Peter Kostka
Taped from the SSE Arena, Wembley in London, England. Your commentators are Rich Brennan, Corey Graves and Byron Saxton.
This will be a short one as a lot of the episode is Takeover recap footage. But they did tape three matches for this episode.
The Vaudevillains vs. The Hype Bros vs. Blake and Murphy vs. NXT’s Greatest Tag Team
The Vaudevillains are dressed as Sherlock Holmes (English) and Watson (Gotch), the Hype Bros are booed out of the building and Jordan and Gable are given a hero’s welcome. Jason Jordan looks to be the happiest man in the world right now. Gable schools Gotch on the mat (still waiting for that one-on-one match) but Mojo tags himself in and tackles Gotch who takes a scary bump hard on the back of his neck. Mojo needs to calm the hell down sometimes. Everyone throws out everyone else and it’s a four-way standoff as we take a break.
Gable works a wristlock on English who escapes and Blake tags himself in so Gable just wrestles circles around him as well. He hooks an armbar on Murphy over the ropes but Alexa distracts the ref so Blake can stomp him and take control. Blake works the leg and English tags himself in for a piece, but a senton hits knees and Gable goes for the tag, but Murphy cuts it off. They go for a double suplex but Gable flips free and makes the tag to Jordan who proceeds to SUPLEX THE SHIT OUT OF EVERYTHING THAT MOVES, including an overhead suplex on Murphy over the top into a pile of dudes on the outside. Jason Jordan hot tags are the greatest thing in wrestling right now. Grand Amplitude finishes Blake for the win. A fun tag match and I don’t know how they are going to wait until the Dallas Takeover to give these guys the tag titles.
Recap of Asuka beating Emma. She gets checked out as Dana Brooke seethes and Asuka decides to check in on her. She mocks Emma’s dance and stares down Dana. Dana: “Emma, did she leave yet?” Dana promises to not rest until they get serious and take care of Asuka. So, double homicide “handicap” match? Cool.
A nice video of the UK tour that again seems to show that it must be really fun to go to one of these shows.
Recap of Finn Balor defending the NXT title against Samoa Joe.
Tye Dillinger promises to show Sami Zayn why he is “The Perfect 10” tonight.
Recap of Baron Corbin beating Apollo Crews. Corbin pronounces himself the #1 contender to the NXT title.
Bull Dempsey vs. “The Drifter” Elias Samson
Bull is not intimidated as he warms up with jumping jacks in the corner. Samson is carrying a guitar and silently walks to the ring. Bull gets a few clotheslines and tackles but Elias hits a knee to the face to put him down and hits a top rope elbow for the pin. Well ok then. Elias actually kind of has a Randy Savage look going (if he became a Memphis drifter) so at least the finisher is appropriate.
Recap of Dash and Dawson defending the tag titles. They again proclaim themselves the best team on the planet.
Recap of Bayley defending the women’s title against Nia Jax.
“The Perfect 10” Tye Dillinger vs. Sami Zayn
The UK fans are big into Dillinger’s gimmick and Zayn of course gets a HUGE reaction and a big “welcome back” chant. Dillinger goes right for the shoulder as the commentators talk about possible ring rust on Zayn. Sami takes him down with armdrags and Dillinger bails, running for his life as Sami charges for a dive. He yanks Zayn out but Sami beats him around ringside until Tye shoves him shoulder first into the post as we take a break.
Tye continues to work the arm and shoulder until Sami makes the comeback with clotheslines and hits a fisherman buster sending Tye to the outside and following him out with a dive. Back in, Blue Thunder Bomb gets 2. Tye escapes a suplex and gets a rollup with tights for 2 and a superkick for another 2. Tye charges but Sami catches him in an exploder suplex into the corner and the Helluva Kick finishes for 3. Decent return match to get people happy to see Sami again.
Zayn cuts a promo saying that every time a dream comes true for him it seems to turn into a nightmare. But that trend was broken tonight. He promises big things for him and NXT in 2016.
OVERALL: Like the post-Brooklyn episode, not really much to see here but the tag match was really fun and it is really nice to have Sami Zayn back.
Next couple weeks seem to be Best of episodes, so in this space next week will be These Are My Top 10 NXT Matches of 2015. Thank you to everyone who has read This is NXT over the past year and have a good Christmas and New Year.
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