WWE NXT: Results, Highlights and Grades for October 30, 2019

This week’s edition of WWE NXT provided several great matches and announcement for this year’s War Games match that will have a different twist.

It was another week and another solid show for WWE NXT. While many have been enthralled (and rightfully so) with the rise of AEW, NXT has continued to step up to the challenge delivering what is now WWE’s strongest showing of the week over Raw and SmackDown.

On this week’s episode, NXT delivered once again with several fast-paced, physical matches and a scathing promo from Finn Balor, who looks to be well on his way to stepping right back into being a major player at the top of the program’s card.

In addition, NXT also revealed who will be taking place in this year’s War Games match and unlike the previous two installments of the NXT version of the match, The Undisputed Era will not be involved, which makes things fresh and exciting on the road to Chicago.

To review this week’s episode, we’ll grade things on a five-star scale with five being a match of the year candidate and one being something that will make you run to the fridge or bathroom. Without further ado, let’s see what happened.

Io Shirai vs. Candice LeRae

The show kicked off on a loud note as Poppy took the stage to play “I Disagree” before Io Shirai made her entrance to “Scary Mask.” To be honest, I’ve never heard of this band before, but it made me even more terrified of Shirai, which is a good thing. LeRae made a much quicker entrance and after some brief words, we were underway.

This match got off with a bang with both ladies taking it to the outside. Shirai hit a tiger feint kick to take an early advantage, but LeRae took the momentum back with a taupe suicida. After Shirai hit a lung blower in the corner, she would slow things down and take the advantage.

Shirai has just done the little things well since becoming a heel last July. She slowed things down and even grabbed a handful of LeRae’s hair and twisted it around almost like a hammerlock…but with hair. As a result, LeRae would take quite the beating as she wound up with a bloody nose while trying everything to get back into the match, but Shirai seemed to have an answer no matter what.

Eventually, this match got more and more physical and Shirai would go all out by grabbing a chair from under the ring. After missing her target, LeRae would set up Shirai for a moonsault, but Shirai would roll out of the way, leaving the chair exposed for LeRae to crash down onto it. Shirai would roll over and make the cover to make it 2-for-2 over Candice Wrestling.

Winner: Io Shirai

After the match, Shirai looked to continue her beatdown of LeRae, but Rhea Ripley would come to LeRae’s aid and Shirai would retreat to the back. The start was exactly what you would expect for an opening match in NXT and the physicality kept getting turned up until Shirai wound up simply outsmarting her opponent for the win.

Grade: 4 out of 5 stars