NXT TakeOver: New Orleans Preview

On 7th April, NXT is set to take over the Smoothie King Center, New Orleans, LO, as part of the WWE's Wrestlemania weekend, however, in a confusing reversal of situations, the pre-Mania TakeOver is more like NXT's SummerSlam than it is their WrestleMania, their WrestleMania, of course, being the annual Brooklyn show, which takes place the day before Summerslam. Anyway, we here at ATPW sure do love our previews, so here's one for this show, think of it like a pre-show but with no Peter Rosenberg so much better. Talking of pre-shows, why not tune in for the KickOff at Midnight (if you're in America, please check your local listings) with an all-star panel including NFL All-Pro Punter Pat McAfee (whatever that means) giving us all the chat and discussion required for an hour before the actual show at 1am (once again, check your listings, US). Till then, why not enjoy this preview with the sounds of our themes for this show courtesy of New Orleans own, Cane Hill...

NXT North American Championship Ladder Match:     EC3 vs Adam Cole Velveteen Dream vs Ricochet vs Lars Sullivan vs Killian Dain

I would imagine there's a strong chance this match opens the show as its a match with little build, little in the way of emotional attachment but with six men and a whole load of ladders set to be in the ring, has the potential to set the stage with some good and crazy action. This match, and indeed, title, have been mostly made to accommodate the expanding ranks of the NXT Men's Single's division making it so that everyone going after one title is getting ridiculous. What about the United Kingdom Championship I hear you ask, surely that title could have been expanded in its focus in order to accommodate such a position? Well, the answer is fuck off, we don't need your kind of logic around here. Also, with UK Champion Pete Dunne in the Tag Title match later, it's not like they could have a non-full time talent working double duty. Still, what works well here is that there is no way to predict which of these six men will be taking the title with a strong mix of indie darlings like the debuting EC3 & Ricochet through to Velveteen Dream & Lars Sullivan, two men who've cut their teeth here in NXT and really made themselves cornerstones of their division. 

What to expect from this one is an interesting thought as beyond Ricochet, we don't really have many flippy boys in this so traditional WWE ladder match booking would suggest he'll do the really cool spot that everyone talks about but not win it, Dain & Sullivan still feel like even after this week's NXT, they still have some unresolved issues so likelihood is, the feuding between those two might distract them from climbing that ladder which leaves Cole who might not even be in the match as he might be helping O'Reilly defend the tag-team titles, Dream who is just wonderful in every way & EC3, a man who by the end of the night, everyone will realise he is what Bobby Roode pretended to be, if they don't know, now they'll know. This is my long-winded way of saying I don't know, spoiler alert though, it's probably going to be at least a little bit good.

NXT Tag Team Championship & Dusty Classic Cup: Undisputed Era (Bobby Fish & Kyle O'Reilly) (c) vs Strong x Bitter & Authors of Pain

You may notice that Adam Cole is in the photo above as well. This is because over the past month/s, NXT has been running the third Dusty Rhodes Tag-Team Classic, an eight-team tournament for the prestigious title, previously won by Finn Balor & Samoa Joe and Authors of Pain, but also a shot at the Tag-Team Championships. On the one side of the finals, we had the previous winners Authors of Pain who smashed through TM-61 and Street Profits to get here and on the other side, Pete Dunne and Roderick Strong, a make-shift team formed after Moustache Mountain (Tyler Bate & Trent Seven) were forced to bow out when Tyler aggravated an angle injury while at Brighton's Riptide Wrestling, who fought past Danny Burch & Oney Lorcan and SAnitY to make it here. With poor Bobby Fish out on injury, Kyle O'Reilly and Cole decided to crash the final and cause a double disqualification, no winners, no challengers, smart eh? so O'Reilly was given three choices: wrestle alone, Cole does double-duty or Cole drops out of the Ladder Match.

Unsurprisingly, it seems he's chosen to work double duty, so one of the major factors of this match in play is card order as Cole or Cole & O'Reilly are at a significant disadvantage depending on which match goes on last of the two, though if this is the first of the two, it puts all three teams on a roughly equal-footing as Undisputed Era have beaten Authors of Pain before (twice if you count War Games), Authors of Pain have won tag gold, dusty cups and tag three-way dances before and the team we here like to call Strong x Bitter have tag-team success written through their DNA with former PROGRESS, Ring of Honor & PWG reigns between them, a UK title still in their team's grasp and the knowledge that the first Dusty Classic was won by a makeshift team like them. If it's not clear, as a Midlands boy myself, I'm calling a win for Strong x Bitter and rooting for them but mostly, I'm just looking forward to watching some good, solid tag action. Expect lots of big strikes, big moves and at one point, if we're lucky, Pete Dunne will punch Adam Cole out of the air. Won't that be a treat?

NXT Women's Championship: Ember Moon (c) vs Shayna Baszler

If you're getting a sense of deja vu, yes, we did only recently see this match at the last TakeOver and also once more in between, as well as frequent attacks on each other. The dispute between these revolves around Baszler thinking Moon isn't fit to lead as she couldn't defeat Asuka, she couldn't hit the Eclipse on Baszler who kept her grounded having to use a roll-up to get victory and when Baszler was given another match, she won but via disqualification after an angry Kairi Sane returned and attacked her, only for Baszler to make reasonably easy work of Sane. Much like last time, expect this match to come down to a David-Goliath type match-up with Moon once again seeking that Eclipse top-rope stunner while Baszler will want to lock in and preferably never let go of the Kirifuda Clutch. As to whom shall walk out of that arena with the title, it's hard to call, it feels like Ember is only ever one Eclipse away from retaining but especially with her friend Ronda Rousey making her pro-wres debut the next night, it seems like maybe Baszler is being set up to take the title and run with it for a while, especially as there's still some unsolved animosity between Baszler, Sane and Dakota Kai to sort out if Moon were to make the move Main Roster-wards...

Unsanctioned Match: Johnny Gargano vs Tommaso Ciampa

This has been a long time coming, almost a year in fact. Let me take you back to Chicago as after they'd just lost their last shot at the NXT Tag Team Titles, Ciampa would turn viciously on Gargano, knowing that he was going to be out for a while on injury time, he wanted to make a statement before he did, one that for a long time, broke Gargano, forcing him to try and exorcise the monkey on his back that is Ciampa because that's what you do to monkey. Eventually Gargano started winning again, earning a shot at the NXT title but even then, wasn't quite enough and just as he was at his lowest, having lost his shot, there was Ciampa again because exorcising doesn't work on back monkeys, especially when they get involved in your Title vs Career rematch and force you to lose your job. It's at this point, the waters get muddied as Ciampa spent a few weeks struggling to get a word in edgeways as he simultaneously continued to be the best heel in NXT and also it's greatest hero for standing up to the awful sturmundrang of the NXT audience till he got tired of their caterwauling and Gargano's hounding of him and agreed to a match, unsanctioned of course because let's not forget, Gargano is fired but if he wins, he gets his job back, loses, he's gone forever.

There's almost too much history behind this match to cover but regardless, this is going to be one of the most emotional matches of the weekend, just as much, maybe more important to the wrestling scene as a whole than Kenny Omega vs Cody as every single second has the entire heart of NXT hanging in the balance, this is for something more important than the actual title, this is a match for the philosophical centre of the developmental brand, is this a place of good or evil? Also, most importantly, can this top Gargano v Almas because that shit was tight? As it's unsanctioned, expect this one to be more of a brawl than a technical classic. Ultimately, this seems like it's Gargano's match to win as he needs his job and assuming they get enough time for this, it's unlikely Ciampa looks any weaker in loss, especially coming back from a lengthy spell on the injured list but never count out the Sicilian psychopath as he might well pull it out of the bag, setting up his own chance at going after that big slice of NXT gold (and who amongst us doesn't see money in Black v Ciampa?) while Gargano, surely the bright post-mania lights of RAW or Smackdown could be a' callin'.

NXT Championship: Andrade Almas (c) vs Aleister Black

Cast your mind back to NXT TakeOver: Orlando last year, Tommy End, now going by the name Aleister Black made his official NXT debut (having competed against Neville at the United Kingdom Championship tournament) against Andrade 'Cien' Almas. It was a well-fought match but in the end, Black came out on top with reasonable ease. That was, however, a different Almas, that was Almas before he met Zelina Vega, that was Almas before his five-star classic with Johnny Gargano, that was the Almas that I usually dismissed by just calling him a 'lad'. He was floundering, now he's at the very top of the NXT pyramid of greatness and the man who calls himself 'The Idol' and '100' is a far more motivated and more dangerous man than he was this time last year, for proof of that, see how he dragged Black from car park to the ring, destroying and nearly drowning him along the way. Though in the other corner, somewhere between good and evil, sits Aleister Black, a man with only two losses to this particular name in NXT and one of those he wasn't even in or around the ring for, he's someone who's been on a tear and seemed like he's been destined for the NXT title since he stepped into Full Sail but no one should expect Almas and definitely not Vega to go down without one heck of a fight.

Pardon the innuendo but expect this one to go long and stiff as even with their differing backgrounds, both men are known as much for their technical expertise as the swift, hard-hitting nature of their strikes. They are both also known to bust out a moonsault or two every so often so that'll be fun. As much as Gargano-Ciampa is the biggest story going into the show, I'd still expect this one to go on last as it's the main title, it really should and I don't see any world in which if Gargano and Ciampa haven't tore the entire house down, that these two don't tear down the rest. As to who's walking out with that lovely golden belt, as much as I'd love to see Almas hold on to it forever, I think that Black is walking out with his first WWE prize slung over his shoulder and you know what, if the crowd chant 'you deserve it' at him, yeah, he bloody well does.

Any Other Predictions...

So with Pete Dunne in the Tag match, it's unlikely there'll be a separate UK Championship match, as a result, I'm going to assume the card is just these five matches and I'm fine with that as I can't see any of them not being at least good. This being a TakeOver, this is really the bit where I mostly speculate about what 'hottest free agent' will be in the crowd, this time around, I will keep saying that it could be Christopher (Donovan) Dijak but really it could be anyone. I mean, as part of the deal with PROGRESS and EVOLVE, Keith Lee, WALTER, Zack Gibson and others will be participating in Axxess so who knows? If it turns out to be Jason Kincaid, I don't really know anything about him so you'll have to come up with your own thoughts. Of course, the big question we all have is will Triple H appear and do a big crowd warm-up 'we are NXT' speech? I hope so, who doesn't pop for those every, damn, time?

Article By Jozef Raczka (@NotJoeRaczka)

WWE NXT Review // 28th March 2018

On 28th March 2018, WWE aired its 293rd episode of NXT, filmed at Center Stage, Atlanta, GA on 7th March. Our main event was a Dusty Classic semi-final as the newly formed team of Roderick Strong and Pete Dunne took on former NXT Tag Team Champions, SaNitY. The show also featured another Dusty Classic Semi in the form of Authors of Pain vs Street Profits as well as action from Lars Sullivan, Dakota Kai, Andrade Almas & Aleister Black. As always, I do ask you, dear audience, was it any good?

On his way to the arena, Tommaso Ciampa is hounded by fans and the press, he complains to William Regal that Gargano has been attacking him in the ring, stalking him at his physiotherapy sessions and at his house. Regal tells him it is becoming a spot of bother and books a match for TakeOver: New Orleans, but as Gargano doesn't work here anymore, it has to be an Unsanctioned Match. If Gargano wins, he gets his job back, if not, he's gone forever.

William Regal Has An Announcement

William Regal welcomes everyone to the arena and then announces that the announcement he announced last week was that NXT is introducing a new secondary men's championship, something to determine who is the best competitor in North America, the NXT North American Championship. As he's talking about this, up turns the man who's won practically everything there is to win in Impact and is now here in NXT, EC3. He talks about how good it is to be here and how he looks forward to making a shit-ton of money for the company and how he has a banger of a theme (he does). He then thanks William Regal for knowing that the best in North America was coming so making a title just for him. Regal tells him that while he has a chance at the title off the bat, he doesn't get anything without earning it, so he'll be competing in a Ladder Match at TakeOver to crown the first champion. EC3 responds it doesn't matter how many men you put in his way, he's still leaving with that champion. This was a really good opening, already cementing EC3 as someone who is going to be important in the yellow brand going forward as well as making another big match for TakeOver.

Charly Caruso is in the NXT Control Centre, giving us a recap of what we've missed so far in the Dusty Classic.

TM-61 are being interviewed back at the Performance Centre about their loss in the first round and how they need to change their attitude as this has halted their returning momentum but they're not down and out because they're the Mighty and the Mighty... get interrupted by a fight breaking out behind them between Shayna Baszler & Ember Moon because Baszler was bullying someone or just generally standing around waiting for Moon to punch her. This was more fun than I've made it sound.

Dusty Classic Semi-Final // Authors of Pain def. Street Profits // Pinfall

Quick squash m8. Ford came in first but quickly bailed when he felt a slap to the face from an Author, Dawkins actually fared a little better, out-striking his opponent and clearing house with a spinebuster to the other, sadly the loss for the team came when Ford, on the outside, got distracted offering his solo cup to Ellering who slapped it away, causing Ford to stalk him up the entrance ramp, opening up a distracted Dawkins to be hit with The Last Chapter legsweep-clotheslin combo. I don't know what they were going for but if the plan was to make Street Profits look like fucking idiots, they achieved it.

We go back to Charly in the Control Centre for an update. Thank you, Charly.

Cathy Kelly is interviewing William Regal about whether any other competitors are officially announced for the North American Title Ladder Match, he confirms Adam Cole will be in it. Velveteen Dream turns up and demands a spot, Regal agrees. This is shaping up nicely, isn't it?

Lars Sullivan def. John Silver // Pinfall

Quicker squash m8. In the battle of Long vs John SIlver, Long won, I think the closest Silver got to any offence was successfully locking-up with Sullivan at the beginning before he realised he had no reversals and Sullivan repeatedly hit murder. Lars eating tiny men is always fun and this did exactly what it had to. Sullivan won with a big diving headbutt and the Freak Accident modified side slam for the pin.

Cathy Kelly is interviewing Regal again when Sullivan walks by, just in time for Regal to offer him a spot in the NXT North American Championship Ladder Match. Lars looks forward to this but before he gets there, he wants Killian Dain . Regal tells him Dain is in the Ladder Match as well but because Regal likes booking matches, Sullivan goes tete-a-tete with Dain next week.

Dakota Kai def...Hey What's That Going On Over There?

Dakota Kai made her way to the ring but before a match could start the cameras cuts to Andrade Almas and Zelina Vega attacking Aleister Black in the car park. Almas battered Black through the arena, nearly drowning him at one point and beating him all the way to the ring, walking away, hoisting his title having got his own back on the Dutch shitkicker for what he said about him at the Contract Signing he never turned up to. This was a great, little segment to build to the TakeOver main event but I have to say, my favourite thing was watching Kai try and sneak away unnoticed in the back of the shot. 

Dusty Classic Semi-Final: Strong X Bitter def. SaNitY // Pinfall

In a move that will surprise no one, this was a really good main event. What was clever was how it played off Strong's past, having feuded along with Tye Dillinger, Kassius Ohno, No Way Jose and Ruby Riott with SaNitY, to build an intensity and animosity as well as a desperation from both teams to succeed, this helped frame the face v face action with some stakes and storytelling to stop it being just a split-support from the crowd. They worked a good, exciting finale to the episode, with all four men looking good and getting in a lot of their signature stuff with Alexander Wolfe getting in another reminder of how overlooked he is considering his incredibly fun performances. It wasn't a match without its problems though, as it lacked a certain sense of drama down the home-stretch that could have done perhaps with a little more in the way of tag work as it felt far more like four singles competitors than two teams though that does play well into the fragile truce between Strong and Dunne, this also felt more like the exhibition 'spotfest' style of tag match at times which while entertaining, did feel a little unnecessary. The finish came as Strong hit End of Heartache on Young before Dunne tagged in and they hit a double team Bitter End. Fun stuff, but still not quite essential. Much like the rest of this Dusty Classic so far, it's had good moments but it's all felt a little too rushed to seem, well, classic.

Cathy Kelly is backstage hoping to hear from William Regal who the sixth competitor is for the ladder match. Regal says she's in luck and he goes to fetch him. Trevor 'Ricochet' Mann would emerge from Regal's office to canned applause, looking like he was buttoning up his suit so what he had to do to get that spot, I don't know. The pre-recorded crowd chant his nickname to end the show.

Finally...

Considering the amount of heavy-lifting this show had to do with setting up the North American Title, the Ladder Match for it, Gargano vs Ciampa, continuing to build to the Tag Title match and also continuing the builds for Black v Almas and Baszler v Moon, it's impressive that the show managed to do all of it without collapsing under its own weight. The problem of this is that so much of it ended up being enjoyable but passable as beyond the opening segment, nothing felt like it got quite enough time to properly build. That said, with four very good sounding matches confirmed and two very good teams in the Dusty Classic final, we could be set for an all-time great TakeOver special.

Written By Jozef Raczka // @NotJoeRaczka

WWE NXT Review // 28th February 2018

On 28th February 2018, WWE aired its 289th episode of NXT, filmed at Center Stage, Atlanta, GA on 2nd February. Our main event match was a rematch from the Mae Young Classic finals as SHayna Baszler took on the woman who cost her a second title shot, Kairi Sane though the actual final segment was a speech by Zelina Vega and Andrade Almas. The card also featured action from Adam Cole & Cezar Bononi and Velveteen Dream taking on Tyler Bate. But was it any good?

Velveteen Dream def. Tyler Bate // Pinfall

Velveteen Dream is 22yrs old, Tyler Bate is only 20. Between the two of them, they are 6 years younger than Triple H and yet they are still putting on matches like this, even if this wasn't the best match in the world, still, consider it in comparison to how old they are. Sadly, this match semmed to just exist with no real emotion or verve behind it. Given ten minutes, the two performers worked a clean, well-structured match, playing Dream's lack of respect for Bate as Dream was surprised as he was out-wrestled at every turn early on. After the ad-break, the match became a bit more back-and-forth as both men threw their signature offence in, hoping to gain their upper hand. Dream eventually resorted to a cheap-ish trick as he pushed Bate off the post onto the top rope crotch-first before hitting the Purple Rainmaker for the pin. These two are young and I'm sure will have better battles in the future but this didn't quite live up to the hype for me.

Paul Ellering is backstage, he talks about how Authors of Pain won the second Dusty Classic and this is the road to them reclaiming the NXT Tag-Team Titles. Then up turn Ellering's lads and they basically say the same thing.

Adam Cole def. Cezar Bononi // Pinfall

Before the match started, Adam Cole offered Bononi a spot in the Era but it was a distraction to set up a sneak attack. This ended up being a quick squash m8 as Bononi had a brief spot of retaliation getting a Michinoku driver for a 2 but otherwise this was all Cole. This gets another win for Cole who's clearly going to be a big deal in NXT but Bononi in no way looks the 'Future Star' his NXT 2017 Award says he is. Maybe he'll do better in longer matches.

We get a Kairi Sane-Shayna Baszler video package. This tells the story incredibly well, especially for those who haven't been watching/just forgot.

Street Talk's back. Did you miss Street Talk? I know I did. They do a skit of interviewing each other as 'random people on the street' about who's going to win the Dusty Classic. They pick themselves obviously. We then get another look at the tournament bracket while a rockin' remix of Dusty's theme plays in the background.

Shayna Baszler def. Kairi Sane // Submission

I don't know what to think about this match. Baszler and Sane work well together, that much was clear from the Mae Young Classic finals but there was something lacking here, I don't know whether it was the lack of time lead to certain sections of the match feeling rushed or a lack of clarity over what they're trying to do with Sane who they seem to want to sell as one of the best in the world but also imminently beatable but much like the first match, this felt like it was lacking a certain intensity you want that gives a contest that 'big fight feel'. The work itself was well thought out as Baszler tried to keep Sane grounded but frequently was unable to keep down the Pirate Princess with the finish coming as Baszler was able to suddenly pull Sane into the Kirufuda Clutch for the tapout. It might not have been the best match but the result was right as Baszler is clearly not finished with Moon and this makes the eventual third match between Sane and Baszler all the bigger.

Post-match: Bazler having been pulled off Sane, goes over to the announce desk to tell them that Ember Moon is a coward and the next time she sees her, she's leaving with a title or a limb. Would love to see her just walk off with one of Moon's arms all casual like.

The Champs Have Something to Say

Andrade Almas and Zelina Vega came out and gloated about vanquishing Johnny Gargano from the NXT universe, it's like he's actually gone, Mauro Ranallo even used the 'future endeavours' line earlier, I miss him so much. Anyway, they went on to talk about how Andrade is the greatest NXT champion of all time and how they turned 'Johnny Wrestling' into 'Johnny Jobless'. It wasn't amazing stuff but it did get some actual response from the audience and that means something. Almas continues to improve on the mic but is still much better off leaving Vega to do the talking. They raised the title to close the show.

Next Week: Dusty Classic Quarter Finals start: and it's a rematch of the last classic's final as Authors of Pain take on TM61 in what's sure to be a-

Hold the phone, this was not the end of the show as A Challenger approaches in the form of the man who beat Almas at NXT TakeOver: Orlando, Aleister Black. Before he can say anything, up turns the Beast of Belfast, Killian Dain, they brawl with Dain standing tall as Almas flees to close out the show. The fake-out ending was a nice touch as it injected some energy and chaos to proceedings. If they can bring this energy to their eventual match, it could be something very good indeed.

On The YouTubes

Cezar Bononi is interviewed after his loss to Adam Cole. Christy St. Cloud asks him what he has to say to those who don't believe he's the 'Future Star' his award says he is after that (such as me, a few paragraphs ago), he says that they already know he is and one loss won't change that.

Finally...

There was a lot here I wanted to like more than I did, sadly this ended up being just good or indeed, Ok. There was enough built here to suggest better things are around the corner though. Finally, thank goodness for Zelina Vega, she is, as is often the case, the real MVP of this episode.

Written By Jozef Raczka // @NotJoeRaczka

WWE NXT Review // 21st February 2018

On 21st February 2018, WWE aired its 288th episode of NXT, filmed at Center Stage, Atlanta, GA on 1st February. Our main event was another TakeOver: Philadelphia rematch as Johnny Gargano put his NXT career on the line for another shot at Andrade Almas' NXT Championship. The show also featured action from Nikki Cross, Velveteen Dream, No Way Jose & Vanessa Borne aswell as a big announcement from William Regal. But was it any good?

Velveteen Dream def. No Way Jose // Pinfall

Velveteen Dream is a force of nature when it comes to controlling crowds that not even the one-man conga line that is No Way Jose can contend with as this Atlanta crowd is approximately 100% Dream fans. The match itself was far from the best thing either man has done but still an entertaining enough encounter to start the show. Dream won in about four minutes with the Purple Rainmaker diving elbow. I can't say I'm not just a lot bit excited about the prospect of Velveteen Dream vs. Tyler Bate, No Way Jose, look out for him in the Andre the Giant Battle Royal this year probably.

Post-Match: Dream got on the mic, announcing himself as Male of the Year, Competitor of the Year and Match of the Year, he then told Black, Asuka and Bate no one cares, he said his name was on everyone's tongue and if you can't see that, he doesn't have time for you. Asuka's gonna kill you, m8.

Andrade Almas and Zelina Vega hype themselves up for the big match later.

William Regal announces that in two weeks, the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic starts up again and that the winner of the Classic will also become number one contender's for the NXT Tag Team Titles and get their shot at TakeOver: New Orleans.

Nikki Cross def. Vanessa Borne // Pinfall

Don't ask me to explain why but the official photos for this match on the WWE website are actually from a completely different match between these two in case you're wondering why Borne's black and white singlet from the TV is black and red in the photo. Not exactly a long match but Borne showed a lot more here than in the Mae Young Classic suggesting she's developing well as a performer, especially in her movements where she portrayed a more confident, heelish character though it also helped her that she's working with one of the most beloved faces of the NXT roster in Cross. Anyway, reasonably standard little match with Cross working a hot comeback and getting the win with The Purge swinging neckbreaker (yes, it has a name now). The right woman won but I think we could be seeing big things from Borne.

Recap of Killian Dain confronting Aleister Black. They'll probably have a match soon.

Johnny Gargano is chilling out backstage with Candice LeRae, trying to psych himself up.

Shane Thorne tweets about wanting to win the Dusty Classic

Recap of Baszler vs Moon. Next Week: Baszler vs Sane.

NXT Championship vs. NXT Career // Andrade Almas (c) def. Johnny Gargano // Pinfall

Well it wasn't quite as good as their Philadelphia encounter but I'm starting to wonder if anything could be. The Title vs. Career stipulation worked wonders for this match as even more than normal, the crowd hung on every near fall as they saw Johnny's NXT life flash before their eyes each time. The match started quickly as Almas rushed straight in trying to use his size and power advantage to get a roll-up off the off, trying multiple pinning combinations but Johnny Wrestling doesn't go down without a fight. Of course, these two have worked each other so many timbecame less about heel shenanigans than two men just trying to fight for the thing that matteres that their chemistry is basically only rivalled in NXT by Bate and Dunne but also they play so well off previous encounters with moments like Gargano going for a second slingshot spear only to leap into a Fujiwara armbar from Almas coming off perfectly. Especially clever was deploying the LeRae-Vega beatdown/chase-off within the first quarter so that the match s to them most in the ring. There was some clever playing on expectations as Gargano attempted a Hammerlock DDT and at times, Almas locked to be trying for a GargaNo Escape, there always comes the point in long series' like this where the only thing the competitors have left to shock their opponents with is each other's movesets. The finish off the match will probably be the most talked about thing here as in the time-honoured tradition of the ref-bump, Almas accidentally hit a back elbow onto Drake Wuertz, sending him prone, as this happened Gargano locked in the GargaNo Escape, looking to hold it until the Wuertz recovered but while he had it held, in came Tommaso Ciampa who golf swung a crutch to the back of Gargano, this gave Almas a chance to hit the Hammerlock DDT for the pin. Everyone played this moment beautifully including Wuertz who gave a slow three count with a mix of pain from the bump but also apprehension knowing that he was damning Gargano to never again returns to these hallowed grounds. You may have guessed from the review thus far, I really liked this match, it was easily better than their second encounter and possibly as good as the first but it was never meant to be the best: Almas and Gargano's tale is a depressing one for the world of wrestling as it's a story of a man unable to exorcise the demons of his past and as a result, unable to move on or upwards. Stories of failure are hard to do without just disappointing the audience but as much as this was not the result they wanted, it continues to feel like the right one as the eventual encounter between Gargano and Ciampa feels bigger than any title and Almas continues to both mean more from holding the title and making the title mean more by him holding it. Goodbye Johnny, it's been fun. I hope they treat you well on whichever main roster brand they send you to but suffice to say, there's nothing more that we can say from down here around the yellow ropes than 'Thank You, Johnny'.

As Gargano is helped up the ramp for the last time by LeRae, Ciampa stands in the crowd waving goodbye to close out the episode. I don't think I can legally publish my thoughts on that man at the moment.

On The YouTubes

Velveteen Dream's interview is interrupted by a passing Tyler Bate, Dream tells him to give him some of his water so Bate crumples the mostly full bottle on his chest. Bit rude. Tyler looked cute with his glasses on his forehead.

Johnny Gargano walks through the backstage of Center Stage possibly for the last time. Just shut up, you're the one that's crying.

Finally...

The first half of this week's episode was pretty standard NXT-by-numbers with some decent announcements of forthcoming matches and solid in-ring action. Then we got to Gargano vs Almas IV and it became amazing. This was easily the best NXT TV match of the year so far and another reminder of just how good all six performers (yes six, people don't give referees enough credit) are. Plus Percy Watson called the ring apron 'the hardest part of the mat' which is accurate because nothing on the mat is as hard as the metal ringposts. Everything's looking up for NXT in 2018, we have four great champions, a whole host of great performers vying for their spots and another Dusty Classic on the way. Blow a kiss, take a bow, Everything's coming up roses.

Written By Jozef Raczka // @NotJoeRaczka

WWE NXT Review // 7th February 2018

On 7th February 2018, WWE aired its 286th episode of NXT, filmed at Stage Center, Atlanta, GA on 1st February. Our main event saw the two big teams of NXT, SaNitY and The Undisputed Era go head to head in Tornado Tag action. The show also featured action from Bianca BelAir, Heavy Machinery, Tino Sabbatelli & Riddick Moss aswell as Johnny Gargano speaking publicly for the first time since NXT took over Philidelphia. But was it any good?

The first match of this show was set to be SaNitY finally getting their rematch for the NXT Tag-Team Titles but as The Undisputed Era made their way to the ring with Adam Cole, SaNitY would attack from behind and brawl around the ring until the entire security and ring crew had to hold back SaNitY while the Era retreated. William Regal would come out and say 'enough is enough' and book all six men in a tornado trios match in the main event.

Tucker Knight & Otis Dozovic def. Tino Sabbatelli & Riddick Moss // Pinfall

This was a pretty standard, little tag match and an effective rematch after Moss stole a win over them previously. Otis and Tino started with Dozovic running roughshod over the former American Football players, a tag in to Knight allowed him to work the peril section and give Dozovic the hot tag with a close near fall broken up by Moss who was then sent back out and allowed Heavy Machinery to hit their Trash Compactor assisted powerslam for the pin. The story of Moss having to cover for Tino's shit, aided by a crowd constantly chanting 'Tino sucks' while also building some fun near falls off things like Tino going for a rope-hung pin in echoes of the previous match were effective and added a different flavour to the match but it still suffered from a lack of invention to the heel heat segments. Still, with the rumours of a third Dusty Classic on the horizon, don't be surprised if we end up with a first or second round blow-off match to this mini-feud.

Post-match Riddick Moss goes to help his partner up as the crowd chants 'Tino Sucks', he then decides not to and leaves him to help himself to the back. Are they done? What will happen to the jointly owned Maserati now?

Johnny Gargano Has Something To Say

There's a lot to unpack here as Johnny came out and talked about how he had failed but the response of the crowds and their respect bring him back to life every time and remind him that he's Johnny, Freaking, WRESTLING. He also called out Tomasso Ciampa stating he'll never forget what he's done and he's tried to bite his tongue and move on but he's done ignoring him and wants Ciampa one-on-one, instead of the bald crutchfighter, out come Almas and Vega, Vega taunts Johnny saying all he's done is prove how much of a loser he is and that respect means nothing because he's not Johnny Wrestling, he's Johnny Loser, Johnny then says that beyond getting the audience's respect, his favourite bit of Philly was when Candice LeRae beat up Vega, as if by magic, up turn LeRae to push Vega out of the ring as Johnny does the same to Almas before an enraged Vega asks Johnny what it will take to get rid of him? Johnny responds by saying that all he wants is one more title match and if he loses, he'll leave NXT for good. This was great, everyone played their parts perfectly with LeRae's involvement in this storyline doing more to sell her to the NXT crowd than any number of squash matches could, Gargano continuing to be the best babyface of the '10s (yes, better than Daniel Bryan, don't @ me) and the Vega-Almas partnership showing a smug, callous ruthlessness that is perfectly in character but doesn't sell either of them short. Also, we're getting another Gargano-Almas match, presumably in three weeks time if my knowledge of how tapings work is correct, and that can't be a bad thing.

Shayna Baszler is interviewed backstage, she talks about how since she's turned up in NXT, no one's been able to stand up to her, listing her victims so far and stating that anyone who steps in the ring has three choices: Tap, Nap or Snap. When reminded Ember Moon beat her, Baszler establishes how barely she did so and says that she doesn't think there'll be another match against Moon for he because Moon is too scared before presumably doing her own Arrested Development style chicken dance.

Next Week: Roderick Strong gets his UK title shot as he takes on Pete Dunne.

Tyler Bate is interviewed backstage, he says that he's disappointed to have lost but well done to Strong and he'll be watching next week very closely, he feels great having had the officially voted NXT Match of the Year but is looking forward to this year trying to have more MOTY candidates and expresses a desire to face Aleister Black, Andrade Almas, Johnny Gargano and Velveteen Dream. Insert 'Two Intrigued Eyeballs Looking Down to the Left' Emoji here.

Bianca BelAir def. Jessie Hill // Pinfall

I have no additional knowledge to provide about Jessie Hill, she doesn't have a Cagematch profile so Jessie, if you're reading this, please @ us, we'll fill in the gap here. Anyway, Quick. Squash. M8. The quickest and squashiest as Hill would offer a handshake which BelAir would accept, only to pull her into a backbreaker rack, slam her over and hit the AlleyOop Powerbomb for the pin. This was never going to be a competitive match so I appreciated BelAir looking as ruthless as she did, destroying her quickly and with ease.

We get a video package for Kairi Sane including footage from her appearance at the Royal Rumble. 

Ember Moon tweets to say next week Baszler can have another title shot.

Tornado Match // Eric Young & Alexander Wolfe & Killian Dain def. Adam Cole & Kyle O'Reilly & Bobby Fish // Pinfall

In what is a nice piece of full-circle storytelling for my ATPW career, on the two-year anniversary of my first contribution to this website, this was as close as we get to a PG TV Monster's Ball. This was a big, dumb match, the kind that I can't write much about beyond just saying, basically every spot in this match was really cool but for a pair of groups with a storied history at this point, there wasn't much storytelling in this, it was just lots of spots, but as previously mentioned, they were all really cool. The advantage of making this a tornado match was with this kind of free-flow madness, there was no time to be stuck in resthold boredom, it was just big thing after big thing, the closest thing to storytelling being that act one-Eric Young gets out a table, act two-Killian Dain puts himself through the table, act three- Killian Dain comes back and murders everything before hitting the Ulster Plantation electric chair driver on Bobby Fish for the pin. I don't know what else you want me to say: Kyle O'Reilly came out earlier playing along to his theme music like his title belt was a guitar, Eric Young kicked out of a Chasing the Dragon/Last Shot combo, Alex Wolfe continues to throw every move like a madman and it's great, just go and watch this match, form your own opinions, I have nothing more to add here.

On The YouTubes

Tino Sabbatelli doesn't care about the crowd chanting that he sucks, he just needs to find his tag partner, or should that be, former tag partner?

Finally...

Some good-to-very good in-ring action accompanied by a strong focus on character and storybuilding mean that this was an effective and at times, thrilling installment of NXT. It lacked one standout moment to really bring it to the next level but with next week set for two big title matches, it should be a real corker.

Article By Jozef Raczka // @NotJoeRaczka