Now, as promised, a special comment about the World Wrestling Entertainment/NXT house show on Thursday, October 11th at the Family Arena in St. Charles, Missouri.
DISCLAIMER: I'm biased. Deal with it.
I've lost my taste for WWE's main-roster events, especially the televised shows...I came close to going to the house show earlier this year, but once A.J. Styles vs. Shinsuke Nakamura was off the table I changed my mind. However, NXT house shows are a different animal entirely and I enjoyed last year's offering at the Family Arena, so I carpooled with Ben Simon to the festivities.
Your ring announcer was Kayla Braxton; your referees were D.A. Brewer & Eddie Orengo.
We saw an introductory video from Triple H to kick off the evening...it's so weird to reconcile evil main-roster bad guy troll Triple H with proud NXT dad Triple H. From all accounts, HHH is a huge fan of old-school wrestling; a lot of people seem to be hoping for that sentiment to transfer to the WWE product if/when he gets more creative control. Only time will tell, of course...with our luck the company will be endlessly run by Vince McMahon's head in a jar a la Futurama.
The Street Profits(Angelo Dawkins & Montez Ford) vs. The Forgotten Sons(Jaxson Ryker & Wesley Blake): Ironically, the Forgotten Sons seemed to have forgotten Steve Cutler on this night. It took quite a few gimmick shifts for Dawkins to find something that truly worked for him...at one time, he was rumored to be a part of a "Shoot Nation" stable with Chad Gable, Jason Jordan, Sawyer Fulton, and Tucker Knight. Of course Gable & Jordan became American Alpha, while Dawkins & Fulton teamed on NXT television a few times; Knight wouldn't make it onto the programming until teaming with Otis Dozovic as one-half of Heavy Machinery. Montez Ford is an impressive athlete and has a ton of charisma, so I could easily see him as a singles star in the future. I'm not sure what's in the cards for the 'Sons, though Ryker(formerly Gunner in TNA and Phil Shatter on the independent circuit) seems to be their main prospect. I think I heard someone in the audience try for a "TNA" chant for Ryker but it didn't catch on. A blind tag and knee clip allowed the 'Sons to isolate Ford for a while, but Dawkins got the hot tag and became the proverbial House Afire(tm). Dawkins planted Blake with a spinebuster/Skyhigh variant, then Ford(having tagged back in) finished with the frog splash in 8:35. Since this show, the Profits would shock the wrestling world by winning the EVOLVE Tag Team Titles from Chris Dickinson & Jaka, signalling a shift in EVOLVE's roster to feature some of NXT's lesser-used competitors.
Raul Mendoza vs. Kassius Ohno: Mendoza competed in the Cruiserweight Classic and has occasionally appeared on 205 Live and NXT TV since that time; more recently he has formed a tag team with Humberto Carrillo(formerly Ultimo Ninja). Ohno's character has shifted into a grumpy veteran who is tired of being overlooked for opportunities in favor of the "shiny new toy" of the month. This puts him in the position of working with the younger up-and-coming wrestlers as they adjust to the WWE/NXT product and presentation. Mendoza went from being a virtual unknown to St. Louis fans to getting pretty good reactions for his aerial maneuvers by the end of the bout. Anyone familiar with Ohno/Chris Hero at all knows what he brings to the table: A huge arsenal of strikes along with a technical game that he's refined around the globe. Mendoza withstood Ohno's assault for most of the match, leading to Ohno pulling out a finisher that nearly defied description...I had to rewatch someone's GIF on Twitter multiple times before I referred to it as a "powerbomb pickup dropped into a spinning Michinoku Driver". Whatever it was, it got the win in 8:40.
Candice LeRae & Dakota Kai vs. Aliyah Areebi & Reina Gonzalez: Gonzalez made a good impression in the recent Mae Young Classic. I knew that Kai and Aliyah were on the show, but Candice was a nice surprise as well. The fan favorite side of this match was exceptionally cheerful, as per their respective characters, though Candice has taken a darker turn in recent weeks along with her husband Johnny Gargano. I've quickly become a big fan of the New Zealander Kai...she's good in the ring and very cute too. Aliyah is an odd case as she's repeatedly slipped through the cracks in NXT...she's recently settled into the rulebreaking role and hopefully that'll give her a bit more stability. Aliyah tried to boss around her larger tag team partner, leading to a rift between the two as Reina walked out on her partner. Candice went on to finish Aliyah with the Unprettier in 9:15.
Johnny Gargano vs. Lars Sullivan: This came about as a result of Gargano accepting Sullivan's open challenge...it would be tough to think of a bigger size and power discrepancy between two competitors. I don't really have a problem with Lars; I imagine it's easy to look at someone as big as him and think "Vince McMahon is gonna love this guy". (Sure enough, he's already on the fast track to the main roster.) Gargano has been defined by his partnership and subsequent feud with Tommaso Ciampa; it's led to a level of obsession where he's committed some questionable acts in his pursuit of revenge on The Sicilian Psychopath. Considering how good of a fan favorite he is, I wonder how feasible it will be to get him back to "good guy" territory again. I could see Candice being the angel on his shoulder in opposition to Ciampa's devil who finally gets him back to the Light Side of The Force. They did a really good job of making Gargano out to be a threat to Sullivan, though he had to throw everything but the kitchen sink at the big man to wear him down. Gargano rallied after Lars missed a swandive headbutt, then countered an attempted Freak Accident(waistlock uranagi) into a DDT before delivering a close-range superkick...for 2 1/2. Gargano went to the top rope, but Lars shoved the referee into the ropes to knock Gargano off-balance...and that led to a disqualification in 9:36. Lars continued his assault on Gargano and brought in a chair, but Gargano superkicked Lars and nailed him twice with the chair before the big man retreated.
NXT Tag Team Champions The Undisputed Era(Roderick Strong & Kyle O'Reilly) vs. Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch, non-title: Lorcan & Burch had challenged for the belts at a previous Takeover but fell just short; I'm unclear why they didn't rate a title shot here, but it may have had to do with Lorcan's injury layoff. While practically every set of Tag Titles in existence seem to function under Freebird Rules(any two of the group can defend), it was the reDRagon pairing of O'Reilly & Bobby Fish who won them the first time. When Fish was injured, Adam Cole subbed for him until Roderick Strong turned on United Kingdom Champion "The Bruiserweight" Pete Dunne and joined the stable. From there it was usually Strong & O'Reilly defending until they dropped the belts to Moustache Mountain(Tyler Bate & Trent Seven), but then Strong & O'Reilly quickly regained the belts to OFFICIALLY become the champs. Lorcan & Burch had a series of matches with each other that led to them becoming a regular team, as their similar looks and brawling styles fit well with each other. A lot of NXT fans seem to be REALLY pro-Era; on this night, it meant that Lorcan & Burch got a few boos. These duos work very well together and this was one of my favorite matches of the night...after a whole bunch of close calls, Strong pinned Lorcan in 12:46 after he and O'Reilly hit the legsweep/flying boot combo.
Intermission~! Official Ben Simon Concession Count(tm): Nothing...glad there was a water fountain there. Five bucks for a soda? I'll pass...
Ricochet vs. Adam Cole for the NXT North American Title: Cole wanted a one-on-one rematch for the title he lost to Ricochet at Takeover...on television, he only had a triple threat match with Ricochet and Pete Dunne (and Ricochet pinned Dunne to win that). While the crowd LOVED to sing along with "ADAM COLE BAY-BAY!", the fan support was more even than in the tag match. After a really good competitive matchup, Ricochet won with a shooting star press in 13:40...most tremendous.
Kairi Sane vs. Lacey Evans for the NXT Women's Title: Evans has been featured heavily on NXT television, so she was in prime position to challenge for Kairi's title...she also holds a previous win over Kairi. She worked well as the rulebreaking foil to the flashier style of the champion...my only real nitpick is that I'm not fond of punch finishers like her "Woman's Right". Call it old-school mentality since closed fists are supposed to be illegal in wrestling, though that's begun to fall by the wayside more and more in recent times. Lacey has plenty in her arsenal and used it to great effectiveness, but it wasn't quite enough to overcome the titleholder...Kairi retained her pirate treasure after the diving elbowdrop off the top in 8:20.
Tommaso Ciampa vs. "The Velveteen Dream" Patrick Clark for the NXT Title: This was an interesting choice to headline the show, but Dream was extremely popular at the Family Arena. While he had been cast as the rulebreaker in his previous feuds, the fans had been entertained by his character and gave him increasingly positive reactions over time. This was the first program where he was truly and definitively the fan favorite. If I'm not mistaken, this was the first ever one-on-one matchup between these competitors as well. The title wasn't likely to change hands, so it was just a matter of how things would play out. Dream targeted Ciampa's previously-injured knee in the early going, even utilizing the ringpost figure-four. Later in the bout, the two fought for a suplex until both went tumbling over the top to the floor. Ciampa got desperate and brought in the title belt, but Dream rolled up him for two, then hit his swinging DDT onto the title belt for a super-close near-fall. A superkick and rolling Dream Valley Driver earned him another close 2 1/2-count. The titleholder was able to cut him off and hit the Project Ciampa(powerbomb into backcracker), but it only got 2 1/2! It went down to the wire, but Ciampa was able to catch Dream stepping through the ropes and hit the hanging DDT to retain in 19:59. Whew! Good times.
I saw a few Glory Pro representatives outside the building aftewards with flyers for their upcoming show...hey, the New World Order! At any rate, fun evening...
The rest of the year looks like this:
-Saturday 12/15: Dynamo Pro in St. Louis, MO(FUBAR); Southern Illinois Championship Wrestling in East Carondelet, IL
-Sunday 12/16: Pro Wrestling Force in Springfield, IL
-Saturday 12/22: Dynamo Pro in St. Louis, MO(Concordia Turners Gym)
That's my special comment for this, the sixty-second wrestling show I've attended in the year 2018. Good night, good luck, and #yaywrestling.
-PB, Watching Wrestling Wrong Since 1991
P.S. We are all marks.
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