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November 25th, 2015 On commentary tonight, at Full Sail University, are Rich Brennan, Byron Saxton, and Corey Graves. We have a special guest kicking things off in the ring, though: Michael Cole. Opening Segment Michael Cole asks for the audience’s attention, standing in front of a table where a contract signing will take place. He tells us GM William Regal is at home recovering from surgery so he has put Cole in charge of all the administrative decisions tonight. Last week, Eva Marie challenged Bayley for the nXt Women’s Championship but GM Regal would not accept that. WWE Corporate, however, said it will happen. Cole finally tells us why the contract signing table is out. It’s a contract for Finn Balor vs. Samoa Joe for the nXt Championship at nXt Takeover: London in three weeks’ time. Cue the Balor theme music! Two minutes later, Balor has finally made it to the ring. The crowd chants his name before he speaks. Balor says friendship and trust are a rarity in this business so, Joe, walk out here, sign the contract and he’s gonna stick his foot down his throat. Michael Cole then introduces Samoa Joe who wastes no time walking to the ring, signing his name on the contract and immediately departing to the back. Balor angrily signs and their championship match at Takeover: London is official. A minute later, after the commentary team discusses how Joe said so much by not saying anything, Joe attacks Balor on the stage. He brings him into the ring and the two slug one another as three referees try to break them up. Joe seizes Balor and locks in the Koquina Clutch until Balor passes out. The refs are pissed and so is the crowd. Two cool points for spinning the contract signing segment on its head. Usually it’s last on a show but this one was first. Also, Joe’s no nonsense approach to the signing and THEN doing what many would have expected by getting physical with Balor made this opening segment quite a thrilling start to the show. I feel we’re in for a great championship match between these two. Second Segment Coming Up: Asuka vs. Dana Brooke in a Takeover rematch + nXt Women’s Champion Bayley defending against Eva Marie nXt Tag Team Championship Match: Scott Dawson & Dash Wilder (c) vs. The Vaudevillains Simon Gotch & Scott Dawson begin for their respective teams in this title rematch, with Dawson taking the early advantage. The two exchange punches. Gotch attempts a pinfall but Dawson escapes. Aidan English tags in and after an elbow drop by Gotch, followed by a boot to the face, English pins Dawson for a 1 count. Off the ropes, Dawson stops and English lands on the mat, missing a dropkick. English regains control though and holds Dawson in an armbar for a few moments. A reversal later, English has flipped Dawson with a back body drop and then twists his arm. The two use the ropes again and Wilder tags himself in and delivers an armbar takedown, which prompts English to roll out of the ring as... We go to commercial. Returning, English is crying out in pain as a result of Wilder’s arm submission. The two merry-go-round until English throws Wilder out of the ring and collapses. He stretches out for a tag and succeeds, just as Dawson is tagging back into the match. Gotch enters and clubs Dawson & Wilder each a few times. Sunset flip from the corner into a 2 count pinfall on Dawson. Another pinning attempt is followed up by a leg hook belly to back suplex for a 1 count. Wilder distracts Gotch, luring him to attack when Dawson clotheslines him. He hits English, calls in Wilder while the ref isn’t looking but the two cannot convert because English had recovered and clotheslined Wilder. Gotch flipped over Dawson for a close two count pinfall. He tags in English who misses the Whirling Dervish due to Dawson’s block but he can’t convert on the rollup. English sits on his chest for a 2 count. Dawson swings at English who is by the ropes but English ducks and tries a sunset flip pin. As Dawson fights to stand, he tags Wilder, falls and is pushed out of the pin. English runs towards him, gets lifted up and receives the Shatter Machine. The champions retain. Winner: Dash & Dawson via pinfall in 5 minutes and 20 seconds Post-Match: Enzo and Big Cass’ music hits and they appear on the stage. Dash & Dawson look shocked as their other foes run to the ring to attack them. Inside the ring, Big Cass delivers a huge clothesline on Dawson to send the champions hurting and stumbling to the backstage. One cool point for how quick a pace these two teams wrestle. They packed a lot into 5 minutes. I hope this feud isn’t over as both teams work well together and will only get better from continued competition. That said, one cool point for Enzo & Big Cass’ post-match attack because it keeps them in the Tag Team Championship picture. If there were a “power rankings” for nXt tag teams, I think they’d be third behind the two teams who wrestled tonight. Backstage, Tom Phillips interviews Eva Marie and asks why she’s in GM Regal’s office. Eva Marie says she needed a bigger room to prepare for her title match and this one was free. She knows he won’t mind. She says this match was inevitable because she’s the hottest prospect in a long time, after having defeated so many opponents... It’s time for a real woman to become champion. And what’s better? She has the amazing support of the WWE Universe. The camera pans to a collection of gifts. Eva then introduces her good friend, Nia Jax. She says gifts are good but nothing beats friendship. Recap: We see clips from the match at nXt Takeover: Respect between Dana Brooke and Asuka. Then, last week’s confrontation between the two is shown again. Their rematch is up next! Third Segment Singles Match: Dana Brooke vs. Asuka Before the match, Dana Brooke brings a microphone with her on the stage and says in 2 seconds she’ll beat up Asuka. A black hooded figure attacks Asuka in the ring. It’s Emma! Asuka shoves her off as Brooke descends the ramp. Asuka returns her attention to Brooke but Emma recovers and places Asuka in the Emma-Lock. Emma’s music hits and I guess there will not be a match happening. Brooke’s plan was just to hurt Asuka... but Asuka gets to her feet with an evil smile on her face. Backstage, Tom Phillips meets with Bayley and says the odds are not in her favour. Was that a sneaky Hunger Games reference? Bayley recognizes that Eva Marie is a total diva with plenty of support, even from WWE Corporate but she doesn’t have something. Eva’s not a wrestler and Bayley says Eva is underestimating her. Tonight, she’ll find out why Bayley is nXt Women’s Champion. One cool point for the deceptive play by Dana Brooke and Emma. It continues the feud and creates suspense in seeing how Asuka will respond. We've seen Asuka dominate Brooke in the ring already. Brooke doesn't want a repeat of that and so these games are played in hopes of throwing Asuka off her game. Time will tell if it will succeed. Promo: A video package documents highlights of Sami Zayn’s nXt career so far and states his return is near. Fourth Segment Singles Match: Apollo Crews vs. Jesse Sorensen Rich Brennan is shocked to see Sorensen. Graves and Saxton give Rich a hard time about that before the match begins. Their argument is why shouldn’t he be here. A little rope running to begin concludes with a Crews dropkick on Sorensen. The crowd chants “That’s too easy!” as Crews holds Sorensen in peak suplex position for about twelve seconds (not twenty-one) before slamming him. Pinfall for 2 counts. Sorensen seems to be awakened by this, bringing Crews to the corner and slapping him. The ref calls him to back up and Crews seizes the moment to fight back. The two trade hits until Crews clotheslines him twice and splashes him in the corner. Off the ropes, a flying elbow to the face. Crews has been impressive. He picks up Sorensen like he’s going to do a back suplex, readjusts, turning Sorensen 90 degrees and then finishes with a sitdown powerbomb-pinning combination. Wow. Winner: Apollo Crews via pinfall in 2 minutes and 5 seconds Post-match: Crews has the mic and he accepts Baron Corbin’s challenge to fight at nXt Takeover: London. He knows that Corbin is the “lone wolf” but Crews says he will lay..him...down. The crowd responds well. One cool point for Crews’ dominance and one more cool point for winning the match with a different finisher this week. The guy is so versatile. Backstage, Baron Corbin says Crews is going to be the answer to a trivia question because his career won’t be a long one. He’ll be the guy who did that one thing that one time. Byron Saxton says someone is going to get hurt in that match. Referee Charles Robinson walks down to the ring to talk to nXt ring announcer Greg Hamilton. Hamilton shares the news: WWE Corporate has sent Charles Robinson to ensure there is no controversy in the upcoming nXt Women’s Championship Match. That’s odd. Coming Up: nXt Women’s Championship Match: Bayley (c) vs. Eva Marie The official theme for nXt Takeover: London, England is “Ace of Spades” by Motorhead. Guess Triple H wanted to send some royalty money over to his favourite band! Next week, Samoa Joe will wrestle Tommaso Ciampa. Closing Segment nXt Women’s Championship Match: Bayley (c) vs. Eva Marie w. Nia Jax Brennan and Saxton rant a little about how the fix might be in for Eva to win. Graves thinks that’s great because the WWE has a responsibility to stockholders. Is Eva as champ what is best for business? Graves tells Brennan to stop with the conspiracy theories as Bayley makes her way to the ring. He says nothing has happened. Just relax. Nia Jax might just be a cheerleader! Haha. We get official ring introductions for this championship match. That’s 4 weeks in a row! The two lock up. Bayley begins with a hip toss on Eva Marie, which transitions into a side headlock. Eva fights out briefly until Bayley executes a second hip toss. Eva answers by slamming Bayley down to the mat. The crowd boos as Eva does a rock and roll guitar taunt. She charges at Bayley in the corner with shoulder thrusts. Vertical suplex and 2 count. Eva’s in control but she doesn’t follow up quickly enough. BAYLEY TO BELLY SUPLEX! 1-2- the referee is dragged out of the ring by Nia Jax. Bayley looks on as Eva tries to roll her up for the victory. Robinson comes in with a quick count but Bayley kicks out at 2! Bayley is quite upset with Robinson and he checks on the other ref, who is being helped to the back by 2 of his colleagues. Meanwhile, in the opposite corner, Bayley locks up with Eva as Jax grabs her hair and headbutts her. Eva with a senton splash for a 2 and a half count. Eva tries to pin her two more times but gets only 2 counts. Eva sits on Bayley’s neck and upper back, choking her on the ropes. She poses for the crowd and receives more boos and heckling. More shoulder thrusts on Bayley in the corner. Bayley begins to fight back, tripping Eva to the mat for a pinfall attempt. 2 count. Another 2 count. Eva kicks Bayley as she’s down. She sends her into the corner for a back elbow. Off the ropes, Bayley reverses it with a flying clothesline! Vertical suplex by Bayley. Eva receives shoulder thrusts from the champion and just as she’s about to charge Eva in the corner, Charles Robinson steps in because Eva’s “in the ropes”. Eva benefits from this disruption and hits the Sliced Red finisher. Bayley kicks out at 2 once more! Eva berates Robinson for not counting fast enough. She brings Bayley to her feet, preparing for another finisher but Bayley pushes her directly into the referee! Robinson falls to the outside as Eva gesticulates angrily. She turns around and delivers a big boot to Bayley’s face. She climbs to the second rope and blows a kiss to the crowd. Bayley rushes to her feet, meets Eva on the second rope but Nia Jax pulls Bayley down to the floor. Jax encourages Eva briefly until Bayley throws Jax to the floor. She rushes back to the second rope and hits a Super Bayley to Belly suplex! She covers Eva and the original referee rushes in just then to count the 1-2-3. Winner: Bayley retains via pinfall in 6 minutes and 38 seconds Post-Match: Nia Jax lays out Bayley in the ring, finishing with 2 leg drops. She even scares the referee off. The show ends with Bayley crumpled up in the ring and Jax smiling as she backs away. Two cool points for a thrilling match, certainly enhanced by the threat and reality of corruption which stacked the odds for Eva to win. Seeing Bayley overcome those odds made for an enjoyable match and, certainly, the underdog role is one which Bayley represents well. Even as champion, she is booked in matches where her opponents look dominant at the beginning but, ultimately, they are overcome by Bayley’s perseverance, energy and skill. Perhaps you felt differently? Eva’s not able to carry much of a match at this point but was she good enough in this setting? How about the show at large, did you enjoy this week’s episode? Share your thoughts (and your own cool point suggestions) below. Peace!
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