Welcome to another Wrestling Wednesday as we venture down to Florida! Full Sail University is the place you oughta be! So we loading up the truck and headed to NXT! Tonight we kick off the road to NXT: Takeover Brooklyn! I've seen hype for both Eva Marie having a match (THAT'LL BE AN ADVENTURE!) and Bayley returns from injury (And looks around wondering "WHERE THE EFF DID ALL MY FRIENDS GO?!)
Let's GO!
RECAP!
Finn Balor won the NXT Championship and NOW?! The reign of the Demon has begun!
IN RING!
AND… HE'S HERE!!! Finn Balor is out with the NXT Championship. Looking dapper as hell. Too Sweets to the ring side crowd. I see the same Bayley family and Balor dude that was sitting right there last set of tapings. Big "Thank You Finn" chant. He needs to work on the choreography with the belt, now. "YOU DESERVE IT CHANT". Mic Stand is in the ring. He asks how it feels to be back AND being the NXT Champion. Talks about hard decisions. Saying everyone of his decisions and sacrifices was worth it to be able to do THIS. *Hoists the Belt* – Mic stand mentions the rematch in Brooklyn… Full Sail boos the mention of a Takeover away from Full Sail, (Don't be jerk bags, Full Sail… You got ALL the NXT.) – Finn again drops Barclay's Center… Full Sail again, boos… (That's gonna annoy me this set of tapings… I mean, c'mon… BE HAPPY FOR THOSE OF US, that's right me included, who gets to see a NXT special!) Finn says he's walking out of the Barclay's Center STILL champion. They say there will be a contract signing between him and Owens later tonight.
OVERVIEW!
Good promo from Finn. Simple victory lap slash establishing and selling the Takeover Main Event.
BACKSTAGE!
Eva Marie is ready for her match. Thanks MR. Regal, and says she's misunderstood. She tells NXT Universe to "Open your eyes, because you're going to like what you see." … I guess we're about to see.
IN RING!
All Red Everything, Eva Marie is out. Nice red robe and outfit. She clearly raided Ric Flair's wardrobe. Her opponent, Cassie is in the ring. (She is gonna have a bad time) Little mat wrestling to start. Cassie hits a whip and kicks in the corner. Eva suplexes Eva for a two count. Submission hold on a seated Cassie. Crowd enjoying the Cena flavored "LETS GO EVA/EVA SUCKS" echo chant. Running big boot and a senton for two count. back to the almost abdominal stretch type move on Cassie while Cassie is sitting. Early Returns: Move set is decent. Still need to see how physical, or how much velocity is in things like running the ropes. Cassie fights up. Jaw jacked. Huge leg lariat. A second. Three kicks capped with a Spin kick for a TWO-PLUS! Eva pulls Cassie down into the middle rope. Sliced Bread #2! Yikes… that looked like Eva almost landed on her face. Three count. Eva checks her nose.
OVERVIEW!
Improved, yes. She certainly isn't flawless. Still room for improvement. Looked good, spotlighted the offense, and got a win. Match served its purpose. Crowd was even into it.
BACKSTAGE!
Regal is on the phone. He can't believe it. He's excited. He stops short. Breeze is laying on his book case. Breeze figures something big and epic needs to be done since he won't be in the NXT Championship match. Breeze says it better be something GOOD.
IN RING!
Motorcycle revs. Corbin is out. His opponent is in the ring (A: He's gonna have a bad time. B: At least it won't take long) – His opponent is… Is that Simon Dean? (joking, dude is in a purple body suit) . Bell rings. End of Days. 1. 2. 3. Whoa… Even by CORBIN Standards that was fast.
OVERVIEW!
Squash. Two moves, if pushing a guy into the ropes is a move. Hey it makes a recappers/reviewers job pretty damn easy!
IN RING!
Joe is out. AND THANK GOD… they've tweaked his music! His opponent is in the ring. (Another member of the "gonna have a bad time" club) Mike Rollins starts off trying to battle. Joe is having none of it. Strikes galore. Levels Rollins. Crowd chants "Joe is gonna kill you". Nice chop. Whip into the corner, running back elbow and enzuigiri. Rollins fires up and fights Joe into the corner. Whips Joe across the ring and eats an STO. Muscle Buster. 1.2.3. Oh during the match they say Joe will face Rhyno in 2 weeks.
OVERVIEW!
Another one sided match. Joe looked impressive here. So happy the music has changed. Looking forward to Joe vs. Rhyno.
BACKSTAGE!
Emma and Dana with Devin. Devin says Bayley said next time she met Emma she was gonna do more than hug Emma. Emma says that's creepy (Ha! She's not wrong) – they no sell Bayley and then sarcastically hug it out before Dana pats Devin on the head.
IN RING!
Emma is out with Dana in tow. Crowd chants "DANA", and a big "DANA" poster spelled out on 4 pieces of poster board… wait… what? Did I miss something. Where did the Dana popularity come from. Anyway… Here is BAYLEY!!!! Emma is wearing a Bayley slap bracelet. She takes it off and slaps at the hurt hand with the slap bracelet. This exchange gets Emma the heelish upper hand. Cheap shot and now she's working Bayley over. Corner to Corner driving her head into the top turnbuckle. Bayley shakes off the third one. Now driving Emma's head into the corner repeatedly. Running bulldog gets a two count. Emma runs to the corner and ends up driving the hurt hand into the corner post. Now wrapping over the top rope. Driving it into the top turnbuckle. Then a hold torquing the arm and bending the wrist/fingers awkwardly. Bayley fires up. Emma drops her for two. Emma working Bayley over. Clubbing blows and grounding her. Bayley fights out of a straight jacket with double axe handles. Shoulder block into the corner. Running back elbow into the corner. Flying back elbow off the middle rope. Two. Double clothesline. Dana gets involved on the outside, and gets ejected. I like when Ref's show some discretion. Bayley ducks an Emma attack Roll up for two. Emma reverses the roll up into a roll up for two. Once they're back on their feet? Bayley to Belly gets hit and Bayley gets the win.
Post match. Crowd chants "Hug-plex City". Bayley says she's happy to be back and that she wants to be the NEXT NXT Women's champion and to do that she has to beat the best and she wants a match with Charlotte.
OVERVIEW!
Good women's match between these two. Nice win for Bayley. Post match promo was good and set off to what I've been assuming, even before the call up of Sasha, Becky, and Charlotte… that Bayley is up next for a 1 on 1 title match.
BACKSTAGE!
They recap the NXT Women's 3. Dasha talks about Bayley's challenge. A clearly emotional Charlotte talks about awesome this is and how Bayley is a deserving opponent, but that SHE want to take that Championship to Raw. She's interrupted by Dana Brooke who talks about all the Chances Charlotte has gotten, and that maybe its because Dana doesn't have a famous last name. Charlotte says, fine Bayley can wait another week, and Charlotte will face off with Dana Brooke… though they didn't say when exactly. It felt like tonight, but no way that could be the case.
IN RING!
Black and White and Grainy footage can only mean ONE thing. We're getting Manly. Vaudevillains out. They're opponents are Angelo Dawkins and Sawyer Fulton. Gotch starts off hot, but Fulton and Dawkins gain control. They say that Vaudevillains will fight for the NXT Tag Team Championships NEXT week.
Fulton locks in an abdominal stretch. Nice double team bear hug drop kick by Fulton and Dawkins as they continue to dominate Gotch. Gotch fights out and makes a hot tag. Jab. Jab. Face breaker into the knee. Knee to the midsection. Cobra Clutch type slam and a Whirling Dervish. That's three.
OVERVIEW!
Solid tag match to help establish things moving into the tag title match next week. Some new nice moves from English. It was solid.
BACKSTAGE!
Tag Champs and Bliss are backstage laughing it up. Murphy makes some ridiculous joke, and Bliss holds up her hands and says "Boys" and they both shut up. Heh, that was well done. She says she guarantees that Blake and Murphy will walk out next week AND STILL Tag Team Champions… She'll make sure of that.
IN RING!
REGAL! REGAL! REGAL! REGAL! Brooklyn gets booed again. Regal says the largest crowd in NXT history (SUCK IT FULL SAIL!) will witness a rematch – and here comes Owens. Owens is cranky. Balor is out next. Before Finn can sign Owens asks Finn "How does it feel?" HAHAHAHA Owens plays into the Brooklyn heat at Full Sail. Owens asks how does it feel going into that match as Champion, but STILL the underdog. He says in Brooklyn he's showing Finn and all these idiots (Talking about Full Sail) . Finn says he's gonna take Owen's words and in BROOKLYN, shove them right down Owen's throat. They both sign. Regal signs to make it official. OWENS ATTACKS! Flips the table at Finn. Pulls him throat first onto the table. Regal tries to break it up. Owens LEVELS Owens. Balor drops Owens and hits him with a dropkick. Balor standing tall. Owens retreating up the ramp. Crowd chants NXT.
Show the logo!
OVERVIEW!
Good contract signing. Little violence, but not crazy. Added some sizzle to this feud. Owens promo was great. Finn's response was spot on and just the TASTE of conflict was well done. Plus with Regal getting hit I wonder what the repercussions will be?
Too Long! DIDN'T READ?!
Good episode of NXT. Went squash heavy which has been a bit of a running theme the last few weeks. But everything served a purpose. Plus they set up some nice matches moving forward. We know about: Rhyno/Joe. Tag Title Match. Charlotte/Dana Brooke. AND Charlotte/Bayley. Should be a nice couple weeks moving towards NXT Takeover: BROOKLYN
(BOOOOOOO, right Full Sail?)
See you in seven!
