WWE NXT Results: Highlights, Analysis, and Grades for February 15

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DIY Promo

Tommaso Ciampa talked about their TakeOver: Toronto match receiving Match of the Year. Johnny Gargano plays up the Authors of Pain and the loss at TakeOver: San Antonio. Gargano says they saw “doubt” in the eyes of the Authors and DIY is far from broken. He then proclaims their desire for a rematch.

Paul Ellering comes out with the Authors and says they will get their rematch in two weeks. Ellering tells them to make peace beforehand. Then the Revival attack from behind and take out Gargano and Ciampa. AoP runs in and chases Dash and Dawson away.

The dynamic between these three teams is starting to iron out. While it looked like the Revival’s promo from last Wednesday had babyface hints, it seems that they’re going to play the middle man role here. This is while the Authors of Pain are the bad guys and DIY are the fan favorite. So everything is clear here, something that needed to be established.

The one issue here was Gargano’s promo. It didn’t come off incredibly well and the crowd seemed confused by it. Johnny Wrestling isn’t great on the microphone, to begin with, but he’s better than what he showe dhere.

Kassius Ohno Vignette

We get a vignette for Kassius Ohno, who returned to WWE NXT for the first time in three years. He talked about how dangerous of a man he is.

WWE already promoted Ohno’s NXT Championship match with Bobby Roode for the upcoming Orlando taping, so he’ll be here soon. With seven weeks until Orlando, it could be a little while until the bout happens.

With NXT struggling for star power, Ohno may be relied on from the start. He was terrific on the independent scene after being released by WWE in 2013, but is he enough of an attraction to sell out seats in the main event?

William Regal in Office

Regal makes a triple threat match between Peyton Royce, Ember Moon, and Liv Morgan to become the new No. 1 Contender to the NXT Women’s Championship.

Woah. That came out of nowhere. No Nikki Cross here is interesting, but I think they may be saving that for a late date — likely TakeOver: Orlando. She could also make her way in here in some way.

Not sure about the logic of putting Morgan and Royce in the mix, however. Both haven’t been made to look particularly strong in recent weeks, and the former hasn’t been sharp either. Would have rather seen Billie Kay replace Morgan and give the Icons a chance to redo the double team offense they did in San Antonio.

Moon is by far the favorite here, however. Royce has already taken a pinfall from Asuka and Morgan barely lasted with the champion. That sets up the former Athena to step in and have the match fans have anticipated for her since arriving last August.

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WWE United Kingdom Championship Match
Tyler Bate (c) vs. Trent Seven

Result: Tyler Bate defeated Trent Seven via pinfall to retain the WWE United Kingdom Championship.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Bate and Seven are tag team partners in PROGRESS Wrestling, something that Tom Phillips properly brought up. There’s history between these two, and the in-ring work made it look like it.

The first chop that Seven hit on Bate was BRUTAL. The champ cringed, something that looked plenty like real pain and not selling. The mark on his chest even showed it.

The days of the Full Sail crowd freaking out over almost every matches are long gone with the current state of NXT. TV matches haven’t been made to be important in months, with the big contests saved for the live specials. So it was nice to see this bout get a “this is awesome” chant after Seven connected with a devastating clothesline, that flipped Bate. These two also connected well, which goes back to working together in the United Kingdom for the past few years.

Next: WWE SmackDown Review, February 14

Bate and Seven put on a terrific performance here and should be back on NXT soon. The future is still unknown for them in WWE, though, with no UK show having been announced. More appearances like this may be in the cards before we get there.