WHAT DAY IS IT?!?
I s'pose that's not WRONG, but to us Wrestling fans, today is the greatest day of the week. NXT DAY! Today's episode will focus around the Wrestlemania week. Including the tournament for who got the NXT spot in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal. Of course anyone who watched Mania knows who wins it, but that doesn't mean it can't be amazing! So?
Here…
We…
GO!!!
HYPE!
A recap of lots of backstage type stuff. Signings and quick sound bites from NXT and WWE Superstars.
RECAP!
Balor beat Baron Corbin in the first round. Apparently this tourney was actually 8 man, not 4. Breeze beat Bull Dempsey. Hideo Itami beat Jason Jordan. AND? Neville beat Kalisto. Still listed as "Adrian Neville" in the bracket, but CALLED Neville by the announcers. So Later tonight we'll see Balor vs. Breeze, but NEXT! Itami vs. Neville!
IN RING!
Neville is already in the ring. "Previously Recorded" in the top right corner. C'mon NXT. We know that. About EVERY show. "THIS IS AWESOME" chant and they haven't done anything. They go forehead to forehead. Itami shoves Neville away angrily. They circle and jockey. Start with some standing and ground grappling. Standing switches, arm wringers, side headlocks, roll throughs, and all kinds of fast paced goodness you'd expect from these two. Crowd appreciative of the early exchanges and mat wrestling. Some idiot says something that gets booed down by the crowd, and Neville teases leaving the ring to confront the fool. He decides to stay in the ring, informing the fan he's lucky. Quick flurry, vicious kick and a clothesline sends Neville to the outside. Neville takes til 9 of the ref's crowd. Definitely working a more heelish style kind of like what he did with Sami Zayn. Neville gets the upper hand. Works him with some strikes. A chop. I nice kick to the chest. A high elbow gets Neville a two count. Snap suplex and a quick float over for a lateral press got Neville another TWO! Nevill stays on with a headlock of some sort. NOT a RCoD. Pace quickens. Itami with a kick a clothesline and caps it off with a flying clothesline. A TWO… PLUS! Crowd chants GTS… He hoists Neville. Crowd cheers, but Neville gets out. Greatest. Tease. Ever. Kicks send Neville seated into the corner. Itami looking for the stalling dropkick, but eats a NICE Superkick. Neville to the top. Crowd chants This is awesome. Neville looks for the Red Arrow, but Itami rolls out, and Neville doesn't go full "Arrow", just just lands on his feet and front rolls. Big shot from Itami. Stalling dropkick into the corner, and then the running high kick from Itami gets him the win! He moves on to the finals.
IN RING!
Best entrance music, possibly in all WWE right now is playing. Balor gets about 50% of his entrance shown, because… well… its pretty damn awesome. Breeze is already in ring. Lounging on the top rope. Little exchange, that Breeze gets the upper hand on, and quickly goes back to lounging on the top rope. Heels gonna heel.) – Balor lands a huge drop-kick. Hits his pose center ring then he himself goes and lounges on the top rope "breeze style" to get Prince Pretty's goat. Good fast paced start. Lots of strikes and kicks exchanged early on. Breeze works Finn in the corner, and the ref tries to pull him off, Breeze shouting "DON'T TOUCH ME!" Crowd refuses to start a "Don't touch him" chant. The way this area is mic'd is interesting. Crowd not as loud, but we can hear just about everything the wrestlers yell to the crowd, and the referee. Wonder if this made calling the match difficult for the wrestlers? Finn starts to gain some momentum with some running forearms. Hits a corner enzuigiri while Breeze was on the top rope. Balor hits the Sling Blade. Hits the high velocity running drop-kick sending Breeze hard into the corner. Finishes Prince Pretty off with the Coup de Grace! Our finals are set, and when we come BACK (Apparently we're going to comercial) – we'll see exclusive footage from the NXT Show they did at San Jose State Friday of Mania week!
HYPE!
Dana Brooke is debuting, SOON!
RECAP!
Triple H welcomes us. Showing us the empty arena. Crazy crowd. Bits of the Triple H in ring promo from the show. Good music video recapping the show follows. Scott Hall puts over the show as its own brand, not "developmental". Hunter doing his back stage speech to the wrestlers. Really cool stuff shown. I'll rematch that package. Got awesome snippets of promo from Owens and Zayn about the show and brand. Owens takes the credit for NXT's explosion. Hahaha… of course he does! Bayley talking about how much the show meant to her since it was her home town. Steph and Cena both have nice things to say while talking about NXT. Really nice. Something they can definitely hang their hat on, for sure!
HYPE!
Next week, Sami Zayn and Rhyno battle for the first time! (WWE's words, not mine. Not sure if they crossed paths in the indies)
IN RING!
Hideo Itami is out first. Finn gets the heart beats before the music. He's out next. Balor's mannerisms heading to the ring are so money. They circle and jockey to start. A crazy amount of standing switches on hammer locks. "this is wrestling chant" as the two ramp up the exchange and both are lunging with clenched fists, teasing a brawl, but they're buddies so no fists fly. Balor gets the advantage. Works the arm. Goes for a kick, Hideo catches the leg and sweeps the leg. Balor hit the dropkick, but his momentum is short lived. Hideo gets on the offensive. Hits some kicks and gets a near fall. Hideo looks for the tornado hot shot, but Finn blocks and ends up hitting the enzuigiri in the corner.
Finn looking for that high velocity drop kick, but Itami nails a diving clothesline instead. Hits the tornado hot shot. Right into a top rope clothesline. Itami hoists for the GTS. Goes into strike mode. Palm strikes, kicks, chops. Itami hits a head kick and its answered with a Pele Kick from Balor. Both men down. Ref count to six. They stand toe to toe and exchange forearms. Crowd not sure what to do. "BOO/YAY" dymanic is off here. Itami snaps. More chops and strikes. Stalling Dropkick. Brings Balor up, looking for the flying kick, but Balor counters with the Sling Blade. Hideo eats the high velocity drop-kick into the corner. Balor to the top rope, Itami ends up knocking the leg out! He hoists him AGAIN For the GTS, and gets one step closer. He launches him, but slides behind for a roll up. But when Balor gets up he gets leveled with the "SHOTGUN KICK" as Rich called it tonight. Itami is shocked and excited. Fans are excited some are stunned. I remember seeing the results and being surprised. I figured it was Neville or Balor's to lose. But this was a nice win for Hideo. Itami celebrates by pointing at the sign. Post match they stand in the ring. Crowd chants "HUG IT OUT". So they do. Balor raises Itami's hand. Good stuff.
WE'RE NOT DONE YET!
Up next we're going to get an exclusive look at Itami's week at Wrestlemania. We see him backstage prepping with Renee Young's audio talking about his appearance. He's about to head to the ring, and we flash back to WWE in Japan. Hogan introducing "KENTA" at the time, and his signing with WWE. Triple H talking about what it took for Hideo to pack up and move to the US. Daniel Bryan calls him the hardest kicking wrestler in the world. They show highlights of the match we just watched. We see him coming backstage after the match. He and Balor hug. Triple H tells him congrats. He cuts an interview and you can tell how excited he is for it. We meet Hideo's kids. His older boy shoving Breeze while Breeze was playing video games is a highlight. They then cut to the San Jose show. I wonder if we'll see "IT"?! He's backstage taking a moment to himself. Wow his reaction was LLLLLLLLLLOUD! So we get Breeze/Itami highlights. Watching his family watch was great. This will be a perfect package for them to show when they call him up. PLUS it establishes the GTS as HIS! His reaction is great. The crowd's reaction is even BETTER. Anything that gets grown men jumping for joy is priceless. He points to his eyes and to the crowd and says "DID YOU SEE IT". Reaction is priceless. Big E and Hogan talk on the GTS. Steph talks about it and backstage we see his older son hoist his younger son into GTS position. Perfect.
Itami says "Finally, its my move… that I take back." Hideo gets into a car, and we hear Triple H's voice say "Ready to go?". You gotta rate to get Triple H be your driver. Ambrose putting over Itami. Paige too. More Cena. Zayn congratulating him. Rollins and Itami hanging backstage. Rollins saying it took him three years, and took Hideo six months. Highlights of the Battle Royal. Show him walking to the back and getting chanted for and a big applause, and as soon as he's out of sight he drops to a knee. He's backstage shaking hands and has a HUGE smile on his face.
GREAT video package. So awesome to see the GTS and the crowd/family reaction and then all the tweets about it.
OVERVIEW!
Three really good matches tonight. Can't go wrong with any combination of the four guys we watched tonight. Three great video packages going backstage at Mania. The highlights for the packages were the San Jose State recap music video and the Itami behind the scenes video actually makes me wish they did a full half hour special. Maybe they did and there will be more interviews and footage? Either way that was special and put over NXT and Hideo Itami in a GREAT way.
Overall it was a great show, that really highlighted where NXT has come since its debut on the WWE Network. They gave a spot in the battle royal to an NXT talent. They booked an NXT only show in a 5000 seat arena, and it sold out in under two hours. NXT as a brand and this show reminded us of what the two syllables before "Mania" are, and what the "2nd W" stands for in WWE. I can't wait to see where it goes from here (It better be Philadelphia in the not so distant future!) , and who will be next to be called up… since Neville just debuted, and rumors abound on Charlotte and Sasha Banks… and its ONLY a matter of time before Balor is gone, and it'll be awesome to see how NXT impacts Wrestlemania 32 in Dallas Texas!
See you in Seven!
