Peter Kostka
This IS NXT
It’s week two of matches taped from WrestleMania Axxess in Dallas, Texas. Your commentators are Tom Phillips and Corey Graves.
This week: Samoa Joe faces Apollo Crews in our main event.
Enzo and BIG CASS vs. American Alpha
The crowd seems way into this as they get a “this is awesome” chant before the bell even rings. Alpha start the match by isolating Enzo and wrestling circles around him and trying to tear his arm out of the socket, but Enzo escapes and tags Cass, who has a big hoss staredown with Jordan as we take a break.
Cass and Enzo double team Jordan to take control of the match, but Gable blind tags in and takes Enzo down with a judo throw and they do an awesome spot in the corner where they both hit forearms and then try and go through the ropes with a shoulder and bonk heads in the process. Enzo recovers first and tags Cass as we get to the playing the Gable portion of the match. Gable escapes and crawls for a tag but Enzo slams his face into the mat and Cass cuts him off. He yanks Gable 7 feet into the air by his arm and the fans want to see it again so he obliges. Gable avoids a Stinger splash and finally manages to make the hot tag to Jordan. He runs wild, simply tossing Enzo around by sheer force of will alone and DROPS THE STRAPS, but Cass eats the bullet on the corner charge. Enzo goes up, but Jordan catches him for another suplex and RE-DROPS THE STRAPS leading to Grand Amplitude on Enzo for the pin.
Both teams were taking it pretty easy but they still had a pretty fun match here if only because both teams are so immensely fun to watch in the ring no matter what they are doing.
Apollo Crews cuts a promo about how much he hates bullies and how he will take care of Joe tonight. Crews is still a terrible promo.
Alexander Wolfe vs. No Way Jose
Jose dances his way into a headlock, which is definitely unique and hits the airplane spin, a true crowd pleaser no matter what the decade and the crowd breaks into a “Jose” chant in the cadence of Sami Zayn’s chant. He hits Wolfe with double chops like he is swinging a baseball bat until he winds up and delivers a big punch for the pin. Well…he has more character than the Drifter did when he debuted at least. This was a fun little waste of a few minutes.
Austin Aries talks about his win against Baron Corbin at Takeover and says that if he wants to go again, he’s not that hard to find. I gotta admit, Aries really isn’t doing much for me on a lot of levels so far.
GM Regal pulls up a chair next to the Drifter and tells him since he seems to want an opportunity, so he will face Shinsuke Nakamura next week. This causes Graves to break into the chorus of American Pie. That should be an entertaining massacre.
Nia Jax squashes Deonna Purrazzo. I don’t know if it’s her outfit but it seems like Nia has trimmed down a little bit and she is moving with a little more purpose now. She finishes Deonna quickly with the legdrop.
Bayley says she will be watching the match between Asuka and Eva Marie next week. She has been in the ring with both and puts over the toughness of both.
Next Week: Asuka vs. Eva Marie and Shinsuke Nakamura faces The Drifter
Apollo Crews vs. Samoa Joe
Like the opening tag, both these guys are taking it easy here as they fight over holds and Joe jabs the shit out of him in the corner, but Apollo answers back with a dropkick as we take a break.
Joe cracks Crews with his jumping enzigiri in the corner and violently ends a Crews comeback by elbowing him in the face. He grabs a hold and punishes Crews when he has the gall to break it by squishing him with a senton for 2. Crews blocks a suplex and hits one of his own before making the comeback and hitting the standing moonsault, but Joe kicks out at 2. Crews charges, but right into Joe’s gorgeous snap suplex that makes Randy Orton’s look like slow motion. They slug it out and Crews hits a bicycle kick, but Joe escapes an attempt for the spinout powerbomb and just MURDERS Crews with an STO out of the corner before locking in the Coquina Clutch for the submission.
This was another by the numbers house show style match, but both guys were able to keep it from getting too dull before a great finishing sequence. I don’t know about Crews’ future on the main roster because he doesn’t have much of a character aside from “athletic, smiling black guy” and it doesn’t seem like they are in much of a hurry to give him one, but Joe really needs to be the one tearing through RAW and SmackDown before choking out Roman. A Joe/Roman match would be insane right now.
OVERALL: Another fun, breezy episode as we are still coming down from Takeover before we start to set up some new feuds for the next special in June. Next week should be fun as NXT’s Japanese imports tear apart NXT’s most annoying male and female characters.
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