The Big News: Shinsuke Nakamura debuted on NXT TV, defeating the Perfect 10, Tye Dillinger.
The Medium News: Austin Aries also debuted, but he got to beat Angelo Dawkins instead
The Little Beaver Sized News: Bayley returned, getting the biggest reaction on the show.
Before starting this week, my apologies for not doing an NXT TakeOver preview a few weeks ago. Just assume I correctly predicted all the matches and goings on.
Mr. William Regal opened the show, thanking us for watching and making NXT Takeover a monumental success. He ran down the card for tonight’s show, including the regular NXT show debut of Shinsuke Nakamura.
****
Austin Aries defeated Angelo Dawkins
Our first show from WrestleMania Axxess kicks off with The Greatest Man Who Ever Lived, Austin Aries. A-Double’s opponent is Angelo Dawkins, who now calls himself The Curse of Greatness. Dawkins hasn’t been seen in over six months since he broke up his team with Sawyer Fulton.
Dawkins got no reaction at all during the match, but he is solid in the ring and he has a fair amount of personality. He screamed “Dawkins Island” while he had Aries in a front chin lock, which got zero reaction. Aries made his comeback, including a neck breaker on the middle rope and a nice Missile Dropkick. Aries picked up the win with a Discus Elbow.
****
Samoa Joe was standing angry backstage when the he was asked about losing to Finn Balor. Joe said he didn’t care that he lost twice to Finn, but next week he will bring his war to Apollo Crews.
****
No Way Jose is still coming.
****
Alexa Bliss pinned Tessa Blanchard
The Bliss-ful pixie of NXT is here to go one on one with the daughter of WWE Hall of Famer Tully Blanchard, Tessa, in her NXT debut. Corey Graves told Tom Phillips that they should talk about how great Alexa is, but when Tom told him to go ahead and tell us Corey had nothing to say.
This was better than most Alexa matches, as Tessa is much better than your average bottom of the barrel NXT woman. Alexa tried to slap Tessa, but Tessa blocked it and made her comeback. Alexa went all wide eyed and crazy, grabbing Alexa grab her by the throat before slamming her down. Bliss picked up the win with double knees to the gut.
****
Dashe Fuentes interviewed Finn Balor. Balor said he was a fan of Shinsuke Nakamura and looks forward to watching him compete tonight, but noted Nakamura probably wants his title.
****
Tommaso Ciampa & Johnny Gargano defeated The Vaudevillians
Ciampa and Gargano are back as a team, here to do battle with SmackDown’s newest team (and former NXT Tag Team Champions) The Vaudevillians. English and Gotch got the heat on Gargano, with the fans chanting Johnny Wrestling.
The commentary focused on how big a deal this was for The Vaudevillians, now being on the main roster and also for Gargano & Ciampa with a chance to play spoiler. English and Gotch are working a lot more aggressively than they have in the past. The gimmick still screams silliness, but their actual wrestling is quite good.
Ciampa got the hot tag and the fans were into him and the baby faces got what I considered a shocking win with Ciampa’s rolling armbar on Gotch.
****
Tye Dillinger was making sure his hair was perfect when Alex walked in to interview him. Dillinger said tonight Nakamura gets the opportunity to face the Perfect 10 and he plans on sending Nakamura back to Japan with a loss.
****
Baron Corbin pinned Tucker Knight
Tucker Knight continues the string of randomness on this show, but he’s going one on one with the winner of the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal at WrestleMania 32: Baron Corbin. Knight looked tall walking to the ring, but was a wee lad in comparison to Corbin.
Knight got some offense, more than you’d expect and he actually got a reaction from the crowd when he used a Thesz Press, but he did do the job to the End of Days.
****
Earlier today, American Alpha was staring at the empty Kay Bailey Hutchinson Convention Center when Enzo Amore & Colin Cassady came in to congratulate the new champs. Enzo said they were here longer than anyone on NXT, but the only team they never faced was Jordan & Gable, so they made a challenge to a non-title match.
****
Bayley pinned Liv Tyler
It is the first appearance of Bayley since she lost the belt at TakeOver. I think the reason why is because when she came out for the match with Asuka , he completely ignored me when I tried to hug her. Like, seriously, she went to the person standing next to me.
Bayley got, by far, the best reaction so far. Liv Morgan was looked at with derision from the audience. I don’t think a single person thought she had a chance in this bout. This was a fun match and was probably Liv’s best match since starting on NXT. Bayley won a quick match with the Bayley to Belly Suplex.
After the match Bayley took the mic, thanking the crowd for reacting so well to her. She said a true champion is one who keeps getting back up. She said Asuka was the better woman that night, but don’t feel sorry for her because she will be champion again.
****
Next week: American Alpha vs Enzo & Cass plus Samoa Joe vs Apollo Crews
****
Shinsuke Nakamura pinned Tye Dillinger
Spoiler Alert: I put the result of the match before watching it. Just had a feeling.
While it’s the NXT tv debut of Nakamura, the only thing I can hear is when he comes out is Subconscious (his New Japan theme). Nakamura was mocked by Dillinger, so Nakamura mocked him back.
The fans were chanting “This is awesome” for Nakamura kicking Dillinger in every exposed part of his body. Tye got a series of 1 counts with a super kick. It was like he didn’t believe what was happening. Nakamura ducked a second super kick, Dillinger ducked a kick, but Tye didn’t duck the other foot coming up and kicking his head clean off.
I have no idea what it’s now called, but Nakamura won with the Kinshasa running knee.
So that does it for this week. Thank you so much for reading and I will talk to you again in just 7 days!
Comments are closed