Skip to main content

My Thoughts on NXT (12/14/16): The Champ Down Under

  • Shinsuke Nakamura (c) vs Samoa Joe in a Steel Cage match-NXT Championship-We kick off the show with Shinsuke Nakamura vs Samoa Joe in a Steel Cage match in Melbourne, Austrailia. Or as the ring announcer called it, a "Stage Ceel" match. That's botch #1 from the opener. The second one wasn't as noticeable on the show, but many people were quick to point out online that the lowering of the cage did not go too smoothly.
    In case you didn't know...that's not supposed to happen. The two feel eachother out to start before Nakamura takes down Joe with a single leg. Joe fights to his feet and the two lock up in the ropes. The two dodge eachother before Nakamura takes control with a knee strike & a knee drop. Nakamura gives Joe Good Vibrations in the corner before Joe rams Nakamura into the cage wall. Joe slams in Nakamura, pinning Nakamura against the cage. We then get a shit editing moment as the match cuts to commercial abruptly. We come back to Nakamura hitting a spinning heel kick before kneeing Joe down. Nakamura locks in a guillotine, but Joe escapes, only to get rammed into the cage before Nakamura gives him a German suplex. Nakamura calls for the Kinshasa, but Joe reverses it with a powerslam for a near fall. The two trade strikes before Joe locks in the Coquina Clutch. Nakamura escapes by walking up the turnbuckle & flipping out of the hold and hits a sliding knee strike for a near fall. Nakamura tries to climb out of the cage, but Joe catches him up there. Joe goes for a Muscle Buster from the top rope, but Nakamura escapes and hits a sunset flip powerbomb. Nakamura walks across the top rope and hits a diving Kinshasa. Nakamura goes to leave the cage, but when he sees Joe getting up, he closes the door and hits a Kinshasa, followed by another one for the victory. Great match, a great way to end the feud.
  • Billie Kay & Peyton Royce get interviewed. They say they didn't lose in Toronto, Daria did, and that they don't associate with losers. Daria then walks up and says she wants to hurt one of them next week.
  • Tye Dillinger vs Eric Young with SAnitY-Young charges Dillinger right off the bat and beats him down around the ring. Dillinger fights back, hitting the 10 punches in the corner, followed by 10 stomps in the corner. Dillinger pulls his knee pad down, only for Nikki Cross to hop onto Dillinger's back for the DQ. Dillinger fights off SAnitY until Damo attacks him from behind, hitting a fireman's carry slam (see: Wasteland) and a senton. Damo & SAnitY stare eachother down before Damo walks to the back.
  • No Way Jose vs Andrade "Cien" Almas-The two lock up * go back and forth before Almas poses in the ropes. Jose attempts to do the same, which great offends Almas and makes him stop posing, only to get a flapjack for doing so. Jose gives Almas an airplane spin followed by a rolling senton and a leg drop for a near fall. Almas takes control, hitting a sliding dropkick for a near fall before locking in a headlock. Jose fights out and arm drags Almas before running wild with forearms and hitting a hip toss into a neckbreaker. Jose goes for a Fastball Punch, but Almas dodges it, only for Jose to follow up with a pop-up Fastball Punch for a near fall. Jose goes for the TKO, but Almas escapes, hits a big boot and delivers the hammerlock DDT for the win. Pretty good little match.
  • Elias Samson vs Roderick Strong-I'm not a big fan of Roderick Strong, but when he faces the Drifter he's my favorite wrestler of all time. Graves absolutely kills it on commentary during Samson's entrance, it's amazing. Samson kicks Strong in the gut to start before hip tossing him. Strong comes back with a single leg dropkick before hitting a backbreaker for a near fall. Samson takes control, stomping away at Strong before putting him in the Tree of Woe and cranking on Strong's neck. Samson hits a knee to Strong's head before locking in a chin lock. Strong fights back and hits a dropkick followed by a high knee in the corner and a running elbow strike. Strong finishes Samson off with Death by Roderick followed by a Sick Kick for the win. Honestly, probably the best Drifter match I've seen.
  •  Oney Lorcan vs Bobby Roode-Hey, Oney Lorcan's finally back on NXT. Remember him? He beat Tye Dillinger then said he was "going back to his roots." That was almost five months ago. He showed up on SmackDown before he came back to NXT. But it doesn't really matter because...GLORIOUS! Roode starts out with a wristlock, which according to Roode is GLORIOUS! Lorcan reverses it before Roode gets a waist lock takedown, spins around on Lorcan, and slaps Lorcan in the head before posing. Lorcan takes this opportunity to uppercut Roode before giving him two back elbows in the corner. Lorcan hits an overhead suplex for a near fall followed by a side suplex for another. Lorcan sets up Roode on the top rope and goes for a superplex, but Roode knocks him down across the ropes. Roode takes control, using the ring apron to beat down Lorcan before Lorcan reverses a neckbreaker with a backslide for a near fall. Lorcan runs wild with forearms before hitting an uppercut and a standing Blockbuster for a near fall. Lorcan goes for a second rope Blockbuster, but Roode dodges and hits a spinebuster. Roode finishes Lorcan off with the Glorious DDT for the win. Another good match.

Comments

More from The Wrestling Section

Worst in the World: The Last Rites Match-TNA Destination X 2007

(Special thanks to an anonymous user for suggesting this match. If you'd like to see a match covered on the Worst in the World, leave a comment down below.) An often discussed aspect of professional wrestling is the backstage politicking of Hulk Hogan. Throughout his career as a major attraction in wrestling, Hogan's philosophy has always been to protect Hulk Hogan...OK, sometimes he'd help Ed Leslie, but most of the time it was to protect Hulk Hogan. Because of that philosophy and Hogan's influence as a top guy, there have been multiple instances where a company's booking and other wrestlers have suffered as a result. Would having Mr. Perfect win the 1990 Royal Rumble made sense and could have elevated a rising star and potentially created a new main event player? Yes, but that would require Hogan to not win, and that doesn't work for Hogan, so he wins the Rumble even though he doesn't need elevating. Would booking Randy Orton to beat Hogan at SummerSlam 20

Worst in the World: The Gimmick Battle Royal-WrestleMania X-Seven

(Special thanks to Frost for suggesting this match. If you'd like to see a match covered on the Worst in the World, leave a comment down below.) WrestleMania X-Seven. Heavily considered the not just the best WrestleMania, but the greatest wrestling show of all time, WrestleMania X-Seven took place during the hottest period in the WWF's history, and features just about every one of the hottest acts in wrestling at the time. An undercard featuring the likes of Chris Jericho, Kurt Angle, Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, William Regal, Kane, and the Big Show. One of the biggest female stars in the history of wrestling in Chyna. A killer TLC match between the Dudley Boyz, the Hardy Boyz, and Edge & Christian. A wild brawl between The Undertaker and Triple H. A massive main event between Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock. Hell, even the father vs son Street Fight between Vince & Shane McMahon. It's a star-studded affair. However, there's one match that sticks out like

Worst in the World: D-Generation X vs Brothers of Destruction-Crown Jewel

This match didn't need to happen. After Triple H and the Undertaker had one of the most brutally bad matches of 2018 at Super Show-Down not even a month earlier, nobody wanted to see them try to wrestle again. Also, nobody wanted to see Shawn Michaels come out of retirement after his fantastic sendoff in 2010, especially for a match like this. But here we are, Triple H & Shawn Michaels facing The Undertaker & Kane in 2018. The combined ages of these four at the time is 206. That's a number you'd expect to see from a match at Heroes of Wrestling. And anyone can come up with their own reason as to why this match is happening, but that would just be ignoring the actual reason. For those of you who don't know, Crown Jewel was held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. That might not seem like important information, but you can't really discuss this match without mentioning it. Despite the numerous reasons that running shows in Saudi Arabia is morally wrong (their abuse

Worst in the World: Nia Jax's Worst Matches

Click the link here to vote in the poll and help decide the next edition of the Worst in the World. Nia Jax's first run with the WWE can really only be described as hard to watch. Sure, she had a few stand-out matches, most notably (and surprisingly) her match with Ronda Rousey at Money in the Bank, and an underrated gem with Bayley at NXT TakeOver: London, but those were always outshined by her most infamous matches and moments. She's since returned to WWE and, for the most part, seems to have improved a bit, but the reputation she got from her initial run is gonna be hard to shake off. This week, I'll be looking at some of Jax's worst matches. These include just flat-out bad matches, and matches that have become infamous examples of her reckless in-ring work. Match #1: vs Charlotte Flair-April 10th, 2017 Raw The first match we'll be looking at is from the April 10, 2017 episode of Monday Night Raw, when Nia took on Charlotte Flair. The two had been on the losing e

Worst in the World: Carmella vs Asuka: How to Destroy an Aura

Throughout the entire history of the WWE, we've never seen, and probably will never see again, a woman booked as strong as Asuka was to start her run. Coming into WWE in 2015 with over a decade of experience wrestling in her native Japan as Kana, Asuka was immediately treated like a huge deal. Hell, even from the first time we saw her on a WWE broadcast, she was seated in the crowd of NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn next to two Hall of Famers in Ric Flair & Sgt. Slaughter. Officially debuting in October 2015, Asuka would go her entire NXT career, nearly two full years, without being pinned or submitted. She was booked so strong, in fact, that instead of dropping the NXT Women's Championship in what would be her last match in NXT at the time to Ember Moon (even after sustaining an injury), an act that is almost always the case for champions leaving NXT for the main roster, Asuka retained and later vacated the title, keeping her streak intact. For a company that is more than willing t