Skip to main content

My Thoughts on NXT (3/23/16): The Drifter Lost, So I'm Happy

By
  • Elias Sampson vs Johnny Gargano-I'm going to be completely honest, I skipped the majority of this match because:
A. F*ck the Drifter

B. I don't want to see the Drifter beat Johnny Gargano...
BUT HE DIDN'T!  GARGANO REVERSED A HIGH KNEE INTO A ROLL UP FOR THE WIN! YES! YES! YES! F*CK THE DRIFTER! THIS IS JUST LIKE WRESTLEMANIA 30 WITH DANIEL BRYAN WINNING THE WWE CHAMPIONSHIP! Sorry, got a little carried away there, back to what happened. Drifter beats down Gargano afterwards, hits a swinging neckbreaker, and tosses him to the outside. He hits his big high knee, and calls for his swinging neckbreaker again on the entrance ramp, but Apollo Crews makes the save. By the way, f*ck the Drifter.
  • Rich Swann vs Finn Balor-Match kicks off with Balor taking advantage with a headlock takedown. Swann breaks the hold, but quickly gets an wrist lock. Balor continues with holds, even holding onto a wristlock out of a monkey flip, and switches to a headlock. Swann escapes by locking in headscissors, and hitting a hurricanrana, but Balor goes back to the holds. Swann escapes from a headlock with a snapmare takedown and runs wild, hitting a dropkick after flipping to avoid Balor, followed by a superkick that sends Balor into the corner. Balor goes to the top rope, but Swann jumps from the ground for a frankensteiner and dropkicks Balor out of the ring. Balor clobbers Swann with a running forearm and sends Swann out of the ring, hitting a kick from the apron while out there. Balor gets Swann back in the ring, hits his missile dropkick into the corner, and finishes Swann after a Coup de Grace, followed by Bloody Sunday for the win. Painfully boring match to start. but picked up a lot at the end. Swann is great and very exciting, hope to see more of him in the future.
  • Backstage, Emma and Dana Brooke get interviewed about Emma's match with Asuka tonight. Emma says a lot is different from Takeover: London, and Dana says she has been giving Emma fitness advice. Dana reveals she's been injured since her match with Asuka at Takeover: Respect, and calls her self the "Total Package" If she want's to be the lady version of Lex Luger, I'm all for it. She said if she could, she would squash Asuka, but because she can't, Emma will. Emma says she deserves Asuka's title match at Takeover: Dallas, and says "She may be the Empress of Tomorrow, but she's not gonna last past today" Beautiful. Emma is the best. Dana then fakes out Alex Reyes with the head pat, then does it anyway because Dana Brooke is also the best. This team is the best. I hope they never split up.
  • Alexa Bliss vs Sarah Dobson-Match starts with lock up, followed by Dobson dropkicking Bliss, but Bliss quickly takes control. Bliss is such a great heel, straight up just standing on Dobson and using her hair for a snapmare takedown. Bliss works over Dobson until Dobson does a Ric Flair-style flip over the top rope, and hits a big knee to the gut. Dobson hits a top rope crossbody where Dobson smacks Bliss right in the face with her knees for a two. Dobson goes a for something (I have no idea what she was going for), but Murphy pulls Bliss out of the way and Dobson gets her foot caught on the rope. Bliss hits a standing moonsault landing on her knees, and follows up with the Sparkle Splash for the win. Sloppy match, not very good.
  • Backstage, Samoa Joe gets interviewed. Alex Reyes brings up Finn Balor's winning streak as of late, which makes Samoa Joe get in his face and leave.
  • Bull Dempsey vs-Nevermind, Samoa Joe blindsides Bull and locks in the Coquita Clutch. Joe gets in the ring, asks for a mic, but instead beats up Danny Burch and locks in a Coquita Clutch. The crowd chants "Thank You Joe".
  • We get a FANTASTIC promo package about American Alpha. Jordan & Gable both bring up their amateur wrestling backgrounds, and how they both failed to win the big one (the national college championship for Jordan, the olympic gold medal in London in 2012 for Gable), but they will not fail this time.
  • We get a vignette for...something. Some guy named Jose, I guess. Seems like Latino Adam Rose, if you ask me.
  • Emma vs Asuka-Match kicks off with a lock up, and after getting forced into a corner, Asuka dodges a strike, but Emma dodges a spin kick. Emma takes control with a headlock takedown, followed by taking Asuka down with a shoulder tackle after Asuka gets out. Asuka locks in her own headlock, and locks in a jumping armbar after a series of reversals. Emma goes on the apron after escaping and gets taken out with a hip attack and sent to the ground as we go to commercial. Back to the match, Asuka takes control with a hammer lock, followed by an ankle lock. Emma is able to roll out of the hold, tossing Asuka from the ring in the process, and pulls Asuka back first into the apron when she tries to get back into the ring. Emma works over Asuka, stomping away and eventually locking in a headlock. Asuka fights back with kicks, but Emma dodges one and pulls Asuka down by her hair to halt the comeback. Emma goes back to work with knees to the back before eventually locking her in the Tree of Woe, pulling her farther to the outside by her hair. Emma follows that up with an Emma-mite Sandwich for only a one count, followed by Asuka kicking out before one on a second cover. Asuka fights back with a hip attack and does the Daniel Bryan kicks, but Emma catches one and after trading strikes and dodging another spin kick, floors Asuka with a forearm. Emma hits a dropkick that sends Asuka right into the ropes and follows it up with a hip attack for a two count. Emma forces Asuka into the corner and rolls her up, but gets caught with her feet on the ropes. Emma dodges a third spin kick, but gets caught in an ankle lock turned into a German suplex by Asuka followed by a running knee. Asuka locks in the Asuka Lock for the win. Good match, not as good as their match in London, but still good.
And that's about it. The Drifter lost so this is officially the best episode of NXT in history. OK, in all seriousness, the show was fine. Nothing too bad. Emma-Asuka and the American Alpha video were the highlights, and the low point was definitely the Bliss-Dobson match.
Thanks for reading. Be sure to share if you enjoyed. Also, check out my Patreon.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

More from The Wrestling Section

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

By
(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
104 comments
Read more

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

By
(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
3 comments
Read more

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

By
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
6 comments
Read more

Worst in the World: Nia Jax's Worst Matches

By
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
8 comments
Read more

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

By
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
116 comments
Read more