Peter Kostka
From the NXT Arena at Full Sail University. Your commentators are Rich Brennan, Corey Graves and Byron Saxton.
An opening recap video shows the highlights of Takeover: Respect. I watched the show a few more times over the past week and I think I can safely say I thought it was a better overall show than Brooklyn and the best live special of the year. I still flip-flop daily between the Sasha/Bayley matches.
Speaking of, here’s Bayley for an opening promo. She talks about how NXT as a whole made history last week and gives a special thanks to Dusty Rhodes for helping her get to where she is. She says they started a whole new level of the…ugh…Divas Revolution (cue my sour face) before Alexa Bliss (along with Blake and Murphy) interrupt. She gives Bayley respect for what she did last week (while getting “What?” chants; don’t even start that shit, Full Sail) and raises her hand before snatching the title from her. Blake and Murphy keep Bayley at bay as Alexa states her intention to be champion while people like Bayley don’t deserve it before throwing the belt back to her. Alexa hasn’t been in the ring on TV all that much over the past few months, but she’s one of the best heel women on the show so it’s nice to see her put in a bigger position. I’m interested to see where this ends up.
A WWE.com clip shows Finn Balor and Samoa Joe celebrating with the Dusty Cup last week and GM Regal interrupts to offer his congratulations. Joe decides to finally cut to the chase and ask Finn for a title match. Finn is game, but Regal tells both of them he’s already set a #1 contender’s battle royal for tonight’s episode. Joe tries to plead his case, but Regal isn’t budging and Joe isn’t happy.
A Breaking Ground promo airs and honestly I am really excited for the debut. I thought originally it was going to follow just the newer trainees, but now that it seems to be focused on established people like Apollo Crews and Bayley I am much more interested. The WWE24 special on NXT Brooklyn was maybe the best they’ve ever done, so an expanded look at the day-to-day workings of NXT should be fascinating TV.
“The Perfect 10” Tye Dillinger, Apollo Crews and Rhyno cut Rumble-style promos about the battle royal tonight. Rhyno seems to be in the power room of Full Sail for his.
The Vaudevillains vs. Angelo Dawkins and Sawyer Fulton (non-title)
Aiden English has cut his hair and..well…he looks a lot like CM Punk now. Sawyer and Dawkins seem to be getting left behind in this new tag team resurgence in NXT. They aren’t bad in the ring, but they don’t seem to have the kind of chemistry or skill that the other teams have developed over the past few months. They work over English but he escapes and makes the hot tag to Gotch who runs wild on Dawkins before the Whirling Dervish finishes him off. Pretty much a squash for the champs.
Devin (gone but not forgotten) interviews Dash and Dawson who actually cut an AWESOME promo about how they beat the Vaudevillains in Texas so that should earn them a shot at the titles. Unfortunately, they have Enzo and Cass in their way so they have to be taken care of first. Poor Devin gets her nose touched by Dawson. She is unemployed now, you jerks! Just let her slap the shit out of Dana on her way out, that’s all we ask.
We get one more Nia Jax video before her debut, which is next.
Highlights of Asuka committing legal murder on Dana Brooke at Takeover. They show the AWESOME YouTube clip where Dana is getting put back together before Asuka pats her lifeless head and puts the fear of every deity known to man into Emma.
Evie vs. Nia Jax
I’ll just say it: Evie is cute as hell. Nia Jax’ ring gear is…not very flattering. Pretty much a Jax squash as she squeezes the life out of the smaller Evie and sells every Evie strike like it just annoys her. The crowd seems to warm to her as she finishes Evie with a one-armed uranage. She has a different look, I’ll give her that, though it felt like I was watching a GLOW match here.
Highlights of the Iron (Wo)man match with comments from social media and people like Becky Lynch and Charlotte. This is one situation where WWE can’t hype the historic nature of this match enough. Now if this actually leads to something even remotely constructive involving the women on RAW I will be completely shocked.
Tyler Breeze and Baron Corbin offer comments on the battle royal tonight.
Eva Marie is in Paris taking some “me time” away from NXT and badly reading bad promos on cue cards. I think they’ve become self-aware with her and I don’t know how to feel about that. Well, at least she isn’t injuring people.
Battle Royal for the #1 Contendership to the NXT Title
Participants: Tyler Breeze, Rhyno, Baron Corbin, Dash and Dawson, Enzo and Cass, Zack Ryder, Mojo Rawley, Tommaso Ciampa, Johnny Gargano, Apollo Crews, Bull Dempsey, Samoa Joe, Blake and Murphy, Steve Cutler, Tye Dillinger, Elias Sampson, Danny Birch, Riddick Moss (?)
Dash, Dawson, Corbin and Rhyno immediately jump on Joe but he fights them all off. Guys just kinda punch each other for a while until Crews tosses Cutler, Sampson and Birch in short order before tossing Gargano out onto the jobber pile as we take a break.
The crowd is solidly behind Breeze as Enzo and Murphy trade elimination attempts. Ryder gets quadruple teamed and almost dumped while his partner Mojo beats on Corbin in the opposite corner. Idiot. They continue to pound on Ryder and Mojo still does nothing. I am unreasonably annoyed by this. Moss (I think that’s what Corey called him) gets booted out by Cass but Dash and Dawson sneak behind and toss him as well before Enzo dumps them both, but gets caught up in the celebratory dancing and gets dumped by Dillinger. Bull slugs on Dillinger and tosses him as the ring is quickly being cleared. Bull goes for Corbin but Rhyno saves his Dusty partner and eliminates Bull. Corbin tosses Mojo (GOOD) as Blake and Murphy go after Tyler but he stays alive. Ryder goes up but Corbin pulls him down and eliminates him before turning on Rhyno and tossing him out as well as we take another break.
We see that Ciampa got tossed by Joe during the break as Corbin has Tyler in trouble, but he breaks free as Joe tosses both Blake and Murphy leaving a final four of Breeze, Joe, Corbin and Crews. Breeze hits a super(model) kick on Joe as Crews and Corbin square off. Joe runs wild on Breeze in response and boots him over the top. Joe avoids a charge from both Corbin and Crews and cracks them with a kick. He sets Corbin up for the Muscle Buster but Corbin wiggles free and sends Joe to the apron where Breeze yanks him to the floor to eliminate him. Corbin and Crews slug it out and Corbin hits a tree slam but Crews avoids being eliminated, frustrating Corbin. Crews makes a comeback but the standing moonsault hits knees. Crews spins out of a spinning slam attempt and hits a series of jumping kicks before clotheslining Corbin out to win. A decent little battle royal that picked up once the ring got less crowded and guys were allowed to move around more. Crews/Finn is actually an interesting, different matchup.
OVERALL: You know the biggest difference between NXT and main roster WWE? NXT just had a big live show and blew off some storylines and had big matches. You know what they do the next week? They SET UP NEW SHIT! We didn’t see every single Dusty Classic match again or Tyler and Crews fighting again. Those angles are over and done with, so it’s time for something else for them to do. I know that them having only one hour a week means they can’t dwell on anything if they want to get everyone on the show, but how haven’t WWE learned that RAW could use at least SOME freshening up like this to stop this free-fall they are on? If you miss a RAW, there really is no consternation about it because they are probably going to do the same fucking matches with the same fucking people 17 more times.
I mean, look what NXT accomplished this week in one hour:
– Alexa Bliss made her intentions known to beat Bayley.
– Dash and Dawson want the tag titles (and have justification), but have Enzo and Cass to deal with.
– A new woman debuted.
– Breeze cost Joe a title match so now Tyler must die.
– Rhyno and Corbin are probably feuding again.
– Apollo Crews became #1 contender to set up another new matchup.
What the fuck did RAW accomplish this week in three hours?
I thought so.
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