Being an admittedly jaded wrestling fan can sometimes be a burden. See some of my comments below. (Hey. j-j-Jaded. Sorry. I now have Aerosmith on my mind after calling myself a "Jaded" wrestling fan.)
NXT Thoughts
- The show starts off with The Undisputed Era coming out for Bobby Fish's match against EC3. Before the match, Adam Cole gets on the mic and puts down EC3. He then states that in 2019, The Undisputed Era will all be wearing gold. EC3 comes out for his match with Fish. A basic story being told with EC3 using his power and strength against Fish. (Plus a nice Cactus Clothesline over the ropes at one point.) Meanwhile, Fish uses the ground and pound strategy with the #'s advantage given by the Undisputed Era. Fish targets the knee of EC3 throughout. Fish gets caught in a rollup by EC3 for the finish. After the match, The Undisputed Era beats down on EC3 until Heavy Machinery takes the ring and helps fight off the Undisputed Era. (I'm guessing Heavy Machinery is taking the place of War Machine as Hanson took a lot of injuries during the War Games match a few weeks ago.) O'Reilly gets caught and eats a 1%-er as well as a Worm/Elbow Drop. Good opening segment here as this sets up another feud for the UE.
- The Mighty take on Burch and Lorcan next. Burch and Lorcan just run down to the ring and get in the face of The Mighty. Fists start flying after the bell rings. Good start to the match. Lorcan dives over the top onto The Mighty on the floor. What follows is a good solid match. One thing that doesn't make a bit of sense to me though is The Mighty do a SuperPlex/Powerbomb spot where one of their team gets Powerbombed just to hit a guy with a superplex. Now, tell me if you are trying to do this logically how the hell that helps out your team to have one of your own teammates powerbomb the other?! I mean, come on now. Let's not do something stupid for the sake of being flashy. Other than that, I really did enjoy this match as Lorcan and Burch get a win with an elevated DDT. Very good tag team action here.
- Johnny Gargano cuts a promo to promote the Steel Cage match with Aleister Black next week. He says he never sinned. He's on a mission to become NXT Champion. Black was in the way. Simple as that. Gargano will do whatever it takes in a steel cage to make sure this story ends the right way. Next week, he closes the book on Aleister Black.
- Mia Yim takes on Reina Gonzalez next for the spot in the Fatal Four Way Match for the #1 Contendership for the NXT Women's Championship Match at NXT Takeover Phoenix. You got all that? Good. A nothing match with Yim getting the win with Eat Defeat. By the way, Lacey Evans was awarded a spot in the match by William Regal via tweet. That just adds to the prestige of this match, doesn't it? I like the fact that they are building up to the match, but when half of the participants (at least at this point) have just been added by social media and some of their characters haven't been developed to get that "Oh wow! ________ is going to be in that match" factor, it comes off kinda cheap. And that's a rare criticism that I've ever had with anything NXT does.
- Aleister Black cuts a promo in a dark smoke filled room. Damn. He's taking Bray Wyatt's room. Black, of course, cuts a promo about not feeling anything about his match. He simply just has to do what he needs to do. Gargano is far beyond absolution and forgiveness. He just needs to annihilate Gargano in that match. Gargano will simply Fade to Black. Rest in Peace.... Ooops. Sorry. He didn't say that last line. Again, this wasn't a great promo and doesn't need to exist. We don't need Aleister Black to cut this kind of promo. It was hokey to be honest. We know from last week what he wants to do: he just needs to do it. The less said, the better for his character.
- The main event is the Open Challenge for the NXT North American Championship. Ricochet will be taking on...
Tyler Breeze. Sure why not? It's not like he's doing anything on the main roster at this point. Plus he has a history with NXT. Makes sense, really, once you put aside his main roster status as jobber to the stars on Main Event. Nice ovation for Breeze as well once he enters the building. Old school entrance with the cell phone, music, and attire. Good back and forth sequence to start off the match. Breeze gets the advantage once Ricochet jumps off the apron into a superkick from Breeze.
Ricochet catches Breeze with a big knee to the head and a rolling dropkick moments later. Springboard Uppercut by Ricochet followed up by a Standing Shooting Star Press for a 2 count. Both men collide trying to crossbody the other. Supermodel Kick and a Reverse Rana get Breeze a close 2 count. Breeze hits an enziguri, but Ricochet catches Breeze and hits him with a Michinoku Driver for a 3 count. Good TV main event for NXT though the end was never really in doubt. This was a reminder of how good Breeze can be if given an opportunity.
Overall, this was a good show. There were a couple hokey moments for me here and there that were minor digs (The tweets making matches, bad illogical spots in matches, and Aleister Black stealing Bray Wyatt's room that he stole from The Undertaker; Is Undertaker getting rent from these guys?). But this was about 15,000 miles ahead of Raw the past few weeks. So, I can't hate on it. Plus, I'll actually take Breeze vs. Ricochet over a TLC match with Corbin vs. Rollins at this point.
Spread some awesomeness everyone. Take care.
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