WWE NXT results and observations (7/12/17): Hello, Bobby Fish. Goodnight, Bobby Fish
A massive tag team title match, a headline-grabbing debut and highly anticipated return highlighted an eventful edition of NXT Wednesday night.
We shall start with the main event, which was an NXT Tag Team championship match that saw the Authors of Pain successfully defend their titles against Heavy Machinery.
Heavy Machinery posed a big challenge to the Authors, but when it was all said and done, the champions prevailed in clean fashion.
However, things got interesting after the match when Sanity members Alexander Wolfe, Killian Dain and Nikki Cross walked onto the stage as pieces of paper began falling from the sky.
The announcers said they looked like pages from a book and surmised that they were pages from Paul Ellering's Book of Dominance. Somehow, Sanity got a hold of the book, tore the pages out and spread them all over the arena.
Wolfe even caught a few of the pages and stuffed them into his mouth.
In the night's opening match, we saw the debut of former Ring of Honor star Bobby Fish, who at 37 years of age has finally made his way to WWE/NXT.
Fish did not get a proverbial tomato can on his first night in the promotion, as he had to go against the undefeated Aleister Black.
Black made sure that Fish did not receive a warm welcome to NXT, as he defeated the veteran with the devastating black mass kick.
A name more familiar to the NXT audience finally resurfaced Wednesday night and that name was Johnny Gargano.
Gargano has not been not been on NXT television since NXT Takeover: Chicago back in May when his former tag team partner, Tommaso Ciampa, betrayed him after losing a ladder match to the Authors of Pain.
Gargano said that he was not going to dwell on that painful night. Instead, he said that he was going to move forward and get back to doing what he does best and that is competing in the ring.
In reality, Gargano has no choice but to move on from what Ciampa did to him, as Ciampa will be out for a significant amount of time due to a knee injury.
In the only other match on the show, we saw a pair of new faces compete in a qualifying match for the Mae Young Classic, as Vanessa Borne defeated Jayme Hachey.
As for next week, Drew McIntyre will face Killian Dain for the right to face NXT champion Bobby Roode at NXT Takeover: Brooklyn. Also, Ember Moon will face Ruby Riot.
- Aleister Black def. Bobby Fish
- Mae Young Classic qualifying match – Vanessa Borne def. Jayme Hachey
- NXT Tag Team championship – Authors of Pain def. Heavy Machinery
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