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October 12th, 2016 On commentary tonight, at Full Sail University, are Tom Phillips and Corey Graves. Opening Segment Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic Round 1 Match: Bobby Roode & “The Perfect 10” Tye Dillinger vs. Sanity Pre-match, Roode and Dillinger do some posing and posturing for one another. Slightly humorous. Sanity’s debut is happening now as the arena turns black, save for spotlights which move around the ramp. What appears to be 3 men and 1 woman come down to the ring wearing leather jackets, vests, hoods and masks covering their faces. Two of those men unmask inside the ring, take off their jackets, and are ready to fight. It's Alexander Wolfe and Sawyer Fulton! Once the bell rings, both Sanity members beat up on Dillinger. The blond-haired one stomps on Dillinger in the corner. He brings him up for an uppercut, then chokes him under the bottom rope with his foot for a 4 count. Tag in the corner and the two continue to beat up on Dillinger. The brown-haired one, with dreadlocks, chokes Dillinger on the bottom rope with his foot, too. Roode has yet to take off his robe as he stares down this new nXt wrestler. Roode steps off of the apron and tells Dillinger he’s peacing out. Sanity is in the ring together and they execute a double team suplex slam where Fulton suplexes and Wolfe slams him on the way down. 1-2-3. Winners: Sanity via pinfall in 2 minutes So much for all of the support for the Glorious 10 because that pairing doesn’t even last more than a few minutes. Post-match, the woman of the group takes off her mask and jacket and beats up on Dillinger until she is forced off of him by the guy who didn’t wrestle. It's Nikki Cross! That guy delivers a devastating neckbreaker slam to Dillinger. That guy unmasks and it’s Eric Young! I thought it might have been. The hint was with the Canada flag on the bottom left corner of his vest. The spotlights return to focus on the whole group and we’ll see them again in Round 2 of the tournament. One cool point for Sanity’s debut. They certainly appear to be unhinged from the way they move around and act. Surprised how quickly they won the match but when Roode bailed, it was clear that Dillinger would have no hope of fighting back. People had high hopes for Glorious 10 and those hopes were squashed within a few minutes. I’m sure there are plenty of upset fans...which means Sanity made a strong impact on their debut night. In the bracket, they appear to be a top seed, placed in the bottom left corner, so I’d expect them to go pretty far in this tournament. Backstage, Billie Kay and Peyton Royce are talking trash about Liv Morgan—the way she talks and dresses and how she challenged Asuka. Up Next: Billie Kay vs. Liv Morgan Second Segment Backstage, Roode is interviewed about what just happened. Roode says Dillinger is a loser. It’s not his fault what happened out there. That’s on Dillinger. And he walks off. Singles Match: Billie Kay w. Peyton Royce vs. Liv Morgan Kay and Morgan grapple with Morgan pushing Kay into the corner where the referee breaks them up. Royce shouts a few instructions at Kay whereupon Morgan cradles Kay for a 2 count pin attempt. Morgan with the side headlock. Kay counters out of it with a fireman’s carry slam. Off the ropes, Morgan trips Kay. She knocks Kay down again and delivers a dropkick to her back. Kay charges. Morgan applies a crucifix pin to Kay for a 1 count. Kay and Morgan stand up by pushing off of each other’s backs. Nice teamwork, girls. Kay with a gutbuster and a 2 count. She brings a few big right hands to Morgan’s head, out of frustration. She brings Morgan to the corner and chokes her with a high foot to the neck. Back in the middle of the ring, she applies a kind of torture rack submission with Morgan draped over her shoulders, facing up into the air. 1-2- kickout by Morgan. She delays though and Morgan hits an STO. Both women get to their feet and it’s Morgan, creating momentum with a dropkick, then a clothesline. She goes to run off the ropes again and Royce trips her up. The referee kinda misses it and lets it go. Kay nails her in the head with a high kick. 1-2-3. Winner: Billie Kay via pinfall in 6 minutes Post-match, Royce and Kay smile and laugh about the victory. One cool point for Kay’s submission attempt. I think that works well within her moveset and she’s good at demonstrating her ability to strike, slam and submit her opponent. Recap: Last week, Andrade “Cien” Almas attacks Cedric Alexander following their tag team loss. The cameras catch up with him outside the arena and Cien says nothing happened. He’s just the best. He says a bunch of things in Spanish and then leaves. Third Segment Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic Round 1 Match: TM 61 vs. Tino Sabbatelli & Riddick Moss I believe this will be Sabbatelli’s debut on nXt TV after being featured in Breaking Ground on the WWE Network. Before the match, we see a video of Moss explaining how he and Sabbatelli have spent a lot of time at the Performance Center competing against each other. So they decided to start teaming up together. They’re on another level. Graves says they are first round picks. Moss & Miller begin this tilt. From the opening grapple, it’s Miller acting a little arrogantly with Moss, slapping him a bit before applying a side headlock. Moss tries to use the ropes to break free but can’t do it the first time. He succeeds the second time and knocks Miller down. He waits too long to follow it up and gets hit hard with a right hand. Moss charges and Miller trips him into their corner. He tags in Thorne who hits a senton over the top rope. He tags Miller back in to continue dishing the pain on Moss. Arm twist by Miller and he tags in Thorne again. They send Moss off the ropes and hit him with double forearms. Then it’s a standing moonsault and jumping punch by TM 61 on Moss. This prompts Sabbatelli to jump into the ring and he gets dropkicked in the mouth by Thorne. Thorne goes to run the ropes and Sabbatelli pulls the top rope down, sending Thorne over awkwardly into the barricade. He holds his head as... We go to commercial. On the return, Moss snap suplexes Thorne to the mat. He pushes Thorne towards his corner and tags in Sabbatelli. Sabbatelli uses his right hand to punch Thorne into the corner. Tag to Moss and he Irish whips Thorne into Moss’ back elbow. Moss covers Thorne for a 2 count. He gloats about their progress to the crowd. He tags Sabbatelli back in. He punches Thorne before trying to wrench his left arm above his head and out. He’s wearing down Thorne for about a minute with this submission. Eventually, Thorne punches his way up to his feet. In the wrong corner, he fights off Sabbatelli and Moss. He ends up on the apron and tries to spring in with a splash, but Sabbatelli catches him in mid-air and slams him on to the mat. 1-2 kickout! Again, 1-2 kickout! Sabbatelli wrestles Thorne up to this feet and slaps him hard in his home corner. Moss is tagged in and Thorne slaps Sabbatelli hard. Moss slaps him back across the chest. Thorne headbutts him, then uppercuts him, trying to return to his corner. Moss uppercuts him in return and goes for a suplex. Inside cradle from Thorne for a 2 count. Jawbreaker and he tags in Miller! Miller knocks down Moss a few times with right hands. He pins him for a 1 count, knocks Sabbatelli off the apron and connects with a running forearm on a sitting Moss. Stalling vertical suplex on Moss in the centre of the ring! 1-2 Sabbatelli breaks the pin and knocks Thorne off the apron. He goes back to his corner to get the legal tag. He picks up Miller on his shoulder but Miller weasels his way out. He tags in Thorne who connects with a running kick to the head. Both men pick up Sabbatelli for Thunder Valley and it’s over. TM 61 advances in the tournament. Winner: TM 61 via pinfall in 8 minutes One cool point for Sabbatelli and Moss’ debut on nXt TV which went fairly well. Moss carried most of the weight but Sabbatelli had a few moments, and the character work from both was effective. Hope this wasn’t just a one-off for the tournament. One cool point for TM 61 who were placed in the top left-hand corner of the tournament brackets, suggesting they are a favourite. They did not have a particularly strong outing in this match, though, so maybe they won’t go as far as some people think. I like the finisher though. Next Week: Rich Swann & No Way Jose vs. Tony Nese & Drew Gulak Fourth & Final Segments Singles Match: Wesley Blake vs. Buddy Murphy The former tag team partners square off. They seem reluctant to lock up but they do after a few moments. It doesn’t last and both men stare each other down. They grapple again and it’s Murphy with the side headlock on Blake. He whips Blake off the ropes. Blake counters a pinfall attempt with a side takedown and both men spring up to their feet. They pause and then both hit each other with double kicks! Now, they’re exchanging right hands, back and forth, back and forth. Murphy runs for the ropes and Blake slams into him violently. He goes for the opposite ropes and Murphy follows to clothesline him out on to the floor. Murphy jumps the ropes and flies with a front flip plancha directly on to Blake’s head. Murphy throws Blake back into the ring and gets nailed from behind by Samoa Joe. Winner: No contest in 6 minutes Joe chucks Murphy knees-first into the steel steps, causing Murphy to flip over them. Blake runs off the apron into Joe’s arms and gets a spinebuster for his efforts. Murphy gets up to his feet and Joe catches him for a spike slam on to the apron. Joe grabs a mic and enters the ring, yelling, “Regaaaaalllll! Your time is up!” He wants Nakamura or his championship, in case you didn’t hear him the last few weeks. *Commercial Break* Joe’s still in the ring on the other side of the break as the crowd chants “Nakamura”. Then, Nakamura’s music hits and here comes the nXt champion himself! He stops on the top of the ramp and peels off his neck brace. He pauses then charges the ring and the two heavyweights start pounding the crap out of each other. A number of security guards spill into the ring to break the two up. They’re effective for a few moments until Nakamura charges again. This prompts Joe to escape the ring and head up the ramp. Nakamura punches the guards around him and runs up the ramp to dish out some more punishment on Joe. The two men are separated again on the stage as Nakamura almost gets at Joe another time. Finally, Nakamura’s dragged out of there but he attacks the guards around him and comes back for Joe again! After enduring a few more punches, Joe stumbles away. Nakamura’s so upset he delivers Kinshasa to a security guard! This escalated quickly. After that, the security and referees disappear until Joe rushes the ramp again and punches Nakamura towards the ring. The two continue striking one another. Nakamura with knees to the gut and...KINSHASA! No security or referees around to stop the champion on that one. Guess Nakamura’s finisher scared them off. That’s the end of the show. Two cool points for another stellar attack from Samoa Joe, even though I was hoping to see a resolution between Blake & Murphy. Their feuding will continue, hopefully with a match of the same calibre as they were having before the attack. I loved the intensity of Joe’s attack on both guys, using the steel steps and the ring apron to derail the former tag partners. I also loved that he finally got what he’s been calling for the past few weeks: Nakamura. Nakamura gets two cool points because he also brought the intensity tonight, showing a side of himself that we haven’t seen yet. He showed a very violent and disrespectful side, which included beating up security guards and continuously rushing towards Joe to answer his weeks-long rampage on nXt rookies and veterans alike. That’s the kind of attitude you want to see from the champ, defending the honor of the company. The brawl at this evening’s show is hopefully just the start of a number of physical altercations we’ll see over the next month, leading up to Takeover: Toronto. No need for non-title matches here, folks! Just hype, hype, hype until they fight again. Fans can be patient enough for a good thing like this. Looking forward to your cool point suggestions and comments on tonight’s episode. The Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic has begun. Any predictions on who’s going all the way? Will Nakamura and Joe’s rematch get booked next week? Peace!
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