NXTs weekend triple shot continued tonight as its athletes converged on Bartow, Fl. It was a small but very lively crowd, one that included the Hardcore Legend Mick Foley who enjoyed the show from the back.
The evening starts off with
Bayley taking on Dana Brooke. Bayley takes charge early on riding on the energy
of the crowd thoroughly behind her. Bayley kept a step ahead in the fast paced
opening moments of the match landing several of her signature spots. Eventually
the power of Brooke comes into play and Dana takes charge of the match and
wears down her opponent with a series of punishing holds accentuated by a
fierce Firemans Carry Slam. But in the midst of her offense all it took was one
tiny moment for Bayley to steal the victory with a Belly-To-Bayley from out of
nowhere. Fan favorite Bayley never fails to fire up a crowd, while Dana Brooke
is quickly improving with each outing. After, Bayleys music is cut abruptly and
CJ Parker comes out saying that nobody cares about divas and nobody cares about
her. Tonight, he continues, is about him and tonight in the main event he will
defeat Hideo Itami.
Next up is Chad Gable vs Solomon
Crowe. It seems you never know whether you are going to get heel or face Gable,
tonight he played up the heel role and he played it well. He’s good at playing the
cocky Olympian and equally showed off his Olympic skills out-grappling Crowe in
the early moments of the match. Eventually the explosive Crowe comes back with
his smashmouth offense that sends Gable reeling. Gable takes advantage of an
opening and begins working on the arm of Solomon Crowe with a series of arm
bars, taking time in-between to towel himself off. Eventually Crowe comes back
with a series of strikes and a running knee in the corner followed by a single
leg dropkick to the knee of Gable that sends him crashing down. Crowe contorts
Gable into a Stretch Muffler for a tap-out victory. Ty Dillinger comes out,
apparently testing out the critic gimmick again and holds up a scorecard giving
the match a 4. I’d give it a much higher, both Gable and Crowe are exciting to
watch and they are two of my top picks for 2015. This was definitely one of the
highlights of the night.
Steve Cutler is out next and
drawing off of his military background, saluting and then standing at attention
waiting for his opponent, the lone wolf of NXT Baron Corbin. Starting strong
Cutler took the fight right to Corbin to little avail. Unfazed, Corbin fought
right back sending Cutler reeling and re-evaluating his game plan. Cutler finds
an opening and takes control of the match. Thus far Cutler seems to be a
brawler relying on a lot on his power, hitting Corbin with a thunderous suplex.
None of it would be enough to take down Corbin who mounted an unstoppable
comeback with a series of his signature moves and an emphatic End Of Days for
the pin.
The night continues with mixed
tag action in what has to be one of the weirder matches in recent memory.
Carmella and Big Cass took on the team of Devin Taylor and the tortured Marcus
Louis. Mixed tag matches by nature are often sort of a mess still yet this was
a match made fun by the interesting mix of personalities in the ring. This
match featured frequent tags, a lot of forced tags, and much shenanigans. In
the chaotic final moments Devin attempts a roll up pin but Carmella turns it
into her headscissors submission for a tap-out win. All in all it was a fun
match. Big Cass has really come into his own in the last year, while Carmella
gets better every outing and it won’t be long until she is competing with the
top ladies of the division. Marcus Louis is absolutely great as the tortured
monster and demands attention whether he is in the ring or simply on the ring
apron. Taylor has improved since the last time I saw her perform and I look
forward to seeing her in a more traditional match. Ty Dillinger didn’t think as
highly as I did, he only gave it a 2.
Next, Hugo Knox comes out next to
high energy dance music moving as if he is a Chippendale dancer. The enthusiasm
of Knox is about enough to blow the roof off the place, love or hate the
gimmick but he absolutely owns it. His opponent Ty Dillinger comes out to new
music claiming that he is going to give us a match that is a 10. The action
begins fast paced as each man looks to gain advantage. Eventually Dillinger
takes control after a clotheline from hell, and then slows down the pace with a
series of headlocks and rest holds. Knox mounts a comeback with a series of
shoulder tackles followed by a spinning heel kick and a kick to the head. With
Dillinger finally laid out Knox finishes him with a split legged corkscrew
moonsault off the turnbuckle. I don’t know about a 10, but it was an
entertaining match featuring one of the most underrated guys around versus a
potential rookie of the year.
The action continues with Bull
Dempsey taking on newcomer Mike Rawlis. Dempsey, who continues to show glimmers
of a potential face run, takes early control of the match. After a series of
arm drags and headlocks the match turns into a brawl with Rawlis surprisingly
playing the aggressor and gaining control. Bull plays the underdog well making sporadic
comeback attempts with a growing repertoire including a sunset flip and a
cross-body. In the end the wrecking ball Dempsey ran down Rawlis and followed
with a flying headbutt for the win. Even in light of recent booking Dempsey is
looking better and better. Still early on for the rookie Mike Rawlis, he has
all the tools and the rest will come with time.
Next up, Becky Lynch takes on
Alexa Bliss. The match begins fast paced with Bliss almost a step ahead in the
early goings. Bliss attempted to thwart the Delty Diva with her largely aerial
offensive including a beautiful head scissors. Lynch came back with a style
that throttles the line between technical wrestler and brawler nailing Bliss
with a series of strikes and a trifecta of her trademark leg drops. Bliss
regains control nailing a standing moonsault double leg drop, Lynch comes back
with a Bexplex followed by a pin attempt, but Bliss kicks out. A few more moments of back and forth grappling and
then Lynch traps Bliss in an armbar submission for the tap-out victory. Becky
Lynch is probably the best pure female wrestler on the roster, but Bliss has
improved so much and tonight these two put on the best match of the evening.
Our main event of the evening is
up next as CJ Parker takes on Hideo Itami. The two men start cautiously, as
Parker tells him there is to be no kicking and this is a wrestling match… right
before taking a cheap shot and taking control. Itami swiftly turns things
around though and Parker evades the ring. Itami mounts offense before Parker
makes a vicious comeback beating down Itami. He grounds Itami with a series of
rest holds. He knocks the wind out of Itami with a senton, but unwisely goes
for another which Itami counters. Hideo throttles him with a series of strikes
and two different teases at a GTS, which Parker escaped from. Parker lands a
palm strike out of nowhere that has Hideo seeing stars. Eventually though Hideo
fires back with a series of kicks followed by an astounding dropkick in the
corner, and then a single leg dropkick to Parker for the victory. Hideo looks
as great as always, while Parker proves he is ready to move up the ranks in
NXT.
Afterwards as the show ended the
crowd erupted into a massive “We want Foley” chant. Mick Foley obliged telling us that it was his
sons birthday and all he wanted was to see NXT….. “right here in Bartow Florida.”.
He then puts over the NXT roster and tells us to “Have a nice day.”
It was sort of an unusual NXT
show, but sometimes those end up being the most memorable ones.
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