Peter Kostka
Taped at Full Sail University. Renee Young, Rich Brennan and Alex Riley are your commentators.
A recap of the events of Takeover open the show. Basically we have new tag champs, the Women’s and NXT champions retained and we learned KENTA has a new name, Hideo Itami.
URA! URA! URA! Titus O’Neil is here! He is OFFENDED that NXT wrestlers would show up on his show (well..the Ascension were on Main Event once….) so he’s here to waste time in NXT. This brings out Sami Zayn, who basically eviscerates him on the mic, bringing up his being beaten up by the Bunny on RAW (oh please don’t bring up that show; I watch this to get away from that). Titus threatens to get physical, but Adrian Neville joins us. He thinks of himself as the defender of NXT and we get some lovely Zayn/Neville tension, but Dirtbag Tyson Kidd decides to Dirtbag all over it. This show does NOT need the patented “taking 15 minutes to do a 5 minute promo” segment that stinks up RAW. Kidd’s casual slipping in of the word “fact” after every sentence is tremendous, though. Zayn isn’t mad at Neville for screwing him, which Neville takes as a reason Sami will never be champion. JUST LET THESE TWO FIGHT NOW!! GIVE IT TO MEEEEE! Long story short, William Regal makes a tag match main event: Kidd & O’Neil vs. Zayn & Neville.
Tonight: Hideo Itami debuts against Justin Gabriel.
Charlotte vs Emma (non-title)
NXT crowd still loves Emma. Charlotte gets in her face and controls the early going, locking in the figure-four headlock while mocking the dance. What a heel. This is basically a squash, something longtime NXT fans probably didn’t see coming with Emma. Emma gets a quick flurry of offense and hits the Emma Sandwich and a crossbody for 2, but a neckbreaker and Natural Selection ends it for the champ.
Hideo Itami vs. Justin Gabriel
Confession: this is the first match of his I’ve ever seen. Gabriel controls to start, but a leapfrog attempt is met with a jumping kick right to his face mid-jump. OK, I get it now. Gabriel keeps things sadly grounded and Itami kicks away to escape and hits a running boot. A double stomp off the top finishes. The Ascension charge in for some revenge after Takeover and lay him out with the Fall of Man.
Thoughts: Decent debut as Hideo was able to show off some of his skills. Give him time with some of these guys in NXT and people will definitely know what he’s all about.
CJ Parker vs. Baron Corbin
Parker is killed again for my enjoyment as Corbin seems to be now doing a biker gimmick. His awesome finisher is now called the End of Days as he drills it to finish. He definitely has an awesome look to him.
We look back at the Hair vs. Hair match at Takeover and cut to Enzo Amore working out earlier today. In walks Carmella (aka Not Jennifer Lopez from the hair salon skit) having been fired after what happened to the dog. She wants to be a “fighter” and drills Enzo with a medicine ball to make her point. This has potential.
Next Week: The Ascension get their rematch for the tag team titles.
Dirtbag Tyson Kidd & Titus O’Neil vs Sami Zayn & Adrian Neville
Dirty Gator? I gotta workshop this.
Zayn wants to start, but Neville tags himself in. I will pay $9.99 forever if you give me this match. Neville controls Kidd to start and Zayn decides to tag himself in….himself and hits a standing moonsault on Kidd for 2. Hell, I’ll actually watch all of RAW (and actually pay attention for most of it). That draws a “better than Neville!” chant. Neville tags himself in again and one ups him with basically a standing Red Arrow! I’LL EVEN WATCH A BELLAS SEGMENT FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!! (OK, I may be pushing it). Neville sends Kidd out and goes for a dive, but Sami steps in front of him and hits a springboard moonsault on Kidd instead as we go to a break.
I love his match unconditionally.
We return with Kidd backing into his corner and O’Neil tagging himself on (there hasn’t been a straight tag in this whole natch) and beating on Zayn. He powers Zayn around and actually tags in Kidd this time as Zayn plays the familiar face in peril role. It’s hilarious that the one “real” WWE star (O’Neil) is the most boring guy in this match. Zayn avoids a leg drop but O’Neil cuts off the tag for more punchy punchy resthold goodness as the crowd amuses themselves. Zayn tries the comeback but is cut off again by a Kidd spinkick and O’Neil drops a leg on the back of his head. Zayn cuts off a charge and finally makes the tag to Neville, who runs wild on Kidd and hits a standing SSP for 2. He goes up, but O’Neil shoves him off into Kidd’s knees and Kidd gets the pin. The faces argue while the heels gloat as we fade.
Thoughts: The first half of this match was 100% top notch entertainment but the extended heat segment with Zayn dragged a bit too long. Still, it’s amazing how in two shows they have me salivating over a Zayn/Neville match that is probably months away while I couldn’t give a damn about 90% of the matches on the PPV this Sunday. Keep Vince the FUCK away from Full Sail.
FINAL THOUGHTS: Fun, breezy show as new characters are introduced and some potentially awesome things are on the horizon.
That’s it for this week. See you in seven.
