5 Ups & 2 Downs From NXT: The Great American Bash

1. Great American Mash

Make no mistake about this, NXT had enough TakeOver quality storylines to let them throw together a big show at a week's notice. Strong and Lumis needed to be resolved, Thatcher was due another appearance, Kai, Nox, Yim and LeRae all had claims to being number 1 contender, and with Io easily seeing off Sasha and Bayley the other week there was always money in a single's match there too.

Add to that the forthcoming Winner-Taker-All match for the NXT and North American Championships, and you have an incredible two hours of TV. Sadly though, AEW had gone and booked themselves 4 hours of Fyter Fest, so more big clashes needed to be thrown together in a hurry.

NXT's solution to this was a 15-minute segment of the show that managed to book FIVE new matches for next week. Candice ended up in a brawl with Mia Yim, this then saw Jonny Gargano challenging Isaiah "Swerve" Scott (somehow), Santos Escobar and Friends built to a 6-man-tag against Drake Maverick and Breezango, Cameron Grimes accepted Damian Priest's rematch challenge, before Mercedes Martinez promised to return in just 7 days.

Much like the big sticker just slapped over the Great American Bash sign, this was a really hollow way to promote a show. No doubt some of these will be excellent to watch, but it just served to expose how quickly this whole show was thrown together.