|
March 30th, 2016 On commentary tonight, at Full Sail University, are Tom Phillips and Corey Graves. Opening Segment Tag Team Match: American Alpha (#1c) vs. Corey Hollis & John Skyler Hollis and Jordan start this one off as Gable uncharacteristically begins the match on the ring apron. Jordan bear hugs Hollis from behind, walks over to Gable who tags in, tosses him to Gable who slams Hollis on the mat. Single leg takedown and some nifty mat wrestling by Gable results in a chicken wing arm submission. Gable bridges for extra torque and then returns to a normal position. Hollis gets to his feet, elbows Gable in the head and tags in Skyler. Skyler wrenches and twists the left arm. He brings Gable to his knees. Gable flips, spins and rolls his way out of the hold and puts Skyler in another arm submission. The tag is made to Jordan as Gable throws Skyler off the ropes, lies flat on the mat, allowing Jordan to dropkick Skyler. Jordan tags in Gable who jumps over the ropes to execute an arm drag takedown on Hollis. There’s clearly been some match editing at this point because there is no continuity between tags by Skyler and Hollis. Skyler delivers a swinging body slam to Gable. Hollis tags in and gets only a 1 count. Gable pushes Hollis off the ropes and catches him for a beautiful overhead belly to back suplex. He does the same to Skyler and tags in Jordan. Off the ropes, Hollis is thrown up in the air to fall on his stomach. Skyler gets a hybrid Olympic Slam/suplex. Jordan spears Hollis in the corner, tags in Gable and they execute their double team finisher for the victory. Winner: American Alpha via pinfall in 5 minutes One cool point for the fluidity and precision with which Jordan and Gable execute their grapples, suplexes and submissions. I like that the match structure was more dynamic, with more tags between Gable and Jordan, allowing Jordan to show off his talents a little more. They have the crowd on their side and are ready for a big match against Dash & Dawson (the Revival). Backstage, the Revival, holding their Tag Team Championship belts, are seen watching the TV monitor where American Alpha celebrate in the ring. Promo: Earlier today, Finn Balor had a sit down interview with the nXt producers to talk about his title match against Samoa Joe. Balor says Joe thinks he’s bigger than nXt. He’s obsessed with the championship and with being him. Balor says he’s obsessed with being the best; it’s what brought him to nXt and what helped him win the title over Kevin Owens. It also is the reason why he beat Joe once and why he’ll leave Takeover: Dallas as champion. Coming Up: Apollo Crews vs. Alex Riley and Samoa Joe vs. Bull Dempsey Second Segment Singles Match: Baron Corbin vs. Mike Killarian This one should be an easy one for Corbin who plays to the crowd off the top. Corbin starts off getting his way but receives an elbow to the side of the head for his efforts. Corbin retorts with a big boot and after a few more moments of fight from Killarian, a clothesline off the ropes by Corbin. A big punch in the corner on his opponent and he’s about to make short work of Killarian. Deep Six and this one’s over. Winner: Baron Corbin via pinfall in 2 minutes Post-match, Corbin’s not done yet and he dishes out an End of Days to his opponent before posing. One cool point for Corbin. I don’t care what people say about squash matches. When big guys dominate, it’s easy to be impressed. That said, Corbin’s going to need an impressive performance to sneak a victory on Aries. Aries will push him to his limits. Promo: Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Sami Zayn, with a video package looking at Nakamura’s work overseas in Japan and what he’s capable of in the ring. Coming Up: Samoa Joe vs. Bull Dempsey Third Segment Tag Team Match: The Revival (c) vs. Tucker Knight & Steve Cutler Dawson vs. Cutler. The two men grapple. Dawson pushes him to their home corner to tag in Dash. This brings all 4 into the ring for a quick staredown until the referee sends them back out. Dash and Cutler trade chicken wing arm submissions until they run the ropes and Dash knees Cutler in the face. Dawson tagged in on one of the passes and he chucks Cutler high in the air to flop hard on his stomach…on the top rope. Dawson tags in Dash and then delivers alternating fists of fury to Cutler. Off the ropes, a hard tackle by Dash on Cutler. Drop toe hold by Dash and elbow drop, followed by a knee to the face on Cutler’s face. He’s roughing him up well. Dawson beats him up, tags in Dash and slams Cutler, torso first on to Dash’s knee. Dash locks in the arm stretch, slapping Cutler’s sides and they are now bright red. Dash brings Cutler to their corner, lifts him on to his shoulder, giving him to Dawson to complete the Gordbuster. 1 count pinfall. Another pinfall attempt and Dash is tagged back in. They miss the second Gordbuster as Cutler flies over their outstretched arms and tags in Knight for the hot tag. Knight with a huge dropkick on Dawson and a clothesline on Dash. Dash receives a running tackle into the turnbuckle and then a Lou Thesz press. Dawson enters the ring after slapping Dash on the back. Knight tries to dropkick him off the ropes but Dawson escapes the ring, then climbs back in, tags Dash and the two deliver a double team knees to face drop slam on Knight for the 1-2-3. Winner: The Revival via pinfall in 4 minutes One cool point for The Revival’s near domination in their victory. The quick tags were very successful and they’re such a good match against American Alpha because both teams seem to have similar wrestling styles…and cardio. Backstage, American Alpha are seen watching The Revival gloating in the ring on a TV monitor. Recap: The camera shows last week’s attack by Samoa Joe on Bull Dempsey Backstage, Al Reyes asks Dempsey about last week’s attack and tonight’s match. Dempsey was going to joke but Joe’s a coward and a bully. Dempsey won’t be bullied anyone. Up Next: Apollo Crews vs. Alex Riley Fourth Segment Singles Match: Apollo Crews vs. Alex Riley Crews’ theme music and entrance is quite exciting. It enhances his stardom…so does springing into the ring in one jump. Graves says Phillips and Riley go way back, as good buddies. Phillips says that’s right. I think they were being sarcastic. Riley gets the first big moment, clotheslining Crews hard on to the mat. In the bottom corner, Riley dishes the punches to Crews, followed by a head butt and an elbow drop. Only 1 count. Riley with a throw into the corner and Crews explodes out of it with a clothesline, another and then a big splash in the corner. Off the ropes, a jumping clothesline by Crews on Riley. He executes a massive jumping kick to the head which stuns Riley. That sets up the quarter turn toss powerbomb finisher for the 1-2-3. Winner: Apollo Crews via pinfall in 2 minutes Post-match, Elias Samson strolls out, playing the acoustic guitar live and singing his minor-key, creepy folk song to try and scare off Crews. Crews invites Samson into the ring. Samson takes the guitar off his shoulder and it looks like he might enter. The Drifter then walks backwards up the ramp. Graves says he might get arrested for doing karaoke. But he played his own song so it’s not karaoke. One cool point for the height Crews gets when kicking his opponent. Yikes! He’s ridiculously athletic. Backstage, Baron Corbin is alone and he’s talking down Austin Aries. He says Aries knows what happened to him last time will happen again at Takeover: Dallas. Go back to where the crowds are 50 people and Corbin will continue to be the hottest star in the hottest company in the world, nXt. He’s the bigger and better man and after his career is ended, he can sit next to Virgil at one of those conventions and beg for people to remember him for something. Ouch. He wants to end Aries’ career. Promo: Takeover: Dallas preview of Bayley vs. Asuka for the nXt Women’s Championship, featuring interview clips from Charlotte, Becky Lynch, Carmella and Sasha Banks speaking kindly of Bayley. Speaking of how dangerous Asuka is in the ring: Emma, Dana Brooke and GM William Regal. Promo: Earlier today, Sami Zayn speaks about how big of a match this is for Nakamura because of how important it is to make a good first impression. He speaks about how important his own first nXt match was against Cesaro. He’s flattered about being called the heart and soul of nXt. He won’t let Nakamura tarnish his legacy in what will be a once in a lifetime, first impression, ‘Mania weekend match. Up Next: Samoa Joe vs. Bull Dempsey Final Segment Singles Match: Samoa Joe (#1c) vs. Bull Dempsey Dempsey rushes Joe with rights and lefts. Joe responds with a slap but Dempsey knocks Joe off of his feet. He continues slugging, tries to throw Joe off the ropes but it’s countered and Dempsey falls to the mat. Now it’s Joe with his jabs and fists of fury. The referee backs Joe out of the corner. Joe chucks Dempsey cross-ring and it’s an enziguri. Joe with a knee to the face and an STO after Dempsey responded with a big right hand. From behind, Joe locks in the Coquina Clutch and this match is over quickly. Joe won’t let go of the submission and multiple referees and other nXt stars beg Joe off of him. The other wrestlers get chucked out of the ring as the refs tell Joe to leave. GM William Regal is warning Joe too but Joe doesn’t care and locks in another Coquina Clutch on Dempsey. Finally, it’s nXt Champion Finn Balor in the ring, punching Samoa Joe. Off the ropes, Balor delivers a front dropkick, sending Joe out through the ropes. In the melee, he also gets a soccer kick and another running front dropkick on Joe, which sends him through the barricade. The fight continues towards the announce team area where Joe tosses Balor directly into Phillips and Graves. Balor stands up on the announce table and launches himself into Joe and other nXt officials trying to restrain the Samoan man. This is quite a brawl, folks! Joe is enraged and Balor looks resolute as the cameras fade to black. Winner: Samoa Joe via submission in 1 minute One cool point for Samoa Joe’s relentless attack on Bull Dempsey, which tugged at the heartstrings of the Demon enough for him to come out and fight. That closing brawl was exciting to watch and both men looked strong coming out of this week’s episode. Balor used his dropkicks and Joe used brute force but I think, come Friday night, the defining point will be whether or not Joe can make Balor tap out. That ought to be the story of the match because Balor will have to do everything in his power to avoid that Coquina Clutch. Now, I realize this is a results column but, allow me to indulge in a few predictions for Takeover: Dallas… Samoa Joe def. Finn Balor Bayley def. Asuka Nakamura def. Zayn Crews def. Samson American Alpha def. The Revival Corbin def. Aries That’s all for tonight, folks. Feel free to share your thoughts and cool point suggestions on tonight’s episode. Peace!
|
