WWE NXT Results - August 31, 2021

With Capitol Wrestling Center renovations on WWE's mind ahead of NXT's rebrand, the company brought fans the second of three taped editions of NXT on August 31.

Vignettes hyping up the match between Tommaso Ciampa and Ridge Holland aired throughout the show and the two rivals went one on one in the main event. 

In a somewhat shock result, Ciampa managed to overcome interference from Pete Dunne, Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch to vanquish Holland with a Willow's Bell after 12 minutes. 

Pete Dunne's faction attacked Ciampa after the bell, though, and they beat down the former NXT Champion until MSK made the save, leaving the babyfaces to stand tall as NXT went off the air. 

Two of NXT's established stars in Johnny Gargano and LA Knight also squared off on the August 31 show. Gargano has been distracted by the romance between Dexter Lumis and Indi Hartwell in recent weeks and much to Johnny Wrestling's chagrin, In-Dex accompanied him to the ring. 

This would ultimately be Gargano's downfall as after an entertaining match with LA Knight, Lumis went to high five The Way leader. All this did was distract Gargano, though, and Knight capitalised with BFT for the victory. 

NXT Champion Samoa Joe had a sit-down interview with Wade Barrett later in the show and Joe admitted he wants to reestablish what it means to be NXT Champion during his third reign with the gold by conducting himself in the utmost fashion as the standard-bearer of the brand. The Samoan Submission Machine then hinted he was only going to be a transitional champion as he asked who on the roster has what it takes to "seize their destiny" against him. 

Elsewhere on the show, Kyle O'Reilly defeated Duke Hudson, Roderick Strong overcame Ikemen Jiro alongside new Diamond Mine members Brutus and Julius Creed, Imperium picked up a win against Drake Maverick and his new tag team partner Grayson Waller, Raquel Gonzalez pinned Jessi Kamea while the NXT Women's Champion focussed her attention on Franky Monet, and Ilja Dragunov revealed he will return at a later date.  

Mandy Rose also faced off against Sarray in the opening contest, but the match came to an abrupt end after six minutes following a Dropkick from The Warrior Of The Sun. Rose immediately grabbed her face after the move and Gigi Dolin and Jacy Jayne walked Mandy backstage. This looks to be the first chapter in a feud, though, as Jayne and Dolin attacked Sarray backstage later in the episode. 

Several other matches and feuds were set up throughout the episode. Io Shirai and Zoey Stark will defend their NXT Women's Tag Team Championship for the first time against Kacy Catanzaro and Kayden Carter. Ember Moon will also face off against Kay Lee Ray at some point in the future, Cameron Grimes looks destined to face Grizzled Young Veterans, and Santos Escobar will take on Carmelo Hayes soon as they both pursue the NXT North American Title.