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January 27th, 2016 On commentary tonight, at Full Sail University, are Tom Phillips and Corey Graves. Opening Segment Tag Team Match: American Alpha vs. Blake & Murphy w. Alexa Bliss As they noted in last week’s interview, Chad Gable & Jason Jordan have a new name for their tag team: American Alpha. The crowd responds in a big way for the boys, who are sporting new, matching ring gear. Murphy and Jordan start things off. Murphy catches Jordan’s leg and tries to kick out the other, but Jordan hops each time. Impressive balance. Jordan takes Murphy down and tags in Gable to pick up where he left off. Gable secures Murphy in a wristlock for a few moments until Murphy twists around and reverses the hold. Gable shows off his agility and flexibility to try and break free, and he eventually succeeds but only after Blake has tagged in. Gable quickly takes the wristlock to Blake, bringing him down to the mat. Blake reverses the hold. Gable snapmares out of it but Blake knocks him down. The two run the ropes until Blake executes two spinning arm drag takedowns. Murphy tags in and receives a similar fate, and a 2 count pinfall. The crowd chants his name as he holds Murphy down in an arm submission. Murphy, worn down by the hold, breaks free and sends Gable off the ropes. He jumps up and lands awkwardly on his knee, yelling out in pain. The referee attends to Murphy for more than a few worrying moments, as Bliss approaches the corner to see how Murphy is. In the meantime, Blake attacks Gable who attacks back and just as he does, Murphy chops Gable’s knee from behind. It was a ruse! Blake is tagged in and, he and Murphy work over Gable’s knee in their home corner. Even Bliss gets involved with the strategy. Blake gets a 2 count on Gable and tags Murphy back in. Using the ropes for leverage, he springs up and slams down on Gable’s knee with his buttocks. He tries to do it again, but Gable launches him clear of the ring and on to the ramp! Gable leaps for the tag but Blake stops him. Gable tries again and gets it. Hot tag! Jordan brings the press slams and suplexes, including one where he throws Blake right across Murphy. Huge spear in the corner on Blake. They execute their double team finisher to get the win. Winner: American Alpha via pinfall in 6 minutes One cool point for Murphy having me believe he was actually hurt on that awkward landing. Maybe it’s not a new idea to fake an injury but it’s not a common strategy from tag teams these days. One cool point for the agility of Jordan & Gable. All of these short matches have me excited to watch these guys compete in a 15-20 minute match where they could really show off their moveset. Dash & Dawson better watch out for these guys. Backstage, it’s Alex Reyes with Emma and Dana Brooke, where we learn that Emma is facing #1 Contender Carmella next week. Last week didn’t go so well though. Brooke tells Reyes his name isn’t important and that last week wasn’t about Bayley, it was about them. The two ladies poke fun at Carmella, admitting her lucky battle royal win, but her luck will run out next week. Brooke does her head tap thing on Reyes and that’s a wrap. Coming Up: Triple Threat #1 Contender’s Match for the nXt Championship Second Segment Promo: A video package featuring Asuka’s run in nXt so far was shown. Singles Match: Nia Jax w. Eva Marie vs. Liv Morgan Graves wants to soak up Jax’s intro rather than talk about her dominant performance in London, like Phillips. To begin, Jax holds Morgan by the neck, swings her in the air and drops her harshly on the mat. There is a significant size difference between the two as she applies a chokehold on Morgan. Morgan tries to kick Jax’s foot to break free. 30 seconds of struggle later, she breaks free with a neckbreaker. She lands a dropkick but Jax does not go down. She throws herself at Jax but that doesn’t work either. Jax turns that into a sidewalk slam. She follows it with a leg drop on Morgan and covers her for the pinfall. Winner: Nia Jax via pinfall in 2 minutes One cool point for Jax’s domination of her opponent tonight. Gotta respect the squash on this one. I feel like her next major opponent will be Asuka, but it’s hard to say. Asuka’s got beef with some of the other ladies too. Backstage, Carmella, accompanied by Enzo and Big Cass, addresses what Brooke had to say about her. Carmella will prove them and all the doubters wrong. The Emmalution is a joke. Cass picks up on this and addresses the “all fluff, no stuff” comment from Dash & Dawson. He says they have fluff behind their title belts. Enzo says they have no credibility but the titles. He’s been on edge since Takeover and they’re getting tuned up when they next meet. Go punch yourself or we will. Enzo leaves abruptly as Cass and Carmella comment on how fired up he was. And he was. That was an awesome promo. Promo: A brief look at Baron Corbin and his desire to destroy anyone who gets in his way of being nXt champion. It was shot in a scratchy black and white filter. Coming Up: Triple Threat #1 Contender’s Match for the nXt Championship Third Segment Promo: The Vaudevillains clip, from last week, is shown again where their smiles turn to frowns and then the tape runs out. It must be alluding to an attitude change for the duo. Singles Match: Bull Dempsey vs. Alex Riley Graves says Bull is the exact same weight as he was before the holidays, and that takes dedication. Bull does some jumping jacks in the ring, takes his pulse, and then does a few more. Riley makes his return to nXt after being out since last spring with a knee injury. Bull continues with the jumping jacks until Riley kicks him. He throws him into the opposite corner and leg sweeps Bull to the mat. He asks if this is what nXt has come to while punching Bull down. The commentators talk about Riley showing a different side of himself as he covers Bull for a 2 count. Armlock around Bull’s head slows the pace. Bull returns to his feet and brings the jabs to Riley’s head. He yells out, runs the ropes and is met with a spinebuster from Riley. Riley then hits a flying knee to the jaw and covers Bull for the win. Winner: Alex Riley via pinfall in 3 minutes. One cool point for Riley in his no-nonsense approach to this match. Poor Dempsey is getting very little support these days, but, for a returning wrestler, getting a win is important. I’m not sure if Riley is going to move on to a bigger profile feud but, likely, this bout against Bull is a one-off. Backstage, Samson is playing his guitar in a dark room, by the blinds. Phillips says there are a lot of questions surrounding this man but we will find out more about him next, since he’ll be in action. Fourth Segment Backstage, the cameras catch up with Riley who asks if they’re surprised to see him. Riley’s been busy sending emails and phone calls to the WWE in Stamford about his recovery. They haven’t sent him anything in return. Riley says he’s been watching a lot of nXt and how Zayn and Crews get plenty of attention. Riley doesn’t. He rants about his time in the business and not being appreciated. Could be something to this in future weeks... Singles Match: Elias Samson vs. John Skyler Samson strolls down to the ring and sits on the top of the turnbuckle, with his guitar leaning on the ropes below. The spotlight makes it so he is the only person visible in the ring as his music plays. Graves says the more he sees him, the less he likes. The match begins and Samson has a height and reach advantage against his advantage. He’s firmly in control from the get-go, pounding Skyler in the corner with fists and boots. He chokes Skyler with his boot as the referee calls him to stop. Samson throws Skyler off the ropes and delivers a punch to the mid-section. He sits in the corner, watching Skyler try to recouperate. Skyler gets a good slap in but Samson replies with a jumping knee to the head. A neckbreaker finishes this match off. Winner: Elias Samson via pinfall in 2 minutes One cool point for Samson very clearly demonstrating his brawling abilities. Still, many questions remain about this guy’s purpose in nXt. I think the guy needs a decent feud to sink his teeth into. It may help provide context to his character’s personality if he has someone to talk against. Backstage, Zack Ryder and Mojo Rawley talk about the Vaudevillains’ weird video. They have nothing against them but they don’t get it. Then, Ryder complains about how loud and outgoing Rawley is. Rawley complains that Ryder only does well with the ladies because of Rawley’s recruiting efforts at the bar. The banter turns to the zumbas that Rawley wears. Rawley knows that Ryder likes them more than they let on because he watches him sleep. Because they’re tag partners. Ryder doesn’t like this. Promo: A video package on Samoa Joe plays to hype up the #1 Contender’s match. Up Next: Triple Threat #1 Contender’s Match for the nXt Championship Closing Segment nXt Championship #1 Contender’s Match: Samoa Joe vs. Baron Corbin vs. Sami Zayn No countout, no disqualification in this bout. There has to be a winner, says Graves. The three men circle around the ring as Joe and Corbin corner Zayn, until Corbin hits Joe. Corbin lays into Zayn next since Joe was knocked to the outside. Off the ropes, Zayn uses Corbin’s momentum against him to send him over the ropes. Zayn wants to springboard out but Joe trips him up, brings him outside of the ring and beats him up by the ring steps. He smashes Zayn’s head into the apron. Zayn fights back with right hands until Joe chops him. He then puts a boot through Corbin’s chest. Joe starts a flurry of punches on Zayn back inside the ring but this seems to wake up Zayn to fight back. Joe kicks Zayn down, attempts a jumping knee drop, but Zayn rolls out and counters. Joe’s knocked out of the ring just as Corbin returns to stomp on Zayn. Corbin throws Zayn into the turnbuckle hard and... we go to commercial. We return to Corbin throwing Zayn into the opposite turnbuckle and the two exchanging blows. Joe’s fired up as he re-enters the ring to beat up on Zayn. Zayn ably defends himself and sends Joe to ringside. He bounces on his feet, wanting to dive out but Corbin’s back in the ring. So, Zayn throws Corbin out of the ring and THEN performs his front flip dive on to Joe and Corbin! Crowd gets into it and chants his name as he throws Corbin back into the ring. Off the ropes, huge spinning slam by Corbin. Zayn kicks out at 2 and a half counts. Joe’s in and he delivers a boot to the Corbin’s face. Zayn gets to his feet and Joe drops him on to Corbin and delivers a senton on the two of them. Ouch. Powerslam off the ropes by Joe on Zayn. 2 count. Joe helps Zayn to his feet and throws Zayn’s head into the turnbuckle. In the corner, he punches and slaps Zayn until he crumbles to his knees. Zayn can barely stand up. He lifts Zayn to the top rope and attempts to pick him up, but Zayn fights back. Enziguiri from Joe until Corbin breaks it up. He climbs to the middle rope to suplex Zayn, but Zayn fights back with lefts and rights. Corbin evades a flying move. Zayn turns it into a roll. He turns back and delivers a thunderbomb to Corbin for a 2 count. Big move and it takes a lot of energy out of Zayn who rests by the ropes. Out of nowhere, Joe grabs Zayn out of the ring and locks in the Coquina Clutch, weakening Zayn. Joe and Corbin meet in the ring. Off the ropes, Corbin delivers End of Days and covers Joe, but Zayn breaks it up! Zayn mustered enough strength to return to the ring. Corbin yells out in frustration, face shaking as he barrels into Zayn in the corner, unleashing 3 huge clotheslines. He continues to yell as the crowd boos him. Corbin runs towards Zayn again, who meets him with an exploder suplex into the bottom turnbuckle. From the opposite corner now, he winds up for the Helluva kick, lands it and covers Corbin. At 2.5, Joe pulls Zayn out and delivers a big chop. Joe charges Zayn, who moves, allowing Joe to get an intimate meeting with the steel steps. Zayn, back in the ring, locks Corbin in a sharpshooter, possibly paying homage to the Hitman. Corbin looks like he’s about to give up when Joe latches on with the crossface. The referee calls for the bell, seeing that Corbin has tapped out. But, to whom did he submit? Both wrestlers argue with the referee about the outcome. Joe postures as though he is the champion. A replay is shown but no decision has been made. GM William Regal approaches ringside and talks to the referee about it. Zayn interrupts the conversation to plead his case. Joe does likewise. Regal says he’s going to review the tape but it’s not audible for the crowd who chant “We Can’t Hear You”. Joe says there’s nothing to review. Corbin tapped to his crossface. He leaves the ring with his arm held high. Nothing is certain as nXt comes to a close. Decision upheld by GM William Regal One cool point for the novelty of having a true purpose for a General Manager to fulfill besides booking matches. Ending the show with an unknown outcome creates suspense for next week and suspense, in the world of wrestling, is great. That decision provides an additional reason to tune in, if Balor vs. Crews or Carmella vs. Emma wasn’t enough. One cool point for my personal all-star of this match- Samoa Joe. He was able to prolong this match on more than one occasion by breaking up a pinfall or submission. His Coquina Clutch on Zayn, at ringside, was an excellent strategy of isolation that just about gave him the win over Corbin. His strikes were viciously on point, too. Perhaps you had a different favourite in this match? Feel free to share your thoughts on that as well as your other insights and cool point suggestions on tonight’s episode. Peace!
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