The One Before Gargano is Back – An NXT recap for 7/5/2017

Did I tell you how much a fan I am of Johnny Gargano?  No?  Well, I am.  And if you are too, I have good news:  Johnny Gargano will be back next week!

Percy is still garbage on commentary.  Having Mauro and Nigel on commentary just makes it painfully more obvious.  Maybe he’ll eventually get better like Byron?

Asuka is taking time off until Regal can find her a worthy challenger. Ember Moon seems to think it’s her.  Ruby Riot takes umbrage with this. Ember had her chance and she failed. It’s Riot’s time to have a one-on-one match.

Meanwhile, Peyton Royce and Billie Kay want to be part of the Mae Young Classic but are more concerned that no one got Billie a birthday cake.

Killian Dain and Alexander Wolfe Vs Ohno and Itami

I’ll admit that I’m a little lost on this whole Ohno and Itami pairing. Why are they together?  It seems like Itami has been trying to find some direction since losing to Roode at Takeover Chicago. I missed the part where he felt he needed to join the tag devision.  I’m sure it’s meant to set up a match at NXT Brooklyn between the two when everything goes south.

And it’s about to.  Itami didn’t really even try to tag out, instead taking a beating from SAnitY’s foot soldiers.  Wolfe knocks Ohno off the apron the one time in the match that Itami even thinks about tagging out. Instead, he delivers a GTS to a smiling Wolfe who is taking one for the team so Dain can setup a flying cross body for the pin.

In a fallout video after the match, Itami blames Ohno.  I fail to see the connection.  I’m sure they’ll have an excellent video package to explain this all by the time they meat in Brooklyn.

Roderick Strong Vs Bobby Roode for the NXT Championship

I can never get fully into Roode matches, beyond his theme.  He somehow feels very 80s to me. I’m not sure that I can really explain it.

The big mistake Roderick Strong made was to invite his fiancée and mom to sit ringside. It’s a virtual guarantee that he’ll lose.

It was a fine match. The messiah of the backbreaker hit a pretty great one on the top turnbuckle. False finishes galore.

A side note: I listened to Brian Kendrick on Steve Austin Unleashed and he described false finishes to jazz when a song changes key or begins a new idea. I really like that description a lot.

Roddy finally gets on a roll, hits his finisher, and gets the three count.  He can’t believe it. His fiancée can’t believe it. And they were both right for not believing it.  You see, Roode put his foot under the ropes.  The ref saw it as he counted three but he wasn’t able to wave off the count in time.  As the ref Is explaining to Strong at ringside, Roode attacks, hits his Glorious DDT on the outside, rolls him in the ring, hits another DDT, and successfully retains.

It had some shades of the Roadblock Dean Ambrose/Triple H match from last year.  I liked it, despite my lack of interest in Roode.

Overall a good show, despite my confusion on the tag match.  I’ll be watching next week!