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December 7th, 2016 On commentary tonight, at Full Sail University, are Tom Phillips and Corey Graves. Opening Segments The NEW nXt Tag Team Champions, #DIY, are introduced at FSU. Gargano & Ciampa walk directly into the crowd and give high-fives to the fans in attendance. Pretty cool moment. The fans chant “DIY” as the champs make their way into the ring to hold their title belts high. Plenty of chanting followed and just as the guys are about to speak, the Authors of Pain and their manager, Paul Ellering arrive on the stage. They are the 2016 Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic winners. Ellering yells about their accomplishments and says #DIY’s celebration is premature. He gets cut off by the music of the former tag champions, The Revival. Dash & Dawson arrive and stare down the Authors of Pain as they walk down to the bottom of the ramp. Dash says they are the only #1 contenders. This whole tag team revolution is built around the best tag team on the planet, says Dawson. Akam and Rezar menacingly walk down the ramp and get in the faces of Dash & Dawson. They shove them to the ground and the Revival back off. Ellering says the next chapter of the revolution will be written by the future nXt tag team champions…the Authors of Pain. They pose on the stage as #DIY stares them down. One cool point for #DIY for celebrating with the fans and making them feel even more involved with their rise to tag team championship glory. One cool point for the Authors of Pain because they continue to intimidate and threaten everyone in their path. Will tonight’s momentary clash with The Revival be a glimpse at a future match between the two teams? Promo:A promo, with highlights of his in-ring action and promo delivering is shown for “Showtime!” Percy Watson. He will be joining Phillips and Graves at the announcers’ table. Graves is happy to see him again as they were together in nXt before it was cool. Tag Team Match: No Way Jose & Rich Swann vs. SAnitY Jose dances with the fans at ringside and Watson joins in from the announce table. A reminder that Rich Swann is the new Cruiserweight Champion. Tonight it will be Alexander Wolfe and Eric Young wrestling for their group. Sawyer Fulton is nowhere to be seen. Wolfe and Jose begin this tilt. Jose comes out of the gate with chops and right hands, and he slams Wolfe face-first on the mat. Swann is tagged in and Jose lifts him, legs first, on to Wolfe for a hurricanrana. Wolfe rolls straight out to the floor. Cross and Young motivate him with slaps and throw him back in. Swann delivers a few chops and tries to whip Wolfe off the ropes. Wolfe catches him by the legs, holds him upside down and allows Young to tag in. Young stomps Swann to the mat and continues the beatdown as… We go to commercial. On the return, Young throws Swann hard into the turnbuckle and the cover…1-2- kickout by Swann. Young chokes Swann in the corner until the referee counts to 4. Young is caught off guard by a dropkick when he was distracted by Jose, but he manages to stay in control, preventing a tag to Jose. Young mounts the turnbuckle, positions Swann underneath him and lifts him right off his feet by the neck. Ouch. Quite a different looking choke slam. It earns him another 2 count. Wolfe tags himself in and stomps down Swann in his own corner. Swann does some fight-dancing, which allows Swann a few moments to recover. Swann counters a powerslam by dismounting from Wolfe’s shoulders. Wolfe still slams Swann down and gets a 2 count. He applies an arm submission, clutching Swann on the neck as he stretches his left arm back. The crowd chants bring Swann back to life. They run the ropes and it’s a double clothesline in the centre of the ring. Both men start crawling to their respective corners and tags are made! Here comes Jose with the chops on Young, then Wolfe on the apron. Jose hooks Young’s arm and flips him to the mat. He then delivers a running clothesline. TKO! 1-2- Wolfe breaks the count! This brings in Swann who suckers Wolfe into running at him, only to jump out of the way, sending Wolfe to the outside. Swann mounts the turnbuckle and executes a nifty front flip splash on Wolfe. Crowd’s chanting “nXt” as Young throws Jose to the outside. Wolfe slams Swann head-first into the stairs. As he does that, a huge man pushes Jose face-first into the ringpost. Wolfe looks on a little worriedly as Graves identifies the man as Damo, one of the biggest behemoths on the planet. Wolfe rolls Jose back in to receive Young’s wheelbarrow neckbreaker. 1-2-3. This one’s over. Winners: SAnitY via pinfall in 8 minutes. Post-match, Damo picks up the vest on the ramp that belongs to Wolfe. He slams it back down and walks off. The members of SAnitY look on and aren’t too sure what to make of this, but Young is smiling. One cool point for Swann’s aerial attack on Wolfe. A shame we didn’t get to see more of that in this match. One cool point for the intensity of each Sanity member. They are all so invested in presenting themselves as unhinged and unreasonable people. It is uncomfortable to watch and that, I think, is exactly what they’re hoping the audience will feel, especially its younger members. Not sure how Damo fits into things yet, but I’m intrigued. Backstage, nXt General Manager William Regal has an announcement for the Tag Team Division. The Revival will get their rematch on the January 11th edition of nXt. The winner of that match will defend the titles against the Authors of Pain at Takeover: San Antonio, taking place a day before the 2017 Royal Rumble. Tye Dillinger arrives in Regal’s office and says maybe he doesn’t belong in nXt. Regal stops him and tells him about a tournament he’s starting to determine the next #1 contender for the nXt Championship. It starts next week and there will be 4 singles matches where the winners will advance to a fatal four-way match. Regal still believes in Dillinger, even though things haven’t gone his way recently. Dillinger agrees. Regal puts on brass knuckles as the scene cuts to… Up Next: Samoa Joe (c) vs. Shinsuke Nakamura for the nXt Championship in Osaka, Japan. Final Segments Backstage, Young and Wolfe ignore the interviewer. Cross walks by but the nXt Women’s Championship catches her eye. It’s sitting on a yellow storage box. She smiles at it but stops when Asuka comes up behind her to retrieve it. Seems like Cross may have eyes for the championship. Asuka grins back as we go to the next matches in Osaka! From the Edion Arena in Osaka, Japan Singles Match: Ember Moon vs. Kimber Lee Phillips asks what will be next for Ember Moon? The match starts with a test of strength, posed by Lee. The two lock up with Lee surprising Moon and slamming her to the mat. Moon doesn’t let go of Lee’s hands though and gets back up to her feet. She then jumps on Lee’s thighs and flips Lee over her head. Vicious kicks from Moon to the chest and head. Moon runs the ropes right into a side slam from Lee. 1-2- kickout. Lee traps Moon in a unique arm submission, trapping them with her legs. Moon leans back and forces Lee’s shoulders down for a pinfall attempt. Lee flips over and flips Moon in the process for a 2 count. Moon kicks out and the two get back to their feet. Moon and Lee trade chops. Lee catches Moon on her shoulders and holds her there for a few moments or maybe Moon holds on to her because she ends up hitting the hurricanrana after all. Hip toss from Moon but Lee counters by clubbing her in the back. Kick to the side of the face and a cover for 2. Moon rolls up Lee for a quick count where Lee escapes. Moon is pissed. Lee retreats to the corner as Moon shrieks and hits a tumbling forearm to the face. She mounts the turnbuckle and flies, delivering that vicious Eclipse finisher. This match is over. Winner: Ember Moon via pinfall in 4 minutes One cool point for Moon who, as Graves said, is gaining momentum in the Women’s Division. The discussion around potential contenders for Asuka has centred solely on Moon and Nikki Cross. Tonight, we’ve seen moments that suggest both of these women may get opportunities in the new year. That is good news. Whether or not Moon can beat down Asuka enough to hit her with the Eclipse is another matter altogether. Next Week:#1 Contender Qualifying Matches for the nXt Championship include: Tye Dillinger vs. Eric Young, Elias Samson vs. Roderick Strong, Oney Lorcan vs. Bobby Roode, and Andrade “Cien” Almas vs. No Way Jose nXt Championship Match: Samoa Joe (c) vs. Shinsuke Nakamura This is the 3rd match of their feud. They have traded championship victories and, now, on Nakamura’s home turf, the deciding match will take place. The referee has to break up these two from fighting before Nakamura’s theme music even ends. The crowd sings Nakamura’s music and breaks into applause as the lights change and the announcer announces them. Hundreds of red ribbons fly into the ring when Nakamura is announced. This is a traditional gesture, says Graves. The ribbons are cleared and the championship belt is held up. Here…we…GO! The two begin cautiously, almost as if they are boxing, throwing punches and kicks that don’t quite land. Joe and Nakamura lock up against the ropes. They stay there for a bit before Nakamura has his head on Joe’s stomach, letting his arms sway. Joe breaks the hold, rushes him and Nakamura knees him a few times. Joe escapes to the corner and Nakamura follows him, choking him with his foot. Joe rolls out and takes a few moments on the outside to rethink his strategy. Nakamura meets him at the apron and Joe twists Nakamura’s nose while the referee was in between them, trying to break the hold. Nakamura holds his nose, in pain, as… We go to commercial. Joe is all over Nakamura with an STF submission as we return. He transitions it to a crossface, locking it in pretty hard. Nakamura contorts his body and throws his legs to the ropes to escape. Joe drags Nakamura up to his feet and goes for a suplex. Nakamura counters it once, twice, and uses his legs to takedown Joe on to his back. He transitions this into an armbar submission attempt but Joe prevents it. Nakamura seizes Joe’s head with his legs into a triangle chokehold. He elbows Joe in the head as the champ scrambles for a rope break. Joe gets his foot on the bottom rope and the referee breaks the two up. Nakamura lifts Joe up this time, going for a reverse exploder, but Joe gives Nakamura a back kick to the knee. Nakamura doubles down and lifts Joe for a huge German suplex. Nakamura gets fired up in the corner. He rushes Joe for a Kinshasa…Joe catches him for a belly to belly suplex. 1-2- kickout by Nakamura. Powerful exchange there. Both men lie on the mat, taking their time to catch their breath. Joe chops Nakamura on the chest, positions him on the top turnbuckle and lifts him for a muscle buster. Nakamura evades it, rushes Joe for Kinshasa, and Joe ducks out of the way just in time. Joe returns with the Coquina Clutch, and just as Nakamura gets close to the ropes, he brings Nakamura to the mat with a German suplex. Joe tries to re-apply the submission but Nakamura drops to his butt and tries to wrap Joe up in a body scissors. Joe counters it and drops Nakamura with another German suplex. Nakamura elbows at Joe’s head but can’t escape yet another German suplex! 1-2- kickout by Nakamura at 2 and ¾. Joe looks frustrated as he leans over the fallen Nakamura. He lifts him to his feet and, then, to the top turnbuckle for the muscle buster. Nakamura punches Joe’s head a few times. Joe spins and dishes out an enziguri which sends Nakamura into a heap on the floor below. Joe removes one of the steel steps and prepares to spike Nakamura on the one that remains by the ringpost. Nakamura elbows Joe repeatedly on the head and back to evade the steel steps. He runs away and then towards Joe, kneeing him in the small of the back. Joe’s head hits the steel steps on the way down. All the while, the referee’s count gets dangerously close to ten as Nakamura heaves Joe into the ring. Nakamura rolls in very slowly, looking exhausted. Joe and Nakamura exchange right hands and forearms to the face. Nakamura misses a spinning heel kick but connects with a knee to the gut and a boot to the back of Joe’s neck. Flying knee. Nakamura lifts up Joe on his shoulders but can’t bear the weight and he collapses into the ropes with Joe going down hard to the apron and out to the floor. Nakamura retrieves Joe. Into the ring, they go and Nakamura climbs the turnbuckle, connecting with another flying knee. He’s getting pumped up! Joe is down. Nakamura is charging up. KINSHASA! 1-2-3!!!! NEW CHAMPION! Winner: Shinsuke Nakamura via pinfall in 14 minutes Post-match, neither man is moving. The two look exhausted; even when Nakamura receives the championship belt, he can barely stand. Eventually, Nakamura bows to the fans and holds the title high for all to see. Breaking news followed the celebration as Charly Caruso shares that there will be one more rematch between these two, in Melbourne, Australia. This time, Joe and Nakamura will fight in a steel cage. Two cool points for Nakamura’s big home country win for Nakamura. His perseverance and continued use of flying knees to the back and head of Joe paid off. Is anyone getting tired of watching these two fight? I certainly am not. One cool point for Samoa Joe because he was dominant until he took things outside the ring. His plan backfired and he ended up kissing the steel. That was the TSN turning point and he couldn’t regain the momentum after that. He should’ve stuck with the submission game. With a steel cage match forthcoming, will we see an even better match than tonight, or do these two not have enough left in the tank to keep the intensity of this feud alive? Looking forward to your cool points and comments on tonight’s show. Peace!
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