PPV Review // Impact Wrestling Slammiversary XVIII //

I don't know about you, but I can't remember an Impact Wrestling PPV having this much buzz in a long time. Now, a lot of that buzz came from a number of rumoured returns and debuts, as well as the card having to be reshuffled after a number of high profile firings, but Impact has done a brilliant job of building the hype around their promotion being shaken up at the PPV with some great hype packages and a well worked social media campaign over the last few months. On paper, the card wasn't all that great, but still looked like it had the potential to be a sleeper hit if things went the right way and the surprises were nailed. Our main event featured a scrap over the vacant Impact World title with Eddie Edwards, Ace Austin and Trey being joined by the returning Eric Young and Rich Swann, whilst the odd ball tandem of Sami Callihan and Ken Shamrock challenged Ethan Page & Josh Alexander of The North for the Impact World Tag Team straps and The Rascalz's Dez & Wentz had their open challenge answered by the Motor City Machine Guns as well action featuring Tommy Dreamer, Madison Rayne, Willie Mack, Moose and Kimber Lee...but was it any good? 

// Impact World Championship // 

// Five Way Elimination Match //

// Eddie Edwards def. Ace Austin, Rich Swann, Eric Young and Trey //

Eddie Edwards captured his second Impact World Championship reign, three and a half years after his first, when he pinned Ace Austin at the end of an exhilarating five way elimination match, but before we get into that, lets talk about our surprise returns. After six months on the shelf, Rich Swann made his return to Impact in what was, if we're being brutally honest, a bit of a letdown. After the build-up Impact had given this mystery spot in the match, it was hard not to be disappointing when it was a guy already on their roster and, for someone who doesn't watch their programming on a regular basis, a guy I didn't even know had been out for such a long time. Some of that is on me! BUT Impact knew what they were doing and they got me with the big swerve when Eric Young's music hit and the World Class Maniac entered for his first match in an Impact ring since March 2016. To be fair, having Swann come out before EY meant that I gave much more of a shit about Young, than I would have done if Young had come out as the surprise entrant on his own. That's because after some of the guys Impact had teased, Young is clearly not the biggest name, but after the initial disappointment of Swann (not a comment on either man's abilities in the ring), the swerve with Young felt like a much bigger deal. I like to think Impact knew exactly what they were doing, especially considering their were three more returns/debuts still to come! 

After the initial buzz for big mad EY turning up, the match did not disappoint as five high quality workers unsurprisingly put on a high quality match. In the early stages, Trey Miguel was completely stealing the match for me. Trey absolutely killed everything he did here, looking almost effortless in the ring with crisp and clean wrestling, strong babyface fire and exciting highspots. Opposite Rich Swann he produced high-paced, intricate, flippy fun shit that was joy to watch, with Ace Austin he showed off thunderous aggression that really got across the personal issue that's been brewing between the pair for sometime and then pulled off a ridiculous, difficult-to-describe-how-fucking-sweet-it-was spot that saw him duck an Eddie Edwards clothesline and simultaneously fly under the second rope to nail Swann with a sick as fuck Canadian Destroyer on the floor. Lads, I really like Trey. Even being the first eliminated from the match, following a well-worked high spot with Austin and Edwards that saw him stumble into an EY piledriver, Miguel shone brightly. Here's hoping Trey continues to get big opportunities like this, because he's gone under the radar for too long. 

The rest of the match continued to produce at a high level with a spectacular high spot, some strong storytelling beats and number of convincing near falls once we got down to our final two. Lets begin with that spot! Edwards and Austin battled on the top rope for some time with one guy either side of the turnbuckle, at the same time Young had set Swann up for a powerbomb, before having second thoughts and using Swann as a battering ram to knock Edwards and Austin off the top rope and through the time keepers table below. It was creative and looked great with good timing from all involved, with the build creating a real sense of intrigue as I wondered what exactly was about to happen. The storytelling was most focused around Rich Swann and came after he managed to get an upset pin to eliminate Young. EY was vicious in his post-elimination assault, embodying his World Class Maniac gimmick as he went absolute bat shit mental, targeting the leg that kept Swann out of action for six months with a steel chair. This set-up two interesting storylines for the future, one where Swann looks for revenge on Young (and judging by their interactions in the match the pair have promising chemistry) and another more immediate story, where Swann had to battle with a major injury against Ace Austin. Swann sold the injury for everything it was worth, creating a number of dramatic moments as he managed to grab a couple of near falls, all whilst keeping that leg injury at the forefront of his performance. Once, Swann had succumbed to Austin's The Fold (Running Blockbuster) finish it was down to old rivals Edwards and Austin to battle it out for the vacant World title. Crisp, physical and with plenty of twists and turns this was a more than solid finish to the match with both men coming close to sealing the victory (Edwards with the Boston Knee Party and Austin with The Fold) but it was a second Boston Knee Party and a Diehard Flowsion that were enough to see Edwards walk out of Skyway Studios with the Impact World Title. 

The after-the-bell action was as notable as the match, as Good Brothers made good on their midnight promise and made their presence felt at the close of the show. The returning Doc Gallows and the debuting Karl Anderson have collected tag gold in WWE and NJPW and the pair initially teased a partnership with Austin and Madman Fulton, only to join forces with Edwards to wipe out the villains and give us a feel good finish to the show. Gallows & Anderson join a growing tag team roster, that offers a number of interesting match-ups against the likes of The North, Motor City Machine Guns, The Rascalz, XXXL, Reno Scum, even Heath & Rhino, so there's a lot of potential for the Good Brothers, whilst a partnership with Edwards opens up more intriguing options. Who knows where this is going to go?! 

Then as the show looked to be heading off the air, we got what, for me, was the biggest return of the night. Three slashed lines appeared on the screen, before a hooded figure appeared on screen. The hooded figure turned round, removed the hood and revealed himself to be...Ethan Carter III. Carter smashed a glass against a wall and left and the show faded to black. Saving this rumoured surprise until the very last moment, when many had decided that we were getting no EC3 appearance was a great bit of business. There's now a mystery around what EC3 is going to do next, we have no idea who is going to be coming after or exactly how he's going to fit back into the promotion, but whilst we didn't get any answers, we did get one big reason to tune into Impact Wrestling on Tuesday night. 

// Impact World Tag Team Championship //

// Tag Team Match // 

// Ethan Page & Josh Alexander def. Sami Callihan & Ken Shamrock //

I have mixed feelings on the show's Tag team title match, because it was for the most part a 
very entertaining match, but the booking of Ken Shamrock as an indestructible machine throughout the bout did bug me. This is for two reasons, one being that this is a man in his mid-fifties who basically shrugged off anything that was thrown at him by Page & Alexander and at points looked genuinely unstoppable. The second was that the booking of Shamrock disrupted the flow of the match on numerous occasions, leading to a very stop-start narrative, that wasn't always to the benefit of the match. Of course, Shamrock would end up taking the pin off The Monster Mash, but this was only after Ken being a mad bastard lead to him deciding to attempt a dive over the top rope. Another problem this match was faced was that the latter stages completely disregarded the concept of the legal man, with one awkward spot that saw Shamrock and Alexander lock in Ankle locks on their respective opponents making this stand out even further. 


Now, let's get to the positives, because as I said this was an entertaining match and despite moaning in the previous paragraph I think I did actually enjoy it. In many ways, this match managed to be a four-man clusterfuck, with a lot going on and a lot of what was going on performed well. The North have got some lovely tandem offence, Callihan and Page worked a nice back and forth sequence with some intensity, Shamrock hit an overhead belly to belly suplex that sent Alexander out of the ring, there was a lot of cool spots to enjoy for sure. Both Shamrock and Callihan got decent near falls, that would have been even better in front of a crowd, even if there was little to no regard to who was supposed to be the legal man. I think, if I'd had a couple of pints and could have been less bothered by the booking of Shamrock, then I would've enjoyed this much more, but the action was always interesting and despite going over 15 minutes it didn't outstay it's welcome. 


Post-match, The Motor City Machine Guns continued to make their presence felt, informing The North that they'd be facing each other on Tuesday's Impact Wrestling. Impact clearly knew they had a lot of eyes on them with this PPV and the build up that they'd done and the company making an effort to build future match-ups and storylines to get people to tune in on Tuesday was a good bit of business.

// Tag Team Match // 

// Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin def. Dez & Wentz //

Lets talk about those MCMGs a bit more, because Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin are back as a team in Impact for the first in over eight years! The Detroiters answered The Rascalz open challenge at the top of the show and I popped huge for it. The obvious money was on The Good Brothers and MCMGs hadn't even crossed my mind. As a massive fan of both teams, this was one of those dream matches that I hadn't even considered a possibility, so to get it out of nowhere was pretty damn cool. There's an argument to be made that the buzz could've been even higher for this match had Motor City Machine Guns actually been announced for it and not having a live crowd robbed us of the pop they could've got from the surprise appearance, but honestly I don't care. It provided a nice moment, that hooked me straight into the PPV from the very beginning and I got to watch a super cool match that I wasn't expecting. That's all good with me. 

However, both teams still had to deliver the goods and considering their paths have never crossed before this could've ended up being a letdown, but man, did Shelley, Sabin, Dez and Wentz deliver the goods here. The action was as speedy as you'd want it to be, with the Machine Guns more than keeping up their end of the bargain against the younger team, full of beautifully smooth wrestling, physical strikes and double team manoeuvres. Often I'd forget that I was supposed to be writing notes about this, because I was simply just enjoying how fluid the wrestling. Dez in particular moves like water and his hot tag was an absolute delight. There was a little bit of narrative here and there, with MCMG's working more aggressive and taking the defacto heel role in the match, with their being elements of the classic veteran team vs. up and coming team trope, but this was definitely not explored as much as it could have been. The finish did however use this, as Dez went for a Poetry in Motion-esque move that he'd used to knock Shelley apron earlier in the match, but the veteran team had it scouted and countered, using the space to pull out a number of their greatest hits double teams. It was a nice little touch, that lead to MCMG's getting the pin on Dez with the Dirt Bomb, and with just a little bit more of this the match could have been better than it was. I'm definitely looking forward to these four going toe to toe again at some point in the future.

// Knockout's Championship // 

// Deonna Purrazzo def. Jordynne Grace (C) // 

This was an absolute belter. Just a really good professional wrestling match, which told a story and kept things simple. There were no bells and whistle here, no crazy booking decisions, just Deanna Purrazzo and Jordynne Grace wrestling each other for 15 minutes. It was a classic power vs. technique style match, playing into the size differential between the pair, as Grace looked to plough her way to retain the Knockout's title, whilst Purrazzo quickly zoned in on the champions arm to set up her numerous armbar style submissions. Grace seemed intent on hitting her Grace Driver finish, but this would often leave her open for another attack on the arm as the pair weaved their offensive moves together in a number of cute sequences, performed with finesse. In fact, there were couple of really couple of downright clever sequences, including a strong near fall for Grace after blocked an O'Connor roll attempt by locking in a Coquina Clutch, whilst moments later Purazzo had to relinquish a guillotine armbar thing after Grace was able to pin the challenger's shoulder to the mat. 

Purrazzo's work on the arm was lovely stuff, locking in a number of submissions after targeting the body part early, whilst, for the most part, Grace's selling was spot-on. In numerous breaks in the action, Grace would be trying to shake life back into the arm, keeping the injury in the mind of the viewer, whilst the commentary team did their best work (of a disappointing night). I think the match could have benefited from having seen Grace struggle with a few of her power moves or strikes, as more often than not Grace appeared to be having no trouble at all during the action. Grace was even throwing strikes with the supposedly injured, including multiple forearms at one point, which was a little frustrating to see. Chucking in a few spots where Grace was struggling to hit her big moves would have lifted this to the next level. 

All in all, this was a cracking clash between two well suited opponents. I wouldn't argue with anyone if they wanted to give it the nod for match of the night.

// Knockout's Championship Number One Contendership // 

// Gauntlet Match // 

// Kylie Rae def. Taya Valkyrie, Rosemary, Kimber Lee, Kiera Hogan, Neveah, Alisha Edwards, Madison Rayne, Rosemary [John E. Bravo], Havok, Susie, Katie Forbes, Tasha Steelz and Taya Valkyrie [John E. Bravo] // 

Oh my christ. This was easily the worst match on the show and very well could end being the worst worked match of the year. There's some talent in this match for sure, but unfortunately very little of it was on display here. I don't even know where to begin. Okay, I'm lying, I do. Who the fuck is John E. Bravo? And what the fuck is he doing in this gauntlet? Him dressing up as Taya Valkyrie and Rosemary may have been in funny in...no, it would never have been funny. Even if it was funny, the reason for his appearance given by the commentary team made absolutely no sense whatsoever. They explained that Bravo had entered a #3 because his mate Valkyrie didn't like her number so sent him instead. Okay, I can deal with that, I suppose. That is until Valkyrie herself turned up at #10. How the fuck does that work? Then Bravo was back out as fourteenth and final entrant dressed as Rosemary, who was already in the ring! In kayfabe, what happened here? Why was Bravo allowed to enter the match? Outside of kayfabe, why on earth was Bravo booked eliminate Havok? This was awful. 

The shithousery doesn't stop there however, as this match was rammed with stupid shit. Katie Forbes and Susie both got eliminated during entrances, which is dumb because it means we miss the elimination and it ends up meaning very little. Susie's palm strikes seemed to be socially distancing from her opponents, Kylie Rae seemed to miss her cue for Tasha Steelz elimination, Madison Rayne started doing a little jig at ringside to pop Josh Mathews when she thought she was off-camera, the booking of Rae and Kimber Lee in the closing stages was nonsensical, only Havok looked remotely interested in getting a shine when she entered the ring and most importantly there was absolutely no story or thread running through the match. Nothing. The highlight ended up being a fun comedy spot where Rae attempted to gorilla press Alisha Edwards, eventually getting some help from Havok who then lobbed Edwards at Rae. By the time the match finished with an awfully overworked and awkward looking sequence between Rae and Valkyrie, I was more than happy it was over.

// TNA World Heavyweight Championship // 

// Moose (C) def. Tommy Dreamer // 

This was much better than it had any right to be. I wouldn't go as far as to call it good, but as an undercard plunder brawl it worked well. It was brawly, it had a couple of weapons and a handful of decent spots and a solid near fall for Dreamer. There was also a nice intensity throughout from both men, with a sprinkling of comedy thrown in as well. Moose was saying all kinds of mad shit and I actually sort of like this character that he's developed lately. Dreamer taking all kind of verbal abuse as Moose pushed his face towards some thumbtacks only to be able to find a second wind when Moose claimed he'd never watched ECW was genuinely funny and quite sweet moment of the match. I'm honestly not sure why Tommy Dreamer is still getting a run out in 2020, even if he is trying to emulate his mentor Terry Funk, for me "The Innovator of Violence" doesn't quite have the same appeal, but fuck it, this wasn't bad.

// X Division Championship // 

// Chris Bey def. Willie Mack (C) // 

Tucked away at the bottom here, we had Chris Bey becoming the 45th X-Division Champion in a very fun match with Willie Mack. This was ten minutes of action-packed wrestling, in the style that you'd expect from the X-Division. Not a whole lot of substance, but an exciting fireworks display non-the-less. The two went back and forth for the majority of the match, with both men putting together some lovely combinations, with slick movements, include the build to Mack hitting a standing moonsault and Bey hitting the slingbeyed out of the corner. The ref bump for the finish didn't feel particularly necessary, but maybe I've missed something by not watching Impact for a while, plus considering this was the only mildly screwy finish of the night, I'll let it slide. An eye rake and brand new finish, The Art of Finesse (a funky springboard cutter type deal) gave Bey the victory in a match that reminded me I liked wrestling following directly on from the gauntlet match. 

// Promo // 

// Heath's debut //

Heath is here and he's got kids! It was a cool to see Heath Slater in Impact, he's a fun character that could become even more of a joy to watch given the extra freedom he should be afforded in Impact. However, his segment with Rohit Raju was hard to watch, because it was clear that neither man's mic was working. At one point, the commentary team were audibly heard talking to each other in the background. A real shame. Slater would quickly rebuff Raju, hitting him with a variant of the Zig Zag. We'd later see Slater reuniting with his former WWE tag partner Rhino backstage, only for Scott D'Amore to break up the chat, informing Slater that this was a closed set and seeing as he was a free agent he had to leave immediately. Impact might be rehashing the storyline from a few years ago when Slater ended up being undrafted by either RAW or SmackDown, but I really don't care, if done properly it still has entertainment potential. The segment closed with Rhino telling Slater to turn up on Tuesday anyway, setting up another point of intrigue for Tuesday night.

// ATPW Rating // 

// 5.97 out of 10 // 

Oh man, without the Knockout's Gauntlet this would have been a really high scoring PPV. Even with the horrendous amount of production errors throughout the show (certainly this was the most poorly produced PPV in TNA/Impact history), the wrestling on display was of a really high quality. The main event and Deonna Purazzo vs. Jordynne Grace both delivered in spades for different reasons and I'd find it hard to separate them for my match of the night, whilst MCMGs vs. The Rascalz wasn't far behind either. Even matches like Tommy Dreamer vs. Moose, which one paper had no right be anything resembling a watchable match, ended up being just that. That's without getting into the company seriously beefing up it's roster in a number of areas with EC3, Eric Young, The Good Brothers, The Motor City Machine Guns and Heath Slater all making appearances throughout the show. Impact put themselves out there with ambitious promotion around returns and debuts, but their regular roster made sure that Scott D'Amore and Don Callis have more than a few headaches when it comes to the booking heading into the next PPV, October's Bound for Glory...

All the best xoxo

James 

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

NXT 279 Review // Pete Dunne vs. Tyler Bate

On 21st December, WWE aired its 279th Episode of NXT, filmed at Full Sail University in Winter Gardens, FL on 29th November. Our main event saw the third WWE match this year for Pete Dunne and Tyler Bate as Bate sought to regain the UK Championship. The card also featured Lars Sullivan [Dan Matha] taking on Roderick Strong for the last spot in the NXT Championship Number One Contender's Fatal Four-Way & a Tag Team Title match as The Undisputed Era's Bobby Fish & Kyle O'Reilly took on SaNItY. But was it any good?

NXT Tag-Team Championship: The Undisputed Era [Bobby Fish & Kyle O'Reilly w/Adam Cole] def. SaNItY [Eric Young & Killian Dain w/ Nikki Cross] [c] // Pinfall

Fish and Dain to start, Fish kicks to the legs of Dain, ducks under the ropes, tags in Kyle, Kyle does the same shit, tag to Fish, Kyle ducks a strike from Dain, lays into him but Dain remembers he's a big lad and no sells their shit, tag to Fish who dodges under a lariat and jumps on Dain's back, applying a sleeper,Kyle comes in to help but Dain just bumps him away and throws off Fish before htting a lariat on Kyle sending him out of the ring and Fish follows, chilling on the outside, back in and a tag to Kyle who runs into a tag to Young and a gutbuster-knee drop combo, Young goes in for the attack but Kyle immediately tries to lock in an armbar, Young escapes, laying in with forearm palm strikes, Kyle slides out, Young chases him, ducking a roundhouse from Fish and punching him away, he slides back in after Kyle and straight away is back on top with strikes, he's whipped onto the apron but he hits a shoulder tackle, only for Fish to pull his leg out from under him sending us into an ad-break, back from the break and the heel team play quick tags beating down Yong in their corner, a slingshot senton earns Fish a 2 and they are immediately back on the corner kicks, Kyle keeps him from crawling back to his corner with an elbow-lock, Young manages to escape but is straight into a high knee, Kyle places Young on the turnbuckle but Young boots him away, he goes for a dive but Kyle roundhouses him straight out of the air, Young responds with a  swinging neckbreaker, he tries to crawl but in a dazed moment heads towards Fish instead of Dain giving Kyle time to make a tag instead, as Dain tries to join the fray anyway, the heels use the distraction to stomp the hell out of Young's back, Young throws Kyle out of the ring and low bridges Fish and crawls towards Dain but Kyle pulls him back, trying to keep him in the centre of the ring, Young kicks him away, crawls underneath and makes the tag to Dain, Dain runs insane throwing forearms with the force of a train, clotheslines Fish so hard he impacts his brain and drops a hot senton-dropkick move combo chain, he hits a michinoku driver on Fish onto Kyle for a 2, throws Fish aside, tag to Young, they set up for a powerbomb-combo, Fish low bridges Dain out of the ring but Young still hits the bomb, he forces himself up top for an elbow drop but Adam Cole comes from the crowd and knocks him off, a spinning kick and a forearm hit Young for a 2, Cole is playing coach in the corner when Nikki Cross comes in and hits an apron crossbody and repeatedly punches Cole in his face till the refs come and drag her away, Young lights up both men with palm strikes and hits a leaping neckbreaker for a 2, Dain on the outside picks up Cole but the baybay slides out, posts Dain but takes a tope suicido from Young for his troubles, back in the ring and Young is hit with a Leg Sweep-Jumping Kick Combo for the pin. NEW CHAMPION!

This was a good, fun match with both teams playing off each other well, even if the crowd were weirdly muted, they still brought enough energy to get them involved, especially by the end as Full Sail clearly adore Nikki Cross (and so they should). Beyond the frustrating booking where Young always seems to be the one taking the pin at the moment, this match lacked a certain excitement or invention that could really push it over the merely 'good' mark but certainly we know the ReDragon boys are capable of some spectacular tag work and I can't wait to see what they do next.

We get a Roderick Strong video package ahead of his semi-final match tonight.

We also get another hype-up video for Shayna Baszler.

Heavy Machinery are trying to lift Sabatelli & Moss' car so they can park there. The joint car owners don't like this and an argument starts out when Moss fucks up their catchphrase saying 'pork and weights'. Why do all their feuds revolve around their joint car ownership and what the fuck even is joint car ownership.

We get a recap of Sonya Deville defeating Ruby Riott last week, in a 360p backstage interview, Deville declares that she's going to beat Ember Moon for the NXT Women's Title next week.

As with Roderick Strong, so Lars Sullivan also gets a video package.

NXT Championship #1 Contender's Tournament Semi-Final: Lars Sullivan def. Roderick Strong // Pinfall

Strong is straight in with strikes but pushed away, he goes straight back but gets pushed to the corner, he escapes and continues striking, Roddy tries to go for a throw but I guess he's not, Strong enough, goes for more strikes but takes a clothesline and a grounded knee strike, ullivan hits a huge pair of forearms to the back, he splashes Strong on the ropes and ragdolls him for a 2 before immediately applying a big bearhug, Strong tries to slide out but Sully keeps it going, Strong escapes with a pair of bell-clappers and some forearms before hitting a single leg dropkick, an enziguri and some big slaps, this serves to make Sullivan extra angry and he charges but Strong dodges, catching Sullivan in the ropes, allowing Strong to hit some running forearms from all directions, Sullivan is sent out of the ring but comes straight back in, knocking down Strong with a double axe handle, Sullivan goes up top but Strong follows with a superplex for a 2, he hits knee strikes but Sullivan goes for a lariat, Strong dodges hitting an olympic slam for a 2.5, Strong is straight in with strikes and goes for the first proper backbreaker of the match but Sullivan says 'nahh' and slides out, hitting a pop-up powerslam and The Freak Accident for the pin.

This was way better than it had any reason to be with Sullivan having so quickly made his spin on the standard WWE 'monster heel' act incredibly entertaining, helped out by a performance by Strong that made him look ten times better. They couldn't help that the one down-side of Sullivan's position is it makes anyone beating him clean seem like it's never going to happen but if anyone can make him look beatable, it's Strong. Now the Number One Contender's match is set: Dain v Gargano v Black v Sullivan. This could be very interesting...

A recap of last week's Street Talk. 

Christy St. Cloud is backstage with Tyler Bate, Bate talks about how he and Peter go way back, trading titles with each other, tonight is his night and he takes back his title.

UK Championship // Pete Dunne [c] def. Tyler Bate // Pinfall

These two have had an incredible year be it teaming up with or competing against each other and here's hoping this is the perfect capper to their WWE Trilogy. They feel each other out to begin before Dunne rushes in and immediately grabs Bate into an armbar before manipulating those finger joints, eventually Bate manages to do a flipping escape and locks in a wristlock of his own but Dunne manages to power him down and uses a head-clamp leglock before going back to the arm, Bate attempts to escape but is powered down by Dunne until he manages a superb release practically bouncing off his own head, Dunne is unimpressed with the flippy stuff and goes straight back onto the arm, slapping at the shoulder and elbow before getting Bate in a knee-assisted modified surfboard, Bate powers to his feet and hits a dropkick to escape but even this isn't enough to keep Dunne from attacking the arm as he pushes Bate's arms down, he tries to go for pins but Bate maintains a strong bridge, Dunne tries to use his full body weight to push Bate down but it's not enough so Dunne just kicks him in the stomach and retreats to the ropes for safety, Dunne pushes Bate over, trying to wrench and bite at the foot but Bate escapes as Dunne cartwheels away, Bate kips up and hits Bop & BANG for a 2, attempting to lock theankle, Dunne crawls to the ropes and as Bate separates, Dunne hits a big ol' forearm and chops him into the corner, Bate escapes with a knee lift release and a second rope diving uppercut to send Dunne out of the ring, Bate follows out into a forearm, Dunne drags him to the steps and goes to stomp the hand but Bate is wise to his tricks, dodges and instead stomps Dunne's hand, Dunne powers through and hits a low angle suplex off the steps, back in the ring and a penalty kick leads to a rear chinlock as Dunne puts more weight on Bate's shoulders, Bate crawls to the ropes but Dunne separates, kicks him in the back and pounds at it with forearms, Dunne wrenches at the nose and hits another forearm before stomping on a floored Bate's hand, one of Bate's fingers has popped out of place but he jams it back in, Dunne with no mercy hits a judo throw into a hammerlock and is back on the injured arm, stomping the elbow and kicking him to the ropes and back again until Bate's ear is bleeding, Bate calls for more kicks, Dunne obliges but Bate hulks up and hits an exploder, he drops running corner uppercuts till Dunne grabs him by the hair, he goes for an X-Plex but Bate flips out of it and hits a running shooting star press & a belly-to-back suplex for a 2, Dunne gets up with a forearm but Bate hits a rolling kick, he goes for the Tyler Driver '97 but Dunne manouvres into a triangle armbar, hammering Bate's head with forearms, Bate powers through into a powerbomb but Dunne doesn't let go of the triangle, Bate powers through again and traps Dunne's neck between the second and top ropes before whipping him upwards, on the ground and Bate picks up Dunne for a triple aeroplane spin covering for a 2, Dunne crawls to the apron but Bate climbs to the second rope and hits another exploder sending Dunne back into the ring for a 2, Dunne gets back up and kicks Bate in the head but Bate responds with a roundhouse and some head kicks of his own, Bate picks up Dunne who twists into a Bitter End for a 2.9, Bate throws Dunne to the corner, he flips over it and hits a step-up enziguri, Bate responds with a rebound lariat, Dunne with a clothesline but Bate with another clothesline, the two lads are down, from their knees to standing they just lay into each other chests with punches Bate dodges a shot from Dunne and lands a massive forearm but with the previously injured hand, on the apron and Dunne throws up Bop but Bate hits BANG, Dunne with a forearm, Bate with a rolling kick, back in the ring and Bate dives off the top rope into a forearm, Dunne goes for the X-Plex, can't quite get it so turns it into a sit-out powerbomb for a 2.9, Bate rolls out, Dunne follows and tries to throw Bate back in but he hits a rebound lariat onto the ramp, rolling back in, Dunne appears to be accepting a countout to avoid losing so to stop the count Bate hits a big ol' tope and rolls Dunne back in and hits the Tyler Driver '97 for a 2.99, he climbs up top and just about hits a spiral tap on Dunne for a 2, Dunne's elbow is now visibly bleeding as he sees Bate heading back up and heads up too, Bate powers into a super German suplex but Dunne flips out of it, hits a suprise Bitter End for the pin.

Holy shit-snacks everyone, this was just about as good as it gets. Over 23 minutes (presented as an early Christmas gift, without ad-breaks) these two put on a dramatic contest that not only cemented the legacy of Dunne and Bate as having put on the best trilogy of matches in WWE 2017, maybe only rivalled by The New Day vs The Uso series in terms of consistency. As a match, this was full of callbacks to the former two contests but it still managed to weave them in so seamlessly that I don't think you'd need to see the other two to understand it. The only real negative of this match is that it did perhaps feel a little flabbier than their outing in Chicago but outside of wider context, this was as good a contest as you're ever likely to see, especially on TV. Maybe they should just give the Main Event every week to the UK lads. I can't see anyone complaining.

On The YouTubes

Nothing to see this time. Make use of this and spend some time with your loved ones.

Finally...

I don't think I'm speaking with too much hyperbole when I saw this might be one of the best episodes of NXT. The Tag-Team Title match wasn't a classic but it was still a lot of fun, Strong & Sullivan delivered big-time and Dunne v Bate III was as always spectacular, not quite topping Chicago but easily matching if not bettering their UKCT Final effort. It's always a rare and refreshing thing to recommend watching an episode of NXT from beginning to end but here we are. Now let's hope they can stick the year's landing next week with the Number One Contender's Fatal Four-Way.

Article By Jozef Raczka (@NotJozefRaczka)

NXT 272 Review // SaNItY vs Authors of Pain

On 2nd November 2017, WWE aired its 272nd episode of NXT, taped at Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida on 4th October. Our Main event was once again, a big TakeOver rematch as the big lads from SaNItY defended their titles against the probably bigger Authors of Pain. The show also saw action from Johnny Gargano against Fabian Aichner and Nikki Cross getting a one-on-one chance at revenge against Taynara Conti. But was it any good?

Nikki Cross def. Taynara Conti (2:35)

Off the bell, Cross is straight in with a running crossbody and grounded strikes, Conti tries to bail but Cross follows, trapping Conti in the apron banner before more strikes, Cross rolls Conti back in who catches the wild Scot with a kick and a mat slam before stomping her out, Cross finds it funny that Conti thinks kicks can stop her and powers back with a clothesline, slam to the turnbuckles, tree of woe stomps to the head, a reverse DDT and the Fisherman's Neckbreaker for the pin. A quick match that did its job giving Cross an undeniable win over the woman that nearly cost her a title shot. Conti is still new but seems to be developing quickly. 

Paul Ellering is doing bouncer duty on the Authors of Pain dressing room. I'm hoping they wear their tactical Ninja Turtles get-up again.

We get a recap of Mercedes Martinez's promo from last week, it's not just on the YouTubes now, lads.

Fabian Aichner def. Johnny Gargano (6:45)

Lock-up to start as the man whose nickname is 'wrestling' gets the best of the encounter, floating over into a drop-toe hold and keep the larger Aichner grounded, Aichner gets Gargano up and throws him to the ropes but Gargano rebounds with a sunset flip for a 2, hitting an on-the-button dropkick before running into a powerslam, Gargano immediately responds with slaps, sending Aichner out of the ring, Gargano goes for a plancha but Aichner catches him slams with shoulder first off the crowd barricade and into the ad-break, back from the break and Aichner has a big Italian bear hug on Gargano, how is that different from a normal bearhug? I don't know but the announcers keep reminding us that Aichner's Italian and so was Bruno Sammartino, knees to the face and Aichner goes for a running strike but misses giving Gargano an opening to hit the rolling floor kick, some neat clotheslines, Aichner tries to respond but goes straight into a beautiful slingshot spear for a 2, some tussling on the apron as the two men try to suplex each other but Aichner settles for a face-first slam on Gargano back into the ring, up top and Aichner goes for a springboard triangle moonsault but Gargano rolls to the apron and hits beautiful slingshot DDT for a very close 2, Gargano slaps Aichner into the corner and goes for a lawn dart but Aichner escapes, Gargano once again with the high-risk manoeuvres gets caught by Aichner into a backbreaker and a powerbomb for another close 2,  Aichner wears down Gargano with Italian uppercuts because as I noted earlier, he's not German, a pop-up backbreaker takes down Gargano and Aichner is up top again, another moonsault this time to the knees, Gargano hits a running kick and goes for the GargaNo Escape but Aichner leverages into a Full Nelson Pin for his first win on NXT. Really strong work for a no-feud, midcard NXT TV match with both men working clean, quick and precise. Johnny is the kind of talent who even though you root for him, he doesn't always need the win and he made Aichner look like a top-tier talent here, which he is. My one worry going forward is the parallels between how the commentary team talked about Apollo Crews & Fabian Aichner, unless it turns out he's an incredible talker, I hope he finds his Titus O'Neill to help him develop character sooner rather than later. 

Drew McIntyre is in William Regal's office, he's signing the contract for the NXT Title match, later tonight, they'll have a contract signing. But he just signed it. I know it's confusing but you know how Drew likes men to look him in the eyes. 

We get an Aleister Black-Velveteen Dream video package. Black talks about how Dream has been vying for his attention and now he has it, he's going to regret having it. I guess their TakeOver match is official now. RIP Velveteen Dream's head. 

The Street Profits are standing around a Maserati talking about how hard work gets you nice cars when up turn Riddick Moss and Tino Sabbatelli to tell them that this is their car and to leave it alone. I know this is meant to be the spark of a feud between these two but I just want to know more about joint car ownership. 

Drew McIntyre is heading to the ring when Andrade Almas jumps him on the ramp and gives him one of the stiffest looking beat-downs on NXT TV. leaving him in a pile of 'ow', Andrade would sign the contract before taking some gum from Zelina Vega to use to stick it to McIntyre's shirt. Lad. 

The Iconic Duo are backstage complaining about how 'crazy Nikki' took Billie Kay's spot in the Fatal Four-Way, they mock Kairi Sane for being a pirate when 'Halloween was yesterday'. Kairi comes past and threatens the Duo with her elbow. Next week - Kairi Sane vs Billie Kay. 

NXT Tag Team Championship: Authors of Pain (Akam & Rezar w/Paul Ellering) def. SaNItY (Eric Young & Alexander Wolfe) via DQ (8:30)

Young and Rezar to start, Young is quickly overpowered and pushed to the Author's corner, tag to Akam, Akam begins working over Young but Young pushes Akam to his corner and tags in Wolfe as they work over the young author with double teams till Akam manages to hit a death valley driver to the top left corner on Wolfe, Authors of Pain utilise a similar game plan going for quick strikes and quick tags, keeping Wolfe down into the ad-break, back from the break and Rezar is now tagged in, maintaining a guillotine choke on Wolfe, tag to Akam and a double slam gets them a solid 2, Wolfe plays a good axeman-in-peril, powering his way to his corner but continually being cut off until a double big boot gives him the opening he needs to get that tag and apply heat to it, hitting big open forearms on both authors and a lovely leaping neakbreaker on Akam, Young goes up top, Rezar tries to intervene but takes a mighty German from the German allowing Young to hit the elbow drop for a 2, tag to Wolfe for a diving clothesline, tag back to Young and a Double Neckbreaker for the pin but Rezar breaks up the pin, Rezar hits a lariat on Wolfe, Young with forearms to Rezar, Akam takes out Young and they pick up both members of SaNItY for a Super Collider before hitting the Last Chapter on Young, before they can get the pin, in come The Undisputed Era and with a DQ finish, things go to shit. This was a distinctly average match for the most part, it had some exciting stretches but it did feel like with the angle being played to lead into what would happen after the match, the three teams have been saving their best stuff for WarGames. Hopefully that's true as the only really combustible element in this feud so far has been Roderick Strong. Let's hope they pull it out of the bag. 

The Undisputed Era beat down everyone and everything till Killian Dain hits the ring and temporarily takes out the Era but they respond and beat down the Belfast beast, Roderick Strong hits the ring, putting on the Undisputed armband he was given last week. They hold up one of the Authors telling him to kick him or something but instead Roddy uses the opportunity to elbow Adam Cole in the face and then tries to fight off Fish and O'Reilly, the Authors, now back on their feet, even the odds, as all hell is breaking loose, Regal tell them that this has gone insane and that it needs to stop. There's going to be a match between SaNItY, The Undisputed Era & Authors of Pain and Roderick Strong but only one match can hold them, a match that hasn't been seen for nearly twenty years, the match will be, in WAR GAMES! The crowd goes wild, everyone at home got this spoilt for them about a month ago. 
Thanks, Triple H.

On The YouTubes:

Johnny Gargano asks himself if he still belongs in NXT after another loss, he knows the people still believe in him but he doesn't know what to do. Guess you just have to do the obvious thing, have an ab-off with Shawn Michaels.

This was a perfectly good hour of television, well-paced with a good amount of in-ring action and around the ring storytelling. Gargano and Aichner effortlessly stole the show but the rest of it was still fine. Although, with two more episodes till WarGames, just fine won't quite cut it.

Article by Jozef Raczka (@NotJozefRaczka)