Peter Kostka
This is NXT for July 6th, 2016
(aka “One More Week Until Balor/Nakamura”)
From the NXT Arena at Full Sail University. Your commentators are Tom Phillips and Corey Graves.
This week: Bayley faces Alexa Bliss and we find out the best tag team in NXT as The Revival defend the tag titles against American Alpha in a 2 out of 3 falls match.
Bayley vs. Alexa Bliss
Bliss definitely has her fans as even against Bayley there is a dueling chant. Bliss slingshots her into the ropes and locks in a neck crank. She really needs to de-ponytail Bayley; that seems like the ultimate heel move. Bayley tries to fight back but Bliss slams her down and steps on her back, but that just pisses Bayley off as she blocks a kick and does her Seth Rollins tribute with a bucklebomb into the corner. She goes off on Bliss with running elbows and has added running knees to her repertoire for variety. Bliss tries to roll her up but Bayley sits on her for a 2 count so Bliss pops her right in the jaw leaving Bayley dazed as we take a break.
Alexa tries another slingshot but Bayley sends Bliss into the ropes instead and hits a jawbreaker for 2. Alexa SLAPS ON THE GOOZLE and slams her down, hitting Insult to Injury and goes up to finish, but Bayley cuts her off and tries a Bayley to Belly, but Bliss fights off and hits a damned CODE RED but only gets 2. Bliss flips out on the ref allowing Bayley to try a rollup and they trade pinfall attempts until Bayley hits a back suplex. She goes up for her back elbow, but Bliss yanks her down and tries a Vaderbomb, but that hits knees and the Bayley to Belly finishes. Insanely fun match and Alexa Bliss may just be the next breakout star of the NXT women’s division. The leaps and bounds she has made both in character and in-ring work in just a year is pretty impressive.
Bayley grabs a mic and talks about her road back, including the road block she faced named Nia Jax. Nia interrupts (Bayley is NOT happy at that) and they have a staredown where a fired up Bayley challenges her to one more match and Nia, quite amused, accepts.
TM61 hype video.
Cathy Kelley asks The Revival about tonight’s main event and they have no doubt that they will remain the best tag team on this planet.
Blake and Murphy vs. The Hype Bros is just an excuse for THE MANBEAST Rhyno to return and wreck shit. That’s kind of a random return but he was pretty awesome last year in the Dusty Classic with Corbin so it’s nice to see him back.
We get a long hype video for the big match next week between Finn Balor and Shinsuke Nakamura. Plenty of NXT talent is excited for the match, including Tye Dillinger, American Alpha and The Father of NXT, HHH. We also get pictures of young Balor and Nakamura hanging out in Japan as they reiterate their friendship and respect for each other. Still amazed they aren’t saving this for a Takeover.
The Other Interview Girl asks American Alpha about their strategy and they promise to wrestle their match and not let the Revival get in their heads. Gable says the longer the match goes, the better they are. They are both Ready…Willing…and Gable.
Next week: NXT Champion Samoa Joe (remember him?) returns.
Rhyno has nothing to say when asked why he has come back to NXT.
American Alpha vs. The Revival (C) (2 out of 3 falls match for the NXT Tag Team Titles)
FALL 1:
Gable quickly wrestles circles around Dash and locks in an anklelock, forcing Dawson to save his partner and tag in himself. Jordan tags and chain wrestles a bit with Dawson leading to a stalemate. The Revival immediately switch to what they are best at as Dawson cheapshots Gable to draw the ref away while Dash tries to cheapshot Jordan to sucker him into the corner to take control. Jordan escapes a double hiptoss and Gable comes in for some double team goodness, leading to a double dropkick that has the Revival on the outside and we take a break.
Jordan picks up Dawson in an atomic drop, but he has the presence of mind to reach out and tag Dash as he is in the air and Dash takes Jordan out from behind. I LOVE that shit. They immediately drag Jordan into the corner and proceed to tear Jordan’s knee apart as we have flipped the script a bit with Jordan being the one taking the punishment in the match. Jordan also does an AWESOME job selling the knee. He fights back, so Dash tags out and Dawson scurries over to cut Jordan off. They fight over a suplex and on a switch Jordan gets in range of Gable to get the tag and he saves his partner from a suplex, launching into a hot tag that is about a .6 Jordan as he only throws one suplex (c’mon man) and gets some two counts, but a gimpy Jordan tries to come in to help out which again draws the ref away as Gable runs the ropes and Dash takes full advantage as he pulls down the top rope sending Gable toppling to the outside to lead to another break.
The Revival maul Gable in the corner as they are fully in their element. Gable sidesteps Dash, sending him to the outside, but Dash quickly gets back in and tags with Dawson just getting to Gable before the tag. He beats on Gable on the apron and pulls the ref away to allow Dash to clothesline him back into the ring. Dawson drops him with a big spinebuster for another close fall. They try the Shatter Machine, but Gable turns it into a sunset flip on Dawson with Dash pulling Gable off and chopping Jordan off the apron to — once again — draw the ref away so they can beat on Gable in their corner. Tag teams across the world need to watch the Revival heel it up like this and learn. They try another double team move, but Gable shoves them into each other and FINALLY makes the hot tag. Jordan has had time to recover and shows no ill-effects on the knee as he throws The Revival around, including quite literally Force pushing Dash Wilder a good 7 feet into the air. He spears Dash down, but only gets a 2 count. He puts Dash on top, but Dash fights him off. Dawson dives off the top to help, but Gable catches him and suplexes him out of his boots. Dash tries a crossbody on Jordan, but Jordan rolls through and locks in an anklelock. Dawson tries to break it up, but Gable cuts him off with an anklelock of his own and Dash taps out to give the Alpha the first fall.
FALL 2:
Dawson tries a sunset flip off the top on Jordan, but he fights it, taking the time to backdrop Dash when he comes in and sits on Dawson for a 2 count. They trade rollups and Dawson does his awesome “fake a punch and hit a DDT” spot as Dash yanks Gable off the apron and Dawson locks in an inverted figure-four as Jordan’s knee comes into play again. Playing off the first fall, Dash holds Gable at bay as Jordan is forced to tap out to even things.
FALL 3:
Dawson tries the hold again, but Jordan turns it into a rollup for 2, tagging Gable as it launches into a rollup battle between two tired, desperate teams. Jordan makes a blind tag and spears Dawson in the corner, setting up for Grand Amplitude, but Dash shoves Gable down (just like at Takeover) and they try the Shatter Machine, but this time Gable barrels into Dash and Jordan gets a sunset flip for a CLOSE 2. Jordan locks in the anklelock again, but Dawson escapes and locks in the figure-four again. In one last desperate move, GABLE FLIES and hits a flying headbutt to break it up. It was AWESOME but holy shit please don’t make that a regular thing, Chad. That move has a bad track record. He tackles Dash to the floor as Jordan and Dawson can barely get to their feet. Gable makes a blind tag as Jordan is sent to the outside but Dawson saw it so they fight it out on the apron and Gable tries to German suplex Dawson to the floor, but Dash cuts it off and they hit a Shatter Machine on the apron (which must have REALLY sucked for Dash more than Gable) and the Revival retain.
These teams may be the Rock N’ Roll/Midnight Express of our generation; three big matches and all three were completely different with great double team work as they played around with the standard tag formula to perfection. This one may have been the slowest paced of the series, but they did a great job at playing off their previous encounters, showing that both teams have learned from each other. Tremendous stuff.
OVERALL Hot damn, NXT is on a roll right now. With still a month and change to go until Brooklyn and a draft that will most likely gut the roster pretty good, they are putting on some stellar shows. And this is with the (also awesome) NXT champion barely being featured! Seems like this will all come to a head next week with the mega match between Nakamura and Balor. Can’t wait for that.
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