Tag: Alex Riley

  • WWE NXT results: Finn Balor returns; Nakamura’s Full Sail debut

    • The Big News: Samoa Joe and Finn Balor will square off one more time, on June 8 at NXT Takeover.
    • The Medium News: Balor returned to the NXT rings and put away The Drifter
    • The Little Beaver Sized News: Rachel Ellering debuted and Alex Riley did one last job.

    The show kicks off this week with the longest reigning NXT Champion in history! The now former champion, Finn Balor, returns to Full Sail University for the first time since losing his championship.

    The fans chanted “Thank you Finn”, which made him thank the fans. Finn moved on to address the new champion, Samoa Joe. He brought up that both Takeover matches could have gone either way, but Balor won, however in Lowell, Massachusetts that match could also go either way.

    This was the cue, not for Samoa Joe, but for Elias Sampson. Sampson played a song dedicated to Balor losing the belt. Sampson told Balor that he is nothing without the title, so Balor gave him a Pele Kick, which sent The Drifter drifting away.

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    They replayed Eric Young’s backstage interview from last week, saying the cream always rises to the top and he is now where he belongs.

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    Finn Balor said that he will finish saying what he needs to say to Samoa Joe when he gets done kicking Elias Sampson’s ass.

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    NXT Tag Team Champions American Alpha defeated Corey Hollis & John Skylar

    Hollis and Skylar now have matching gear, so they are an official team. The crowd exploded for Gable and Jordan, chanting that they deserve it. This match was your normal American Alpha match. Gable ran wild with chain wrestling, Jordan got in a little before Gable tagged in and got cut off for the heat.

    Hollis and Skylar got more in this match than you would probably expect considering their respective pushes, but Jordan got the hot tag and it was Full Suplex University on their foes. The Revival came out to watch the finish of the match, which distracted the champs momentarily, but they picked up the win with Grand Amplitude.

    After the match the champs laid down the gauntlet for The Revival, but Dash & Dawson backed away saying it would be done on their time.

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    Shinsuke Nakamura did a brief promo mocking the idea of Alex Riley’s rage.

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    In a Loser Retroactively Gets Fired Match, Shinsuke Nakamura defeated Alex Riley

    When they called him to wish him well in his future endeavors, do you think Riley screamed “SAYITTOMYFACE”?

    Riley used his size to mock Nakamura at first, but that didn’t last long since Nakamura then mocked him back. Riley took over by rolling out of the way of a knee drop and spent most of his time on offense making fun of the idea of Strong Style, which was the cue for Nakamura to make his comeback. Honestly this was more of a squash than the opener, as Nakamura won quickly with the Kinshasa.

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    Austin Aries was in William Regal’s office and wanted proof to show how great he is. Blake & Murphy barged in and demanded a tag team title match. Aries brought up how disrespectful this was and we got an argument. Mr. Regal said next week will be Blake & Murphy vs Austin Aries and a partner of Aries choosing.

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    Alexa Bliss pinned Rachael Ellering

    Women’s Division time. The former pixie going one on one with the daughter of Paul Ellering, Rachael. A few weeks ago, Alexa defeated Tessa Blanchard, so now Corey Graves joked that she’s going to beat everyone’s daughter.

    This match was just fine except for a spot where it looked like Ellering missed a dropkick by several feet, but they changed camera angles so you didn’t see it. Anyway Alexa won with the Sparkle Splash.

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    Bayley was backstage and said Asuka gave her the fight of a lifetime in Dallas and now she is training and will win again. Up walked Nia Jax who said Bayley was weaker. This led to a challenge for a future match.

    They then announced the math for next week.

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    Finn Balor defeated Elias Sampson

    Main event time, Balor’s first match since going down in defeat to Samoa Joe 3 weeks ago. Sampson worked on Finn’s injured shoulder that he has taped up following the beating Joe gave him. Balor made his comeback with some hard chops and kicks to The Drifter. Balor used the corner dropkick and finished Sampson off with 1916, which is the new name for the Bloody Sunday DDT. 1916 is the year of the Irish uprising.

    After the match Balor said he is not taking anything away from Samoa Joe…yet, but he wants his rematch. Balor is obsessed with NXT and obsessed with being NXT Champion, but now he is possessed like a demon stalking his prey. He is possessed with going after what belongs to him.

    This brought out Samoa Joe. Joe shouted at him from the ramp, saying he deserves nothing and does not deserve a title shot. William Regal ran out and shouted that we will not break down into chaos before announcing Joe vs Balor for Takeover on June 8. while Joe continued to rant rom the ramp, Balor did a running dive over the top, taking out the champion.

    So that does it for this week! Thank you for reading and until next week, remember to say your vitamins and take your prayers!

  • WWE releases Alex Riley, Hornswoggle and Zeb Colter

    WWE today confirmed the releases of Kevin Kiley Jr (Alex Riley), Dylan Postl (Hornswoggle) and Wayne Keown (Zeb Colter).

    Riley has had the most prominent role of the three recently, as he had an interview on NXT TV this week to promote an upcoming (already taped) match with Nakamura. He had recently returned from a long-term injury layoff and had been doing a bitter veteran gimmick where he would lash out against recent NXT signings that he didn’t feel were the calibre of athlete he is. He had gained a lot of muscle mass in his time off. He had been with the company since 2007 and was most prominently the sidekick of The Miz when he had his World title run and headlined WrestleMania 27 against John Cena. He won season 2 of the NXT reality show after being mentored by Miz on that show. After floundering on the main roster following his breakup with Miz, he resurfaced as a color commentator on NXT in 2013 before leaving the booth for a short-term feud with Kevin Owens in early 2015. He was injured shortly after and just recently returned to NXT TV.

    Hornswoggle has been virtually non-existent on TV since a 30 day wellness violation on September 28th of last year. He’s been with the company almost exactly 10 years, having debuted in May of 2006. After starting out as Fit Finley’s sidekick (later revealed to be his “son”), he had featured roles as Mr McMahon’s illegitimate son and later as a sidekick to the DX team of Triple H and Shawn Michaels. He was also revealed to be the person behind the “anonymous GM” when WWE wanted a quick way out of that storyline. His last featured role was a feud with Torito, the costumed bull mascot of The Matadores (Primo and Epico Colon) tag team. The two had a WeeLC match at Payback in 2014 that was an entertaining spectacle but after that feud fizzled out, it was clear there were no plans for him.

    Colter, also known for many years as Dutch Mantel, had been with WWE since 2013, which was second stint with the company. In the mid-90’s he managed the Blu Brothers (Ron and Don Harris) and Justin “Hawk” Bradshaw (JBL) as Uncle Zedekiah. He returned in 2013 to manage Jack Swagger. He received a lot of press as an outspoken pro-American xenophobic mouthpiece, even getting mentions from mainstream sources such as Glenn Beck and FOX News. WWE toned down the character after a couple of months while of course led to the Swagger character cooling off as well. He later added Cesaro to his stable as “The Ream Americans”. That pairing was short-lived as Cesaro broke off from the team to align with Paul Heyman. Shortly after that, Colter and Swagger turned face to feud with Rusev and Lana in Rusev’s first main roster feud. Colter was written out of WWE storylines after Rusev broke his leg in a backstage segment. He resurfaced last year in a short-lived run as Alberto Del Rio’s manager and feuding with his former protégé Swagger. After just a few weeks, Del Rio “fired” Colter on RAW and he had not been seen since.