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My Thoughts on NXT (7/27/16): The Golden Star

  • Shinsuke Nakamura vs Wesley Blake-Man, Wesley Blake's new entrance theme is...lame. Like...what even was that? Whatever, he's getting murked anyway. After a series of back and forth spots, Blake blows Nakamura a kiss. Nakamura catches it and looks disgusted. Blake blows him another one, which he catches again. After the referee refuses to take them, he throws them down steps on them. Shinsuke Nakamura is the absolute best. Nakamura takes control with a knee to the gut, followed by two Good Vibrations in the corner. Blake takes control afterwards with a kick and big clothesline for one. Blake continues to work over Nakamura, getting a few near falls along the way until Nakamura catches his foot on a corner choke. Nakamura strikes away at Blake, does the corner face wash, hits the running knee in the corner, the inverted exploder suplex, and finishes off Blake with the Kinshasa. After the match, William Regal comes out to announce that Shinsuke Nakamura will challenge Samoa Joe for the NXT Championship in the main event of Takeover: Back to Brooklyn. That should be dope.
  • Billie Kay vs Santana Garrett-Well, now that half the women's roster got drafted up to the main roster, it's time to start building up the other ones in NXT. For starters, Billie Kay has a new entrance theme. It's alright, but compared to her old one, it's an 11/10. Speaking of entrance themes...what the f*ck is Santana Garrett's theme? It's like it's like dubstep-bluegrass, and it's terrible. The two go back and forth before Garrett takes control with a dropkick, but her momentum is cut off quickly with a pretty weak rolling elbow by Kay. Kay continues to work over Garrett until Garrett escapes a headlock. Garrett strikes away at Kay before hitting a handspring back elbow, but Kay dodges the big boot attempt and wins off a big boot of her own. Pretty bad match, a lot of Kay's offense looked really bad and weak.
  • Backstage, Bayley is in William Regal's office, asking for her rematch with Asuka at Takeover: Back to Brooklyn. Regal says he'll talk to Asuka about it.
  • TM61 vs Rob Ryzin & Adrian Nails-Nails looks straight up like a backyard wrestler, with his jeans & skull gloves and what not. TM61 work over Nails until he is able to make the tag to Ryzin, who works over Thorne. Thorne is able to dodge a double corner splash and tag in Miller. Miller runs wild on Nails before TM61 hits Thunder Valley, a double team gorilla press for the win. After the match, TM61 & the jobbers Ryzin & Nails shake hands.
  • We get another return vignette for Hideo Itami, who returns to the ring next week.
  • No Way Jose vs Steve Cutler-Jose dances a lot before getting hit in the face by Cutler. Jose goes bug-eyed on Cutler and mows through him, hitting an arm drag into a neck breaker before hitting the big punch and the Cobra Clutch slam for the win. After the match, Jose said all he wanted to do was encourage Austin Aries to have some fun, and that he showed him he can turn a fiesta into a fight. Jose ends by saying the next time he sees Aries, he's gonna whoop his ass.
  • Buddy Murphy vs KOTA IBUSHI!
  • Holy sh*t. If you aren't familiar with Kota Ibushi, he's amazing. His match with Shinsuke Nakamura at Wrestle Kingdom 9 got a 5-Star rating from Dave Meltzer, and he's arguably the favorite to win the Cruiserweight Classic. So awesome to see him on NXT. Murphy starts with a few shoulder tackles, but Ibushi takes control with a dropkick, and roundhouse kick, and a standing moonsault for a near fall. Murphy rolls out of the ring and yanks Ibushi down on the apron when he goes out after him. Murphy works over Ibushi with a headlock, even blocking a charging Ibushi in the corner and getting a near fall off a double knee strike. Ibushi catches a big boot attempt and delivers some of the hardest, loudest strikes I've ever seen. To put it in perspective, Murphy kicks Ibushi at one point and it's pretty much inaudible. Ibushi delivers a kick and you can hear it plain as day. It's amazing.Ibushi follows up a roundhouse kick with a big German suplex for a near fall. Ibushi calls for a moonsault, but Murphy dodges and hits a corner STO for a near fall. Murphy sets up Ibushi on the top rope for a superplex, but Ibushi flips over and hits a sit-out powerbomb for the win. Really good match, Murphy is actually pretty underrated in my opinion.
  • Backstage, Samoa Joe gets interviewed. He just got to Full Sail and just found out that Regal set up the match at Takeover: Back to Brooklyn and he says it's disrespectful.
  • Next week, Corey Graves announces that Bobby Roode will show up next week. Huh...kind of thought they would try to keep his debut a surprise. Guess not.
  • Outcomes Samoa Joe. He says he just found out about his match with Shinsuke Nakamura at Takeover: Back to Brooklyn and because Regal didn't talk with him about it, it's not going to happen. He says Nakamura is undeserving and is not fit to be the #1 Contender. Outcomes William Regal, who says his decision is final and he will fight Nakamura at Takeover. Joe says he had to fight everybody on the roster to get his title shot, which Nakamura hasn't done, and suggests the two go back and find a deserving contender he approves of. Regal threatens to strip Joe of the title if he doesn't fight at Takeover. Joe agrees to the match but says it's the biggest mistake Regal has ever made. He says he decimated Finn Balor, and he'll do the same to Nakamura. Outcomes Nakamura, who stares down Joe from the entrance ramp to close the show.
And that's about it. Overall, a pretty average-at-best NXT. Every match was basically a squash outside of maybe Ibushi-Murphy, which was really good mind you. The Billie Kay-Santana Garrett match was pretty rough, and the biggest down of the night for me. Anyways, nothing too heinous.

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