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April 6th, 2016 On commentary tonight, at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Center in Dallas, are Tom Phillips and Corey Graves. Opening Segment Phillips and Graves introduce the Crews/Samson match as something that will take place on tonight’s program, since it got cut from the Takeover: Dallas card. Then, they cut to new nXt commentator Cathy Kelley at WWE HQ. She introduces clips from Apollo Crews’ debut match on Raw against Tyler Breeze. Recap: We see highlights from the nXt Tag Team Championship Match between The Revival and #1 contenders, American Alpha, where the latter picked up their first championship victory. Backstage, after their match, the nXt cameras catch up with the new champions: Jason Jordan and Chad Gable. Jordan is visibly emotional and he shares how happy they are. They had to do a lot of hard work and digging deep to make it to this point. Gable says they could not fall short again and they had to win that match. The crowd was amazing and this is where they wanted it to happen, on the biggest stage possible. Wrestlemania weekend, with fans from all around the world, and they had their special moment in front of 10 000 people. They achieved their goal. Gable points out that Jordan’s been there a long time and no one deserves it more than him. Coming Up: A recap of the nXt championship match and the nXt Women’s championship match Second Segment Halestorm are thanked for providing their song, “Mayhem” as an official theme song for nXt Takeover: Dallas. Cathy Kelley introduces the review of the nXt Women’s Championship match between the champ, Bayley, versus the #1 contender, Asuka. Recap: We see highlights from their match at Takeover where Asuka’s submission hold caused Bayley to pass out, thereby making Asuka the new champion. Backstage, after the match, Bayley congratulates Asuka on her win but admits it’s hard for her to come to terms with what happened. She says Asuka was on a whole other level and maybe she wasn’t prepared. She let the kids down and all she knows is that a champion is made by how many times she gets knocked down and back to her feet. She will be back on her feet to try again. Recap: Two weeks ago, we see the moment when Crews attacked Samson to spark the upcoming bout. Coming Up: A recap of the nXt championship match Third Segment Recap: Highlights from the Takeover: Dallas match between Austin Aries and Baron Corbin are shown Backstage, nXt cameras catch up with Austin Aries. He says he’s the most polarizing man in professional wrestling er... sports entertainment. He’s not out to prove anything to the people, but to himself. Corbin doesn’t want to give him the respect that he’s earned. Tonight, Aries made him give respect. Talent and passion are quantifiable. Corbin found out tonight that Aries is the greatest man that ever lived. Cathy Kelley tells us that next week Aries will be in action. She discusses still pictures of the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal, a match that Baron Corbin happened to win as he made his debut on the main roster. Recap: Highlights from the nXt Championship match between the champ, Finn Balor and the #1 contender, Samoa Joe. Backstage, the camera catches up with Finn Balor after his match where he retained the title. Balor says Joe is a monster that keeps on coming. Dallas was a bloody war and he doesn’t know how much more he can give to stop Joe. In another part of the arena, they find Samoa Joe and ask for comments but he walks past the camera, angrily. Recap: Last week, Elias Samson played a song on guitar for Apollo Crews. Crews invites Samson into the ring but Samson says no and the feud doesn’t escalate. Their match is up next! Fourth Segment Singles Match: Apollo Crews vs. Elias Samson Samson gets the match announcer to hold a mic for him and he launches into an nXt Takeover: Dallas song that sounds like an improvisation. The fans start chanting against him and he wants to continue but Crews’ theme music cuts him off. The two kick off the match with a kind of tumbling sequence which leads Samson to the corner where he picks up his guitar and kisses it. Back up on his feet, the two grapple and Samson flips Crews to the ground. He retreats to his corner again to avoid an attack. Side headlock by Samson. Crews tries to bounce off the ropes but Samson stops him, not once, but twice. Samson walks up the ropes, holding Crews and flips him over, maintaining the side headlock while seated on the mat. Samson doesn’t hold that long because Crews traps him in a headscissors and then kips up out of the hold. The two run the ropes with Crews launching a beautiful twisting dropkick on Samson, following it up with an arm hold. Samson tries to suplex his way out of it but Crews will not let go of the left arm and he keeps Samson in the hold. A few moments later, Samson throws Crews out through the ropes but Crews won’t let go and he brings Samson out with him. Suddenly, it’s arm drags to flip Samson in and to continue dominating. Samson gets mouthy with Crews after a takedown and Crews responds with his own takedown. Corner to corner, Crews chases Samson and gets tossed on to the ring apron. Samson sweeps Crews’ legs out from under him as he tried to leap the ropes. Crews writhes in pain on the ring apron as... We go to commercial. On the return, it’s Samson laying into Crews with punches, in the corner. The ref breaks it up at one point when Samson’s dishing forearms to Crews. Off the ropes, Samson knocks down Crews and a smattering of boos can be heard from the crowd. Samson applies a side headlock on Crews to wear him down. This lasts for a minute until Crews gets back to his feet, only to get snapmared down. Crews responds positively but Samson continues to get the best of him with punches to the face. In the corner, Samson uses the ropes to spring up and then back kick a following Crews. Samson goes for the pinfall and gets 2. Another cover for less than 1 and so Samson applies a chinlock to wear down Crews further. Crews runs off the ropes, straight into a dropkick on Crews and Samson only gets a 2 count, despite Samson’s attempt to use the ropes as leverage. Samson beats on Crews’ face with left hand jabs. The two square off against in the middle of the ring and Crews is fired up! He knocks down Samson twice with right hands. A huge splash in the corner is followed by a flying clothesline. Massive right leg kick for a 2 count. Samson escapes the ring. Crews delivers a back moonsault on Crews, jumping from the ring apron. He brings Samson back in to do a standing arm press and just as he attempts the standing moonsault, his torso lands on Samson’s knees. Ouch. Crews is slow to his feet. Samson counters a rollup attempt for a 2 count. He connects with a jumping knee smash to Crews’ face which earns him a 2.5 count. Crews is out but the referee doesn’t count. Samson and Crews counter each other’s offense until Crews connects with a strong front kick and his quarter turn toss powerbomb. 1-2-3. Winner: Apollo Crews via pinfall in 11 minutes One cool point for the number of counters seen from both Samson and Crews. Crews’ agility is quite impressive though and, ultimately, Samson just can’t match up with him. Final Segment Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes are thanked for providing their song, “Devil Inside Me” as an official theme song for nXt Takeover: Dallas. Recap: Highlights from the Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Sami Zayn match at Takeover: Dallas are shared by Cathy Kelley. Backstage, Sami Zayn is asked about the match and the reaction at the end. Zayn says he was excited about wrestling Nakamura from the moment it was announced. Nothing but respect for him and what happened after the match reflected that. Hard to put into words for Zayn but the fans’ cheering means a lot to him. Nakamura has a translator with him to answer the questions about the match. Very tough match and Nakamura says strong style is alive. Cathy Kelley tells us he will be in action next week and to join them for a new chapter of nXt. That’s all for tonight, folks. More of a review episode since they didn’t tape many extra matches like they have in the past after Takeover specials. Pretty easy going but, still, they hyped up next week’s show by telling us Aries and Nakamura, the newest nXt recruits, are wrestling. That’s exciting since both of those guys are main event calibre competitors as far as I’m concerned. I did quite poorly on my predictions but was happy with all of the matches, especially the Tag match and the Women’s match. Feel free to share your thoughts and cool point suggestions on tonight’s episode and Takeover: Dallas. Peace!
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