Peter Kostka
From the NXT Arena at Full Sail University. Your commentators are Tom Phillips and Corey Graves.
The Vaudevillains vs. The Hype Bros
The Vaudevillains are back to their more “serious” heel persona though they still have their peppy face music, which kind of ruins the effect. Corey Graves continues to be a national treasure when it comes to his disgust of the Hype Bros.
*Hype Bros theme hits*
“Ugh”
Tom: “C’mon man, get hype!”
“No.”
The Bros control on English as the commentators bring up the Vaudevillains struggles lately to try and justify their heel turn. You’d never hear Michael Cole do that without JBL screaming “MAGGLE” twenty times while they both make fun of Byron and completely bury any point they are trying to make. Gotch saves Aiden from a slam which allows the Vaudevillains to take control for a bit, but Aiden accidentally kicks Gotch and things break down. Ryder goes for the Broski Boot but English saves his partner and the Whirling Dervish gets the pin. A good little match as they seem to be trying to build the Vaudevillains back up a bit. I thought they were fun enough as faces, but they do have “villain” in their name after all.
Highlights of the women’s battle royal leads to a sit-down interview with Carmella. She reveals that she is a second generation wrestler as her father (Paul Vandale) was in the WWE in the 90s so wrestling is in her blood. She and Bayley will remain friends even after their match next week because they both know it’s all about the title. She promises to beat Emma tonight and show everyone why she deserves to be #1 contender. Even though 99% of the crowd probably still won’t buy her winning, they at least did a good job here trying to build her up.
Dash and Dawson answer Enzo and Cass’ comments from last week by reiterating their past failures. They welcome another match against them because it will end up the same way all of the other ones have.
Carmella vs. Emma (w/Dana Brooke)
They trade headlocks as Emma doesn’t seem to be taking her very seriously, but Carmella tripping her up and hitting a dropkick changes that. She works Carmella over on the mat while Dana screams encouragement/insults at ringside. Carmella monkey flips her and makes the comeback, but Emma yanks her down by the hair and works her over in the corner before attempting a butterfly suplex, but Carmella blocks and turns it into a backslide for the pin. I still wish this was Bayley/Emma next week, but Bayley will obviously want to make her friend look as good as possible so it should be a good match next week.
A recap of the controversial finish to the main event last week leads to Sami Zayn saying that he knows the decision is out of his hands, but he hopes GM Regal makes the right one.
Samoa Joe is….less willing to offer his thoughts.
AMERICAN ALPHA HYPE VIDEO! Naturally, it’s awesome.
Enzo and Cass repeat their “zero dimes” promo from London before they easily dispatch two jobbers. Cass tosses one of them clear over the top rope and splatting to the floor before Air Enzo finishes the other. These guys are at the top of their game right now.
Apollo Crews says he was robbed of a chance to prove himself in his first match with Finn Balor which led to some uncertainty that he could do it. Tonight, he proves to both Finn and the fans that he can be a champion.
GM Regal is about to make his decision but Baron Corbin interrupts. Regal tells him that, since Corbin was the clear loser, he will not be involved in a rematch between Joe and Zayn. Corbin storms out of the office saying “this…is a joke.”
Asuka vs. Santana Garrett
Santana tries some forearms and a headbutt but Asuka just screams at her. She then tries a slap, which proves she doesn’t watch this show, so Asuka answers with a hip attack and a KO punch. Santana ducks a running kick and hits a Russian legsweep for 2. She locks in a modified octopus stretch and blocks a German, but Asuka hits a flying armbar before hanging onto the arm and transitioning into the Asuka Lock for the submission. I quite enjoy watching Asuka.
Finn Balor applauds Regal’s decision in regards to the #1 contendership before turning his attention to Crews, saying that what should have happened in their first match will happen tonight.
Apollo Crews vs. Finn Balor (non-title)
This match takes a good while to actually get going as the opening segment is pretty much Finn holding a headlock and Apollo constantly trying to fight out of it. Crews finally hits a dropkick to send Finn scurrying to the outside as we take a break.
Crews has a chinlock on, but Finn fights free and rolls through a sunset flip attempt to drill Crews with a dropkick. Finn works the arm and hits a running soccer kick for 2. He chops away and goes back to work on the arm, but Crews fights back and makes a comeback. Finn jumps to the apron to avoid a charge so Crews just clotheslines him down. He goes for a moonsault, but Finn avoids and hits a dive of his own. Back in, he comes off the top with a stomp to the back of the head for 2. Crews tackles him down and hits a Samoan drop for 2 of his own. Finn ducks the jumping enzigiri and hits the Slingblade, but Crews avoids the corner dropkick and hits the gorilla press/standing moonsault…for 2. He tries for the powerbomb, but Finn escapes and hits the corner dropkick before hitting the Coup de Grace. He foregoes the pin, choosing instead to fully finish him off with Bloody Sunday for the pin. The commentators point out how Finn had to do something extra to finish Crews off while putting Apollo over strong in defeat. The last 5 minutes were good, but I liked their first match a lot more.
Finn and Crews shake hands as we fade.
OVERALL: I’m so glad that this set of tapings is over and they are finally going to get to some of the good stuff. The last few weeks were about as uneventful as you can get from NXT. The ending of the main event was fine, but once again, there really isn’t much to go out of your way to watch. Time to build to a Takeover, people.
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