WWE Reveals NXT Heatwave Date and First Match

WWE reveals first match and date for NXT Heatwave

By Matthew Aguilar

It seems WWE NXT has revealed its next special event during tonight's broadcast, and it will be NXT Heatwave. During a promo between Trick Williams and Ilja Dragunov, Williams challenged Dragunov to a match at Heatwave, which was a surprise since NXT hadn't actually revealed Heatwave was happening. Then the two weeks from now line came up, so we know Heatwave will happen on August 22nd. The first match is already all but set between Dragunov and Williams, and since it's only two weeks away, you can expect more matches to come into view sooner than later.

Another match that seems likely for Heatwave is Mustafa Ali vs. Dominik Mysterio for the North American Championship. Ali challenged the winner of tonight's match between Dominik and Dragon Lee to a Title match, and since Dominik is likely to win despite Rey Mysterio being in Lee's corner, Ali vs. Dominik could be one of the big matches on the card.

That said, they could go with the Triple Threat matcha again as they did with Wes Lee vs. Ali vs. Mysterio, but we'll have to wait and see. On the women's division side, Tiffany Stratton could end up defending her Championship, but it's not quite clear who she would be defending against. Could it be Roxanne Perez, who took down Blair Davenport at the Great American Bash? Or could it be Lyra Valkyria, who took down Jack Jayne at the Great American Bash? Both stars took down big opponents that could set them up for a Title shot.

Speaking of Great American Bash, it was also the NXT debut of Gable Steveson, who recently revealed he would be sticking around in NXT to start up his WWE career. In the before-event press conference, Shawn Michaels revealed how Steveson's decision to join NXT came about and what led to him making his debut at the Great American Bash.

"So look I will say this, as to your point, he has been here in the WWE for a while. He has been down here for a bit. I will be straightforward and honest, and again, like always, I never know if I'm supposed to say stuff or not. He had been here, and I wanted to know if we could do something with this guy. I want to get him into the mix, can I do that? Sometimes people fall under different genres, different rules. I don't ask a ton of questions, but he is someone if we could do it, let's do it," Michaels said.

"So I brought it up and I got the go-ahead. Like you said, a bit abrupt, but let's see how it works," Michaels said. "I think he has, obviously, he's an incredibly intelligent and talented young man, so let's get him to work. He's another guy, following in the footsteps of someone like a Kurt Angle, and I'd want to get out there right away and see if I could be as good as Kurt was, or better. So I got the green light and we're doing it, and I'm excited about what he can bring to the table in NXT."

Are you excited for Heatwave? Let us know in the comments or as always you can talk all things wrestling with me on Threads @mattaguilarcb!

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