{"id":86236,"date":"2019-09-17T12:55:47","date_gmt":"2019-09-17T17:55:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/?p=86236"},"modified":"2019-09-17T12:55:47","modified_gmt":"2019-09-17T17:55:47","slug":"nxt-hits-misses-9-11-baszler-vs-rhea-ripley-johnny-gargano-segment-on-his-future-damien-priest-vs-boa-dunne-vs-garza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2019\/09\/17\/nxt-hits-misses-9-11-baszler-vs-rhea-ripley-johnny-gargano-segment-on-his-future-damien-priest-vs-boa-dunne-vs-garza\/","title":{"rendered":"NXT HITS &#038; MISSES 9\/11: Baszler vs. Rhea Ripley, Johnny Gargano segment on his future, Damien Priest vs. Boa, Dunne vs. Garza"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-3006698043\" class=\"pwtor-before-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><hr \/><b>SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)... <\/b>\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?show_id=3076978&theme=light&playlist=false&playlist-continuous=false&autoplay=false&live-autoplay=false&chapters-image=true&episode_image_position=right&hide-logo=false&hide-likes=false&hide-comments=false&hide-sharing=false&hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"140px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\r\n<hr \/><\/div><p><b>Damien Priest vs. Boa &#8211; HIT:<\/b> But just barely. Where this was a relatively lackluster match, it was nearly a miss for me. It was match to advance Priest\u2019s winning streak, nothing more and nothing less. I\u2019m all about building a heel with a decent winning streak before reaching that upper mid-card to main event level. For that reason alone, it was a hit for me since it is another stepping stone to advance Priest\u2019s story.<\/p>\n<p><b>Video Package for Velveteen Dream vs. Adam Cole live on USA &#8211; HIT:<\/b> I\u2019m not the first to say it, and I surely won\u2019t be the last. NXT has something special in The Velveteen Dream. His charisma is next level and clearly the machine is behind him if they continue to produce video packages like this. I say none of that to discredit Roderick Strong, as he is fantastic in his own right. However, I was left with a strong pro-Dream vibe coming out of that hype video potentially foreshadowing a victory over Strong live on USA next week. I won\u2019t complain, that North American championship title belt looks even classier over Dream\u2019s shoulder. Also, I won\u2019t ever get used to calling another wrestler \u201cDream\u201d.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Johnny Gargano Segment &#8211; HIT:<\/b> Now THAT\u2019s what you call &#8220;over&#8221;! Two minutes and twenty-six seconds of this NXT broadcast was devoted to the crowd chanting for Johnny Wrestling before Gargano uttered a word. As much as I hate to steal this from Michael Cole, I can only describe the crowd as \u201cElectric.. They want Johnny to stay put in NXT, and they sure expressed that sentiment. With a crowd reaction like that, it\u2019s clear that the best home for Gargano is on the Black and Gold brand. Shane Thorne\u2019s interruption was okay, though I\u2019m not sure if Thorne was necessarily the best person for that spot. I won\u2019t pass judgment on it, however, until I see how the story plays out!<\/p>\n<p><b>Pete Dunne vs. Angel Garza &#8211; HIT:<\/b>\u00a0Pete Dunne may have come out victorious, but Garza still looked strong even in defeat. He looked believable and credible against the more established \u201cBruiserweight\u201d and had the upper hand over Dunne for nearly half of the bout. Besides, if I was to rip off my pants in front of a live audience, I\u2019m sure I\u2019d wind up on a few government lists. Garza turns those tear-away tights into a brilliant, cocky heat magnet. Pete Dunne is always a treat to watch, and this match was no exception. It was no \u201cbarn burner\u201d by any stretch of the imagination, but a very solid TV matchup.<\/p>\n<p><b>Raul Mendoza vs. Cameron Grimes &#8211;<\/b> <b>MISS: <\/b>However, it wasn\u2019t due to either Mendoza or Grimes performances in the match. There was already a monster-building quasi-squash match earlier in the evening with Priest vs. Boa, leaving this match\u2019s story feeling a bit too similar for my liking. The match itself wasn\u2019t bad for what it was, but the similarities with the better squash match earlier in the night did not allow this to shine.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Rhea Ripley vs. Shayna Baszler &#8211; HIT: <\/b>I\u2019ve been waiting to see these two square-off since Rhea Ripley\u2019s second year in the Mae Young Classic where she debuted the current iteration of her character.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Going into the match, I sort of expected a non-finish. This match-up is too large for the Full Sail stage and a decisive finish should take place at a Takeover like it deserves. Rhea is probably Shayna\u2019s most credible opponent yet, and this ending was a great way to end the NXT on WWE Network era and user in the new era of NXT Live on USA!<\/p>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-3480178116\"><div id=\"pwtor-485706645\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nTHANK YOU FOR VISITING<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>Damien Priest vs. Boa &#8211; HIT: But just barely. Where this was a relatively lackluster match, it was nearly a miss for me. It was match to advance Priest\u2019s winning streak, nothing more and nothing <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2019\/09\/17\/nxt-hits-misses-9-11-baszler-vs-rhea-ripley-johnny-gargano-segment-on-his-future-damien-priest-vs-boa-dunne-vs-garza\/\" title=\"NXT HITS &#038; MISSES 9\/11: Baszler vs. Rhea Ripley, Johnny Gargano segment on his future, Damien Priest vs. Boa, Dunne vs. Garza\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20042,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,28,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-86236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opnionandanalysis","category-specialists_hitsandmisses","category-specialists"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/NXTArena_3x2Parry.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86236"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86236\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86237,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86236\/revisions\/86237"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}