WWE NXT recap for Oct. 30, 2019: The Women are going to War(Games)

On this week’s WWE NXT we saw Balor not really explain his actions, a women’s tag team title match, and the announcement of the first-ever all women’s War Games match

This week’s edition of WWE NXT was a solid show filled with a lot of good wrestling and a major spotlight on the women’s division of the black and gold brand. We also got our first announced match for NXT TakeOver: War Games coming up in November.

But let’s not waste any more time and get right into it. This is your NXT recap for Oct. 30, 2019.

Shirai and LeRae continue their rivalry

WWE NXT kicked off this week with musician Poppy performing live for the crowd as she played Io Shirai to the ring. It was certainly interesting, and we’ll leave it at that. Shirai’s opponent, as we learned last week, was none other than her main rival over the past several months, Candice LeRae.

These two women waste no time taking it right to each other from the very second that the bell rang. Shirai and LeRae seem to get better each time they are in the ring with one another. Shirai as a heel is ridiculously over in Full Sail — not to say she wasn’t over before she turned, but she is very over now.

Shirai and LeRae had a good, lengthy match to start NXT this week and we were luckily treated to the picture-in-picture feature during commercial breaks to allow us to keep our eyes on the action. We know we touch on this almost every week but this feature for the black and gold brand is incredibly important and we’re happy to see it implemented more often on Wednesday nights.

The finish of the match was certainly unique as LeRae essentially beat herself attempting to go for the lionsault but ate nothing but chair instead, and Shirai quickly pinned her to get the victory. Afterward, Shirai continued her attack on LeRae which brought up Rhea Ripley to save the day. Certainly, a fun way to kick off the show.

We had a short video package talking about Finn Balor’s turn on the last show and the aftermath that came along with it. Up next, we heard more from Balor about what went down at the end of NXT last week.

Explain yourself Mr. Balor

When NXT returned from commercial it was announced that Pete Dunne and Damian Priest would meet in a rematch next week after the controversial finish between the two a few weeks back. Their last match was great and we’re sure the rematch will be no different.

After that, Balor made his way to the ring with a spotlight, almost like Batista-esque, which stays with him once he’s in the ring and ready to cut his promo. They keep the spotlight on him and the lights remain out at Full Sail as he spoke to the fans.

He said it’s funny how things worked out. He buries The Fiend gimmick without actually mentioning it by name and proclaims he’s now the hottest thing in the business and everyone has an opinion about it. Balor says there are too many fans in the locker room when they should be sitting with the fans in the crowd instead.

He says he doesn’t watch the business, but “the business watches him,” which got him a “Finn-XT” chant. Balor then addressed Gargano and calls him the “heart of NXT.” He said he heard he’s out of the hospital and if he messes with him again he will send him right back and he won’t be Johnny Wrestling, he’ll be “Johnny Watches Wrestling,” the way it’s supposed to be.

The promo didn’t really answer any questions as to why Balor did what he did. While it was a good heel promo we don’t think it addressed any of the questions people have been asking all week. Watch it and judge for yourself. It will certainly be interesting to hear Gargano’s response.

Thorne and Reed in action

When NXT returned from commercial break, we got a match between Shane Thorne and Bronson Reed. Thorne came out the gate early but Reed shut him down quickly with a monster clothesline and a leaping senton which brought the match back down to a more manageable pace for Reed, who didn’t look like he wanted to match speed with Thorne.

You probably wouldn’t have guessed it before this match began but these two had an extremely entertaining match together. Their contrast of styles mixed together really well and these two put on a show for the live crowd at Full Sail.

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Reed hit a huge top-rope splash on Thorne to pick up the victory to close out a fun match that both men should be proud of. We then go backstage for an interview with Dakota Kai and Tegan Nox to talk about what their match with The Kabuki Warriors means to them tonight. We have no doubt that the match is going to be excellent — and it’s up next!

The WWE Women’s Tag Team titles defended for the first time in NXT

It’s time for The Kabuki Warriors to defend their titles against the team fans have dubbed Team Shiny Kick. This is Asuka’s first match back with the black and gold brand since her last successful defense of the NXT Women’s Championship. She has never lost in NXT and we don’t expect to see it this week, either. But it should be a fun match regardless.

From the get-go, the Full Sail crowd was firmly behind The Kabuki Warriors. It will be interesting to see if Nox and Kai can turn the crowd in their favor throughout the course of the matchup. We shouldn’t be surprised, but we were, to find the very first commercial break for this championship match had no picture-in-picture … good grief.

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Once back from commercial break, Nox and Kai were in firm control of the match and the crowd was noticeably quieter than when the match started. We thought the crowd would be more split for this match but obviously, we were wrong.

These four had a really good match. The finish saw Asuka blind Kai with the green mist and Sane hit the InSane Elbow drop from the top rope to pick up the win for her team as The Kabuki Warriors retained the tag team titles. They gave this match a lot of time and Nox and Kai weren’t hurt at all by taking the loss.

It’s time to make history with the women once again

Afterward, Shayna Baszler, Marina Shafir and Jessamyn Duke made their way to the ring looking to attack Nox while Kai was laid out, still blinded from the mist. Nox tried to fight them off but the numbers game was just too great. Rhea Ripley eventually came out to confront Baszler but got jumped by Shirai in the aisle. This brought out Bianca Belair and LeRae.

This was pure chaos and Ripley was the one eventually left standing to get into the ring with Baszler. Ripley took the champ down but then everyone got involved and it turned into chaos yet again in the ring, which brought out NXT General Manager William Regal to request that security get everyone separated.

He then announced that he knows how to settle all these issues and says that it will take place at the first-ever women’s War Games match at TakeOver in November. The Full Sail crowd lost their minds. Everyone had been questioning lately why so many people were in the hunt for Baszler’s title as of late and now it makes perfect sense.

Is this Grimes’ biggest test to date?

As NXT returned from commercial break we have Cameron Grimes going one-on-one with Tyler Bate. After a loss to Matt Riddle last week he finds himself in a match with the former NXT United Kingdom Champion. While Riddle has a pretty good resume in NXT so far we believe Bate’s has been greater overall thus far.

Grimes didn’t try for his flash finish this week as he has with so many others which to us shows the respect he has for Bate and puts him over at the same time. A smart move honestly — he can’t be doing that every single match. Eventually, it just becomes all-too-predictable.

Unlike Reed and Thorne earlier, everyone should have expected that this match was going to deliver in a big way and it absolutely did. While we didn’t get to see the match in its entirety thanks to those lovely-timed commercial breaks, what we did see was a great match. Grimes continues to impress every week and Bate is an excellent addition to the standard NXT roster if they intend on having him compete on this brand going forward.

The finish of the match saw a distraction from Killian Dain which led to Grimes hitting his standing double-stomp, which is now being referred to as the Cave In, to pick up the victory. This distraction protected Bate and gave Grimes a huge win in the process. Afterward, Dain hit the ring to attack Bate, clearly looking to send a message to his friend Pete Dunne. After a cannonball against the steel steps, Dain told Bate to tell Dunne that they have unfinished business.

Bask in the Bro’s glory?

Prior to the main event, we have a video package for Angel Garza, explaining the history of his family in the business and giving the audience a look into Garza’s personality more. This was a solid piece and video packages like that really help get the newer members of the roster over.

After that, Cathy Kelley announced that Baszler and Ripley have been named the captains for their respective teams at War Games. No other participants were confirmed at this time but looking at who was out there during the segment it gives a pretty good idea of what the teams will be.

It’s then tag team action time in the main event as Kyle O’Reilly and Bobby Fish of the Undisputed Era faced Matt Riddle and Keith Lee in a non-title matchup. Early on the match, before the first commercial break, Riddle hit the spear and the jackhammer and Fish kicked out at one. Okay then: if we are seriously going to get a match with Riddle and Goldberg that’s one thing. But if we aren’t, that was an unneeded burial of Goldberg’s bread and butter. Not sure we’re a fan of that because we all know that Goldberg isn’t done working with WWE. We will see where this goes.

If they don’t have singles plans for Riddle and Lee in the near future, they really should leave these two together as a tag team for the time being, as they work really well together and they had an awesome performance against Fish and O’Reilly this week.

Eventually, the rest of the members of the Undisputed Era ran out trying to interfere but Riddle attacked Adam Cole and Roderick Strong instead saving themselves from the DQ finish because they didn’t touch him. But maybe they should have taken it as a distraction, as it led to the High-Low from Fish and O’Reilly to pick up the pinfall over Riddle to end the match.

Afterward, all four men attack Lee and Riddle but were saved by Tommaso Ciampa with a crutch as his weapon of choice. Ciampa got to three members of the Undisputed Era but Cole was able to get away as O’Reilly sacrificed himself to let Cole escape. Ciampa, Lee, and Riddle pounded on him for a bit before tossing him out of the ring on top of the rest of the group.

Ciampa took the microphone and talked to “Goldy,” saying she’s going to have to wait because “daddy is going to war,” Implying that the men will be having a War Games match as well. That wasn’t confirmed but it was certainly implied. Two War Games matches in one night could be absolutely insane!

And with that our recap for the Oct. 30 edition of WWE NXT has come to a close. Two hours of really good wrestling matches — we can’t complain about that. No match was a throwaway. Everything meant something and everyone got to shine in the process. Another great showing from the black and gold brand.

What was your favorite part of NXT tonight? Who do you want to see involved in the women’s War Games match? Sound off in the comments section below!