Dante Chen def. Keanu Carver
Dante Chen prides himself on being The Gatekeeper of NXT, and the popular veteran striker had another chance to put another newcomer to the test in his seesaw battle with Keanu Carver.
Carver enjoyed a solid start to his WWE career, impressing against Riley Osborne in a narrow loss during the first round of the NXT Breakout Tournament, but he missed the last six months with an injury and was hungry to jumpstart his career with a return victory.
Carver nearly accomplished the feat when he landed an impressive release suplex and a ring-rattling spinebuster for a two-count, but Chen got back on track with several menacing right hands and sealed the win by bouncing off the ropes and tattooing his foe with the Chentle Touch.
Wendy Choo def. Lainey Reid via Submission
Wendy Choo has undergone one of the most shocking transformations of any WWE Superstar in recent history, morphing from the happy-go-lucky Sleepy Superstar into an almost zombified competitor who sports a mask that reads “dead inside” across her forehead.
Whatever her reasons may be, the approach paid dividends against the bubbly Lainey Reid, who seemed hesitant in the early goings against the unsettling Choo and was soon on the receiving end of a slingshot into the top turnbuckle and a modified flatliner.
Reid struck back with several left hands and a nasty neckbreaker, but Choo rolled through a standing crossbody and forced the tapout by catching her opponent in an airtight Sleeper.
Edris Enofé def. Kale Dixon
After watching his tag team partner Malik “The Freak” Blade notch a pair of impressive singles victories in recent weeks, the charismatic Edris Enofé wanted to follow suit against the returning Kale Dixon.
The WWE Universe would be hard-pressed not to at least slightly empathize with the arrogant Dixon, who missed seven months due to a debilitating injury and once again found himself out of commission for almost three months after receiving a bone-rattling Spear from Bron Breakker on the May 20 edition of Raw.
Dixon drew the ire of the NXT Arena when he wiggled his hips, landed a disrespectful chop to the back of Enofé and took time to showboat, but “The EOE” caught fire in the second half of the bout and scored the three-count after a nasty DDT and a breathtaking top-rope elbow.