WWE NXT on USA: Results, Highlights, and Grades for Oct. 2

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Velveteen Dream Speaks

I love Velveteen Dream. I really do. But as he started his promo, my wife — who hasn’t been watching much NXT lately (though was proud she knew Adam Cole as “that baybay guy, right?”) — asked me, “Uh, what’s his deal?”

And that’s my fear — a more casual viewer might not appreciate the in-your-face appearance of Dream, and he’ll suffer longterm as a result. His promos are full of innuendo, his delivery crisp and clean, but he may rub people the wrong way if they don’t understand him.

At this point in his career, and at this point in WWE NXT’s run on USA, it might be best to keep Dream in matches, and save his promos for heavily-produced backstage segments. It’s a good way to ease him into the good graces of the new audience without coming on too strong, in my opinion.

Io Shirai vs. Mia Yim

While I appreciate the “limited commercial interruption of this week’s NXT, I wish this match would have been able to avoid the little box during the ad break. Too much of the good stuff in this match was tough to see because of the itty-bitty size over two sets of commercials.

But the bits that were visible? Exactly what you’d expect from two athletes as talented as Shirai and Yim. You had a very simple story being told — Shirai went after the leg as per Mia’s history of injury, as well as trying to counter Yim’s height advantage. Mia, the clear babyface, had to overcome the odds.

I think the match may have suffered a little bit from crowd fatigue — one of the drawbacks of opening the show with your main event and a possible Match of the Year contender. But given the adversity, I think it clicked nicely, especially when the crowd came around by the end of the match.

It may have gone a little long — this was a TakeOver level match on regular TV after a HUGE world title match. Still, I’ll never complain about getting to watch Shirai’s moonsault, so this one is ultimately A-OK by me.

Winner: Io Shirai

Rating: 2.75 out of 5 Stars

Curious to see if Shirai enters the Women’s Title picture moving forward here, since she seems to be slowly getting built back up. And I’m not sure what this means for Yim, who has been on a bit of a downward spiral in the record book lately.