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February 24th, 2016 On commentary tonight, at CFE Arena in Orlando, are Tom Phillips and Corey Graves. Opening Segment Tag Team Match: American Alpha vs. Blake & Murphy w. Alexa Bliss Gable and Murphy kick things off. Gable with a takedown into a leg submission. He and Jordan tag quickly until Murphy turns the tides with a stiff punch to the face. He tags in Blake and the two exchange takedowns, Gable proving to be the dominant one. Spin around and a suplex by Murphy. He tags in Blake but American Alpha quickly establish it is they who are the stronger team in this match. They kick their opponents to the outside and... We go to commercial. When we return, Jason Jordan has Blake in the bent back arm submission, followed by a wrist lock that lasts for quite a few moments. Gable’s back in and he applies an armbar submission, immobilizing Blake in the centre of the ring. Blake attempts to suplex Gable but Gable hangs on and flips Blake to his back. A Blake and Murphy double team move, where Murphy clotheslines Gable hard to the mat, slows down the odd couple. B&M begin to employ their strategy of quick tags, striking and submissiom on Gable, isolating Jordan. Bliss looks on, shouting out instructions. Gable gets close to the tag on a number of occasions until he finally stretches out. Commence hot tag of Jordan clotheslines and overhead belly to back suplexes. He spears Blake, chucks Murphy high in the air, tags Gable in for their double team finisher and the win. Graves sees nXt Tag Team Championship shots in the near future for Winners: American Alpha via pinfall in 10 minutes One cool point for American Alpha who are truly picking up steam in the tag team division. Buddy & Murphy did fine but they’ve certainly lost stock, losing many important matches since last year’s Dusty Rhodes Classic. How will they stay relevant? Gable & Jordan will have no problem with that in 2016. They’re making a big impression this year. Promo: A lookback on the nXt main event last week and the referee’s decision to call the match between Sami Zayn and Samoa Joe a failure GM William Regal announces that those two men will wrestle in a Best 2 out of 3 Falls match. He also shares that a new wrestler will be debuting next week. Coming Up: Bayley & Carmella vs. Eva Marie & Nia Jax in the main event. Second Segment Singles Match: Apollo Crews vs. Christopher Girard Girard takes the advantage off of the opening grapple but it doesn’t last. Crews catches Girard with a dropkick off the ropes. Suplex attempt and another but Girard blocks both of them before developing uppercuts and punches and a running diving right on Crews. The pace of the match slows when Girard locks in a headlock. After a minute, Crews breaks free, runs off the ropes and Girard meets him with a sharp elbow to the head. And we’re back in the headlock with Crews gasping for air. Once Crews gets to his feet, however, he directs traffic, so to speak, delivering some offensive strikes. He builds momentum off of these for his finishing sequence of strikes, rope running and slams, capping it off with his toss powerbomb. At one point, Girard seemed to turn over his ankle on the apron and then received an enziguri. Tough day at the office. Winner: Apollo Crews via pinfall in 8 minutes One cool point for Apollo Crews who is such a strong in-ring presence. It’d be great to see him sink his teeth into a high-quality feud. Promo: A look back two week’s ago and the finish to the Bayley/Carmella match, and the interference from Eva Marie & Nia Jax. Backstage, Al Reyes talks with Bayley and Carmella about their match two weeks ago. Carmella says she’ll be back for it sooner before later. Tonight, it’s about payback on Eva Marie & Nia Jax. Bayley appreciates the help Third Segment Singles Match: Tommaso Ciampa vs. Bull Dempsey Bull does his stretches in the entryway, wipes his boots off on the ring apron and does his jumping jacks to begin. The bell ring and Bull is trying to take his t-shirt off. It was quite an awkward struggle and he asks for help from the referee. Ciampa plays along with Dempsey’s jovial style for a bit, but only until Dempsey takes the advantage. It doesn’t last long because Ciampa stomps and elbows the big guy to the mat. He maintains the offensive until a half-hearted chant from the crowd for Bull is stopped dead by Ciampa’s attacks. Dempsey does connect with his trademark jabs but he can’t get the uppercut and Ciampa seizes that opportunity to apply the Sicilian Stretch for the victory. He mocks Dempsey’s jumping jacks, to the crowd, at match’s end. Winner: Tommaso Ciampa via pinfall in 4 minutes No cool points on this one. It was a decent enough match but there wasn’t anything to write home to Mom and Dad about. Samoa Joe responds to the news on the Best 2 of 3 Falls match that will take place in 2 weeks. Joe says he’ll be the next nXt champion...and that’s the same goal he’s had since he arrived. Right on. Fourth Segment Rich Brennan asks Sami Zayn if he’s ready for the Best 2 of 3 Falls match. Zayn says ready isn’t the issue. He knows exactly what it takes to survive. He’s got the ultimate goal of becoming the first ever 2-time nXt champion. Tag Team Match: Bayley (c) & Carmella vs. Nia Jax & Eva Marie Graves won’t let Phillips talk during Eva Marie’s entrance, signifying his love for the lady in red. Carmella launches herself into Eva Marie for 3 Lou Thesz presses before tagging in Bayley. Double team suplex on Eva and a 2 count cover by Bayley. Eva tags in Jax and the large lady begins tossing Bayley around the ring. She tags in Eva, who gloats to the crowd, a little too long, getting tripped to the mat. Double team slingshot by Bayley and Carmella on Eva, which kicks off some fun dance moves, including the moonwalk... and we go to commercial. When we return, Carmella’s got Eva pinned down to the mat in a side headlock. It doesn’t last long, though, and, when Eva runs the ropes, Jax tags in and meets Carmella with a strong arm. She takes her time, sauntering over to Carmella, and slams her to their corner. Eva’s tagged in. Eva gloats to the crowd before a move and can’t pull it off. This pisses Eva off who slams Carmella to their corner and tags in Jax. Bearhug on Carmella. Jax slams Carmella into the turnbuckle and tags in Eva, who proceeds to choke Carmella in the ropes, wearing her down slowly but surely. Another quick tag allows Carmella to fight back on Jax, until she’s caught and wrenched into a headlock. The fans cheer for Bayley to return until Jax swings Carmella around by the neck, cinching the headlock in further. Carmella gets pushed off the ropes. Jax goes for the spear and misses! Carmella crawls towards the ropes and gets the hot tag to Bayley who begins double axe-handles on Eva Marie. Beautiful suplex, followed by a corner splash and a back elbow, and another back elbow. Bayley from the top rope with a diving elbow, followed by the Bayley to belly suplex. The match would’ve been over but Jax drags Bayley out of the ring. Headbutt and she stumbles towards Carmella for the tag. Eva Marie hasn’t gotten up this entire time. Carmella with the modified body-scissors submission, but Jax breaks that up too. Jax is so determined to get back into the match that she drags Eva towards their corner, so that Eva can reach up to tag her in anew. Off the ropes, a leg drop...then a second, then a third, and Eva tags in to pin Carmella for the 1-2-3. Winner: Nia Jax & Eva Marie via pinfall in 7 minutes Backstage, GM William Regal is with nXt champion, Finn Balor, being interviewed by Rich Brennan. Regal says Balor is approaching the longest championship reign in nXt history. Balor says that’s fine and all, but what are you getting at? Regal says that he’s arranged for him to fight the man who currently has the record...the man that gravity forgot...Neville. Balor says he looks forward to it. One cool point for Nia Jax who was the star of that match. She dictated the pace when she was in the ring. She delivered stiff elbow and leg drops. One cool point for Bayley for maximizing her brief time in the ring with a flurry of offense. It was short and sweet and a reminder of how entertaining singles matches with her are. Feel free to share your thoughts on the night, as well as your cool point suggestions on tonight’s episode. Peace!
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