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Tag: NXT

  • NXT Royal Oak, MI, live results: Baron Corbin vs Apollo Crews vs Samoa Joe vs Finn Balor

    From the Royal Oak Music Theater in Royal Oak, MI | Submitted anonymously

    Enzo and Big Cass vs the Vaudevillians

    Enzo did a rap before the match. Vaudevillians have a new heel theme. Lots of comedy spots. Crowd LOVES Enzo. Vaudevillians were pretty over and got cheered until they got the heat on Enzo, Cass got the hot tag, and they won with the rocket launcher move. Fun tag match, crowd was into it.

    Carmella vs Alexa Bliss

    Carmella did her speech before the match. Crowd loved her. Alexa got heat for being from Ohio. Alexa did a really good job of getting the heat and Carmella did a quick comeback and won with her submission. Surprisingly good match that the crowd was pretty into, Alexa had good heat and Carmella got her chants.

    Elias Sampson vs Johnny Gargano

    Elias got a lot of heat early on for some reason. He played a song for Detroit before the match to solid boos and Johnny interrupted him. Johnny was over despite being from Cleveland, even got a “Johnny Wrestling” chant. Back and forth match. Crowd was into the heat spots. Crowd blew up for a dive from Johnny to the outside where there was almost no floor space. There was some near falls and Elias won with his neckbreaker. Crowd booed like hell. Great match. Crowd gave a standing ovation to Johnny after the match.

    Tye Dillinger vs Sami Zayn

    Crowd was into Tye’s entrance. Sami was SUPER over. The story at the beginning of the match was that Sami’s reaction made Tye jealous. The worked heel only to the extent that he wasn’t cheered. Back and forth match where the crowd was into everything Sami did. Some comedy spots with the 10 sign. Tye got the heat, Sami did a comeback and Tye got injured and carried off to the back and they rang the bell. Sami lead a 10 chant and did a speech thanking the fans. Sampson interrupted and beat up Sami and Sami fought him off with a Helluva kick.

    Intermission

    Women’s Champion Bayley vs Nia Jax

    Crowd loved everything Bayley did. The match was similar to their Takeover match. Bayley won with the Belly to Bayley. A fan threw her a Bayley Club shirt and she put it on and celebrated with the crowd afterwards.

    American Alpha vs. NXT Tag Team Champions Dash and Dawson

    Gable and Jordan got a huge reaction. Dash and Dawson were also there. Crowd loved Jordan and Gable. Match was back and forth at the beginning and then Dash and Dawson got the heat on Jordan. Gable got the heat and American Alpha did some double team stuff and then Dawson started getting the heat on Gable. Jordan exploded with the hot tag. American Alpha hit their finisher and dash pulled the ref out of the ring and got DQ’ed. Chorus of boos. American Alpha got a standing ovation after the match.

    Baron Corbin vs Apollo Crews vs Samoa Joe vs Finn Balor

    All guys got a great reception and Corbin got plenty of boos. Joe and Corbin disposed of Crews and Balor and then Balor turned on Joe. Balor and Crews disposed of Corbin and Joe and shook hands and went back and forth. Now came in and went one and one with Crews. Then Corbin and Crews. Then Corbin and Balor. Then Joe and Balor. Then Joe and Crews. Corbin and Joe double teamed Balor. Corbin turned on Joe again and then put the beat down on Balor. Joe disposed of Balor and put the beat down on Balor and them Balor got a comeback in on everyone and did the stomp to Crews’ back. Match broke down into a four way brawl. Joe had the clutch on Baron, Crews hit the standing moonsault on him and went for a pin, Balor jumped off the top and hit Crews with the Coup de Grace and pinned Corbin for the win and celebrated after the match. Great back and forth match. Crowd was into it the whole time.

    Great show with no real lowlights. Most over was probably Balor or Sami.

  • NXT Pittsburgh live results: Finn Balor vs. Samoa Joe; Sami Zayn vs. Johnny Gargano

    Submitted by Ryan Dunch w/additional notes from Joe Kazmer

    Stage AE was sompletely sold out, with a substantial amount of a standing room tickets sold.

    – The night started with a pre-taped intro from Triple H thanking the fans for making NXT.

    NXT Tag Champions Dawson & Wilder def. Big Cass and Enzo Amore

    People were really excited and chanted along with the whole Enzo/Cass intro. Lots of How You Doin and other chants. Wilder and Dawson won after hitting their finisher on Enzo. Enzo and Cass got a standing ovation after they were left alone in the ring. This was a theme for the night anytime someone the crowd liked lost a match.

    Nia Jax pinned Carmella after the big leg drop

    Wasn’t very good but not as bad as I was expecting. Poor Nia was cat called early on when the crowd was otherwise pretty silent. 

    Elias Sampson def. Tye Dillinger

    Sampson, who is from Pittsburgh, claimed that he wrote a special song about returning to Pittsburgh​ which was comically bad:

    “Back in my hometown of Pittsburgh for the sold out show tonight
    and I’d say it’s nice to be here but that would be a lie,
    You can all tip me money for playing my guitar
    cuz I’ll never turn it down,
    In fact I should get a lot of money for even coming back to this crappy town!”

    Met with boos and an inaudible chant, and actually was worse than it looks on paper. Dillinger was cheered, mostly just people having fun with the 10 chants. Sampson defeated Tye Dillinger after raking Tye’s eyes while the re​f was distracted, and pinned him following a swinging neckbreaker. Then he kissed his guitar and carried it over his shoulder as he exited. 

    Baron Corbin pinned Apollo Crews after the End of Days

    Baron out to good heel reaction, Apollo got a decent pop. “Boring Corbin” chants. Mostly an anti-Corbin crowd as opposed to a pro-Crews crowd.  Corbin looked strong for a lot of the match and Crews got a lukewarm response for his comeback. People were into some of his athletic spots and did react to those – including a plancha to the floor. Crowd got into the last bit with trading shots and some near falls. 

    Sami Zayn pinned Johnny Gargano

    They had a lively match, and both men were over with the crowd. A lot of singing for Zayn, and “Johnny Wrestling” chants for Gargano. Really a great final few minutes which led to Sami pinning Johnny with a Heluva Kick. After the match was over, Sami helped Johnny up and embraced him and raised his hand. The crowd gave Gargano a really nice standing ovation after the match while Zayn hopped out of the ring and applauded him on the outside. Really loud sustained “Johnny Wrestling” chant here as well.

    > Intermission

    Women’s Champion Bayley pinned Alexa Bliss with the Bayley to Belly suplex

    Bayley is very beloved by this audience. Little girls with Bayley shirts in attendance, Bayley made sure to give them hugs. There was a lot of stalling at the beginning with lots of people in the crowd screaming for hugs and Bayley hopping out to give some. There was a fun spot where she popped out and hugged a guy in the front row for a big pop and as she ran back in Alexa gave her a cheap shot. They did some mat wrestling and traded near falls in the final sequence which ended with Bayley catching Alexa with a sudden Bayley-to-Belly for the pin.

    American Alpha (Jason Jordan & Chad Gable) def. The Vaudevillians

    Gable pinned English with their back suplex finisher. Jordan and especially Gable were over huge. Good technical stuff here early on. Both teams looked sharp, all of the stuff was tight. Jordan and Gable are really impressive to see live, lots of spots I’ve never seen anyone do, and it all looked great. Big this is Wrestling chant for the earlier mat wrestling. 

    NXT Champion Finn Balor def. Samoa Joe

    They had a good match. It was quiet early. When the match went on, the show had been on for a solid 2 hours 30 minutes if you include the intermission. But they pulled the crowd in after some mat wrestling when Joe bailed to the outside. This led to brawling on the floor. Joe got some solid heel heat. He made a comeback and hit his flying kick thing in the corner. Crowd started with a “Joe Joe Joe” chant after all the boos and Joe just looked at the crowd and shook his head.

    Finn threw Joe back outside and his a baseball slide. He hit the footstomp to Joe while Joe was still standing and hunched over for a nearfall. This is Awesome chants. Joe hit a bad ass clothesline for a 2 count. Dueling punches, Joe catches Balor in a rear naked, Balor escapes, misses a corner kick. Joe went for the Buster and Balor countered it into a sunset flip pin for another near fall. Final sequence was really good. Balor ended up hitting his kick to the corner and the Coup de Grace for the win.

  • NXT TV taping spoilers: a killer TakeOver Dallas card is finalized

    The big news from tonight’s NXT tapings at Full Sail University in Orlando, FL, is that Nakamura is going to debut at NXT TakeOver in Dallas, TX, as part of Wrestlemania weekend.

    The following are the tapings for March’s NXT shows with initial reports that they weren’t very good. 

    *****

    Your NXT TakeOver Dallas lineup for 4/1 based on what happened Wednesday:

    • NXT Champion Finn Balor vs. Samoa Joe
    • Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Sami Zayn
    • Austin Aries vs. Baron Corbin
    • Women’s Champion Bayley vs. Asuka
    • NXT Tag Champions Dash & Dawson vs. Jason Jordan & Chad Gable
    • Apollo Crews vs. Elias Samson

    Results from J.J. Williams:

    Dark match saw Adrien Reese beat Billie Kay w/ Sylvester LeFort via top rope stunner. Good showing by both women, Adrien will do well on tv, personality shines through. Billie Kay and LeFort are an interesting pairing as we rarely see male managers for female competitors. 

    3/9/16 –

    Samoa Joe won 2/3 falls to become #1 Contender to the NXT Championship against Sami Zayn. I have this match going 40 minutes, the first fall didn’t occur until 20 minutes in as Joe hit the muscle buster. Crowd was super in to Sami Zayn tonight, singing his theme song, then the ole’ chants. It quieted down for those first 20 because Joe was putting a beating on Sami. Early in the second fall, Joe got busted open by a headbut, ref asked the trainer to wipe Joe’s head real quick before we got going again. During fall two, Sami took a huge dive to the outside to take Joe out, then was able to lock in the Koji Clutch for his fall victory. Fall three was of course the best and most heated action, Sami hit a sunset flip powerbomb off the top for a nearfall, Joe was then able to hit a huge powerbomb, then in to a Boston Crab, transitioned in to a Crossface for a near submission, Sami was able to lock Joe in the Clutch for a near submission. The finish saw Sami Zayn submit to the Clutch. 

    3/16/16 –

    The Hype Bros beat Angelo Dawkins and Kenneth Crawford via Hype Ryder. Crawford was making his tv debut here. 

    Emma w/ Dana Brooke beat Deonna Purrazzo via submission with the Emma Lock. Another good showing by Emma here in NXT, she just carries herself like a star. Deonna held her own yet again with a much more experienced wrestler.

    Tommaso Ciampa beat Jesse Sorensen via submission using a bridging arm bar. Quick yet physical match, Ciampa has been impressive. 

    NXT Women’s Champion Bayley & Asuka beat Eva Marie & Nia Jax when Bayley hit the Belly To Bayley on Eva Marie. As usual, huge heat on Eva, “You Can’t Wrestle” chants. After Bayley got the win, Nia carried Eva away on her shoulders. After the referee raised the winners’ hands, Mr. Regal made his way on to the stage to announce that Asuka is the new #1 Contender to the NXT Women’s Championship and would face Bayley at Takeover Dallas. The two were standing side by side during this announcement, then Asuka stepped around so she could look directly at Bayley. 

    3/23/16 –

    Chad Gable & Jason Jordan beat The Vaudevillains to become #1 Contenders to the NXT Tag Team Championships. Great action as per usual with these two teams, Jordan is the best hot tag in wrestling. Finish saw American Alpha put Aiden English up for the assisted german suplex and the win. They will face Dash & Dawson at Takeover Dallas.

    Sami Zayn is out for a promo, talked about how even though he doesn’t have a title match at Takeover Dallas he still wants to wrestle on the show, that NXT is like his baby. Mr. Regal again makes his way on the stage and says Sami Zayn will have a match at Takeover Dallas and it will be against NXT’s newest signings, one of the best competitors in the world, the tron goes to static, then Shinsuke Nakamura’s hair from behind, he turns around and the place is going wild. Loudest reaction I’ve heard in Full Sail. He said something yet the cheer was still going so nobody I know was able to catch what he said. Sami Zayn vs. Shinsuke Nakamura at Takeover Dallas.

    Johnny Gargano beat Elias Samson, post match Samson attacked Johnny from behind and tried to rough him up before Apollo Crews ran towards the ring to stare down Elias. 

    NXT Champion Finn Balor beat Rich Swann with the Bloody Sunday DDT in a non title match. Swann was out first to a great reaction, one of the most charismatic wrestlers to show up in quite a while. Once the people realized he was facing Finn, we had some back and forth chants but majority still for the champ. Great athletic action, Swann is the type of wrestler Finn can do amazing work with. Coup de Grace followed by the BloodySunday for the win. 

    Alexa Bliss w/ Blake & Murphy beat Sarah Dobson ( SHINE’s Crazy Mary ) with the Sparkle Splash. Short yet good match to showcase Alexa. 

    Bull Dempsey vs. Danny Burch never happened as Samoa Joe attacked Bull before he made his way to the ring, then went in the ring to attack Burch as well. Refs can’t stop Joe.

    3/30/16 –

    Asuka beat Emma w/ Dana Brooke via submission with the Asuka Lock. This match went over ten minutes, crowd wasn’t as in to it as their previous matches, of course. Emma had control most of the match before Asuka fired up and applied her chicken wing crossface.

    Austin Aries beat Riddick Moss via submission with the Last Chancery. Good reaction for Aries making his Full Sail debut, basic match to showcase Aries before getting his hold on Moss.

    Chad Gable & Jason Jordan beat John Skyler & Corey Hollis with the assisted german suplex. Showcase for American Alpha before their title match. 

    Baron Corbin beat QT Marshall with a side slam. Then post match he hit the End Of Days which lead to a “One More Time” chant, he teased it, then waved the crowd off before leaving to even more boooes. They’ve had him win a few matches with the side slam to build it up as a secondary finish. Still a lot of heat on Baron after all this time.

    NXT Tag Team Champions Dash & Dawson beat Tucker Knight & Steve Cutler and in a non title match with the shatter machine on Tucker Knight. Most of the match saw Dash & Dawson making quick tags to keep the punishment on Steve Cutler. Tucker was able to take a hot tag and run wild for a moment before the champs were able to give him the run around and a quick tag to catch the big man off guard before hitting their finish. 

    Apollo Crews beat Alex Riley with his big slam. After the match, Elias Samson made his way on the stage to sing Crews a song. They’ll face each other at Takeover Dallas. 

    Samoa Joe beats Bull Dempsey with the Clutch rather quickly and doesn’t let go of the hold, referees keep trying to get him to break the hold, Mr. Regal tries to send men out to handle Joe yet he destroys them as well, Finn Balor runs down and we have ourselves a brawl. They make their way to the commentary area, Finn even dove off the desk on to Joe, the brawl started and stopped a few times with Finn ending with the upper hand. That’s our final build up for Samoa Joe vs. Finn Balor II at Takeover Dallas.

    William Regal announced that Nakamura was coming to TakeOver.

  • WWE NXT results: Samoa Joe vs. Sami Zayn vs. Baron Corbin, Alex Riley returns!

    • The Big News: Sami Zayn and Samoa Joe both won the #1 Contender’s triple threat match over Baron Corbin
    • The Medium News: Jason Jordan and Chad Gable are now AMERICAN ALPHA!
    • The Little Beaver-sized News: Alex Riley is back. No really.

    I am not spoiling anything, but I cannot wait to go to NXT Takeover: Dallas.

    American Alpha defeated Blake & Murphy (w/Alexa Bliss)

    American Alpha is the new name for Jason Jordan & Chad Gable. Tonight they are here to do battle with yet another former set of Tag Team Champions. They have beaten The Vaudevillians and The Ascension and are now here to do battle with Blake & Murphy. They still have the Lucha Dragons and the Wyatt Family to go. Blake and Murphy were outclassed by Gable at one point. Murphy was trying to get the heat, but Gable took out both men by himself like it was nothing. The fans chanted that Blake’s top know looked stupid. Gable used a hip toss on Murphy that looked more like a power slam.

    After being whooped by Gable, Murphy injured his knee coming down from a leapfrog. Blake tried attacking Gable from behind and IT’S A MIRACLE! MURPHY IS HEALTHY AGAIN! The heels took over briefly until Gable back dropped Blake out of the ring. Jordan got the hot tag and it was Full Suplex University! Jordan suplexed both men time and again before winning with their double team move.

    – Alex interviewed Emma and Dana Brooke. Next week, Emma will face Carmella. Dana pointed out that the tag match last week was all about Bayley and had nothing to do with Carmella. They mocked Carmella for losing to Blue Pants and said Emma will have no problem with her next week.

    – We got an Asuka video package.

    Nia Jax (w/Eva Marie) pinned Liv Morgan

    Brian Witner’s favorite wrestler is in the corner of Nia Jax. Yeah, he’s the only one. Anyway Liv Morgan looks like a low rent Kaitlyn and Nia destroyed her. Something tells me this match was total crap live as we got more than one obvious edit. Nia won with a legdrop.

    – Carmella cut a promo saying she would beat Emma all by herself, calling the Emmalution a freaking joke. Enzo and Cass took over and called Dash & Dawson fat. Enzo said he almost beat up the guy pumping his gas because he thought it was Dash and Dawson.

    – A Baron Corbin video aired.

    – Another heel Vaudevillians video aired. THEY ARE NO LONGER SMILING!

    Alex Riley pinned Bull Dempsey

    Bull has yet another new theme. No seriously. Alex Riley is back. Remember when he quit his NXT announcing job to go after Kevin Owens? How many people does Owens have unfinished storylines with at this point? The announcers talked about how they didn’t even know Riley was here. Well the announcer and the guy who cues the music certainly knew. Riley almost won with a neck breaker and did win with a knee to the face. No one cared. Remember when Riley when randomly get good reactions? Well this was not one of those nights.

    Riley was in a dark corner drinking water. He said the last 4 months he has sent texts and emails to Stamford, Connecticut and got 0 replies. I think Vince was like “Who?” Anyway, Riley was upset because NXT had video packages for Sami Zayn’s return and in depth profiles on Apollo Crews and nothing about Riley.

    Elias Sampson pinned John Skylar

    John Skylar has HHH’s logo on the ass of his trunks. Or at least a logo that looks a lot like it. This match was fine. It was better than Sampson’s other squash matches, but that’s like saying being shot in the foot is better than being shot in the head. Elias won with a spinning neck breaker.

    – The Hype Bros were randomly talking about The Vaudevillians’ promo packages, bro. They became really annoying, bro, when talking about going clubbing, bro. Bro, then they talked about Zubaz, bro and Mojo watching Ryder sleep, bro. They said bro in 30 seconds more than Vince Russo could ever dream of, bro.

    – Next week is Finn Balor vs Apollo Crews in a non-title match.

    Sami Zayn and Samoa Joe both won the #1 Contender’s Triple Threat Match when they made Baron Corbin tap out.

    I always love a good fight and that’s what this was. It was three guys who all had one goal and that was to win and become the #1 contender. Joe tore through both men for several minutes. He kept knocking Baron down and out, outside the ring, while beating on the smaller Zayn. Zayn was finally able to dispose of Joe, but as soon as he did that he ran right into Corbin. Poor guy could not catch a break.

    Sami finally caught a break thanks to the commercial break. Zayn fired up as we came back from commercial and hit an amazing dive over the top rope to both men outside. Corbin almost pinned Zayn with a Black Hole Slam. Joe at one point used a drop toe hold to Sami where Zayn landed in a pinfall on Corbin. The referee didn’t even attempt to count since Joe was doing his running back splash to both men.

    Zayn nearly got a win with a Blue Thunder Bomb on Corbin, but after Baron kicked out, Joe yanked Sami outside the ring and choked him out with the Coquina Clutch. Zayn had to wake up because Corbin had Joe pinned with End of Days and he had to break it up. Zayn had Corbin pinned again, this time with the Halluva Kick, but Joe broke it up. Zayn slapped the Sharpshooter on Corbin…and Joe ran in to put the Crossface on Baron and he had no choice but to tap out.

    Both Zayn and Joe argued that their submission was the one to cause Corbin to tap out. Mr. Regal walked out to talk to the referee. Mr. Regal said he had to go review the tape of the match. The fans had no idea what they were saying and everyone just walked off.

    *****

    That does it for the show. Until that point, thank you for reading and remember to say your vitamins and take your prayers! Be sure to check out WrestlingOutsiders.com for 100% free wrestling and MMA podcasts!

  • NXT Orlando TV taping spoilers: Finn Balor vs. Neville, Samoa Joe vs. Sami Zayn

    Submitted by J.J. Williams

    Dark Match:

    • Manny Andrade (La Sombra) beat Rich Swann: The Florida crowd still really doesn’t know who Manny is, but this match was good, kept it simple and mixed in some athletic spots, Swann connects immediately and was the crowd favorite here. Andrade won with a running double knees to Swann who was set in the corner.

    2/10 TV show:

    • Baron Corbin beat Johnny Gargano: Loud boooes for Corbin instantly, his entrance looked great in this large venue with a row of spotlights down on him in the dark arena, felt like a star. Johnny did some good work out quicking Baron which seems to be how some of the better Corbin matches have gone lately. Baron won it with the End Of Days.
    • Zack Ryder & Mojo Rawley beat John Skyler & Corey Hollis: A less wild Hype Bros match than usual, they just worked the match and won.
    • Alexa Bliss (w/Black and Murphy) pinned Cameron: Having to decide which of the two heels to support, the NXT crowd of course chose Alexa Bliss here, Cameron has a different kind of negative reaction than Eva does, where the people just don’t seem in to her. Bliss is very animated and has great taunts, she won it with the Sparkle Splash off the top.
    • Elias Samson pinned Jessy Sorenson: Another basic win for Elias.
    • NXT Women’s Champion Bayley pinned Carmella with a roll through pin after a series of counters and nearfalls. The story told was they were friends having a wrestling match, there was no cheating, nothing overly violent yet they both clearly needed this win. Carmella even did two dives through the middle rope to the floor to wipe Bayley out. This felt like a way to not lower Carmella even in defeat, she just got outwrestled. Post match, Bayley raised Carmella’s hand, they embraced, when Nia Jax & Eva Marie ran down and roughed them both up, destroying Carmella before Asuka ran down, stared the heels off, and in this time Bayley had recovered and was tending to Carmella when Asuka and Bayley looked at each other. The place began a YES chant as the two had a moment in time. 

    2/17 TV show:

    • Enzo Amore & Colin Cassady & Chad Gable & Jason Jordan beat NXT Tag Champions Dash Wilder & Scott Dawson & Blake & Murphy: Really good action here, long match, finish saw Jason Jordan take the best hot tag in wrestling, followed by an additional hot tag to Big Cass who then tagged Enzo for the splash off the top and the pin. 
    • Asuka beat Deonna Purrazzo: The rematch saw Asuka win yet Deonna gets in just enough offense to appear tough. Asuka is a star.
    • Tye Dillinger beat Alex Riley: Good reaction for Tye, a lot of Ten chants and he actually picked up a win. Riley is working as a bitter heel lately on the live event loop, hasn’t really gone in to it on tv yet he’s still working that way. None of the fire that got him fan support during his main roster run.
    • Samoa Joe vs. Sami Zayn was a double pin draw. Zayn used the Helluva kick and then collapsed on top of Joe but his shoulders were on the mat and the ref counted both of them down. They ruled the match a draw and later in the show they announced there would be a 2/3 falls rematch at the Full Sail taping to finally determine our number one contender.

    2/24 TV show:

    • Chad Gable & Jason Jordan beat Blake & Murphy: Good match as usual, American Alpha get the win with the alley oop german suplex pin.
    • Apollo Crews beat Chris Girard (Biff Busick): The crowd wasn’t familiar with Girard, his work is different than anyone here right now, he throws vicious uppercuts, his chinlocks are tight and his strikes look strong. Apollo got the win with the big slam that Triple H taught him. 
    • Tommaso Ciampa beat Bull Dempsey: Good reaction for Ciampa, won the match via submission. 
    • Eva Marie & Nia Jax beat NXT Women’s Champion Bayley & Carmella: Bayley took enough punishment that when the heels got Carmella alone they were able to destroy her, Nia dropped multiple leg drops on her before Eva tagged herself in to take the glory and the win. A lot of heat on Eva, of course. 

    3/2 TV show:

    • William Regal announced Joe vs. Zayn in a 2/3 fall match “next week” with the winner getting a title shot.
    • Vaudevillains beat Hugo Knox & Tucker Knight: Vaudevillains still entered to their cheerful music despite being on the heelish path lately. The newcomers making their tv debuts on the babyface side had some support but nothing like their house show reactions. 
    • Elias Samson beat Steve Cutler: Another decisive win by Elias.
    • Emma beat Santana Garrett: Nice reaction for Santana, full music and tv entrance, back and forth match showing what both women can do in the ring, the end of Santana came when she was hoping to try a high risk move yet Emma knocked her off the top in to a tree of woe, after putting the boots to her she held the advantage until winning via Emma Lock submission. Good showing for both, hope to see more of Santana.
    • William Regal introduced Austin Aries. Before Aries could even make it in to the ring Baron rushed him and beat him down, then looking at Mr. Regal in the ring, the Baron vs. The Indies feud continues.
    • NXT Champion Finn Balor beat Neville with the Bloody Sunday DDT to retain:  These two have always worked well together and this match was no exception, Neville took a few huge spills to the outside, even getting “Holy Shit” chants after the loud thuds. A lot of Neville offense that he doesn’t get the time on the main roster to showcase. They teased the Red Arrow a few times down the stretch before Finn fought back with a huge lariat knocking Neville inside out. The finish saw Finn hit the coup de grace, then hoisting Neville up in the Bloody SundayDDT for the win.  

  • Austin Aries debuts at NXT tapings tonight in Orlando

    Earlier today, Paul “Triple H” Levesque said there was a major surprise planned for tonight’s NXT TV tapings in Orlando, FL. For wrestling fans, he wasn’t kidding as former TNA Champion Austin Aries (Daniel Solwold) debuted with the promotion tonight.

    During the fourth hour of the show (scheduled to air on 3/2), NXT General Manager William Regal introduced the 37-year-old Aries and announced he had signed with NXT. Aries was then attacked by Baron Corbin and laid out, which, given the date the show airs, would seem to indicate Aries vs. Corbin has a good chance of being on the next Takeover special, scheduled for Friday, April 1st in Dallas during Wrestlemania weekend.

    Aries had been with TNA until the promotion’s finances resulted in his contract expiring without being offered a new deal to his liking. Prior to signing with TNA, he had considered leaving wrestling after he was a late cut to get on the cast for a spot on the Tough Enough season in 2011 won by Andy Leavine. He won the TNA World title once, the X Division title six times, as well as the tag team titles, making him the fifth TNA Triple Crown champion.

  • FREE SHOW! Adam & Mike Show 1/18: Live NXT review, more on the New Japan Four

    Three weeks running, as we get our show mojo back to mid-card level around this place (we see your upwardly-mobile self Tom Lawlor), the original alternate has successfully recorded audio. To celebrate this monumental achievement, we’ve decided to make this show a gratis edition. So, you’re welcome and stuff. And for this, the topics include, but aren’t limited to: Adam’s afternoon NXT experience, anti-Minoru Tanaka building temperatures, Finn as your host for the evening, Baron Von Corbin, Finn as HEEL, drifting brain cells makes remembering stories about drifters hard, bitter old men chase chanting kids off their lawn, the ballad of Tye Dillinger, Akiyama-Suwama, the origin of Bobby Brainkiller (which almost killed the show) and more. It’s the only free radio show that would a bargain at half the price; It’s the Adam and Mike BIG AUDIO NIGHTMARE. Proudly here at F4WOnline.com.

    Right click save

  • NXT Chicago, IL, live event results: (evening show): Finn Balor vs. Apollo Crews vs. Baron Corbin

    Submitted by George Atsaves

    Standing room only crowd. Super lively crowd, lots of chants all night.

    – NXT Tag Champions Dawson and Wilder beat Ezno and Cass when Enzo got pinned via roll up. Good match, Dawson and Wilder are great heels. Enzo was super over. Cass is ok as a “house of fire” babyface but he missed a few spots.

    – Carmella submitted Alexa Bliss with her leg choke thing. Bliss is great, crowd loved to hate her. Match was fine.

    – Elias Sampson and his guitar beat Bull Dempsey. Sampson sang a song about how much Chicago sucks. Decent match: two standard mid card guys doing mid card things.

    – NXT Divas Champion Bayley (so so over) beat Nia Jax with the Belly to Bayley. Pretty similar to the London match, but no chokehold.

    > Intermission. They were selling autographed 11x14s and tons of shirts.

    – Sami Zayn def. Tommaso Ciampa in an incredible match that felt like a typical ROH match. Highlights include Zayn’s Blue Thunder Bomb and Tommaso hitting a power bomb into a backstabber.  Zayn won with the corner kick.  After, he and Tommaso hugged and Zayn gave him the ring.

    – Eva Marie over Peyton Royce.  I know it is the gimmick and she’s kinda over (not as over as Zayn, Finn nor Bayley) but Eva just can’t wrestle.  She’s not even passable.  Poor Royce was dragging her around.  Eva’s timing was off all match and it showed.  Crowd stopped caring halfway through.

    – NXT Champion Finn Balor over Apollo Crews and Baron Corbin. Before the match, Balor did the Bullet Club guns to Crews and Corbin.  Loud Bullet Club and Too Sweet chants, which Finn encouraged.  Finn even did the “gun gesture to a prone opponent” like Kenny Omega did to AJ Styles the night after WK 10.  Standard triple threat where one guy sold on the outside while the other two went at it.  Finish was pretty good – Corbin hit his spinning slam on Crews, made the cover only for Finn to hit the double foot stomp for the win. After, Finn celebrated with Bayley (who had a Balor Club shirt and was Too Sweeting everyone at ringside) and they brought some kids in the ring to take pictures.

  • NXT Chicago, IL, afternoon results: Finn Balor vs. Sami Zayn

    Submitted by Charles Vail

    – 1:00 pm card at the Portage Theatre

    – Enzo and Big Cass over NXT Tag Team Champion Dash and Dawson via DQ. Ref was pulled out of the ring after Air Enzo on a pin attempt. Solid match, great starter.

    – Tomasso Ciampa def. Bull Dempsey by submission. Split crowd, Bull was hilarious.

    – Elias Sampson def. Tye Dillinger by pin. Dillinger was over, Sampson was booed.

    – NXT Women’s Champion Bayley def. Alexa Bliss. Bayley hits the Bayley to Belly for the pin and win.

    – Apollo Crews def Baron Corbin. Standing moonsault to standing shooting star press into the pinfall. This was the best spot and match of the night in my opinion. 

    – Nia Jaxx and Eva Marie def. Carmella and Peyton Royce. Leg drop from Jaxx onto Royce for the pin. Eve Marie didn’t do a bad job at all. 

    – NXT Champion Finn Balor def. Sami Zayn to retain. Balor pinned him after hitting the Coup De Grace. Multiple Bullet club references. Crowd was split. Awesome match.

  • NXT Green Bay, WI, house show results: Finn Balor vs. Sami Zayn, Bayley vs. Alexa Bliss

    Submitted by Josh Hayes and Vash

    NXT Tag Champions Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder vs. Enzo and Cass

    Enzo and Cass are just the perfect act to kick off a show. Crowd loved them, and did Enzo’s introduction right along with him. Match itself was a solid opener, with Enzo being the babyface in peril for most of the match as he worked to make the hot tag to Cass. In the end though, Dash rolled up Enzo and used the ropes for leverage to get the win. But after the match, Enzo and Cass fought them off to make the crowd happy.

    Bull Dempsey vs. Elias Sampson

    Elias Sampson won. Nothing much of note in the match itself, but Bull wore a cheese head hat to the ring, which led to a spot after the match where Sampson acted like he was going to put the cheese head on to get a pop but then he just stopped, spat in it, and threw it out of the ring and left. Then Bull retrieved it and looked at it for a while and so, since it’s cheese, the crowd chanted for him to eat it. So he bit it and the crowd cheered. 

    Tomasso Ciampa vs. Tye Dillinger

    Good match, but the crowd wasn’t that into the match itself. They were more into doing the 10 chant. Tye Dillinger won, meaning yes, three matches in and a face had yet to win a match at this point. But that was about to change.

    NXT Women’s Champion Bayley vs. Alexa Bliss

    Please indulge me while I state the obvious: Bayley should be on the main roster, as she is a megastar. She was the first person to get a loud pop when her music hit since Enzo and Cass in the opener. The crowd did the usual Bayley chants and songs. She responded to the “Bayley’s gonna hug you” chant by hugging the ref, and the crowd then chanted “one more time” so she did. And here’s how over Bayley is — after all the usual singing and chanting died down and the match was really getting started, one (1) guy shouted “BAYLEY YOU SUCK!” and the entire crowd boo’ed that guy out of the building. He got what he wanted.

    Good but basic match, with Bayley doing all her usual spots, which is what the crowd wanted to see, especially the Belly-to-Bayley Suplex, which is what won the match. At one point where, if I remember the pretense right, Alexa was almost counted out, but when she got back in the ring, the crowd started chanting 10 again. So Bayley just did Dillinger’s Perfect 10 shuffle with the cartwheel and everything.

    > Intermission

    Baron Corbin vs. Apollo Crews

    Crews was really over during his entrance, but he seemed to be a little less over during the body of the match, until he made his comeback at least, and won. Corbin was boo’ed at first but then people in my section started getting into him. There was a portion of the match where Corbin threw Crews out of the ring, and Crews lied outside for a while before getting back into the ring, only to be thrown right back out. Then after spending a lot of time outside the ring again, Crews got back in and threw Corbin out. Seemed like a good spot on paper (perhaps) but crowd seemed kinda bored during this long-ish period of non-action.

    However, immediately after that, Crews hit a big assai moonsault which was the first real high spot of the show, and from then on the match was really good. Crews is great at making comebacks. Corbin went for the End of Days at one point, but Crews did a back-flip over his arm, took him down, and hit a standing moonsault, followed by a standing shooting star press to get the win. Probably the best pure match up to that point. 

    Eva Marie and Nia Jax vs. Carmella and Peyton Royce

    Eva was hated as usual. In fact, every time she tagged in, the entire crowd immediately gave thunderous boos. She probably had the most heat on the show. Eva and Jax won when Jax pinned Peyton. I know it’s a house show and all, but on a show where a bunch of heels won, it was weird that the new #1 contender to the Women’s Title didn’t get the win. 

    NXT Champion Finn Balor vs. Sami Zayn

    In this face vs. face match, Finn played the role of the subtle heel. Although the crowd in my section at least seemed to be more behind Finn anyway. He did a LOT of Bullet Club pistol gestures for what it’s worth. At the beginning of the match, there was a dueling chant, but eventually the crowd just started chanting “Both these guys”. Another chant-related thing happened when just a few seconds after they locked up for the first time, a small portion of the crowd started the “this is awesome” chant. I thought there was no way that would catch on yet, since it had just started. But it did pick up a little bit of steam as the chants got somewhat louder. But then thankfully someone chanted the obvious: “It just started”, and that became a dueling chant. It should be noted that later on in the match, the “this is awesome” chant occurred again, as well as “this is wrestling” but it was more warranted that time.

    Anyway, the match itself was probably the match of the night. Although I got the sense that by their standards it was probably really basic. No false finishes except for one where Sami hit the Blue Thunder Bomb for a 2 count. They told the story of Sami taking a beating but still getting back up. Finn knocked him down once, started to go to the top rope, but then he would notice Sami getting to his feet so he’d get back in the ring and knock him down again. That happened a few times until Sami fired back with a flurry of punches of his own and made a comeback. They ended up brawling outside the ring and Sami went for the Torpedo DDT, but Finn hit him with a pelee kick and Sami ended up knocked out draped over the bottom turnbuckle. So then Finn went up to the apron, casually pushed Sami’s limp body back into the ring, went up top and hit the Coupe De Grace for the win. After the match, they shook hands and Sami raised Finn’s arm.

    Notes:

    Bayley and Apollo Crews and maybe a few others that I didn’t notice spent a lot of time after their matches taking pictures with fans in the front row as well. NXT is a very enjoyable experience live. If you’ve never been to one of their shows, you’ve probably heard people say that before, but it’s completely true. I had a blast. Crowd was hotter than most Green Bay crowds I’ve been in. The show itself, while very good, was a bit strange in that a lot of heels went over which seems to go against what they usually do at house shows.