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January 20th, 2016 On commentary tonight, at Full Sail University, are Tom Phillips and Corey Graves. Opening Segment Singles Match: Sami Zayn vs. Adam Rose Rose begins by bringing Zayn to his knees with a left wristlock. Zayn tumbles his way out of it and takes down Rose with a wristlock of his own! Rose grabs Zayn’s ear to break free. Zayn with a fancy arm takedown to bring Rose to the mat once again. Off the ropes, Rose sits down and hides his head behind his arms. Zayn flips over him and nails him with a kick. It doesn’t do much though because Rose gains support from the boos of the crowd to deliver punches, clotheslines and an atomic drop on Zayn. Jumping knee smash to the head, a forearm and then a 1 count pinfall attempt, Rose is bringing it to the Canadian. The pace of the match slows with a side headlock from Rose, which builds applause from the crowd to bring Zayn to his feet, only to receive a hit to the abdomen and a few loud chops in the corner. Zayn punches back but gets stopped by more slaps. Rose throws Zayn across the ring to the opposite corner but Zayn fights back. He mounts the top turnbuckle but Rose hits the ropes to knock him off. Off the top rope, flying headbutt for a 2 count pinfall. Rose chokes Zayn in the ropes and argues with the referee. Zayn truly seizes the day by wrapping Rose up into a koji clutch. A few moments later and Rose has tapped! Winner: Sami Zayn via submission in 6 minutes One cool point for Adam Rose controlling most of the match. One cool point for Sami Zayn’s agility, which he demonstrated by way of tumbling, jumping and twisting around the ring. This was a fine opening match! Backstage, it’s Rich Brennan with Johnny Gargano who will be facing Samoa Joe in tonight’s main event. Gargano acknowledges Joe’s accomplishments, and his anger for not being champ. He calls him a schoolyard bully and says he will not be intimidated. He will handle the bully by punching him in the mouth. Gargano is all heart and he will not back down. Coming Up: Bayley & Carmella vs. Alexa Bliss & Emma w. Dana Brooke Up Next: Apollo Crews vs. “The Perfect 10” Tye Dillinger Second Segment Earlier today, Chad Gable & Jason Jordan lament that they weren’t nominated for nXt Tag Team of 2015. Blake & Murphy were, though, and that bothers these guys...so they challenge them to a match next week. Jordan reminds Gable that they’re going up. Gable says they’re going to be the alpha males of the division. They brag about their personal accomplishments in college. They give themselves a new name, “The America Alpha”. Gable holds up his ready and willing towel, and Jordan happily finishes it with “Gable”. Fun promo. Singles Match: Apollo Crews vs. “The Perfect 10” Tye Dillinger “Ten” hands and chants are present for all of Dillinger’s entrance. Heck, the guy even holds up a 10 sign. Personally, though, I prefer Crews’ entrance. His theme song has the potential to become iconic. Even though CFO$ writes very similar melodic lines for wrestlers, Crews’ stands out the most. I will likely comment on this again in the future. The two guys grapple to begin but it quickly moves to the corner, and the referee calls them back to the middle. Dillinger begins with a wristlock on Crews, pinning him down to the mat for a quick 1 count. Crews kips up but Dillinger reverses it with a side headlock. Crews doesn’t stay down long. Dillinger cartwheels and starts up some “10” chants with the crowd. Back to the side headlock, off the ropes, and a big dropkick from Crews. Dillinger just gets angry about this and positions Crews for a suplex. Crews reverses it and holds Dillinger high in the air, even with Dillinger kneeing him in the head, he holds Dillinger high for hangtime, for a massive vertical suplex. The match spills to the outside with Dillinger launching himself off the apron on Crews. Back in the ring, Dillinger’s knee-to-face finisher does not finish Crews off and he’s pissed. Dillinger lifts Crews on to the top turnbuckle but Crews kicks Dillinger back, spears him and then enziguiris him. He follows up with his new finisher, the half-turn sit down powerbomb. 1-2-3, and this match is done. Winner: Apollo Crews via pinfall in 6 minutes Crews gets on the mic post-match. He doesn’t like matches that end in DQ. He wants to finish what was started a few months ago. He’s not asking for a title match but he is asking for a 1-on-1 match with Finn Bálor. Then, he smiles. One cool point for Tye Dillinger, interacting with the crowd during the match. Nice touch there. One cool point for Apollo Crews who didn’t get a lot of offense in, but made his moves count. I’m just thinking of a match between he and Sami Zayn...and that’s main event material right there. What do you guys think? Face vs. face potential? Backstage, it’s Blake, Murphy and Alexa Bliss. Bliss quickly takes charge of the segment, telling Alex Reyes, his job is done, saying how humiliating it was for them to lose their tag match in London. She says they’re better than that and it still took half the tag team roster to beat them. She says her and Emma will beat Bayley & Carmella and it won’t be pretty. It will be quite bliss-tasteful. Ugh. Not a good saying...yet. Coming Up: Samoa Joe vs. Johnny Gargano Promo: We get a lookback on the nXt live tour date in Milwaukee where Zayn and Kevin Owens surprised the fans that night. Third Segment Singles Match: Baron Corbin vs. Rich Swann Rich Swann is a veteran of the independent scene and has wrestled internationally. Pretty interesting matchup, then. Swann shows off his speed and Corbin shows off his power to establish the dynamic of this match. Swann takes a 450 flip, springboarded into the air by Corbin, landing face first on the mat. This begins Corbin’s reign of power as he launches into a neck submission that wears Swann down a little. Swann nails a tilt-a-whirl headscissors, followed by 2 jumping dropkicks and a massive kick to the chin for a close 2 count. Swann goes to the top rope as Corbin shakes out the cobwebs. Swann jumps over a fast approaching Corbin and, upon turning around, promptly receives an End of Days from Corbin. It’s over. Winner: Baron Corbin via pinfall in 3 minutes Corey Graves indicates that Corbin may as well be named #1 contender. Phillips isn’t so sure. One cool point for Rich Swann who did as much as he could to show off his speed and agility in a short period of time as he could. Backstage, Brennan chats with Bayley & Carmella, mentioning Carmella’s #1 contender’s win in the battle royal last Wednesday. That sets up a match against her best friend but they’ll set that aside for the match. Bayley says this week it’s about winning their tag match. They’re interrupted by Dash & Dawson, making fun of Carmella for never winning when it counts. They hope BayMella will stay friends after this cause, like Enzo & Big Cass, all fluff and no stuff. Bayley has to calm Carmella down. Hehehe. Fourth Segment Tag Team Match: Alexa Bliss & Emma w. Dana Brooke vs. Bayley (c) & Carmella Phillips wonders if Bliss & Emma can work together after what happened in last week’s Battle Royal. Graves doesn’t think it will be a problem. Emma and Bliss attack Bayley before the match can begin. The referee works to restore order, checking to see if Bayley is okay. Bayley is holding her ribs gingerly as the bell rings. Emma lays into the torso, tags in Bliss who shoulder thrusts Bayley in their corner. She and Emma tag in and out to attack the torso with shoulders and kicks. We go to commercial, seeing Bayley, gritting her teeth in pain, lying on the mat. Bliss has Bayley in a kind of chicken wing arm submission but it doesn’t last once Bayley gets up on her feet. She reaches for the tag but Bliss cuts her off, sits her on the top turnbuckle and gets a spinning shoulder to the face. Both women are down on the mat as the fans chant for Bayley. Bliss gets to Emma with the tag first and she knocks Carmella off the apron. This allows Bayley to catch another breath and she hits Emma in the corner with a big elbow, followed by a suplex. Dana Brooke distracts her into receiving a hit to the mat by Bliss. Bayley crawls to the corner to receive Emma’s trademark crossbody splash and a 2 count. Bliss is tagged in and she continues attacking the torso with shoulder thrusts. She steps on her back as Carmella looks on, nothing doing. Bliss smashes Bayley back to her corner and tags in Emma, who suplexes and attempts a pinfall for a 2 count. Dana Brooke was pissed about that count and yells about it. Emma brings the punches to Bayley but Bayley returns them, rolls under Bliss’ arm and tags in Carmella. The hot tag is here and Carmella is all over Bliss, including a hurricanrana, brief broncobuster and even tossing Emma out of the ring. She applies the head-scissors submission on Bliss and that gains her team the victory! Winner: Bayley & Carmella (BayMella) via submission in 7 minutes One cool point for all the ladies who, as far as I’m concerned, put together a very entertaining tag team match. Might be my favourite match of the night. Vicious heel work from Emma & Bliss, targeting Bayley’s ribs. Carmella looks good by getting the win for her team, but she benefits from having Bayley carry most of the match. I’d like to see the women wrestle more tag matches if they’re going to be like this one. Promo: Al Reyes interviews Finn Balor about Apollo’s request for a match. Balor says we will settle this in the ring and there’ll be no doubt about who the better man is. Up Next: Samoa Joe vs. Johnny Gargano Closing Segment Singles Match: Samoa Joe vs. Johnny Gargano Interestingly, both men are wearing yellow and black trunks. That rarely happens. Was that on purpose or a happy accident to match the nXt ropes and ring design? The two grapple without much to do for the first minute until Gargano runs the ropes, right into Joe’s arm. Gargano tries to send Joe out of the ring but Joe stops, only to receive a hard kick to the face, which sends him out anyways. On the outside, Joe regains control and brings Gargano into the corners to deliver striking blows to the head and torso. Gargano fights back with chops to the jaw, which make Joe mad enough to kick the crap out of Gargano’s legs. Joe with the running stomp, sending Gargano to the outside. The ref begins the count and he gets to 9 before Gargano can get back in. Graves says it’s dumb as Gargano dishes the elbows to Joe, who replies with slaps. Joe can’t follow it up though cause Gargano gets him with 2 hard kicks to the head. Off the apron, jumping DDT and a 2 count by Gargano on Joe! Wow! Great sequence. Fans are behind Johnny as he runs corner to corner. Joe flips him over to the apron. Gargano launches himself back in but Joe is ready to finish the match. He quickly knees Gargano in the head and then locks in the Coquina Clutch on Gargano who cannot escape it. Winner: Samoa Joe via pinfall in 4 minutes Graves wishes Joe, Zayn and Corbin good luck in their #1 Contender’s Match next week. Joe poses for the crowd as the announcers hype that match. One cool point for the ferocity of Gargano’s kicks. One cool point for Samoa Joe being absolutely no nonsense about beating up Gargano. The way he snarls in the ring and looks disgusted with his opponent is quite compelling. It makes his dominance quite believable and maybe that is a difference between he and Corbin. Corbin’s mannerisms are very nonchalant in the ring and I guess that’s an aspect of his personality, in that he does as he pleases and walks to his own beat. Well, if he had a little more intensity that would only benefit him. That’s all for now. Feel free to share your thoughts and cool point suggestions on tonight’s episode.
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