Greetings and salutations, Cheap-Heat Magnets. It feels like forever since NXT last graced my screen, but lets settle in and see what's going on in Full Sail! The Future. STARTS. NOW!
IN RING!
ENZO AND CASS! You can't… teach… THAT. Full Sail eats it up. They call out the Lucha Dragons, and question them being "Dragons", saying they're more like the Geico Lizards. Fun promo to start. Crowd very into it. Lucha Dragons get booed a bit and a big "HOW YOU DOIN'" chant erupts. Lack of Carmella ringside, which the the announcers discuss to sell how much Enzo and Cass are focusing on this #1 Contender's match. Big "Geico Lizards" chant from the crowd. You're welcome Geico for the plugs galore. Enzo starts. Lucha's get rolling. Nice exchange of double team moves. Lucha's double team wheel barrow splash. Then Cass throwing Enzo into Cara in the corner. Cass also body slams Enzo onto Cara. Like seeing double team moves. Kalisto gets tagged and goes crazy. LIsto Kick. A head scissors face buster on Enzo drives that dead animal on Enzo's face HARD into the mat.
Announcers mention our Main Event will be Hideo Itami and Tyler Breeze.
Back to the ring. Cara has the REVERSE… CHIN LOCK… O' DOOOOOOM! Enzo ends up outside. Huge double suicide dive, but Cass eats it from both the Dragons, shoving Enzo out of the way. In the ring. Deadlift power bomb, but Cass intercepts anything from Kalisto off the top. Big booting Sin Cara into the ropes. Kalisto crotched.
East River Crossing. Tags in Enzo. Enzo on the top and gives an assisted slam for the one two three. New Number One Contenders… and You can't… teach… THAT.
COMMERCIAL!
They hype up NXT at the Arnold Sports Festival last week in Columbus. Oh, NXT… the ad involves a pretty big spoiler, of sorts about matches that happened at the show. Still glad we're going to see some of the stuff from that show.
HYPE!
Riley hype video. First time in over 2 years, as told by Rich, that Riley will be in the ring against CJ Parker.
MORE HYPE!
Owens hype video. This is excellent. Dude looks like such a monster in this.
IN RING!
F.A.B.U.L.O.U.S. Crowd very mild for Carmella's entrance. She has ramped up the annoying factor. Probably another reason they're keeping her sequestered from Enzo and Cass who are crazy popular as faces, and she really works better as a heel entitled princess type. Her opponent, Alexa Bliss. The announce crew reminds us of this being Bliss's first match back after suffering a broken nose. Bliss makes sure they'll be finding glitter all over Full Sail…
Dammit Bliss, glitter is sparkly sand… its IMPOSSIBLE TO GET RID OF!
Anyway, my glitter bias aside? The Bell rings. Lets roll. Some mat wrestling to kick it off. Side headlocks, standing switches, a kip up, and general what-nottery. They are calling the women "NXT Divas" during this match… Like… a LOT. That's new. Nice exchange and roll up by Bliss was very impressive. Carmella ends up slamming Bliss into the middle rope. Puts Bliss on the middle ropes and sits on her back in a dismissive "Choke". Then kicks the middle rope driving that into Bliss' throat. Very heelish. Continues to dominate with a body scissor. Full Sail tries to get some claps together for Bliss, but they peter out. More domination and two counts from Carmella. Series of shoulders in the corner and body kicks. Bliss catches a kick and then begins to pepper in forearms. Leg sweep. The "Bliss Flip" – back handspring splash… a little sloppy. Bliss to the top rope hits the "Sparkle Splash", which was a half rotation top rope splash type thing. Bliss gets a win. Good match. Dead crowd. Not the most popular of NXT's women, but its nice to see other faces out there given some time.
BACKSTAGE!
Riley asked for his thoughts and he gives a great promo about being an animal locked in a cage for two years. Caps it off with "its time to rage". Hell yes it is, A-Ry.
MORE BACKSTAGE!
Tyler Breeze talks smack on Hideo Itami. Calls himself the King of Cuteville… I guess that's the natural line after being "Prince Pretty"? I don't know… I'm not super up to date on my Royal Family stuff.
IN RING!
CJ Parker is out, and his sign is taking over Takeovers. He starts a promo and is about to air ALL his grievances, but out comes Alex Riley. RAGE! Crowd chants Riley. Side headlock takeover and CJ is proud of himself. Albert says he's pulling for Riley… YOU CAN'T DO THAT A-TRAIN! YOU NEED TO BE IMPARTIAL! Riley turns the tide with a nice dropkick. But CJ regains the momentum. It doesn't last long as Riley hits a series of clotheslines, his flipping neck breaker and caps it off with a scary looking "Blockbuster" off the top. Riley definitely landed awkwardly there. The celebration is cut short as Owens' music hits.
He says its good Riley looks so good, because he's the stupidest man in NXT. Saying his decision to leave his announcing career behind is as questionable as his decision in a back tattoo. He says he's going to end Riley's in ring career and then he's going to end the rise of Finn Balor. Tells us to trust that. Stop killing buzzes, Kev!
IN RING!
Tyler Breeze and his selfie stick are out. He lounges in the corner as Hideo's music hits. Itami poses, pointing to the rafters… I assume he sees Sting up there. Bell rings, and we're off. Breeze rolls out. Re-Rolls out. Then RE-RE-rolls out. A little action, but then… Tyler Re-RE-RE-RE rolls out… again? Itami chases and levels Itami with a clothesline. In the ring, Itami hits that tornado hotshot, climbs to the top, but ends up crotched as Breeze runs into the ropes.
COMERCIAL!
Breeze carries Itami to the corner. Itami fights out, then hits a flying clothesline. They go back and forth. Itami hits a big boot. Breeze answers with the Supermodel Kick. Breeze drags him to the ring post looking for something, but Itami pulls his legs in, bouncing Prince Pretty's face. In the ring. Itami drapes Breeze across the top rope and hits a top rope diving knee into the back of Breeze's head. Flurry of strikes. Itami going for the hesitation dropkick into the corner, nobody is home! Both back up, BEAUTY SHOT! Whoa. Thank you NXT for that surprise. Hard fought match, and clearly this story isn't over. Very glad Breeze won here. I think it helps both guys and adds to their feud.
OVERVIEW!
Solid episode. Pretty run of the mill. Nothing overly memorable where we'll be looking back going "DO YOU REMEMBER?!" – Maybe the Riley promo could be something like that if this return to the ring actually leads to something major for him. Opening tag match was good fun, and I'm glad to see Enzo and Cass building towards a tag title match. Main Event wasn't stellar for those two. I expected more, but I was pleasantly surprised by the finish because its nice to have surprises and for this to become a real rivalry we need to know/believe that Tyler Breeze is on Hideo Itami's level. Again it stood out how much they used "divas" during the Carmella/Bliss match. Wonder what that was about? Also… it ended WAAAAAAY short of an hour. Seriously.
Indeed, Mr. Helms… What-IS-upwitDAT?
Anyway, looking forward to next week's "On the Road" show, especially considering how flat Full Sail was tonight. I saw what matches happened and I REALLY hope we get to see a couple of them. See ya in seven!
