WWE NXT: In-Dex sets a wedding date but inadvertently costs Gargano a victory

With all the attention going into the night on the new WWE NXT logo and the apparent rebrand on everyone’s mind, there was no shortage of anticipation to see how things looked right from the start. Despite all of that rebrand anticipation, things looked absolutely the same as always, with the black and gold brand still apparently in the process of pulling the trigger on those changes.

The show got rolling with Mandy Rose, who was accompanied to the ring by Gigi Dolan and Cora Jade. Her opponent, Sarray, got a great reaction from the crowd on her way out and definitely set herself as the fan favorite as things got rolling.

Sarray had some good offense in the early on, nailing a tight fisherman suplex for a near fall and later nearly decapitating Mandy Rose with a powerful spinning roundhouse kick. However, once Rose took control the entire thing began to shift.

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Mandy Rose held that advantage for some time, working slow and methodical as she wore down Sarray and tried to prevent any sort of comeback while Jade and Dolan cheered Rose on from ringside. After surviving a big fallaway slam by Rose, Sarray turned the tide and put her in an impressive submission before delivering some fantastic dropkicks soon after.

The final dropkick sent Rose to the outside, at which point Jade and Dolan grabbed a white towel from ringside and used it to cover Mandy Rose’s face. Despite the referee continuing the countout, they just ignored it and kept Rose covered on the way out.

Sarray defeated Mandy Rose via countout.

They showed a slow-motion impact after the match during replays to apparently highlight the damage to Rose’s face, and after the match, Sarray got to do some celebrating.

Following the contest, things cut to a backstage promo from Tommaso Ciampa, who was set to take on Ridge Holland later in the night. Ciampa was his usual intense self, and called out the numbers game being used to attack him and Timothy Thatcher the week before.

After an impassioned threat to take things out on Holland later in the night, Ciampa dedicated the beating to “Toothless Timmy” and stood up so violently that the steel chair he was seated on when flying into the metal gate behind him.

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We then got a graphic advertising that Kyle O’Reilly vs. Duke Hudson was up next. Following that, they aired the very colorful short video highlighting the rebranded NXT logo with the final message “COMING” at the end of it, but we don’t know when that rebrand will arrive.

After the commercial, Duke Hudson was out first to a less than receptive audience knowing exactly who they want to support in this contest. Spoiler alert: it ain’t Duke Hudson.

Kyle O’Reilly came out second, receiving a raucous reaction from the live audience at the Capitol Wrestling Center, and he was just as loose and ready to fight as ever. Hudson didn’t really look impressed, but he popped a smirk as soon as O’Reilly pulled his shirt off and revealed Kinesio tape covering a large section of his ribs on one side.

Hudson immediately tried to target it, but O’Reilly got the early offense before being floored with a stiff punch by Hudson. Kyle turned to a ground game at that point, looking to get the taller opponent off his feet and bring him to the mat.

O’Reilly managed to get a lot of offense rolling at times, but Hudson continued to deliver powerful counters and kept his assault targeted on the injured area on O’Reilly the entire time. Hudson even added insult to injury by mocking O’Reilly’s beloved air guitar while Kyle was down.

Kyle O’Reilly managed to start changing things for a moment with a flurry of pinpoint strikes, but Hudson brought him sky-high before dropping him ribs first on Hudson’s knee for a ribbreaker. Things went to picture in picture commercial with Hudson still in control and continuing his targeted attacks.

Back from commercial, O’Reilly tried to turn the tide multiple times and finally powered through the reversals by Hudson with a massive series of kicks to take him down. He followed it up by pulling Hudson to the mat with a dragon screw before more strikes targeted his lower body.

O’Reilly seemed to finally catch Hudson with a guillotine choke, but Hudson was able to lift him off the mat and drive O’Reilly into the corner to break the hold. However, it was all over once O’Reilly managed a pair of rope-assisted dragon screws at a diving knee drop to the back of Hudson’s leg.

After the impact from the knee drop, O’Reilly immediately trapped Hudson in a knee bar and got a quick tapout to take the win despite a great effort by Hudson throughout the contest.

Kyle O’Reilly defeated Duke Hudson via submission.

Before heading to commercial again, we saw a brief shot of new NXT United Kingdom Champion Ilja Dragunov walking backstage and clearly feeling the damage he took against Walter at NXT TakeOver 36.

Back from commercial, we got a recap first of Indi Hartwell proposing to Dexter Lumis and it was announced that their wedding will take place on Tuesday, Sept. 14 during that night’s episode of WWE NXT. Beth Phoenix was very happy and gave Wade Barrett an In-Dex t-shirt which Barrett promptly tossed into the crowd.

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Ilja Dragunov finally made his way to the ring and attempted to do his usual conducting motions, but was clearly barely able to walk due to the damage he took against Walter in his championship victory.

Before he could even speak, the Capitol Wrestling Center audience gave Ilja a lengthy “you deserve it” chant. Dragunov explained he wanted the crowd to see he’s “still alive” before he heads back to NXT UK.

After talking about the intensity of the battle he survived, Dragunov assured the crowd he’ll be back and they will see him again. He then asked who is willing to take go through “the struggle” to take the NXT UK Championship from him before heading out.

After that, we got an interview with Kay Lee Ray conducted by Arash Markazi. Things didn’t last for long, but Kay Lee Ray made her intentions of being a mainstay in the division clear before trashing most of the other women on the roster and bragging that she’s capable of “anything she wants.”

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Back from commercial, there was a brief interview with NXT Breakout Tournament Winner Carmelo Hayes, who discussed how he might go for any of the championships in NXT before getting interrupted by Elektra Lopez. Legado del Fantasma wasn’t far behind, and Santos Escobar made it quite clear that the North American Championship is off-limits for Hayes and is something only Escobar will be winning.

Next up we had a tag team match with Fabian Aichner and Marcel Barthel of Imperium up against the new duo of Drake Maverick and Grayson Waller. It was Waller who started things, but save for a few strikes he was absolutely dominated by Aichner and then Barthel.

Drake Maverick got a great hot tag and came in with a flurry of offense, but just as he was gaining momentum, Grayson tagged himself back in. As Maverick tried to tell him this wasn’t the right time to do that, Grayson at a stiff boot, and Maverick was tossed to the outside.

Imperium followed up with a devastating Imperial Bomb on Grayson Waller to pick up the rudimentary three count for a victory.

Imperium (Fabian Aichner & Marcel Barthel) defeated Drake Maverick & Grayson Waller.

We saw a brief interaction backstage after the contest where Indi Hartwell tried to convinced Johnny Gargano to give Dexter Lumis a chance, and it was announced that In-Dex would be in Gargano’s corner for his upcoming match against LA Knight.

After a commercial break, we heard from Oney Lorcan, Danny Burch, Pete Dunne, and Ridge Holland ahead of Holland’s match later in the night against Tommaso Ciampa. They didn’t have a lot of words, but Holland did insist that Ciampa’s motivation can be shared with Timothy Thatcher when they’re both in the hospital next to each other.

Finally, Johnny Gargano made his way to the ring for the next context with In-Dex awkwardly around him and keeping Gargano less than comfortable. LA Knight was out moments later to a crowd that definitely wasn’t in his favor.

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The crowd delivered some loud “LA sucks” chants as things got rolling, followed by “In-Dex” chants, and Johnny Gargano quickly took control in the early part of the contest. After an early Garga-No Escape attempt was foiled by a rope break, Gargano used his advantage to work the arm of LA Knight.

The action spilled to the outside shortly after with a dive by Gargano, and Johnny Wrestling kept the focus on the arm when it got back into the ring. LA Knight finally got a reprieve for a moment after guillotining Gargano on the ropes to shift the tide before the commercial break.

After the commercial, we returned with LA Knight firmly in control for some time before Gargano finally nailed a second rope swinging flatliner to change things. He followed it with a slingshot spear not long after, but only got a near fall as Knight managed to kick out.

Gargano kept things in hand before attempting the One Final Beat, but Knight countered with a punch that knocked Gargano off the apron and into the waiting arms of Dexter Lumis. Lumis then saved Gargano from a sneak attack by Knight moments later by shoving him out of harm’s way, and the distraction was enough for Gargano to superkick Knight and toss him back into the ring.

Before Gargano could capitalize, Indi Hartwell insisted Gargano touch hands with Lumis first, and the distraction let Knight recover and nail the BFT on a preoccupied Gargano for the sudden victory.

LA Knight defeated Johnny Gargano via pinfall.

Following the contest, things went backstage, where NXT Tag Team Champions MSK visited William Regal’s office. Wes Lee and Nash Carter insisted that Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch deserved a title shot due to having never lost the titles, and Regal stated he was willing to make it happen because of MSK’s request. The match is set for next week with the titles on the line.

Following another commercial, we got a brief promo from Boa of Tian Sha that confirmed Mei Ying will compete for the first time in NXT next week as well. They cut to the ring after, and we already had Jessi Kamea ready to compete with Franky Money and Robert Stone with her in the ring.

NXT Women’s Champion Raquel Gonzalez was next out, and she immediately used her power to take control the moment the bell rang. Gonzalez utilized her strength advantage to deliver plenty of early offense, including a fantastic corkscrew Vader Bomb.

However, Kamea quickly began targeting the leg and was able to change the landscape of the match. With Kamea’s offense focused, Gonzalez was on the defense and even failed an attempted powerbomb because her leg gave out.

It wasn’t enough to keep her down, as Gonzalez fought through the pain and delivered a huge lariat that was followed by the Chingona Bomb for a dominant victory.

Raquel Gonzalez defeated Jessi Kamea via pinfall.

Following the match, we got a brief backstage interview with Ember Moon, who called out Kay Lee Ray for talking about her during the earlier interview by Ray. Moon insisted Ray keep her name out of Ray’s mouth and challenged her to a match next week during WWE NXT.

We then got to hear from the newly crowned three-time NXT Champion Samoa Joe who was interviewed by Wade Barrett. As they always do, Joe’s words were calm, dangerous, and calculated as ever.

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Samoa Joe discussed having been at the NXT tryouts prior to SummerSlam before having to take a red-eye flight back to the Capitol Wrestling Center before capturing the title. Samoa Joe emphasized the legacy of former champions like Finn Balor and Shinsuke Nakamura before making clear that he intends to be the standard-bearer and set the precedent moving forward for what an NXT Champion needs to be.

Back to the action, we got Roderick Strong on his way to the ring with Malcolm Bivens and the rest of Diamond Mine accompanying him. Ikemen Jiro was shown in a pre-match promo from earlier in the day accepting the open challenge, and he was already in the ring following Strong’s entrance to get the match rolling.

Strong delivered his trademark stiff offense early on, but Jiro got a brief upper hand until missing a leap to the outside. Strong caught Jiro with a hip toss into the steel steps which would’ve given Strong the win via countout if he’d not intentionally thrown Jiro back into the ring.

Ikemen Jiro was able to get some offense and mount a comeback for some time, delivering a great innovative springboard moonsault, but it couldn’t last. As soon as Strong got an opening, he hit a devastating knee before nailing two stiff backbreakers to take the victory.

Roderick Strong defeated Ikemen Jiro via pinfall.

After the match, we got a backstage face-to-face with NXT Women’s Tag Team Champions Io Shirai and Zoey Stark as well as their challengers for next week, Kayden Carter and Kacy Catanzaro. After Kacy and Kayden insisted their real friendship would give them the edge, Io Shirai explained that she didn’t like any of them, even Zoey, but Zoey is on her team so they would win.

After a final commercial, Cameron Grimes was interviewed following his victory at NXT TakeOver 36, but he was quickly interrupted by Grizzled Young Veterans, who attacked him for having only won a replica championship that meant nothing. Grimes held a replica Million Dollar Championship they brought for a moment before “accidentally” dropping it onto Zack Gibson’s toe and exclaiming he’s on his way “TOE THE MOON” before exiting stage left.

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It was then finally time for the main event, and Tommaso Ciampa was the first man to make his way to the ring for the final violent clash of the night. Ridge Holland followed suit with Oney Lorcan, Danny Burch, and Pete Dunne accompanying to the ring.

While Tommaso Ciampa got the early offense following a lockup, Holland was able to land a huge belly-to-belly suplex that gave him a brief burst of momentum. Ciampa got him into the corner shortly after and went for two straight running knees, but Holland was yanked out of the ring by his stablemates before the second could connect.

Ciampa kept on him on the outside by sending Holland into the barricade, the ringpost, and hitting a huge knee as he was draped on the commentary table. After things got back in the ring, there was just enough of a distraction from Dunne, Lorcan, and Burch at ringside to let Holland reclaim the advantage.

After and during a picture-in-picture commercial, Holland remained firmly in control with the majority of the offense and continued to lean on Ciampa with a series of holds and strikes. Ciampa finally changed things with a huge throat chop that gave him a chance to gain momentum, and a knee to the jaw soon after was the precursor to some big corner lariats on Holland.

Ciampa managed to regain the momentum and went for the Fairy Tale Ending, but Holland managed to turn it into a vicious Alabama Slam. The referee seemed concerned with Ciampa’s landing and kept Holland off him for a bit, but Ciampa waved him off and insisted things continue.

Holland seemed to have the match firmly in hand after that, but a series of strike exchanges ensued before things spilled to the outside and Holland drove Ciampa into the barricade. As they were getting the action back into the ring, Ciampa managed to take advantage of a few openings to hit a stiff knee on the apron before delivering Willow’s Bell for a sudden and decisive victory.

Tommaso Ciampa defeated Ridge Holland via pinfall.

Only moments after Ciampa’s win, we saw Oney Lorcan, Danny Burch, and Pete Dunne flood the ring and begin a relentless beatdown on Tommaso Ciampa. Fortunately, it was NXT Tag Team Championship MSK who made the save and helped Ciampa fend off the group to stand tall as the show came to a close.