Dragon Lee was able to dethrone Judgement Day’s hold on WWE NXT at Deadline, taking down Dominik Mysterio and becoming the new North American Champion. Lee wasn’t resting on his laurels either, as he issued a challenge for tonight’s NXT, and his first Title defense was against the big strong boy Tyler Bate. Bate was more than up for the challenge, and the two superstars were already quite familiar with each other, as they would continually counter and reverse each other’s offense. They even collided on multiple occasions trying to do the same move. It was Lee though who would find a way to take the challenger down after stomping Bate while he was tied up in the ropes and then finishing things with an operation dragon, retaining his NXT North American Championship.
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Lee knocked down Bate and then the two evaded each other before Bate caught Lee and spun him around for a few turns. Bate brought Lee down to the mat with a hold and then caught each other’s feet and missed each other after both going for dropkicks. Bate kept evading Lee’s moves and went for a roll up but Lee got his shoulder up. The two stars went for moves at the same time again and ended up colliding in a double clothesline.
Bate went up top and delivered an uppercut, and then went for a move in the corner but Lee superkicked him right in the throat. Another superkick from Lee followed and that knocked Bate out to the floor, setting him up for a dive from Lee. Lee connected with another kick and then hit the missile dropkick into a cover, but Bate was able to get his shoulder up and break up the pin.
Bate caught Lee on his next move and spun him around for quite a while, finally slamming Lee down. Bate went for a cover but Lee kicked out. The two exchanged kicks but then Lee hit a German suplex. Bate was quickly on his feet and he hit a clothesline into another cover, but Lee kicked out again. Bate went up top quickly, Lee knocked Bate down onto the turnbuckle and then hung him up in the ropes, and he capitalized with double stomps to the chest of Bate.
Bate countered another move but Lee countered the counter and went for the cover, but Bate kicked out. They exchanged punches and then Lee hit the operation dragon and that was enough for the pin and the win. Lee has retained the WWE NXT North American Champion.
It seems Lee is going to be a fighting Champion if tonight’s challenge was anything to go by, and he’ll have plenty of challengers lining up for a shot at the Title. Lee won the Title at Deadline with the legendary Rey Mysterio in his corner, which would play a big role in the match thanks to the distractions his presence caused Dominik.
We’ll have to wait and see what happens next with Bate, but it does seem he’s becoming a bit frustrated. He still shook Lee’s hand after the match, but Bate gave the slight impression that we might be seeing some sort of shift after this loss.
