Peter Kostka
From the NXT Arena at Full Sail University. Your commentators are Rich Brennan and Corey Graves.
We recap last week’s show from Columbus. Owens’ kick to Riley at the end is included of course. They should add it to the opening video.
Alexa Bliss vs. Sasha Banks (C) (NXT Women’s Championship match)
This was set up last week after Bliss’ countout victory over the Boss. Bliss is still a bit awkward in the ring, but she certainly has improved immensely after being off TV for a few months. It doesn’t hurt that she’s in there with a top of her game Banks. Alexa’s offense is mostly rollups in the early going and fighting off Sasha’s onslaught before making the adorable comeback with an awesome corner rollup that gets the fans immediately on her side. She goes up, but Banks throws her off and gets the tap with the Banks Statement. This little series has given Bliss a good rub and she can only get better the more she’s in the ring with the higher caliber women in this division.
Kevin Owens is looking forward to his match tonight with Finn Balor. He invites Finn to “bring the demon. Because it won’t matter.” We then get a video hyping Owens.
Bayley is texting and Emma once again joins her to insult her about being too “nice” and not showing an aggressive side since the crowd won’t get her where she needs to be. Bayley tries to defend herself, but Emma slaps the taste out of her mouth and storms off. DARK EMMA~!
Tyler Breeze wants to focus on the NXT title now that he has dealt with “Hide-ous” Itami, but Itami enters and wants a 2 out of 3 falls match next week to finally settle things. A flustered Breeze: “I didn’t say yes!”
Rich Brennan goes through the WrestleMania themed programming on the Network this week and runs down the card better than Michael Cole can ever dream of doing. It actually makes this sound like a decent card! He doesn’t mention the NXT mini-tournament at Axxess for the battle royal spot though, which was odd.
Finn Balor says he doesn’t need the demon to beat Owens tonight. This leads to a Balor hype video that partly focuses on the paint and if he will use it against Owens. They probably should have swapped the order here.
Blake and Murphy apologize to Carmella about what happened to her last week and offer her a gift of jewelry as an apology, which she seems to appreciate. Enzo and BIG CASS do not. “You shoulda went to Jared’s bro!”
Finn Balor vs. Kevin Owens (C) (NXT Championship match)
The match starts with about 25 minutes left in the show. Giggity. It actually starts quite slowly with Owens doing the same “make him wait” strategy he used at the start of the Rival match and controls the early going until Balor hits a dropkick to lead to a break.
Balor works the arm as we return and the match turns into Owens grinding Balor down with chinlocks and imposing his will to lead to another break. There really isn’t that much to say aside from Owens can trash talk with the best of them in the ring.
Owens remains into control and hits a nice belly to back suplex and it’s back to another chinlock (which gets a sarcastic cheer) as we hit ANOTHER break. Maybe giving them half the show wasn’t the best idea here?
Balor FINALLY makes the comeback and dumps Owens, following with a dive to the outside, but he whacks his knee on the ramp. A double stomp from the top gets 2 and the Pele kick is hit as the match FINALLY gets going. Slingblade and Curtain Call gets another 2 as a “better than RAW” chant breaks out. Owens avoids the corner dropkick and Balor goes knee first (the same knee that hit the ramp) into the turnbuckle. Owens, naturally, pounces on it ramming it into the post and dropping a senton onto it. A single leg crab but Balor makes the ropes and counters a powerbomb with a double stomp. Finn goes for a superplex, but Owens turns it into a twisting muscle buster off the top rope (goddamn) for 2. This has picked up nicely. Owens goes back to the knee to cut Finn off and hits a cannonball, followed by another TO THE KNEE. A third attempt is avoided and Finn hits the running dropkick and the Coup de Grace, but that hurts the knee as well and allows Owens to recover and hit the popup powerbomb for the win. Once they got going it was a really good match with Finn selling the knee really well and having it logically lead to the finish. Much like most NXT title matches, the loser still comes off looking very good in defeat. Perhaps too long for it’s own good, but still a fine TV main event.
Overall: Only two matches this week but other feuds and angles were given some attention and the Breeze/Itami match next week should be very good. It will be interesting to see who (if anyone) goes up to the main roster after WrestleMania and how NXT manages to fill in the absences. Rumors abound that Balor or Adrian Neville could be on their way up, but I’ll believe it when I see it.
Until next week.
