Full Sail TV Tapings 9-10-15

NXT returned home to Full Sail University for another set of television tapings. Feuds were furthered, new talents arrived, and the Dusty Rhodes Memorial Tag Tournament continued. The following blog post features spoilers for the next three episodes of NXT and will take us right into the next special.

The opening dark match of the evening saw The Hype Bros. taking on the team of Elias Sampson and Riddick Moss in a short contest. The Hype Bros started with much momentum and Rawley engaged in his usual animated banter. It wouldn’t take long though before Sampson and Moss got the upper hand cutting off Ryder from his corner. After several minutes of being grounded Ryder creates enough separation to make the hot tag to Mojo who comes in and cleans house. Finally he hoists Sampson up for Ryder to come off the turnbuckle with a Rough Ryder for the win. This was a short, sweet, and formulaic match but it did a good job of getting the crowd hyped for the evening.

Episode1

Prince Pretty Tyler Breeze is out first followed by his opponent Adam Rose, who is now a “party pooper”. Rose says WWE pooped all over Adam Roses’ party and now he is here to leave a big steamer on ours. Before the match can start Bull Dempsey comes out to finish his business with Breeze. He tells Breeze that last week was an accident, but what happens tonight will not be. Breeze retorts and is then cut off by Rose who says he is going to poop on Tyler’s party and Bull’s as well. Rose slaps Bull, only for Bull to beat him down and eject him from the ring. Breeze attacks Dempsey from behind, but Bull quickly gains the advantage. Breeze escapes and quickly retreats from the ring

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Martin Stone is in the ring now followed by his perfect 10 opponent Ty Dillinger. In the opening moments after a successful maneuver Dillinger cartwheels into the corner and throws up a perfect 10 hand signal. Stone comes back with some particularly stiff elbows and then mocks Dillinger with his own 10. Stone controlls Dillinger for much of the match before Ty mounts a comeback, leveling Stone with a clothesline and follows with a leg sweep. Dillinger hikes down his knee pad and finishes with his knee smash to the skull of Stone for the pinfall victory. This was another short and simple match, but it’s nice to see Dillinger finally getting some well-deserved momentum.

Next up is Apollo Crews taking on Solomon Crowe. Despite some early smashmouth offense from Crowe, Crews quickly takes over with his speed and agility, coming out of a leapfrog into an explosive dropkick. Crowe evades the ring and Crews attempts to baseball slide to the outside but Crowe traps him in the ring apron and begins to viciously beat him down. The two make it back to the ring and Crowe continues to beat down Crews before settling into a half straightjacket to ground the agile Crews. Eventually Crews mounts a comeback with big clubbing blows and a big splash in the corner. Crews drops Crowe with a standing ensiguri and follows with a big military press and a beautiful standing moonsault for the win. These two have amazing chemistry and put on great matches every time they step foot in the ring together. This was another impressive showing for Crews while Crowe is so much better as the aggressive heel.

The Dusty Rhodes Memorial Tag Tournament continues with Rhyno and Baron Corbin taking on Johnny Gargano and Tomasso Ciampa. The indie dream team starts strong leaving their two bigger opponents struggling to keep up. Ciampa and Gargano both stay one step ahead of Rhyno. Corbin has enough and runs in but Gargano pulls down the ropes and sends Corbin tumbling to the floor. Gargano follows with a big suicide dive to the outside and into Corbin. He climbs back into the ring and follows with another suicide dive into Rhyno. Not to be outdone, Ciampa climbs the turnbuckles and flies off with a huge crossbody onto Corbin and Rhyno on the outside. Back inside Rhyno finally manages to make the tag to Corbin who comes in with huge heat from the NXT crowd. Corbin drops Ciampa with a huge side slam effectively slowing the pace. The two dominate Tomasso with frequent tags until he finally makes a hot tag to Gargano who comes in catching Corbin with a series of kicks. He follows diving over the rope into a big DDT to Corbin. Rhyno runs in but Johnny dodges a gore sending Rhyno to the floor. Moments later, Gargano looks to have it won with a roll-up but Corbin kicks out and makes it to his feet catching Gargano with an End Of Days for the victory. This was a great match and definitely a highlight of the evening, all four men came out looking great. Baron Corbin is a heat magnet but he seemingly strives on it. Officially signed or not, between this match and others to come, Ciampa and Gargano proved to be bona fide show stealers.

NXT womens champion Bayley is out next to a huge her pop from the crowd. She jumps the ramp and runs out to celebrate with the crowd. She makes her way back around to her number 1 super fan Izzy, even bringing her to the ring with her to celebrate. The two hoist their titles in the air and even gave a signature high five to the crowd in tandem. It was a special moment that served to remind people about everything that is right with wrestling, and one can’t help but to think that they have not seen the last of Izzy in a WWE ring.

Bayley’s opponent for the evening is “Crazy” Mary Dobson who takes the fight right to the champ. She attacks with a kick to the gut and several stiff forearms before grounding Bayley with a guillotine choke. Eventually Bayley mounts a comeback with several clubbing blows and a series of elbows in the corner. She follows with an exploder suplex and finally a Belly To Bayley for the win.

Afterwards Bayley grabs a mic but before she can speak she is interrupted by Sasha Banks. Sasha says she came out to congratulate Bayley. She mentions that everyone is saying that they stole the show at the last Takeover with a match of the year contender. But she continues by telling Bayley that she doesn’t simply want a rematch, but rather she wants to beat Bayley again and again. William Regal comes out and tells us that there will indeed be a rematch, and it will be the main event of the next Takeover. As if that wasn’t historic enough, he adds the stipulation that it will be a thirty minute iron man match.

Episode 2

We start with tag team action featuring possibly the two best tag teams in all of NXT, Dawson and Wilder taking on Gable and Jordan. Like he often does, Gable controls the early goings out-grappling Dawson. Eventually Dawson flapjacks Gable to the mat to turn the tides of the match. Dawson and Wilder employ frequent tags beating down Gable. At one point Gable looks to make the tag but Dash pulls Jordan off the ring apron. They continue decimating Gable culminating in a guillotine off the ropes. Despite their efforts, Gable eventually makes a hot tag to a fresh Jordan who comes in like a man possessed. He tosses Wilder over his head with ease with an overhead suplex. He tags Gable back in and they hit Grand Amplitude on Wilder for the victory.

Women’s action is next with Carmella taking on Eva. Wasting no time Carmella jumps on Eva from the opening bell pummeling her in the corner and finally tossing her from the ring. Eva makes her way back in and gains the upper hand, executing a suplex on Carmella. She takes down Carmella with a big boot and goes for another suplex. Later Carmella comes back with a headscissors and two Thez presses. She hits a sit-out rear slam and goes for the pin, but Eva rests her feet on the ropes. The match continues with a little more back and forth until Eva ejects Carmella from the ring for a count-out victory. While Eva Marie has improved drastically, she is still a long way from being television ready, and in many ways it almost seems she is retrogressing. I’m all for giving her a chance, but this push is just way too rushed.

Next, Bull Dempsey looks to gain a measure of revenge against Tyler Breeze. In the opening sequence Dempsey does the unthinkable, intentionally messing up the hair of Tyler Breeze. Moments later he is tossing him around by his hair and following with a flurry of strikes. A back and forth match ensues until Breeze grounds Dempsey with a side headlock. Eventually Dempsey makes it to his feet “hulking up” against Breeze’s offense. Finally he runs down Breeze and climbs the ropes for his seated senton. Breeze makes it to his feet and sends Dempsey to the mat and pins Dempsey using the ropes for leverage.

William Regal is out next to welcome the newest NXT star Kana, who will be known from this point forward as Asuka. She says she is happy to be here in NXT and wants to be champion. She is interrupted by Dana Brooke and Emma. They make sure to tell her that they run things around here, and that they already chased Charlotte and Becky out of NXT. They tell Asuka that she better get out of her ring now. Asuka slowly retreats from the ring and up the ramp, all the while looking back with a look on her face that seemed to say that this is far from over. This segment may have been a little lackluster, but knowing what Asuka is capable of and what she is going to bring to NXT makes this perhaps one of the standout moments of the night. I for one can’t wait for her NXT debut.

We continue with an NXT Tag Title match as Blake and Murphy get their rematch against The Vaudevillians. Early on Alexa Bliss intereferes but Bluepants runs out and chases her off. With the odds even The Vaudevillians take control with English executing a double arm drag followed by a dropkick to both Blake and Murphy. Later after a backdrop onto the ring apron Blake and Murphy regain control grounding English with a chinlock. Finally, English gets free and makes a hot tag to Gotch who comes in with a series of strikes and innovative kicks, followed by forearms in the corner. Gotch executes a rolling senton onto Blake and English attempts to follow with a high angle senton in the corner, but Blake counters by throwing up his knees. Blake tags out and Blake comes off the top rope with double knees onto English for a very close count. The two teams battle back and forth until The Vaudevillians hit their uppercut/neckbreaker combo to Murphy for the win. This was another great tag match in an evening of tag matches. The Vaudevillians gimmick and signature spots are so over the top, sometimes you lose focus on exactly how good they really are in the ring.

Episode 3

The action continues with Apollo Crews taking on Johnny Gargano. The match starts with fast paced, “don’t blink”, back and forth action. The two best each other move for move until finally Crews nails Gargano with a hellacious dropkick that resonates through the entire building. Somehow Gargano fights back with a suicide dive and some impressive kicks of his own. Ultimately, Crews would come back with a massive suplex followed by a big splash in the corner and finally his military press/standing moonsault combo for the victory. This was easily one of the best matches of the evening.

Next, the Aussie duo of Billie Kay and Peyton Royce take on Dana Brooke and Emma. Peyton starts off with several roll-ups and pin attempts on Emma. Eventually though, Emma and Dana take over and slow down the pace with Emma locking Billie into a body scissors.  Finally Billie makes a hot tag to Peyton who comes in with several high kicks to Dana Brooke. The action continues back and forth until Emma causes a distraction giving Dana the upper hand to scoop up Peyton for a Samoan Driver Slam and a pinfall victory.

Next up is Tomasso Ciampa taking on Tyler Breeze. The two grapple back and forth until Ciampa stops that with several big chops and several mean knees. Breeze makes a comeback with a neckbreaker but mere moments later Ciampa answers with a big boot and a facebuster off the ropes. Ciampa is looking unstoppable until he dives off the ropes and Breeze answers with a dropkick. Breeze then pummels him in the corner and finishes him with a Killswitch. A nod to both men as this was probably match of the night for me. I’m also hoping this is perhaps a permanent new finisher for Breeze as the Beauty Shot has always seemed a little weak.

The Dusty Rhodes Memorial Tag Tournament continues with our main event as Enzo Amore and Big Cass take on Samoa Joe and Finn Balor. The big men, Cass and Joe start for their teams in a virtual stalemate as neither man can take the other down. The action spills to the outside at which point Enzo dives outside into Joe, and Finn dives outside into Cass. Eventually the action makes it back into the ring with Joe and Finn working over Enzo. Eventually Enzo hits a DDT on Finn out of nowhere and makes a hot tag to Cass. The big man cleans house despite the best efforts of the champ to thwart him. He delivers a big boot to Joe and follows another to Finn on the apron for good measure. He somehow hits Joe with a swinging side slam and follows with “Air Zo”. Somehow Joe kicks out and moments later the dream team takes control. Joe plants Enzo with a musclebuster and Finn follows with a Coup De Grace for the win.  This was a great effort by all four men. I’ve been critical of Enzo here before, but he stepped up as well.

Next stop: Takeover. I’m assuming we will see several matches added in the coming weeks via backstage segments, along with the tournament finals, and of course the historic main event.