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January 25th, 2017 On commentary tonight, at Full Sail University, are Tom Phillips, “Showtime” Percy Watson, and Corey Graves. Opening Segment Singles Match: Ember Moon vs. Liv Morgan The two ladies lock up. Ember with the hip toss on Morgan. Morgan counters it into a headscissors but Ember kips up out of it. Morgan does the same and the girls slap hands. Ember and Morgan lock up, roll up and actually tumble around the ring together as though they are a human ball…it ends with a 2 count for Morgan. Wow. That was impressive. Gotta see that if you can, folks. They lock up again. Big spinning head scissors takedown by Morgan for a 2 count. Ember counters with a running knee to the head of Morgan, followed by a fallaway slam for a 2 count. Ember immediately cinches in a crossface on Morgan and Morgan tries to roll out of it but Ember holds on. Morgan endures the hold a few more moments before bridging and forcing Ember to roll back, shoulders on the mat, for a 2 count pinfall attempt. Ember kicks out but receives a jawbreaker for her efforts. Morgan follows that with a dropkick…then a running bulldog and a kip up. She’s all fired up! Guillotine submission applied by Morgan…hanging on to Ember who’s still standing. Ember breaks it by throwing Morgan over the ropes! That’s some strength. Ember waits on the apron, yells out and delivers a running front kick to Morgan’s face. She rolls Morgan back into the ring and mounts the turnbuckle. ECLIPSE on Morgan. It’s over. Winner: Ember Moon via pinfall in 4 minutes Post-match, Ember helps Morgan up to her feet as the latter holds her face. No ill will between these ladies. One cool point for both ladies. That was a fine opening match for the show. Both girls demonstrated some impressive offense: Ember with a well-timed crossface, Morgan with the spinning head scissors. Morgan needed a match like this and it was Ember who got it out of her. She’s slowly emerging as the next big thing in the nXt Women’s Division. Backstage, Andrade “Cien” Almas is asked about his match with Roderick Strong at Takeover: San Antonio. Cien says he’s going to kick Strong in the face. Strong arrives and says why don’t you kick me in the face right now. Cien smiles, walks away but immediately returns to beat up on Strong. He leaves Strong lying on the ground after getting in his hits. He manages to keep his classy hat on, too. Second Segment Remember, “Square Hammer” by Ghost is one of the official theme songs for nXt Takeover: San Antonio. Promo: A video documenting the rise of the Authors of Pain, and their Dusty Rhodes Classic win, and the tag team championship win for #DIY is shown. Third Segment Singles Match: No Way Jose vs. Kona Reeves Reeves grapples Jose from behind and Jose begins to do a little hip wiggling which causes Reeves to break the hold. Jose goes to work on showing off his dancing skills before the two lock up again. Side headlock on Reeves by Jose. Jose is pushed to the turnbuckle and he jumps up, over the running Reeves and takes him down. Arm drag and Jose gets back to dancing as the crowd chants for him. Reeves agrees to finally dance with Jose, inches closer to him and shoves him in the throat. Reeves begins to launch an offensive but is stopped abruptly by Jose who dishes it right back. Big chop by Jose. Irish whip is countered. Jose tries to use the turnbuckle to spring over Reeves but this time Reeves catches him on the shoulders for a Samoan drop. 1-2- kickout by Jose. Reeves stomps Jose, keeping him on the mat. Reeves stands on Jose’s back and pretends to surf before following it with an elbow drop. 2 count pinfall attempt. Reeves pulls Jose back to his feet and places him in an abdominal stretch. Jose escapes by flipping Reeves with his arm. Reeves charges Jose but Jose falls to his knees to evade it. When Reeves charges again, Jose’s ready and throws lefts and rights. Double slaps to the chest. Off the ropes they go, Jose with a flapjack on Reeves. Jose’s fired up for his finishing move. He winds up, misses the pitch and Reeves kicks him in the mid-section. He runs off the ropes, is lifted up by Jose for the big right hand. That knocks out Reeves for the 1-2-3. Winner: No Way Jose via pinfall in 4 minutes. Post-match, Jose is dancing until the reporter enters and asks him…we don’t find out because Elias Samson walks on to the stage, with his guitar. Samson sings about Jose until Jose’s had enough and tells Samson the song sucks. The crowd picks up on it and tells Samson as much. One cool point for Jose’s commitment to dancing which he maintained well in this match until it even allured Reeves to try a little dancing, too. Jose’s schtick isn’t something I love but it does get the crowd into the match more. Coming Up: Fatal 4 Way between the nXt Women’s Division match’s ladies and, up next, Eric Young of SAnitY will be in action. Fourth Segment “This Light I Hold” by Memphis May Fire is one of this year’s theme songs for Takeover: San Antonio Singles Match: Eric Young (w. SAnitY) vs. Chris Atkins Atkins is much taller than Young, who charges out of the gate, clobbering Atkins on the back as he leans on the ropes. Young continues to lay in with the chops to the chest. Elbows to the head. Young yells in Atkins’ face, bounces off the ropes and gets tackled by Atkins. Young doesn’t like that and kicks Atkins to a seated position in the corner as he lays into him with right hands. Running clothesline in the corner. Young sits on the top turnbuckle, lifts Atkins from behind, choking him to the 4 count by the referee. Elbow drop to the spine from the second rope and now Young grabs Atkins in the wheelbarrow position…we have lift off and a back slam. The cover: 1…2…3. Winner: Eric Young via pinfall in 2 minutes Post-match, Young yells out about choices. He says Dillinger made his choice and it was the wrong one. Big Damo connects with a running senton on the fallen Atkins and SAnitY’s music hits again. One cool point for Young’s intensity. Although he was much smaller than his opponent, that was never a factor in this match. Young wrestled smarter and bigger than Atkins, sending a strong signal to his Takeover opponent: Tye Dillinger. Young’s a veteran hand and the slow build for his group to dominate nXt continues. Fifth Segment Recap: We get a glimpse at TM-61’s work in the ring, as of late, including knowledge that Shane Thorne suffered a knee injury, requiring a meniscus repair. The reconstructive surgery has Thorne out for 7-9 months so we’ll be waiting for TM-61 for a while. Promo: Nakamura’s debut in nXt is reviewed. Hard to believe he only arrived 9 months ago. Highlights from his championship matches are shown along with footage of his entrance. This transitions into highlights from his recent feud with the “glorious one” Bobby Roode. Up Next: Fatal 4 Way between the nXt Women’s Division match’s ladies Final Segment “Monster” by Starset is also one of the Takeover: San Antonio theme songs. Go check it out. nXt General Manager William Regal is in the ring. He invites the 4 women involved in the Fatal 4-Way Women’s Championship match to come to the ring. Royce and Kay walk down together. Royce steals the microphone out of Regal’s hand. “Asuka’s gonna kill you” chants slowly start but Royce says no. Kay says they’re going to prove they run this division on Saturday night. Royce says Nikki is crazy. Kay says they can’t beat both of us. Nikki Cross, of SAnitY, emerges from the dark and smoke of the rampway. She’s all fired up as Kay and Royce hold their hands up, asking for her to stay back. Asuka runs down the ramp after she’s announced, rolling in under the ropes, to scare off Kay and Royce. Her and Cross go nose to nose in the centre of the ring until Kay and Royce seize the moment, attacking them both. A few moments later, the Australians are both turfed again and it’s, once again, Asuka and Cross staring one another down. Security team members enter the ring but Cross and Asuka fight back with punches and elbows. They rid the ring of security and face off again…this time, Asuka strikes with a spinning heel kick and Cross is down hard. Finally, security manage to grab Asuka’s foot and drag her outside. As they hold her, Cross flies from the top rope with a plancha on the whole lot of them! Asuka, Cross and 5 security guys are all passed out on the ramp as Kay and Royce look on from the stage and that’s a wrap on this episode. One cool point for Asuka’s no-nonsense approach to this showdown. She looked a little frantic on the offensive, desperately trying to take on all 3 ladies. Cross sided with her in fending off Royce and Kay but the segment ended with a big bump from Cross to the outside. One cool point for her as well. This could well be a star-making match for her where she gains the credibility and respect needed to be considered a true top contender in the women’s division. The same opportunity is present for Kay & Royce, depending on how successful they are at using the numbers game to beat up on the favourites. Takeover: San Antonio Predictions Nakamura over Roode, possibly via interference, to retain the nXt Championship Authors of Pain over #DIY to win the nXt Tag Team Titles Asuka to retain the nXt Women’s Championship Young w. SAnitY over Dillinger Strong over Almas Looking forward to your thoughts, cool point suggestions, and Takeover: San Antonio predictions. Peace!
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