The superstars of NXT finished up the
month of October by returning to the Minnreg Hall in Largo for
another intense night of wrestling action. Fans jammed into the
packed house and would not be disappointed as the guys and girls of
Floridas premiere wrestling brand once again delivered.
In our opening contest the team of
Wesley Blake and Buddy Murphy found themselves directly in the path
of the two man juggernaut known as The Ascension. Murphy has
reportedly been turning heads lately and its easy to see why, the
Aussie has been a standout to me since his earliest outings with his
high energy and rough style. Blake is definitely no sidekick though,
the man is highly athletic and the more likely mouthpiece of the two.
The two put forth a good effort against the former tag champs and
were almost evenly matched against Viktor. However, The Ascension are
known as the most destructive team on the planet for a reason and
proved it tonight by laying waste to Buddy Murphy with “the fall
of man”.
Next CJ Parker makes his way to the
ring with a trademark sign and a live mic berating the audience like
only he can. Before he can finish his tirade he is interrupted by the
theme music of Baron Corbin to chagrin of Parker and the delight of
a definitively pro-Corbin crowd. The match began as Parker attempted
repeatedly to mount an early offense only to fail each time. Corbin
toyed with him until by either luck or tenacity CJ managed to gain
some momentum in the match. It would not be enough to thwart the
onslaught of Corbin though, who is about impossible to stop once he
gets going. Every move he does looks downright brutal and it
certainly helps that selling is definitely a strength of Parkers. As
fun as squash matches can be, it is a nice progression seeing Corbin
wrestle longer matches. Baron Corbin defeated CJ following “the end
of days”, currently one of the more violent looking finishers out
there.
Braun Stowman is out next to deliver
another ominous promo. At 6'8” and 385 pounds, the man looks like
an absolute beast as he slowly makes his way to the ring projecting
an icy stare at the crowd before stepping over the ring rope and into
the squared circle. Confident behind the microphone he takes his time
saying what he has to say, undeterred by snarky wrestling fans. These
promos are definitely building interest, I can't wait to see the big
man in action.
The action continues when Becky Lynch
comes to the ring accompanied by Sasha Banks. Her opponent Bayley
comes out with her own backup, womens champion Charlotte. The
wrestling is fast paced and back and forth proving why the NXT womens
division is the best around. Lynch, who is starting to come into her
own as a heel, took control of fan favorite Bayley in the early
goings. However the momentum would shift back to underdog Bayley. In
the closing moments Bayley rolled Lynch into a small package but the
referee was distracted allowing Banks to reverse the pin. Though the
referee would become distracted again allowing Charlotte to reverse
the pin again giving Bayley the victory.
Next up in tag action The Vaudevillians
took on The Lucha Dragons in a non-title match. The Vaudevillians who
seem to be over with the crowd no matter how heelish they act took
control early on keeping the high flying Kalisto grounded, making
frequent tags and punishing the much smaller luchadore. Eventually
though, Kalisto made the hot tag to Sin Cara and the pace
picked up drastically as all four men became involved in the fray and
bodies were flying everywhere. In the closing moments Sin Cara
hoisted English up on his shoulders allowing Kalisto to connect off
the top rope with a corkscrew body press for the pin.
In our next match Elias Sampson took on
Marcus Louis in a match that swung heavily in the favor of the bald
Frenchman. Sampson, who gained offense in small bursts of high energy
seems to have a lot of potential that I'm eager to see. A few months
ago I would not have predicted the evolution of Marcus Louis who has
went from cocky Frenchman to tortured monster who comes to the ring with his
shaved head and scowl. Strangely, this could really work for Louis as
they dance on the fine line between weirdness and comedy. Marcus
Louis won via submission with a torture rack.
Next up the team of Sawyer Fulton and
Angelo Dawkins took on the underrated Mechanics. It's worth noting
that Dawkins nerdy o-dancing gimmick was absent which made him
instantly more likable. In fact, the two wore USA amateur wrestling
singlets, and actually worked very well as a tag team. Both Dawkins
and Fulton were the best that I have seen them, hopefully this
pairing is a long term thing. The Mechanics, who are not afraid to
work as both despicable heels and comic foils often in the same match
took advantage of a injured Fulton and ended up controlling the match. Angelo
attempted to turn things around for his team but failed, giving
future tag team champs Dawson and Wilder the win.
Next up, Jason Jordan took on Bull
Dempsey in a match that started off surprisingly fast paced until
Dempsey took control and slowed things down with a series of rest
holds. Jordan managed to mount a comeback and even showed off his
strength with an impressive olympic slam on his much larger opponent.
Unfortunately, this only seemingly served to anger Dempsey who ran
him down and finished him with a flying headbutt off the top rope.
The main event of the evening featured
the team of Tyler Breeze and Tyson Kidd taking on Sami Zayn and
Adrian Neville. Anyone who has seen these four men in the ring
together knows that this is a worthy main event just about anywhere.
All four men put forth an amazing effort here, reminding everyone in
attendance why NXT is the premiere brand. Zayn, Neville, and Breeze
have been fan favorites for a while now, but the recent NXT run of
Kidd proves that he is one of the most criminally underrated athletes
in the WWE. In the final moments Zayn landed a helluva kick on Kidd
allowing Neville to land a 450 splash for the pin.
After, Zayn reminds Neville that tonight
they were a team but on December 11th they will be
competitors in perhaps one of the most anticipated NXT main events
yet!
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