WWE NXT on USA: Live Results, Highlights, and Grades for Sept. 25

Imperium (Marcel Barthel, Fabian Aichner, & Alexander Wolfe) vs. Kushida & Breezango (Tyler Breeze & Fandango)

Look, I am an unapologetic Breezango mark. I love seeing them get matches of importance, and I wish they got a bigger push on the main roster, yada yada yada. But given the brawl last week with roughly the entire locker room, or other superstar’s troubles with WALTER and Imperium, there were a TON of other options for Kushida here. Mustache Mountain? Street Profits? How about Rik Bugez, Riddick Moss, anyone from 205 Live?

Nitpicky comments aside, the rationale put forth by Mauro Ranallo and Nigel McGuinness (and to a lesser extent, Beth Phoenix) as to WHY Kushida chose them and what it meant to Imperium made me appreciate the decision. “The mat is sacred,” says Imperium, so two guys dressed like Hot Cops teaming up with the Japanese Marty McFly would make WALTER’s buddies absolutely furious.And it absolutely showed during the match. Wolfe almost took out Breeze’s neck with a ridiculous straightjacket neckbreaker onto his knee, for Pete’s sake. Barthel is somehow perfect as a smarmy jerk of a heel, almost like the number two to WALTER’s leadership.

As for Aichner, I feel like I say this all the time about him, but this dude deserves an award for Most Improved. Remember him in the Cruiserweight Classic back in 2016? He’s like twice the size he was back then, but still moves the same way. It’s incredibly impressive.

https://twitter.com/WWENXT/status/1177037891198808065

One more nitpick on this one, but this one is a little bigger than “Why’d Kushida pick Breezango?” The main players in this story were Kushida and Imperium — yeah, Kushida got the pin, but his biggest involvement was really getting booted in the face by Big Daddy WALTER on the stage.

Winners: Kushida & Breezango

Rating: 3.0 out of 5 Stars

I truly enjoyed the match, because honestly almost all trios matches and six-person tag matches are great. It’s just the chaos of the excessive amount of bodies in the ringside area that adds to the match, you know? I just wish that Kushida had a bit more to do during it, since it was his story being told.

That’s a warp for this week’s episode of WWE NXT — what did you think? Sound off in the comments, and check out a full two hours on the USA Network next week, with a TON of championship matches!