WWE NXT: Kyle O’Reilly and Candice LeRae earn title shots

Title opportunities were on the line on NXT and Kyle O’Reilly and Candice LeRae staked their claim to the next shots at the champions.

Title opportunities were on the line on this week’s edition of WWE NXT. The number-one contender’s position was up for grabs for both Io Shirai’s title and the newly crowned Finn Balor. At the end of the night, they both knew who would be standing across from them.

The women’s battle royal started the night. The entire division was in the ring and ready to get down to action before welcoming the final two contestants, Rhea Ripley, and Candice LeRae. The women would battle it out in the ring until the last four stood face-to-face in Dakota Kai, Kacy Catanzarao, Shotzi Blackheart and LeRae. Kai would eliminate Catanzaro, but Blackheart would eventually get her out of the ring. That would leave LeRae and Blackheart to battle out for the win. In the end, LeRae found a way to leverage her legs on the steel steps to kick Blackheart off, eliminating her and winning the number-one contender’s slot to face Shirai at an upcoming NXT TakeOver.

Tommaso Ciampa and Jake Atlas had a fight brewing after Ciampa attacked Atlas weeks ago. Ciampa did not need much time to defeat Atlas once again. This time he would taunt Atlas before finishing him with the Fairy Tale Ending, picking up his second straight win.

The tag team division was up next. In an odd match it was Danny Burch teaming with Roderick Strong to compete against Fabian Aichner and Raul Mendoza. The winning team would then join back with their original partner for another match, with the duo that win is there getting a shot at new champions, Breezango. Burch and Strong found a way to work together that led to the victory in the end.

Damian Priest was also in action, up against Austin Theory. Theory and Priest exchanged a lot of high-impact offense from the very start of the night. Theory has not been on the winning end of many matches since his return to NXT, and it looked like he was going to break that cycle. Unfortunately for him, the current NXT North American champion turned around the match after landing a nasty Razor’s Edge on the apron, before finishing off Theory with The Reckoning in the ring for the victory.

Kyle O’Reilly is undisputed

The main event of the evening was a Gauntlet Eliminator match for a shot at Balor’s NXT belt. Kushida and Kyle O’Reilly started things off with a patient grappling match against each other. Neither man was able to find an elimination before the third man, Bronson Reed came out to the ring. O’Reilly and Kushida teamed up on Reed, but an interference by Velveteen Dream dropped Kushida, allowing Reed to hit the Tsunami to eliminate Kushida.

The second elimination would come from O’Reilly later in the match. Reed went for the Tsunami for a second time but missed Timothy Thatcher. Before Reed could get to his feet, O’Reilly landed a knee to Reed’s lower back, pinning him to remove Reed from the match.

The match did not end there, as three men remained. Thatcher and O’Reilly exchanged hold after hold until O’Reilly was able to roll Thatcher up, surprising him with the move and pinning the grappler to eliminate him from the match. That left O’Reilly and Cameron Grimes as the last two. Grimes was the last man to join the match and took the fight to O’Reilly quickly, but was not able to put the Undisputed Era member away. O’Reilly rolled into an Ashi-Garami Heel Hook to submit Grimes for the win and earn a shot at Balor.

September 23 NXT Results

• Candice LeRae wins women’s battle royale
• Tommaso Ciampa defeated Jake Atlas
• Danny Burch and Roderick Strong defeated Fabian Aichner and Raul Mendoza
• Damian Priest defeated Austin Theory
• Ridge Holland defeated Antonio DeLuca
• Kyle O’Reilly wins the Gauntlet Eliminator match