Top 3 of NXT (19th of September 2018)

This episode of NXT was mainly built around the incredible hype going into the main event match between the NXT North American Champion, Ricochet, against the WWE United Kingdom Champion, Pete Dunne after Ricochet hit Pete Dunne accidentally during their tag team match against the Undisputed Era.

The episode was opened by a women's tag team match, which saw Dakota Kai and Deonna Purrazzo take on Aaliyah and Lacey Evans. Evans and Purrazzo started in the ring together, putting together some technical chain wrestling. The match seemed mainly used to promote this year's iteration of the Mae Young Classic and WWE women's only PPV, Evolution, as Commentary frequently mentioned both during the course of the bout. Evans and Aaliyah would pick up the win after Evans tagged herself in and hit the Women's Right on Dakota Kai.

Next up was Humberto Carrillo facing the debuting Jaxson Ryker, of the Forgotten Sons stable. Ryker, known better as Gunner from TNA Impact, used his size advantage to dominate his opponent. Ryker would defeat his opponent using a rope assisted power-bomb. The move made him look impressive, but in the rest of the match, he looked sloppy and the finisher looked a little haphazard.

The "whodunnit" regarding the attack on Aleister Black continued this week with Candace LaRae in Regal's office. The segment hinted that Gargano was the person behind the attack on Aleister Black. This was followed by video packages for the main event and the return of Keith Lee. This led to the build on EC3 with Lars Sullivan, promoting Sullivan's return to NXT in next weeks episode. as well as a small mention of Otis Dozevic's match against Tommaso Ciampa.

Finally, we arrived at the main event of the evening, the unifying title match between Ricochet and Pete Dunne. The match had a Takeover level of build behind it, with the crowd split 50/50 behind the two superstars. The match started with quick back and forth chain wrestling, which made the earlier women's tag team match look sloppy in comparison. The slow start to the match suited Pete Dunne over the high flying Ricochet. The two traded joint manipulating maneuvers, which escalated into trading strikes, this allowed Ricochet to increase the tempo of the bout.

The transitions and counters were unbelievable and the Full Sail NXT crowd was buying into every momentum change between the two. The two expertly used not only the entire ring but also the ringside area in the fight, mixed in with perfectly timed near falls. Undisputed Era came in and attacked both the competitors for a predictable double DQ finish, setting up the story going forward and protecting both the titles and their respective holders. The match was arguably one of the best matches on an episode of NXT and bodes well for the Black and Yellow brand going forward.

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#3 Humberto Carrillo

In a more bizarre twist, the loser of the squash match on this week's NXT outshone the opponent that he was supposed to make good. In a James Ellsworth twist of events, Humberto Carrillo outwrestled his opponent and sold his opponent expertly. His ability in the ring was clearly on show, despite his limited time in the ring.

While Rycker was the more pushed product in the bout Carrillo, who wrestles on the independent scene as Ultimo Ninja, came off looking as the better wrestler.

#2 Ricochet

Ricochet has had an impressive run of matches since signing for NXT, and this week's main event was no exception. Honestly, splitting the votes between second and first place this week was difficult. The match between Ricochet and Dunne was spectacular and would have been worthy of a slot at a Takeover event, such was the quality of the bout.

Ricochet played his part as the face-ier wrestler of the two, picking up the tempo of the fight when it needed to be raised and brought some of his signature high flying flare to the contest. Ricochet also told a story beautifully with his selling of Dunne's every submission and contortion.

#1 Pete Dunne

It was hard to split the votes this week, but Dunne pipped Ricochet this week to grab the top spot. Dunne continues to deliver quality match after quality match in NXT and this week was no exception. Dunne played the ring general, which is impressive due to the quality of the match and made more impressive when you realize that Dunne is still only 24 years old.

Dunne controlled the tempo against his more senior opponent and his submission and contortions make everything he does look meaningful. The difference at the end came down to the fact that at times, Ricochet looked tired as he tried to mount an offense, while Dunne maintained his intensity throughout the contest, while also showing how much the battle had weighed him down.

Dunne may be only relatively young compared to the superstars he is sharing the ring with, but he is proving match after match that he has what it takes to go step for step with them all the way.