In the wake of Takeover, the stars of
NXT took the action to the Hardee County Civic Center In Wauchula,
Fl. It was a night of continued rivalries for some and new chapters
for others. With many of the established main event stars touring
with the WWE, it gave others some well deserved time to shine in the
spotlight.
One half of the Mechanics Dash Wilder
took on the highly athletic Jason Jordan in singles action. Jordan,
who seemed to have a bit of a fire under him tonight interacted with
the crowd before taking control of the match early on. Jordan showed
us some of his impressive technical wrestling before Dash Wilder got
the upper hand. I'm a fan of The Mechanics but tonight Wilder
proved he is impressive on his own as well in this entertaining
opening bout. But in the end it was all Jason Jordan as he got the
pinfall victory over Dash Wilder with an olympic slam.
Ty Dillinger is out next to new eerie
droning entrance music in black trunks and boots and carrying a deck
of cards. He made his way into the ring seating himself in the corner
laying out his cards on the mat. His opponent Elias Sampson is out
next highly pumped and ready for a fight. This being only the second
time I've seen Sampson compete he seems to be a wrestler to keep your
eye on. He made a good showing but it was clearly a more aggressive
Dillinger in control who picked apart his opponent quite
methodically. He laid out Sampson with a brutal looking knee smash to
the face and gaining the pinfall before laying an ace of spades on
his defeated challengers chest. After, commentator Rich Brennan came
into the ring to question Dillinger on the meaning of the cards. Ty
gave a cryptic but admittedly intriguing promo illustrating how a
deck of cards represent morality in a cruel world. He also said they
represent chance, and by chance Sampson drew the wrong card
tonight.... and paid for it. I for one am interested in seeing where
this goes.
Next up was womens tag action as the
team of Sasha Banks and Dana Brooke took on the Alexa Bliss and
Bayley. I'm not sure if this was a debut for Brooke, but it was the
first time I've seen her in action. While her newness may show she exhibits quite a bit of potential, the women of NXT catch on fast. A example
of that would be Alexa Bliss who continues to get better every week.
The stars of the match though were clearly the perennial underdog
Bayley and the boss Sasha Bank, proving that they both have bright
future in the WWE. The four gave us a solid back and forth match that
appeared to be leaning in the favor of fan favorites Bliss and Bayley
until Sasha stole it with a roll up and handful of tights.
The hippy everyone loves to hate CJ
Parker is out next to avenge his recent loss to Baron Corbin. Parker
put on much more of a fight than he did at Takeover as he attempted
to take down the big man at several points with a sleeper hold.
Despite his best efforts he would come up short yet again finding
himself on the receiving end of Corbins reverse STO. CJ Parker is
underrated, however his real strengths are not only selling moves,
but even more so antagonizing the crowd.... of which he is a master
of. Corbin on the other hand makes about everything he does look
absolutely brutal. I can't wait to see where the coming months take
the big guy.
The night continues with more womens
action as the delty diva Becky Lynch challenged the champion
Charlotte in a non-title match. Both women shined in one of my
favorite matches of the evening. Charlotte is looking polished coming
off of her biggest title defense while the energetic Becky Lynch
should surely be a champion sooner than later. The two seem to have a
good chemistry together that I'm hoping we'll get to see more of in
the future. The Irish diva put up a great challenge but in the end
Charlotte proved why she is champ making Becky “bow to the queen”.
The freshly bald Frenchman Marcus Louis
made his way out with a ridiculous looking wig held on by wrestling
headgear to get revenge on Big Colin Cassady. It was a short but
entertaining match that had me laughing quite a bit thanks to Louis,
who of course inevitably lost his wig not long before taking a big
boot to the face. Things aren't going to well these days for the
French baldie.
Next Angelo Dawkins and Bull Dempsey
met yet again. A particularly mean looking Dempsey was in charge for
most of the match and it looked as if it was a foregone conclusion
that he would be victorious again. To the surprise of many including
Bull, Dawkins managed to snag the victory with a sunset flip. Dempsey
didn't take kindly and commenced to beat down a wounded Dawkins
taking to the top turnbuckle to deliver a flying headbutt.
Our main event of the evening saw The
Vaudevillians take on the team of Wesley Blake and Buddy Murphy.
Entering the ring to a new more ominous music Gotch and English put
the villains in Vaudevillians. For a team that has been so
incredibly over they are great in a heel role, as we've seen before
from English. I was excited to see Murphy and Blake get a chance to
shine in a main event capacity, and they are more than capable. The
two have gelled really well together and hopefully this is a sign of
them being headed into the tag team title picture. Lots of back and
forth action in a match that was worthy of a main event with great
moves from all the combatants. With a bit of questionable distraction
and double teaming English gained the victory for his team with a
running swinging neckbreaker for the pin on Blake.
All in all another great night of
action from the men and women of NXT with hints of new and
interesting development on the horizon.
