Velveteen Dream vs. No Way Jose
Upon return, Dream lands a jaw breaker and a slam to shift control. He goes for what appeared to be the Purple Rainmaker but Jose gets both boots up to the jaw. Jose with a group of straight rights and tossing a pretty large man in Dream all the way across the ring. Jose embracing the cheers for his opponents and using it as fuel. He winds up for his baseball pitch, but Dream bounces off with a drop kick. He quickly follows with the rolling death valley driver and puts the cherry on top with the purple rainmaker.
Winner via Pinfall: Velveteen Dream
– After the match, Velveteen Dream takes the mic and says he wins all the awards and it doesn’t matter who won last year’s accolades. He says his name is clearly on the tip of everyone’s tongues, which sparks another chant.
Vanessa Borne vs. Nikki Cross
The bell rings and Nikki storms into Vanessa with a shove and ground and pound. Borne reverses a whip but Nikki just jumps on top of her for a sleeper hold. Borne slings her down. Cross seems to be enjoying the pain that Borne is dishing out as she uses the ropes and the count to her advantage. Variety of power moves by Borne only gets a two before she cinches in the chin lock. Borne resorting to disrespectful tactics which only fires Cross up. Running cross body, pair of forearms, corner avalanche. Diving cross body and rolls through instead of the pin. Cross hits her swinging neck breaker dubbed “the purge” for the fairly quick win.
Winner via Pinfall: Nikki Cross
– A look back at the budding rivalry between Aleister Black and Killian Dain.
Andrade “Cien” Almas vs. Johnny Gargano (NXT Championship Match)
If Gargano loses, he leaves NXT…
Almas exasperated continues to look for ways to close the deal. He perches the challenger up top for an extreme hammerlock DDT. Johnny blocks. Gargano caught on the ropes now as Almas takes advantage of the fact. He has bad intentions, but Gargano untangles himself in time to knock Almas down. Diving DDT to the outside, quickly rolls him in, slingshot DDT, but only a two once again. They essentially try to hold onto each other just to get themselves off the ground. They hit last ditch efforts on their knees as they club away in the middle of the ring. Thunderous chop by Almas followed by a super kick from Gargano. Almas lines up for an elbow but hits the official instead. Gargano uses the minor distraction to lock in the GargaNO Escape. The referee is down. Tommaso Ciampa enters from the crowd and nails his former best friend with his now infamous crutch. Almas up and hits the hammerlock DDT. The referee comes to and slowly makes the three count.
Winner & STILL NXT Champion: Andrade “Cien” Almas
– They recap the highlights of the match and the stakes. With the loss, Gargano must now leave NXT. Almas and Vega celebrate on the ramp as an emotional Gargano recovers in the ring. A big “Thank You Johnny” chant rings out as his wife Candice comes out to console him. The ring announcer makes it official that Gargano must leave NXT as the crowd erupts into “NO” chants. A vocal few seem to be happy with this, but the rest of the crowd gives him a standing ovation. He makes his emotional exit as Ciampa is shown in the crowd waving goodbye with a sly Sicilian smile.
