the first time.

Burch fought hard but it wasn’t enough as Dunne hit him with the Bitter End to pick up the victory. After the match, the lights went out in the arena and Dunne was laid out by Damian Priest. So now we know the next feud for both of these men going forward. That should be a fun series of matches, for sure.

Are the Street Profits done in NXT?

Cathy Kelley is then seen interviewing Adam Cole backstage, and he touches on the same points we made about the finish of his match earlier when it came to the cast and the use of the Last Shot. Before they got into anything too extensively the rest of the Undisputed Era arrived on the scene to complain about Balor. But Cole was much more concerned about Kyle O’Reilly and Bobby Fish retaining their tag team titles up next against the Street Profits.

Wale brought the Street Profits out to the ring and if you didn’t know it by now it is very clear that the Street Profits “want the smoke.” If this was the last time we see the Street Profits perform at Full Sail they most certainly went out with a bang in a really great tag team main event.

These two teams have some of the best chemistry we’ve seen in the NXT Tag Team division over the course of the last year or so and this matchup was no exception. The finish of the match, much like Strong’s victory over Dream two weeks ago, was won by Fish and O’Reilly due to the numbers game advantage after Strong got involved.

O’Reilly and Fish hit the High-Low on Ford to pick up the win. The three members of the Undisputed Era celebrated in the ring with their championships as Cole came out on the stage to celebrate with them. But the celebration was short-lived as the theme music of a former NXT Champion hit and Tommaso Ciampa made his return to NXT to stare down Cole and “Goldy” to end the broadcast.

And with that our recap for the October 2 edition of WWE NXT has come to a close. With the returns of both Balor and Ciampa to NXT, this brand’s roster is now more loaded than ever. This was a great show from the black and gold brand tonight and their commercial problem was seemingly addressed this week thanks to the picture-in-picture breaks.

What was your favorite part of NXT this week? What match are you most looking forward to next week? Sound off in the comments section below!