Top 3 NXT performers of the week (29th of August)

After a quick backstage interview with William Regal, that played out throughout the episode, Johnny Gargano made his way down to the ring with a crutch in hand after his Last Man Standing match against Tomasso Ciampa.

Gargano cut an effective babyface promo, about being unable to overcome Ciampa, but first NXT GM William Regal, and then even the Velveteen Dream interrupted the promo. This set up a match for next week's episode.

The first match of the night saw Dakota Kai face off against Aaliyah. The Captain of "Team Kick" is a rewrite of the Bayley story to try to cash in on the success again. Kai defeated her opponent with an impressive Canadian Destroyer into a backbreaker.

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Backstage saw EC3 taken out by Lars Sullivan, which led to more bizarre backstage interviews with Nikki Cross and Bianca Belair. Lars Sullivan took EC3's place against Raul Mendoza. Sullivan picked up with the win after completely squashing Mendoza with several strikes and two Freak Accidents.

Ciampa delivered another one of his trademark promos backstage, delivering a warning to his future competition. One man who could vie for the NXT title in the future, Keith Lee, faced off against a debuting Luke Menzies. Lee is already incredibly over with the NXT crowd, who were chanting "Keith Lee" at various stages during the fight. Lee showed some of his remarkable agility, especially given his size, and Lee would put away his opponent with a sit-out powerbomb.

The main event of the episode saw a tag match between 4 of NXT's finest wrestlers. On one side, WWE UK Champion Pete Dunne and NXT North American Champion Ricochet, and in the other Undisputed Era's Roderick Strong and Adam Cole, with Kyle O'Reilly at ringside. The match started with former Tag Team partners Strong and Dunne in the ring.

Undisputed Era would pick up the win after Ricochet would accidentally hit Dunne with a Tope Suicida, followed by Adam Cole hitting Pete Dunne with the Last Shot. The Undisputed Era would lay a beat down on Ricochet, which brought out War Raiders.

A look at the standings so far show the table as follows:

#1 Zack Gibson - 3 Points

#2 Tommaso Ciampa - 3 points

#3 Johnny Gargano - 3 points

#4 Tyler Bate - 3 Points

#5 Pete Dunne - 2 Points

#6 Aleister Black - 2 points

#7 Shayna Baszler - 2 points

#8 Kairi Sane - 2 Points

#9 EC3 - 1 point

#10 Keith Lee - 1 point

#11 Roderick Strong - 1 Point

#12 Bianca Belair - 1 Point

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#3 Keith Lee

Limitless Keith Lee continues to impress since coming to NXT. Lee's second televised match, following his victory three weeks ago against Marcel Barthel, was against former rugby player Luke Menzies. Lee is a powerful big man but combines it with the agility of a smaller man.

Lee conjures memories of similarly agile big men such as Bam Bam Bigelow and Vader. Aside from Lee's aerial abilities, he also has a great set of power moves, showing a tackle that took Menzies off his feet and finished the match out with a Sit Out Powerbomb.

#2 Ricochet

This was an extremely difficult choice, to split between Ricochet and his partner for this week, Pete Dunne. However, the NXT North American Champion takes it due to the face that he was more involved in the match and told a wonderful story with his moves set.

Ricochet, having taken Adam Cole's North American title, and seemingly kicked up the hornet's nest of the Undisputed Era, spent more of the fight in the ring than Pete Dunne did.

Ricochet's criticism is that he tends towards "spots" as opposed to actual storytelling. That wasn't the case in this match, as the high flyer threw himself around against his equally talented opponents. With the fight in the balance, it was Ricochet's Tope Suicide which hit Dunne instead of Undisputed Era.

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#1 Undisputed Era

Undisputed Era undoubtedly stole the show this week in their match against Pete Dunne and Ricochet. From the swerve at the start, with Adam Cole taking Kyle O'Reilly's place in the match under the Freebird rules, to the end where they managed to pull off the win, beat down Dunne and Ricochet and scamper when the War Raiders charged to the ring, everything about this match was perfectly timed.

The match showed Roderick Strong's storyline with Dunne, Cole's recent issues with Ricochet, Undisputed Era's underhanded methods to win matches, and their ability to isolate Ricochet for the majority of the fight. The commentary also built on Dunne's trust issues, following Roderick Strong turn on him at Takeover: New Orleans.

This fed into the finish, with Ricochet's Tope Suicida hitting Dunne instead of the Undisputed Era will undoubtedly pay off later down the line.

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