Peter Kostka
This is NXT for August 10th, 2016.
Or: “Kota Ibushi vs. Cedric Alexander is my Match of the Year for 2016”
From the NXT Arena at Full Sail University. Your commentators are Tom Phillips and Corey Graves.
The show opens with the GLORIOUS Bobby Roode coming out of GM Regal’s office, thanking him for his time before Regal excuses himself to do the Women’s title contract signing.
This week: Mojo Rawley faces Samoa Joe in our main event.
After the opening video, Regal is in the ring. He calls the women’s title rematch “one of the biggest in NXT history” and brings out the participants: Bayley and NXT Women’s Champion Asuka. Before signing Bayley talks about how she has competed against the best women that have come through NXT, the likes of Becky Lynch, Sasha Banks, Charlotte and Paige and she was seen as the underdog every time. That all changed one year ago in Brooklyn, where her dream came true. But if Brooklyn was her dream, Dallas was her nightmare as she woke up to Asuka holding her title. She admits that she probably wasn’t ready in Dallas, but she is now. She calls Asuka the toughest she’s ever been in the ring with, but the Asuka “mystique” is gone. She’s going back to Brooklyn and getting the job done this time.
Asuka answers that Bayley doesn’t have what it takes and will end her dream in Brooklyn. But she still respects her. Asuka goes for a handshake, but Bayley tells her to use that hand to sign the fucking contract before she drops her like Nia did the last time she signed a contract (Note: I may be putting words in Bayley’s mouth here). Regal makes it official and again Asuka wants a handshake, but Bayley slaps her hand away and bumps her before leaving. Asuka stares her down and Bayley charges back in to go nose to nose with Asuka just raising her title in Bayley’s face. AWESOME segment where Bayley temporarily dropped her nice girl persona and tried a bit of an intimidation tactic of her own to try and keep the mind games with Asuka going. This match is going to be hot fire and the women of NXT could steal SummerSlam weekend yet again this year.
The Authors of Pain (w/Paul Ellering) squash Ryzin and Nailz, including an awesome spot where the Authors pick the jobbers up in a powerbomb position and slam them together like the Revival do with their tag belts before hitting stereo powerbombs and the legsweep clothesline quickly finishes. They keep up the beating after the bell and TM61 run in for the save, but are quickly dispatched as well. They are doing a good job at establishing these monsters, but we could still use some names here.
Shinsuke Nakamura is asked if Samoa Joe’s threats are getting to him, but he says he’s not hard to find, but don’t worry, he’ll find Samoa Joe when he wants to. Nakamura then sees something in the distance and goes on the hunt. Because Nakamura is awesome.
Andrade “Cien” Almas vs. Angelo Dawkins
Pretty much another exhibition for Almas as he shows off some nice athleticism against the bigger Dawkins, hitting the double knees before debuting a new finisher in a hammerlock DDT for the pin. The Cruiserweight Classic has really cut into my appreciation for Almas even more since there are a bunch of guys competing in that tournament that are showing both more impressive work and better personality than Almas has so far. His NXT run can’t be seen as much more than a dud so far.
Almas celebrates his win until HIT THE MUSIC, JERRY!
GLORIOUS Bobby Roode comes out. He congratulates Almas, but not for his win, but for the fact that he met with Regal and decided that Takeover Brooklyn needs to be more….what’s the word…GLORIOUS and put him in a match with Almas. He makes sure to point out slowly (since Almas doesn’t speak English too well) that 15,000 aren’t paying to see Almas, they are paying to see something GLORIOUS. Odd that they seem to be yet again putting Almas against someone who will probably be cheered much more than him even though he’s supposed to be the face, but the match should be good at least.
Austin Aries is annoying Regal about fruit in his office before reminding him that Aries still doesn’t have a match for Brooklyn. Regal agrees and books him against someone he’s been avoiding for a while, No Way Jose. Aries points out that he’s not been avoiding Jose, just ignoring him because he is not in Aries’ league, but Regal just tells him to see himself out.
Billie Kay vs. Liv Morgan
This match showed that if anything was gutted by the Draft, it was the NXT women’s division. Originally I thought that women like Alexa Bliss and Nia Jax could anchor the division if and when Bayley makes her way up after SummerSlam, but they ended up going up even before Bayley could. This was a pretty basic match between two women with some potential but who need a lot of work. Morgan is full of energy and personality but is still pretty rough in the ring while Kay is decent, but a definite step down from what has been expected from the women in NXT. Billie finishes with a big boot to win.
We see Rich Swann, GENTLEMAN Jack Gallagher and Noam Dar at ringside which leads to a video recap of the incredible CWC match between Tomasso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano last week. We then cut to Regal’s office as he congratulates both on their performance but wants to know if it will affect them as a team because he is giving them an NXT Tag Team title shot against the Revival at Takeover. Ciampa (who lost) assures him that families fight, but he is still 100% behind his partner and promises to take the titles in Brooklyn. Apparently they’ve been tearing houses down on NXT’s tours so there’s another Takeover match to be really excited for.
Ember Moon promo that seems right out of Lucha Underground with bad CG and talk about prophecies and the like. She debuts at Takeover.
Ciampa and Gargano squash Tucker Knight and Patrick Clark in a warmup for their tag title match.
We recap Hideo Itami’s return last week. He is in action again next week.
Mojo Rawley is asked about his match with Samoa Joe and cuts an admittedly great fired up promo about how Joe has stuck his nose in his business too many times and tonight it’s not about getting hyped; it’s about getting even.
Mojo Rawley vs. Samoa Joe (non-title)
Mojo goes right at Joe at the bell, catching the champ off guard and sending him to the outside. Mojo keeps the fight going on the floor, but Joe sidesteps a charge and sends Mojo into the steps. Joe beats on him back in the ring but Mojo fights back only to eat an elbow and a jumping kick in the corner. Joe methodically destroys him as the crowd is actually solidly behind Mojo in this match. Joe sets him up for the Buster, but Mojo fights him off and hits a flying clothesline, making the comeback and hitting a sloppy looking full nelson slam for 2. Mojo goes for a Stinger splash, but Joe catches him out of the air and slams him down, locking in the Coquina Clutch for the submission.
When Mojo Rawley gets serious and stops acting like a fucking idiot all the time, he’s actually kinda awesome. Hopefully we see more of that Mojo on SmackDown, though I kinda doubt it.
Joe slaps the Clutch on again after the bell to send a message and Nakamura’s music hits. Regal orders security to hold Joe back as Nakamura just does his thing and casually walks in the ring. As a rabid Joe is held back by a dozen guys Nakamura reaches out and tweaks Joe’s nose before slapping him in the face, leaving Joe raging as we fade.
OVERALL: Remember how hyped everyone was about Takeover: Dallas and how it was going to be really hard to match a show like that the rest of this year?
Takeover: Brooklyn II may just do that. I mean, look at this card!
JOE VS. NAKAMURA
Asuka vs. Bayley II
Revival vs. Ciampa/Gargano
Bobby Roode vs. Andrade Almas
Austin Aries vs. No Way Jose
Ember Moon debut
Once again, there doesn’t look to be an uninteresting match on the card and the double main event here may be better than the one we saw last year.
Ten days can’t pass soon enough.
I’m @PKIsTwitting on Twitter. Say hi!
