Peter Kostka
We open with the same Dusty Rhodes tribute that they’ve ran the last few shows. RIP Big Dust.
From the NXT Arena at Full Sail University. Your commentators are Rich Brennan, Corey Graves and Byron Saxton.
Enzo Amore, BIG CASS and Carmella vs. Blake, Murphy and Alexa Bliss
Carmella gets her own burn in on Alexa by saying she is “going to get dissed: disfigured and dismissed.” Blake is sporting some lovely pigtails. Slow start as Blake controls with basic offense until Enzo levels him with a crossbody and a brawl breaks out with the Noo Yawkers taking control and sending the heels to the outside as we take a break.
Murphy causes the distraction to allow Blake to take control and the tag champs take control on Enzo with a lots and LOTS of chinlocks. Enzo comes back and outfoxes the heel and makes the hot tag….to Carmella. She runs wild on Alexa who wants no more and tags out, so Cass disposes of the tag champs by himself and throws Enzo on top of Murphy for the pin. A decent enough TV match to put Enzo and Cass back in the title picture.
Stills of Kevin Owens losing at Money in the Bank but winning in the end by powerbombing Cena into the apron.
Devin asks Samoa Joe if Owens was the reason he came to NXT. He says he always wants to be where the hottest thing is and that is NXT. He just doesn’t like Kevin Owens and thinks his intimidation tactics are for the weak. Tonight, Kevin is in for a beating.
The reason for watching this episode is next as we get the first part of a look at Finn Balor and the man who portrays him, Fergal Devitt. I’ve always wanted them to do something like this for him because not everyone that watches NXT knows about his history (including me) and this is done in the fantastic documentary style that WWE does so damn well. We get footage of Devitt at a very young age as he began his career and get comments from Becky Lynch, who gets emotional as she says that she wouldn’t be where she is now if Devitt didn’t help create a wrestling school in Ireland. We then get clips of Fergal in Insane Championship Wrestling and other UK indies which blows my goddamn mind. He notes that the president of New Japan Pro Wrestling saw him at a show and offered him a spot in the Dojo to train. And we will pick things up next week from there. If they actually air New Japan footage on WWE television….
This is MUST SEE stuff and why WWE doesn’t bust these things out for everyone and fill the Network with this stuff I don’t know.
Charlotte vs. Cassie
Charlotte emulates her dad as, after a nice opening sequence, offers Cassie a high five but pulls away at the last second, smoothing her hair and strutting. Cassie actually shows off some nice agility and skill before Charlotte DESTROYS her with a spear and locks in the Figure Eight for the tapout. Even the squash matches in NXT are entertaining for the most part.
Dana Brooke is back! She cuts a promo about Charlotte being replaced by the Total Diva while looking off camera at something very intently. Why can’t they just teach them to look into the damn camera when they cut a promo? She doesn’t forget to pat Devin on the head at least. A Charlotte/Dana match will be a very interesting test of Dana’s development so far in the ring.
Kevin Owens vs. Samoa Joe (non-title match)
Owens tries his usual tactic of bailing to the outside as the bell rings, but Joe just follows him out and stares him down. Owens piefaces him and talks smack and that only earns him repeated fists to the face and body. The opening of the match is great as it’s just two big yet agile guys running into each other real hard and delivering jumping enzugiris and such. Joe with the facewash in the corner and Owens books it up the ramp as we take a break.
Owens takes control as we return and, after a Cannonball and senton, the match slows WAY down as Owens locks in a chinlock, yelling “Chinlock City!” At the very least Joe sells it well making it seem like Owens is actually wearing him down. Joe makes the comeback and hits a flying kick for 2. He looks for the Muscle Buster, but Owens fights him off. Joe catches him on a charge and slams him down so Owens retreats to the outside again, suckering Joe in and sending him into the post before putting him in position for the apronbomb, but Joe escapes and they brawl. The ref tries to step in but gets sandwiched between them so he calls for the bell. That doesn’t stop the two bulls from fighting, nor do officials. It finally takes about a half dozen of “NXT Security” and a whole lot of effort to break them up. Owens takes a couple of them out too (because he’s Kevin Owens) before triumphantly walking up the ramp as we fade out.
OVERALL: Another good episode this week if only for the Balor video, but the opening match was fun enough and the main event was a great TV teaser of what a big match between Owens and Joe can be. It is remarkable how otherworldly great Kevin Owens has become in just over six months in WWE. He is literally a must see attraction in this company right now.
That’s it for me this week. I’m @PKIsTwitting on Twitter if you want to give me a follow and say hello.
Until next week….
