WWE ran a pretty decent show in Jonesboro, AR tonight. Crowd not as large as the last time I came to town for a show back in 2012 for Punk v Ryback.
R-Truth over Bo Dallas
Truth won after countering a sunset flip reversal.
Curtis Axel and Damien Sandow over the Ascension
Axel hit the facebuster Viktor for the win By far the worst efforts I’ve ever seen from the face team. Big bummer when Axel hit what must be the worst dropkick in his career. Goofy match.
Natalya over Alicia Foxx
Long heat segment, Natalya never getting more than one offensive move in before getting cut off. Easily best match so far.
WWE Champion/U.S. Champion Seth Rollins over Dean Ambrose
Rollins won after hitting an exposed turnbuckle shot and a Pedigree. Great match, tons of moves, sick Falcon Arrow, Rollins argues with the crowd and a child in the front row over whether or not he’s a sissy.
WWE Tag Team Champions New Day Big E and Xavier Woods over the Primetime Players
New Day won after Xavier Woods hits Titus O’Neil with a DDT and a big second rope legdrop. New Day were hilarious as always. Xavier Woods wore Big E’s singlet after claiming the airline lost his luggage. He adopted some of E’s moveset including a nice belly to belly, an attempt at the running splash, and the body block. Referred to himself as Big Woods.
Cesaro over Kevin Owens
Cesaro won after reversing a popup powerbomb into a hurricanrana. Smart match, not too crazy as to overshadow the main, but a back and forth with big moves and Owens preventing Cesaro from ever hitting the big swing.
Roman Reigns over Bray Wyatt in a streetfight
Lots of big shots back and forth at the beginning. Both guys were over and definitely brought a different feel to the main event. Bray Wyatt worked over Reigns with kendo stick shots and throwing a chair at his head. Hits a Uranage through a table, loses control to a series of Reigns punches and slaps before taking a powerbomb through a table. Luke Harper breaks up the pin, hits a big superkick, only to eat superman punches to the glee of the crowd.
Lights out, Braun Strowman appears and chokes out Reigns until chants for Ambrose lead to the save and comeback. Reigns throws Wyatt headfirst through a chair in the corner and follows up with a Spear while someone near by freaks out and screams “DESTROOOY HIMMMM.” Big spectacle match sends the crowd home happy.
Really strong opener, good back and forth match. Summer Rae was ejected at one point after hitting Dolph with her shoe and then Ziggler hit the Zig Zag for the win.
Neville def. Adam Rose
Neville won with the 450 Splash
Jimmy Uso def. Heath Slater
Slater started off the match yelling at Jimmy about how he’s nothing but an announcer now and that he wants a dance contest. Heath dances to “I’m Too Sexy” to huge boos which leads to Jimmy dancing to “Watch Me Whip” and even Ref Chad Patton got in on the fun. Jimmy Superkicks Slater for the win. Slater then says he wants another opponent which leads to…
Jack Swagger def. Heath Slater
Swagger won with the Ankle Lock. Once again Slater wants another opponent so then we have…
Mark Henry def. Heath Slater
Henry won with the World’s Strongest Slam.
I-C Champion Ryback def. The Big Show by DQ
Team PCB def. Team BAD
Charlotte hit Natural Selection on Tamina
The Dudley Boyz def. Los Matadores and the Lucha Dragons
Dudleys won with a 3D on a Matador. After the match, the Matadores were distracted by “Bad to the Bone” when El Torito came out and beat up on the Matadores. That led to Bubba putting a Matador through a table.
Match 1 Dolph Ziggler vs Rusev w/ Summer Rae good fast pace match Rusev is huge in person and can move for a man his size. Summer Rae hit Dolph with her shoe and she was sent back to the dressing room which ended up with rusev with his back turned and Dolph hit his finisher awesome opening match. By the way Summer Rae looked awesome and smelled really good lol!
Winner: Dolph Ziggler
Match 2 all in 1 match Health slater vs jimmy Uso they had a dance contest which sent the crowd in to ultimate dance mode the crowd was hot from this through the whole show Jimmy won the dance off and the he super kicked health for the win. Winner Jimmy Uso
Then health said its not over send me somebody else to fight so jack swagger came in and beat him with a all American duplex
Winner: Jack Swagger
Then health said not in a million years no one can do that 3 times in a row so out comes mark Henry. Looks at him and gives him the hall of pain slam
Winner: Mark Henry
Match 3 Neville vs Adam rose Good match Neville was hot all through the match with the flips and they look awesome in person great match Adam rose changed his entire gimmick I think this works for him well he reminds me of a old Shane Douglas good match should be on tv Neville did a basic flip for he win no red arrow
Winner: Neville
Match 4 Ryback vs Big Show for the IC title it was a good match a lot of big show slaps and ryback feed me more chants good back and forth match was not boring at all but ryback retains after big show used a chair for the DQ
Winner by DQ Ryback
Intermission 6 minutes
Divas action
Match 5 Naomi was at ringside giving it to the fans. Sasha banks Tamina vs Becky lynch and Charlotte awesome match Becky is definetly coming along tons of energy and really gets involved with the crowd Tamina was getting worked big time these girls are in there twenties and they where running circles around her but anyways Charlotte hit her figure four and it was over
Winner: Charlotte and Becky Lynch
Match 6 The Dudleys vs Lucha Dragons vs Los Matadors Awesome match a lot of high risk maneuvers that cover the ring as well as my personal favorite get the tables chant the Dudleys where way over just he Lucha Dragons. Kalisto hit a flip on primo for the win After the match Los Matadors picked on the bull pushing him around until the The dudleys put epico through the tables and the crowd went crazy
Winner: The Lucha Dragons
Main Event
Randy Orton vs Sheamus typical back and forth between them until Randy hit the RKO out of nowhere decent match that could have been on raw but it was good the crowd went home happy randy went around to everyone and tag hands and thanked everyone.
Winner: Randy Orton
Submitted by Matthew Hardaway
Triple H had a promo on the videoscope pretending he was in Huntsville. Total babyface stuff.
Dolph Ziggler vs Rusev w/ Summer Rae
Rusev and Summer had the Bulgarian flag with Rusev’s face superimposed on it. Please tell Bryan that Ziggler slowed down on his ten punches in the corner. Teased count out early. Fun opener. Had all the spots to get the crowd into it. Near falls and double KOs and all. Rusev was practically weeping at USA chants. Summer was ejected for hitting Dolph WITH HER STILETTO HEEL and then Dolph hit the Zig Zag for the win. I have to admit, as an old school WCW fan, I marked out for the high heel gimmick.
Neville vs Adam Rose
No music for Rose. He was wearing short tights and cut a promo about pooping on our parties since we pooped on his. Neville won with a 450 instead of the spinning shooting star press so to hell with him I guess.
They did a trivia game advertising the network. What popped out of the box after the Macho Man married Miss Elizabeth? It was a snake.
Heath Slater vs Jimmy Uso
Slater is pretty good at being a sleazy heel. He cut a promo one minute into the match about how great he was and how Jimmy went from being a “great competitor” to an announcer. Then he challenged him to a dance off. They hit “I’M TOO SEXY” by RIGHT SAID FRED for Heath. Then Jimmy DID THE NAE NAE. THEN MIKE CHIODA DID THE NAE NAE DANCE WITH HIM. It was beyond great and drew a gigantic pop. So of course it was nothing close to their TV. Uso hit a super kick immediately for the win. Slater eventually challenged anyone else and Jack Swagger came out and tapped him to an ankle lock after a few amateur throws. Then Slater challenged anyone else to come out. Mark Henry came out and slammed him immediately for the win even after Slater told him he would usually make an example of him. Way too enjoyable for a house show.
They aired a Daniel Bryan promo for Connor’s Cure.
WWE I-C Champion Ryback vs. Big Show
These are some BIG GUYS as Larry Z might say. “Feed me less,” the Big Show says to us while patting his belly. They did the old championship match intros with both guys in the ring. Show worked so hard. He even took the Flair press slam of the turnbuckle. Ryback won by dq when Show used a chair to the ribs. Ryback did a meat hook to send us to intermission happy.
Jojo and a guy named Greg advertised autographed pictures.
Intermission
Tamina and and Sasha Banks w/ Naomi vs Becky and Charlotte
Charlotte won.
Lucha Dragons vs El Matadores vs The Dudley Boyz
Bubba helped the Dragons with a move that lead to a two count. Come on. Lots of weird double teams. Nothing too spectacular but kinda smart as it pertains to bumps. Pretty fun three way. El Torito ran out with “Bad to the Bone” playing to lead to a 3D and win. Then the Dragons helped them put a Matador through a table. Fun stuff.
They showed an awesome package advertising Sting vs Rollins built around Sting’s old title wins. They should shown it on TV but I bet they won’t.
Sheamus vs Randy Orton
Usual chants towards Sheamus. He worked the t-shirt throwing gimmick like a pro. They put the lights down for atmosphere. First time they’ve did that here for a house show. RKO tease immediately. Great match for a house show. Sheamus took a great bump into the steps before he took over. Orton won with an RKO after dodging a brogue kick.
– Cesaro over Luke Harper in the opener after the Neutralizer. Good match, lots of playing to the crowd.
– R-Truth over Bo Dallas in a short match with a roll-up.
– Natalya over Alicia Fox in a short match with the Sharpshooter.
– WWE Tag Champions Big E and Xavier Woods over The Prime Time Players via roll-up to retain
– WWE Champion/U.S. Champion Seth Rollins over Dean Ambrose after the Pedigree to retain. Really good, long match. Rollins took the cover off a turnbuckle, then sent Ambrose into the exposed turnbuckle after a ref bump.
Intermission
– Curtis Axel & Damien Sandow beat The Ascension with a roll-up.
– Chris Jericho over Kevin Owens in a good, long match. Crowd loved both guys, lots of pretty entertaining mic work before the match.
– Roman Reigns beat Bray Wyatt in a street fight in the main event. Both Braun Strowman and Dean Ambrose got involved.
Good crowd. Lots of kids and families. Some fans tossed for shouting profanity at wrestlers, but otherwise nothing too crazy. Rollins, Ambrose, Reigns, Jericho and Owens got the biggest crowd reactions.
Dallas opened the show trashing the city, Truth came out to a decent response and won a back and forth match with lots of stalling from Bo.
– Damian Sandow / Curtis Axel def Ascension
Sandow was over big. Nobody cared about the Ascension. Axel got the pin.
– Natalya def Alicia Fox
Divas match was good. Natalya is top notch, Albertan crowd was obviously into the Sharpshooter.
– Chris Jericho def Kevin Owens
Owens came out, said it was his first time in Edmonton and he was disappointed. Almost left when Jericho came out and demanded a match. The two went back and forth on the mics for a while before starting to fight. MOTN and Jericho was by far the most over all night. Good match with the regular spots, Chris got the pin after a Codebreaker.
Intermission
– Cesaro def Luke Harper
Cesaro (with taped ribs) beat Harper after the intermission but got laid out afterwards. Really solid match, fairly stiff work. Also, at one point Cesaro put Harper in a crossface. Lots of the crowd popped big, even heard a ‘Chris Benoit’ chant from some guys nearby. That was weird. Probably the wrong city to do that move in, even if it’s one he’s using regulatory now.
– WWE Tag Team Champion New Day def Prime Time Players to retain their titles
New Day successfully defended against the PTP. More “sucks” than “rocks” chants, but crowd seemed into them regardless. No sign of Kofi – Woods and Big E worked the match. Darren Young was impressive, really hustling, and crowd was into Titus when he came in with the hot tag. They got cheered up the ramp after losing.
– WWE Champion/U.S. Champion Seth Rollins def Roman Reigns in a street fight
Main event was okay. Rollins got on the mic a lot during the match to build heat. Crowd really wanted a table spot, mostly unsatisfied with the chair and kendo stick. Eventually Roman speared him through a table, Bray Wyatt attacked and Rollins got called the winner even though there was no pin and it was a street fight. Whatever. Braun Strowman or whatever his name is came out and beat up Reigns too. Sandoval and Axel tried to make the save but got destroyed, then Cesaro came and he and Reigns took the big man out. Reigns then speared Wyatt to close the show.
Notes:
– The arena seemed empty. Nobody in the second bowl, where as a Smackdown taping two years ago was a near sell-out.
– Lots of kids in Cena merch probably bummed he wasn’t there. Crowd liked Reigns but wanted Ambrose too, Jericho was the only guy cheered like a big star. Lots of solid matches, but the tame, small crowd and lacking star power hurt the show. No Cena, Orton, Sheamus, Ziggler, Rusev, Ryback, Ambrose or Big Show, and none of the Diva’s Revolution.
– Friday, October 7th was officially announced as the date for the next TakeOver show at Full Sail University in Winter Park, FL. Three shows were taped Thursday night to lead up to the live Network special.
Presumed dark match:
– Hype Bros def. Elias Samson and Riddick Moss. Zack Ryder pinned Samson after a Rough Ryder while Mojo held him up.
Wednesday, Sept. 16 show:
– Tyler Breeze vs Adam Rose never happened. Bull Dempsey came out, and he and Breeze went at it on the mic over their loss last week. Bull tried to get the match from Rose, which turned into a mini brawl with Bull getting the best of it.
– Tye Dillinger def. ? with a shinbuster type move that resembled a one legged Codebreaker.
– Apollo Crews def. Solomon Crowe in a good but short match.
– Dusty Rhodes Classic quarterfinal: Rhyno & Baron Corbin def. Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa. Tons of heat in this match. Corbin pinned Gargano with the End of Days after a lot of back and forth action.
– NXT Women’s Champion Bayley def. ? in a quick match with the Belly-to-Bayley. Bayley celebrated before the match in the crowd and brought fan Izzy into the ring to pose with the belt. After the match, Sasha Banks came out. They both put over the Brooklyn match, but Banks said she wanted to prove she was the best women’s wrestler. William Regal came out and announced the main event of the next TakeOver show is Bayley vs. Banks in a 30 minute IronWoman Match. The crowd is filled with glee over this news.
Wednesday, Sept. 23 show:
– Jason Jordan and Chad Gable def. Dash Wilder and Scott Dawson.
– Eva Marie def. Carmella by countout. Match was fine, but very lame finish. Crowd was all over Eva with “that’s a kickout” and “botch queen” chants.
– Tyler Breeze beat Bull Dempsey using a roll-up and the ropes as leverage.
– Regal came out to announce the signing of Kana, who is now Asuka (pronounced Ask-uh). She was interrupted by Dana Brooks and Emma, who said they were the welcoming committee and it was time for Asuka to leave the ring. She reluctantly did. Odd.
– NXT Tag Team Champions The Vaudevillains retained over Blake and Murphy with the Whirling Dervish. Blue Pants came out early on and chased Alexa Bliss away. Good near fall late when Blake got the knees up on a swanton attempt and Murphy hit a top rope knee drop.
Wednesday, Sept. 30 show:
– Apollo Crews def. Johnny Gargano. Similar in length and quality to the Crowe match. Crowd lost a little steam by the end since it was their 2nd time out.
– Dana Brooke and Emma def. Peyton Royce and Billie Kay. Dana pinned Peyton after Emma grabbed Peyton’s foot when they were both in the ropes.
– Tyler Breeze beat Tomasso Ciampa with the Killswitch. Good match.
– Dusty Rhodes Classic match: NXT Champion Finn Balor and Samoa Joe def. Enzo and Cass when both guys hit their finishers. Balor came out to a new BALOR CLUB logo on the big screen and white lights instead of his usual red fog.
– Nothing else was announced for TakeOver besides Banks vs. Bayley and the Dusty Rhodes Classic final.
Recent signee Kana was at the WWE NXT TV tapings Thursday for her debut, and was given the new ring name “Asuka”.
Lioness Asuka was probably the second most popular woman pro wrestler ever in Japan, part of the 80s tag team The Crush Gals during the era when women’s pro wrestling did television ratings equivalent to what the NFL was doing at the same time in the United States.
– Air Date: September 10, 2015 (Sept 9 in Canada) – Location: Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza in Wilkes-Barre, PA
The Big News:
The Wyatts took out another friend of Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns, and Seth Rollins got his win back over Ryback.
Show Recap:
They announced the two main events for tonight, including a Seth Rollins vs. Ryback lumberjack match. They pushed this with a graphic reading “Champion vs. Champion” in big, gold lettering as if the titles are at stake, but they’re not.
Bray Wyatt and his friends came out for a promo. Bray said Roman Reigns is sick—infected with the desire to become “the one.” Bray claimed that Roman didn’t care about the fans because he’s a smart man.
Bray said Dean Ambrose is cursed, cursed by his loyalty to Reigns who doesn’t care about him. Bray warned anyone who wanted to join their team that they are the modern day Hatfields and McCoys, destined to fight forever.
He reminded us what they did to Randy Orton and showed a clip. Bray warned Jimmy Uso not to make the wrong decision, “and you can believe that.” Braun Strowman finished off by saying, “They all fall down.” This was nothing special and the crowd didn’t care.
The new commentary team is Rich Brennan, Booker T and Jerry Lawler.
Cesaro beat The Miz via submission
The Miz got an entrance. Cesaro did not. Cesaro’s ribs were taped so Miz took control working them over. Miz applied a weak leg scissor and Cesaro impressively countered into a vertical suplex. Miz regained control briefly, but after trying a running kick, Cesaro caught his leg and again did an impressive counter, this time into a Sharpshooter for the tap-out win. Short match.
Backstage, Renee Young asked Ambrose and Reigns about Jimmy Uso. Reigns said it was Ambrose’s idea to bring in Jimmy Uso, but Reigns was hesitant to involve more of his family. Ambrose thought he was the perfect fit and said Jimmy got him so excited he almost painted his face. Jimmy showed up, excited to return to action. He and Ambrose did the “Uce-O” routine and Reigns looked at them like they were nuts.
Paige NC Sasha Banks
They showed a replay of the finish from Raw and said the shoulders of both women might have been down. In an in-set promo, Paige told Sasha it was time to tap. Sasha responded, saying she was the boss of this house. The teams almost got into a brawl before the match so the referee kicked out the peripherals.
Booker and Brennan reminded us that Stephanie McMahon started this revolution and that women have taken the centre stage all over the sports world. Banks had control for a while and Paige started selling an eye injury. As the referee checked on her and backed off Banks, Paige shot out of the corner with a spear and attacked her wildly. The two of them brawled to the outside, ramming each other into the barricade.
Eventually, Team BAD and Team PCB ran out to pull them apart. As with every wrestling brawl, Paige and Banks each broke through a couple of time until this was finally settled when referees ran out and Team BAD left. The crowd was into the brawl and we even got a “P-C-B” chant. I did like the angle, especially if Paige is turning heel.
Backstage, Seth Rollins told Byron Saxton that Sting caused him to have, perhaps, the worst night of his career. Rollins screamed about the statue before calming down to explain that Sting is burying himself into a bigger hole. Rollins said he would crush Sting the way his statue was crushed.
Rollins wanted the locker room to watch him beat Ryback to prove he only lost because of a distraction. He said he would beat Cena and Sting at Night of Champions when Sheamus showed up. Sheamus said something uninteresting and then wished Rollins luck. Same old.
The New Day NC Jimmy Uso, Dean Ambrose & Roman Reigns
The crowd was pretty quiet to this point but there were loud “New Day sucks” chants here. Ambrose had control until he was cut off by a Big E clothesline. Kingston knocked Reigns off the apron so Ambrose tagged in Uso who hit Kingston with a superkick and Samoan drop.
Ambrose took out Woods with a suicide dive and Uso took out Kingston and Woods with an Uso dive. With the referee distracted, Big E hip tossed Uso to the outside to regain control.
After a break, New Day stomped a mudhole in Jimmy and Woods stopped in the middle of it to grab his trombone to play a few notes. Crowd popped for that. Xavier ran at Uso but ate a superkick and Reigns made the hot tag.
Reigns hit Woods with ten clotheslines and an apron dropkick, clotheslining Kingston along the way. Big E tried to interfere so Reigns gave him a Samoan drop. Woods hit a spinning DDT on Reigns and presumably had him beat but Ambrose broke it up.
Ambrose hit Dirty Deeds on Kingston, and a rebound clothesline to Big E on the outside. Reigns hit Woods with a superman punch and tagged in Jimmy Uso who went up for the big splash but the lights went out.
When the lights came on, Strowman had Uso in his hugging maneuver on the stage (with Bray and Harper looking on). Ambrose and Reigns went after them but the lights went out and the Wyatts disappeared. Ambrose and Reigns checked on Jimmy as the phrase “They all fall down” played over the speakers.
The Ascension (w/Stardust) beat The Lucha Dragons via pinfall
Ascension came out with Stardust to their own music. Viktor gave Kalisto an STO and they used Fall of Man for the win. Ascension and Stardust attacked Lucha Dragons after the match so Neville ran out to make the save. He tossed out Konnor and Viktor and chased away Stardust. If they’re going to do a six-man they shouldn’t have killed the Dragons so easily.
Backstage, Nikki Bella told Renee that Charlotte is jealous and afraid of her. Charlotte showed up and said none of those things are true. Charlotte asked if Nikki was excited because Nikki was about to become the woman who was almost the longest reigning champion ever. Charlotte said Nikki would be calling her champion after Monday. This is all they did to build the title match on Raw and it wasn’t good.
Non-Title Lumberjack Match: WWE & US Champion Seth Rollins beat IC Champion Ryback via pinfall
After Stardust and Ascension just ran away from Neville and the Lucha Dragons, they were all out here together as lumberjacks. Ziggler, Show, Henry, Dudleys and Owens were among the bigger names out there.
Ryback was tossed to the outside and the heel lumberjacks jumped him for no reason. The good guys backed them off and they went to commercial.
In the middle of his comeback, Show blatantly pulled Ryback out of the ring and tossed him into the barricade. This was not a DQ. Show knocked out Mark Henry for good measure. The good guys backed off Show and he left.
Ryback knocked away some lumberjacks and nailed Rollins with a forearm to counter a suicide dive. Ryback gave him a spinebuster and sent him flying onto the babyface lumberjacks on the outside.
The heel lumberjacks jumped Ryback again, this time in the ring, until the faces made the save. The Dragons hit suicide dives and Neville took out a bunch of them with a moonsault off the top.
With everything presumably clear, Rollins and Ryback traded counters. Ryback had Rollins up for the shell shocked but Kevin Owens hooked Ryback’s leg (ref happened to be distracted) and Seth countered into a pedigree for the win.
This match was nonsense. Booker called this a clean win.
Final Thoughts:
I was almost going to call this show a positive. I like that Paige is slowly losing it and the six-man tag was really good. But two non-finishes and a crappy, overbooked main event sure made the show feel like a waste.
NXT Women’s Champion Bayley will face former champion Sasha Banks in a 30 minute IronWoman match as the main event for the next NXT TakeOver special on October 7th at Full Sail University in Winter Park, FL.
The two faced off at WWE TakeOver: Brooklyn in a match that was hailed as one of the best, if not THE best, of WWE’s SummerSlam weekend in NYC.
Hear ye, hear ye! Let it be known that on this, the 9th day of September in the year of our Lord 2015, we have gathered here on F4WOnline.com! We gather on this page not for Ring of Honor or Impact, but for NXT!
Join me at 8pm for our weekly live review of a taped show! Tonight in the Dusty Rhodes Classic, it is Samoa Joe & Finn Balor vs Lucha Dragons. Plus Bull Dempsey teams with Prince Pretty to face Tommaso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano!
Since last Wednesday night four more first round matches have taken place in the Dusty Rhodes Classic. If you go to WWE.com you can see highlights of all the matches. Here are the current brackets and up to date brackets:
Finn Balor & Samoa Joe vs Lucha Dragons Enzo Amore & Colin Cassady beat Angelo Dawkins & Sawyer Fulton
Dash & Dawson beat Tucker Knight & Elias Sampson The Vaudevillians beat Blake & Murphy
Hype Bros beat Noah Kekoa (replacing Marcus Louis) & Alexander Wolfe Jason Jordan & Chad Gable defeating Neville & Solomon Crowe
Rhyno & Baron Corbin defeating The Ascension Tyler Breeze & Bull Dempsey vs Tomasso Ciampa & Johnny Gargano
1.) Carmella tapped out Peyton Royce
The Princess of Staten Island kicks the show off this week, going one on one with Peyton Royce. For the record, you pronounce the R like an R and not an H. This is Carmella’s anniversary here on NXT, as one year ago Enzo and Colin got her fired from her job as a hairdresser.
They exchanged backslides and Carmella did the Moonwalk, which was credited to Michael PS Hayes. Peyton got a near fall with a Fisherman’s Suplex, which was called a “Look at that!” The fans aren’t as anti-Carmella as they used to be. Perhaps they are saving their hatred for Eva Marie.
This was a good match and Carmella won with an STO into a legscissiors.
-Finn Balor and Samoa Joe had a meeting, getting ready for their tournament match. Joe handed Balor his championship belt, after taking a long look at it.
-They showed a video of the four Dusty Rhodes Classic matches from this past weekend. So scratch what I said about going to WWE.com to watch them.
-Nia Jax is coming soon. I feel like I have written that before. 2.) In a first round match in the Dusty Rhodes Classic, Tommaso Ciampa & Johnny Gargano defeated Tyler Breeze & Bull Dempsey
So I was going through my autographed 8×10’s the other day and found one of East Coast Pro Wrestling’s Donnie The Body Johnson, who did a Simon Dean gimmick. Something about him looked so familiar, so I Yahoo’d him and discovered that it was Bull Dempsey. Mind you it was Bull from 10 years and about 50 pounds ago, but still. He has come a long way from The Strand in McAdoo, PA.
Bull laid on the top rope like Tyler, much to Prince Pretty’s chagrin. The fans popped for Gargano and Ciampa. Breeze was mocking Ciampa, so Ciampa gave him a David Schultz open hand slap to the side of his head. The fans chanted “Bull is gorgeous” when Tyler tagged out. Gargano speared Breeze through the ropes and kicked him in the head. This has not been Breeze’s night.
Gargano gave Bull a kick to the back of the head and Ciampa got a near fall with a running knee. Bull squashed Tommaso when Ciampa had a sleeper hold locked on. Gargano tagged in and dropkicked Breeze off the apron, so when Bull went for a tag there was no one there.
Breeze pulled himself up on the apron, but Bull collided with his partner. Ciampa pinned him with a roll up.
-After the match Breeze attacked Bull and beat him down, including kicking the big man in the ribs.
-Sin Cara cut a promo in Spanish, so Kalisto translated it. Basically they want to win the tournament and it is an honor to wrestle Samoa Joe & Finn Balor.
-Devin interviewed Dana Brooke about her upcoming match. Dana said what bothers her is she had to watch Bayley become the Women’s Champion instead of her. Dana wants to be known as the best wrestler NXT has and she said she wants to become the NXT Champion. Well I think Finn has her beat. She takes offense to people thinking she only has her spot because of her body and face.
-A Tye Dillinger video aired. He’s the Perfect 10 if you haven’t heard yet. 3.) Dana Brooke pinned Billie Kay
It’s the night for Australian Diva’s in action. First Peyton Royce and now Billie Kay. Rich Brennan said Billie Kay was tall, which led to Corey Graves being obnoxious. I swear I am going to start muting the audio.
Dana used some unique moves, including a headstand elbow drop and a headstand where she used her foot to choke Billie in the corner. Billie got a near fall with a Hurricarana and a boot to the face, but Dana picked up the win with a sit out Death Valley Driver.
-Apollo Crews referred to the NXT crowd as the Apollo Nation.
-The little girl who comes to every NXT show dressed like Bayley, met the new champion and got a tour of the WWE Performance Center.
4.) In a first round match of the Dusty Rhodes Classic, Finn Balor & Samoa Joe defeated Lucha Dragons
This match was actually taped a few weeks ago when SmackDown was in Providence. I was actually going to go to this show, but ended up not going. This is really interesting with them taping matches in different locations. Tom Phillips and Jimmy Uso were the commentators. At least it’s better than Corey Graves.
The fans were chanting “This is awesome” during the opening lock up. Other than that the fans weren’t into the general minutiae of this match. They did pop when Balor did his dive over the top rope, but they mostly sat on their hands.
This match only went about 8 minutes, but most of that was with Balor and Joe on offense. The Dragons got in a little bit, but this match was actually disappointing. I was expecting much more. The fans finally woke up when Joe got the hot tag, but died when Kalisto hit a really nice Tornado DDT.
Joe went for the Muscle Buster, but Cara fought out of it. Kalisto actually got a believable near fall with a Hurricarana, but Joe & Balor won with first the Muscle Buster and then the Coup de Grace.
-So that is it for this week. Next week it is the return of Bayley, but until then make sure to say your vitamins and take your prayers!
