On 28th September 2017, WWE aired its 267th episode of NXT, taped at Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida on 14th September. This week's main event had the competition debut of the Baybay of wrestling, Adam Cole against current NXT Tag Team Champion, Eric Young. A thoroughly packed undercard featured another debut as the CWC's Fabian Aichner took on Kassius Ohno, Liv Morgan faced Vanessa Borne while Oney Lorcan, Lars Sullivan and Heavy Machinery were also in action. With all this taken into consideration, was it any good?
SaNItY hit the ring. Eric Young talks about making a mark, that SanITy wrote the book on making the mark, between this and Authors of the Books of Pain and Domination, the NXT library is getting stocked up. In this universe time and space doesn't exist or matter, what matters is chaos, the only thing that's certain is change and tonight Eric Young is going to take Adam Cole to the edge of sanity.
Lars Sullivan def. Oney Lorcan
Before making his entrance, Lorcan is backstage, he says he didn't like Lars and how he pushes people around so he's going to teach him a lesson. They feel each other out to begin as Lorcan goes straight into a side headlock, he's bounced off the ropes and into a shoulder tackle, Sullivan deadlifts Lorcan who escapes with his elbows and lands a dropkick but Sullivan the big lad no sell rule and throws Oney out of the ring, he goes out to get him but Oney kicks him in the face to escape and then elbows Sullivan off the apron, Lorcan goes for a tope but is caught perfectly and dropped onto the apron before being gorilla pressed into the ring, back in and Lorcan hits European uppercuts and palm slaps to try and level Mr. Sullivan but he can't quite take him down till he himself is levelled by a large lariat from Lars and Sullivan slams him with the Side Spinebuster for the pin. This was a lovely, little violent spectacle. It made Lars look incredible but as always, Oney Lorcan still looks like the real fucking deal even in defeat. When they eventually let him escape from the sub-five minute match position, it's going to be beautiful.
Post-match, Lars goes to do a murder but Burch comes to Lorcan's rescue, giving Sullivan a bit of "come on then if you think you're 'ard enough". Friendship is alive again in NXT.
Kayla Braxton is backstage with Ruby Riot, the Iconic Duo have requested a rematch with Riot and 'her friend, Nikki Cross', Riot corrects Kayla, Cross is not her friend, she doesn't know what Cross is doing but if the Duo want a fight, she'll give them one and if Cross turns up, she'd better not get in her way.
Heavy Machinery def. Demetrius Bronson & Patrick Scott
Quick squash m8. Tucker and Patrick to start, Tucker quickly overpowers the tiny man with some wrasslin, Scott slaps Knights chest and immediately regrest it after, suplex to his corner and tag to Demetrius Bronson who is immediately taken out by Knight, tag to Dosevic for a double shoulder barge and a double diving headbutt, Bronson to the corner and jump into a sleeper on Dosevic, Bronson tries to take out Dosevic from the second rope but is caught into another suplex, tag to Scott who is run down by Dosevic and crushed with an elbow drop, Scott in the ring but he's corner splashed to death, tag to Knight and they hit the Compactor splash on both opponents for the pin. By Heavy Machinery match standards, this didn't annoy me too much but it really didn't do much to further any storytelling as Machinery aren't doing anything at the moment.
Inside the PC, Christy St. Cloud is with Roderick Strong, he's training like this could be his last chance, he's doing this for his family but also for himself, Drew McIntyre talks about knocking him out but Strong is the guy that always gets back up, he's got close to the title before but this time will be different because he knows he's indestructible and he wants Drew to know this might just be business but to Roddy, business is personal and he won't stop till he hears "...and new, NXT Champion Roderick Strong".
Liv Morgan def. Vanessa Borne
Hey everyone, Liv Morgan's still alive having not been in a televised match since NXT #246 back in April when she was in a battle royal for the Women's Title number 1 contendership, her opponent, Vanessa Borne, is another MYC competitor who lost in the first round to Serena Deeb. They lock-up to start as the two women try to power into a bodyslam but neither can hit it, they trade pinfall attempts, Borne hits a reverse elbow and goes to hit a second but Morgan dodges underneath, takes down Brone and hits a leg drop for a 1 count, Borne powers back htting forearms and a snap suplex to ground Morgan before slamming her head into the mat and a low boot, in the corner and Morgan dodges again spearing Borne into a schoolboy pin for a 2, Borne retaliates with a lariat for a 2 of her own but Morgan hits a drop toe hold into an O'Connor Roll for a 2 before hitting running facebusters and an enziguri into a kip-up, a corner stomp, a running bulldog and a Jumping Double Knee smash get Morgan the pin. These two worked a good match showing enough fire to propel them through the limited time sprint they had with Morgan looking possibly the best she's ever been. It lacked a little bit in dramatic tension but that can be pinned down to lacking the time to really let the story develop any structure.
We see a re-cap of Velveteen Dream crashing Aleister's Black Mass. Cut to: footage from the PC of Aleister Black kickboxing, he gets out of the ring and into an interview about the Dream. Black says that in this age of individuality, there is always one who thinks they're more unique, more special and left to their own devices, they have nothing left but to antagonise the hoard to get attention. Aleister Black refuses to acknowledge a child who holds their breath to get want they want, that throws a tantrum for attention and that if by being bizarre, Patrick (Velveteen Dream' Clark) thinks he has Black's attention, he's wrong. Savage
We get a hype-up promo package for recent NXT signee Fabian Aichner who lost to Jack Gallagher in the first round of the Cruiserweight Classic having done some great work in the past year on the independents (check out his matches at PROGRESS Chapters 37 & 41). He also had an interview earlier in the day on the YouTubes...
Kassius Ohno def. Fabian Aichner
If you were guessing lock-up to start, you guessed correctly, Ohno takes control into a headlock, Aichner tries to escape but Ohno adjusts into a cravate hold, Aichner escapes with a snapmare takedown into a standing armbar, breakout by Ohno into an uppercut from Aichner who goes for a boot but Ohno catches and hits a bigger one, knocking Aichner out of the ring, Ohno goes to follow but Aichner slides back in so Ohno does a flip on the ropes, Aichner runs into a big boot Ohno and back in the ring Ohno runs into a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker, Ohno rolls out of the ring and Aichner follows with a springboard crossbody to the outside on Ohno that only just avoids him headbutting the floor, back in the ring and Aichner with a delayed vertical suplex for a 2 count, he clubs Kassius' back with forearms and tries to go for a powerbomb but Ohno rolls him into a small package for a 2, a Euro uppercut by Aichner who runs the ropes, Ohno jumps for a Lou Thesz press but is caught into a fallaway slam, Aichner goes for a triangle springboard moonsault but Ohno dodges, hitting an elbow to the back of the neck, a shotgun kick, knees to the head, a cravate suplex and a Cyclone Kick for the pin. This was everything it needed to be, making Aichner's low-key re-debut at Full Sail as competitive a match as you were going to get in such a short time, displaying both his power game and his ability to the flips that Florida love. Ohno is picking up some steam again after a great TV feud with Itami and is looking like a strong contender to be contesting for some kind of title again soon.
A man is interviewing Drew McIntyre about his match with Roderick Strong, anyone who wants a match, all they have to do is ask and Strong has earnt his match but that he needs to give Drew his full attention, Drew believes Roddy could beat him but that next week is his first televised NXT title defence but it will not be his last.
Hype-up package for Kairi Sane. Nothing you haven't seen before if you watched the MYC.
Adam Cole comes out to the most generic entrance music I've heard in a while (bay. bay). Before the match, Cole gives a promo asking how NXT ever made it without The Undisputed ERA, that there's something new in the air, he asks the audience to take in the moment and how they feel change, a shock to the system and that are untouchable, unstoppable, undisputable, systematic, hydro-matic, ultro-matic, why, they're greased lightning!
A man is interviewing Drew McIntyre about his match with Roderick Strong, anyone who wants a match, all they have to do is ask and Strong has earnt his match but that he needs to give Drew his full attention, Drew believes Roddy could beat him but that next week is his first televised NXT title defence but it will not be his last.
Hype-up package for Kairi Sane. Nothing you haven't seen before if you watched the MYC.
Adam Cole comes out to the most generic entrance music I've heard in a while (bay. bay). Before the match, Cole gives a promo asking how NXT ever made it without The Undisputed ERA, that there's something new in the air, he asks the audience to take in the moment and how they feel change, a shock to the system and that are untouchable, unstoppable, undisputable, systematic, hydro-matic, ultro-matic, why, they're greased lightning!
Adam Cole def. Eric Young
Eric Young is out with his gang, Adam Cole is out with his, Young tries to psyche out Cole by not doing shit while Cole screams 'fight me', Cole goes for a clothesline but Young dodges and hits a double leg takedown before wailing on Cole, he powers him to the corner but the ref breaks things up, giving Cole a chance to cheap shot Young, he does the 'bay bay' shtick which is far too over for a heel, boo the heels Full Sail, fuck sake, back to the match and the two of them run the ropes and flip over each other till Young hits a running neckbreaker, a brawl looking to break out between the two gangs creates distraction for Cole to hit Young from being, work him over in the corner and hit him out of the ring with a leaping roundhouse kick, landing between the two warring factions, Cole rolls out and rolls Young back in for a 2, straight with the knees to the back , Cole works a grounded chinlock, Young escapes this but ends up back in a standing sleeper which he escapes as well with a belly-to-back suplex, both on their feet again and Young hits a reverse elbow, a big boot, running discuss strikes and a neckbreaker to ground Cole, he goes up top, Cole follow but is quickly knocked back down, ReDragon get back on the apron to distract Young from hitting an elbow drop but they are pulled down by the rest of SaNItY, Young decides to join the chaos and hits a crossbody to ReDragon on the outside, back in the ring and Cole hits a Standing Shining Wizard (not the shiniest though. We miss you, Nixon) for the pin. What could have been a lovely match resulted in probably one of the most ignominious debuts on NXT since Solomon Crowe. Cole was given nothing special to do and showed off no reason why he should be immediately pushed to the top of the deck, if I didn't know of some of the corkers he'd performed before coming to WWE, I can't imagine what I'd think of him. Young in the low-key face role, however, is shining and really can get the crowd behind him. Overall, not great.
On The YouTubes:
Kassius is hoping to keep this momentum going and beat some more people.
Some good, some bad but frankly, an overstuffed edition of NXT. 5 matches over the hour, which between them took up less than 25 minutes of screen time and a lot of heavy-lifting promo work made the entire affair feel a tad rushed. Perhaps if the undercard had been split over two weeks and given more time to actually let things have some impact, it could have been improved. Lorcan v Sullivan & Ohno v Aichner are both good fun if you have the time but otherwise, nothing much worth your time here.
Article by Jozef Raczka (@NotJozefRaczka)
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