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September 9th, 2015 Opening Promo The inaugural Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic continues this week, and it’s too big for Full Sail. They’re taking it to Providence, RI for a tournament match between the Lucha Dragons and Finn Balor & Samoa Joe. On commentary tonight, at Full Sail University, are Rich Brennan and Corey Graves. Opening Segment Singles Match: Carmella vs. Peyton Royce Rich Brennan says this is Royce’s debut on nXt. She and Carmella shake hands and the match begins. They lock up. Carmella takes Royce down to the mat, but Royce locks her legs around Carmella’s head for a quick submission. Carmella kicks out of it and copies Royce. They lock up again. Carmella goes for a quick cover. 1 count. Royce attempts a back slide pin for a 1 count. Carmella returns the favour. 1 count. Then, Carmella grapples Royce and attempts a cradle pin. Another 1 count and here we have Carmella doing the moonwalk (made famous by Michael P.S. Hayes) in her black sneakers. Royce lunges in but Carmella ducks and connects with an atomic drop. A dropkick and a cover for 2 this time. Carmella attempts a suplex, but Royce hooks her leg around Carmella’s and connects with a bridging suplex of her own, pinning Carmella for a 2 count. Royce secures Carmella in a headlock. Just as Carmella is getting to her feet, Royce throws her down to the mat and locks in the submission harder. Carmella’s in quite a bit of a pain. The crowd begins clapping and Carmella is able to fight her way out. Royce throws her into the corner and charges, but Carmella elbows her, climbs to the second rope and connects with a hurricanrana, yelling “How you doin?!” Staten Island Shuffle and a spear on Royce in the corner. Wasting no time, Carmella grabs Royce by the hair and runs her face into her outstretched boot on the top turnbuckle, followed up by a sitout rear mat slam. She hooks the legs and gets a 2 count. Now it’s her turn to lock Royce into a chicken wing headlock. Royce gasps for air, struggling to get to her feet, but Carmella is able to bring Royce to her stomach on the mat. After a minute of struggling, Royce is able to maneuver herself underneath Carmella, lifting her off her feet and stumbling back into the turnbuckle. Elbow to the face and then a running spinning heel kick to the face, then a heel kick to the lower back. Royce climbs to the second rope and hits a cross-body splash on Carmella for a 2 count. Royce is bewildered. She grabs Carmella’s head but Carmella face plants Royce and locks in her modified figure-four head scissors submission. Royce quickly taps out. Winner: Carmella via submission in 5 minutes and 4 seconds Post-Match: Carmella holds her mid-section as she dances and poses for the crowd. One cool point for the submission work in this match by both women. One cool point for Peyton Royce putting up a good fight in her first match at Full Sail. I’m interested to learn more about who she is. Backstage, Finn Balor is lacing up his boots when Samoa Joe enters the scene. He asks if Balor is ready. Balor says he wants to win for Dusty. Joe says good and they’re about to leave when Joe picks up the nXt Championship belt, saying, “you almost forgot this”. Perhaps it is a not so subtle hint at what’s to come between those guys? Recap: A Dusty Classic Tag Team Tournament match from this past weekend in Providence, Enzo Amore & Colin Cassady vs. Angelo Dawkins & Sawyer Fulton. Clips of the match are shown, including the finish with Enzo & Big Cass getting the win. They will face the winners of tonight’s main event in Round 2 Tournament action. Clips of another tournament match are shown: Dash & Dawson vs. Tucker Knight & Elias Samson. Graves says “Isolate and eliminate” is the strategy of Dash & Dawson who will also be advancing to Round 2. Coming Up: Round 1 continues with Tyler Breeze & Bull Dempsey vs. Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa Promo: Nia Jax is coming soon to nXt. Women’s division, beware! Second Segment Round 1 Tag Team Tournament Match: Tyler Breeze & Bull Dempsey vs. Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa Graves hypes up Gargano & Ciampa’s track record and experience as they walk to the ring. Breeze asks Dempsey to step aside; he will start things off with Ciampa. They lock up, but break off quickly so Breeze can do his trademark sitting on the ropes thing. When he returns to the match, Ciampa sharply slaps Breeze. Breeze feels the physical and emotional pain and asks Dempsey to tag in. Dempsey, once he’s in the ring, laughs at Breeze. The crowd chants for him and he locks up with Ciampa. Ciampa grabs his head and holds him securely for a few moments until Dempsey can throw him into the ropes. On Ciampa’s return, he runs into a wall of Bull Dempsey, falling hard on the mat. Dempsey picks him up and brings him over to the home corner to tag in Breeze. Breeze grapples with Ciampa. They go off the ropes. Shoulderblock by Ciampa. Breeze does a back roll off of that. Gargano tags in and enters the ring via a spear to Breeze through the middle ropes. Breeze stumbles to the corner but ducks out of the way of an advancing Gargano. He runs for Gargano, who jumps over him and, as he descends, tosses him to the mat, connecting with a roll-through kick. Jumping neckbreaker and a 2 count. Breeze slaps Dempsey to tag him into the match. Gargano makes a few running attempts at moving and knocking Dempsey down to no avail. He changes strategy and connects with an enziguri, bringing Dempsey to his knees. He tags Ciampa back in who hits a running knee and covers Dempsey for a 2 count. Ciampa kicks at Dempsey and then secures Dempsey’s head in a headlock as we go to commercial. Upon returning, Ciampa gets Dempsey in a headlock and has climbed on his back to cinch it in. Dempsey falls back and breaks the hold. Ciampa’s the first to get up and he tags in Gargano who promptly runs across the ring to dropkick Breeze in the face. He turns back towards Dempsey, who has arisen, and gets elbowed. Dempsey lands stiff shots to Gargano’s chin as the crowd chants along. He winds up and lands a Bionic Elbow on Gargano. Running off the ropes, he accidentally knocks Breeze off the apron. Dempsey is distracted by this unfortunate event as Ciampa is tagged back in for a double team pinning combination. Ciampa gets the pinfall for his team. Winner: Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa via pinfall in 6 minutes and 23 seconds One cool point for Bull Dempsey’s good-natured personality and a cool point for his Bionic Elbow tribute. One cool point for Gargano & Ciampa winning their debut match in nXt. Post-Match: Tyler Breeze takes out his anger for the loss on Dempsey, attacking him in the ring. He’s about to leave when he turns around and sees Dempsey is on his knees. He connects with a Supermodel Kick to Dempsey’s head, leaving him knocked out in the ring. Backstage, the Lucha Dragons tell us they’re ready to compete in the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic, in honour of their good friend, Dusty Rhodes, in English and Spanish. It’s also an honour for them to compete against Finn Balor and Samoa Joe but they warn the two that they will get burnt. The cameras cut to nXt interviewer Devin Taylor who is with Dana Brooke. Dana Brooke is bothered by something. She’s bothered by Bayley becoming the nXt Women’s champion, which is something Dana wants to be. She says people don’t think she takes it seriously. She’s disgusted by people who think she’s trying to advance based on looks. All the women in nXt need to watch out for the Total Diva because playtime is over. Wait, isn’t that a TNA Dollhouse thing? Third Segment Promo: A video package is shown for The Perfect 10, Tye Dillinger. Singles Match: Dana Brooke vs. Billie Kay Dana Brooke, in red, and Billie Kay, in lime green, tie up a few times. Then, Brooke taps Kay on the head and backs up slowly into the ropes, forcing the referee to warn Kay off. Kay seizes Brooke in a headlock, bringing her from the mat to her feet. The two jockey for position. Brooke throws Kay off the ropes and, on the return, Kay is spun around, parallel to the mat, only to throw Brooke down and continue her headlock. Brooke grabs Kay’s hair and slams her to the mat for a pinfall attempt. Brooke sends Kay to the ropes. Kay ducks the outstretched arm, rebounds and head-scissors Dana who telegraphed the whole move in advance. Kay picks up Brooke and latches on with a headlock, which Brooke fights out of and reverses. Off the ropes and, once more, Brooke uses Kay’s hair to slam her to the mat, beginning a flurry of punches. She jaws at the crowd before sending Kay to the turnbuckle and spearing her a few times. Now, a handstand by Brooke, putting her foot in Kay’s throat...why doesn’t Kay just kick Brooke in the head? Brooke with a big clothesline, handstand and knee into the ribs and another headlock submission attempt on Kay. The fans chant “Billie” and she makes her way to her feet, but Brooke knocks her down again and pins her for a 2 count. Brooke seizes Kay’s neck with her legs, choking her, as she shouts at the crowd. She raises Kay on to her bum and then slams her head-first into the mat with her legs. Kay manages to reverse it into a pinfall attempt, getting a 2 count. This propels her on to the attack. Kay clotheslines Brooke once, twice, then a hurricanrana, and a high kick to the grill for a 2 count. Brooke is stunned, grabbing the ropes as Kay tries to continue the attack, but to no avail. An enziguri gets most of Kay, and Brooke follows it up with a Samoan driver for the pin and win. Winner: Dana Brooke via pinfall in 5 minutes and 24 seconds One cool point for that Samoan Driver. The rest of the match was somewhat slow and robotic to watch as these two have yet to develop chemistry with one another. Backstage, Devin Taylor asks Apollo Crews how it feels to have such an explosive debut. Apollo says he can’t put it into words but he says the nXt Universe is actually the Apollo Nation and they’re taking over nXt. Coming Up: Finn Balor & Samoa Joe vs. Lucha Dragons Closing Segment Recap: Bayley’s biggest fan, Izzy, and her surprise encounter with Bayley, as Women’s Champ. She got a tour of the WWE Performance Centre and a day with Bayley. Next Week: Bayley returns to Full Sail University. Tag Team Tournament Round 1 Match: Finn Balor & Samoa Joe vs. Lucha Dragons This match comes to us from Providence, RI at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center. What a fine name for an arena. Tom Phillips and Jimmy Uso are on commentary for this match. Kalisto and Sin Cara lead the crowd in the “Lucha” chant and get a decent reaction from the crowd. Samoa Joe comes out to a similar reaction and Finn Balor, nXt Champion receives a very positive response for his full entrance. It will be Balor and Sin Cara in the ring to begin. They shake hands. We have a grapple into the corner and the referee asks them to break it up. On the second attempt, Sin Cara grabs Balor’s wrist for a wrist lock. Balor with gymnastic-like maneuvers to break the hold and he succeeds in getting Sin Cara into an arm lock. Sin Cara rolls out, twists Balor’s arm and puts Balor into a headlock on the mat. Balor attempts to pin Sin Cara for a 1 count. The two wrestlers stand up and Sin Cara begins running the ropes as Balor ducks, jumps, side-steps and then dropkicks his opponent. Kalisto tries to attack Balor as he poses, but Balor is ready and throws him over the ropes. Then he connects with a slingblade on Sin Cara. Sin Cara slowly gets to his feet, sits on the turnbuckle and is kicked in the head to the outside. Kalisto checks on his partner as Balor looks on and decides to do a splash to the outside on both of them, wiping them out! We go to commercial. After Triple H tells us to attend the nXt events in the UK, Samoa Joe is having his way with Sin Cara. He does his typical barrage of punches in the corner, ending with an elbow. He drags Sin Cara over to tag in Balor who hits a springboard plancha on Sin Cara for a 2 count. Balor with a slap on Sin Cara’s chest. He throws him into the opposite turnbuckle for a second slap. He repeats the action again but Sin Cara reverses it. Then Balor jumps over Sin Cara. Sin Cara explodes out of the corner and Balor attempts a head-scissors but he instead receives a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker. Kalisto is tagged in for a pinfall attempt. No success. Kalisto works the mid-section. He tags Sin Cara back in. He hits a senton splash over the ropes and pins Balor for a count of 2. They stay in the Dragons’ corner, working him down before an amazing double team move where Sin Cara sprung Kalisto upwards, using his feet, commencing a front flip splash from Kalisto on Balor. Another quick tag and Sin Cara strikes Balor. Back to belly suplex on Balor and Sin Cara squeezes his torso, trying to wear him down. Balor elbows Sin Cara, trying to fight out of the submission. He succeeds with an enziguri and reaches for the tag, bringing in Samoa Joe who brings the punches. Joe throws Sin Cara into the corner for a back splash and an enziguri. Kalisto enters the ring and receives a big boot and a back splash, forcing him to roll out of the ring. Samoa Joe throws Sin Cara into the corner but as he charges in, he’s elbowed in the face. Sin Cara seizes the moment and hits a Tornado DDT on Joe for the pin. Balor breaks up the count, saving his partner. He sends Sin Cara off the ropes though he doesn’t achieve his objective because Sin Cara springs off the second rope for a springboard moonsault on Balor. Joe gets up and stands in the corner as Sin Cara charges at him. He leaps, is caught by Joe who sits him on the turnbuckle, slaps him and tries for the musclebuster. It’s reversed by Sin Cara for a pinfall attempt that goes awry. Joe’s barrage of punches sends Sin Cara to the ropes where Kalisto slaps his back, and Sin Cara bounces off and continues forward, diving to the outside at Balor. Kalisto attempts to roll up Joe, bounces off of him and tries again. He leaps, legs hooking around Joe’s head and succeeds in hitting a Frankensteiner for a 2 count. Kalisto throws Joe to the outside but Joe gets right back into the ring where Kalisto has left his feet, leaping at Joe only to get a variation of the rockbottom. Joe prevents Sin Cara from entering the ring, too. He tags Balor, then sits Kalisto up on the turnbuckle, positions him for a musclebuster and succeeds. Balor climbs the top rope and connects with the Coup de Grace. He pins Kalisto to advance his team to Round 2 of the Dusty Classic. Winner: Finn Balor & Samoa Joe via pinfall in 8 minutes and 30 seconds The two men hug in the ring and then do the “Too Sweet” hand signal, posing for the fans as the camera fades to black. One cool point for Joe’s agility in the ring during this match, which may not be as fast as the Lucha Dragons, but is certainly as explosive. One cool point to Sin Cara for wrestling the majority of minutes for his team. He and Kalisto make a fine team. Too bad they won’t advance. Round 1 of the Dusty Classic is almost complete. Any surprises? Any favourites emerging for you? Share your thoughts below!
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