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 // 4th April 2018

On 4th April 2018, WWE aired its 294th episode of NXT, filmed at Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida on 7th March and the last episode before NXT TakeOver: New Orleans. Our main event was an encounter between the 'Physical Freak' Lars Sullivan and the 'Beast of Belfast' Killian Dain, two of the competitors in Saturday's Ladder match. We also had our Dusty Rhodes Tag-Team Classic final between Pete Dunne & Roderick Strong and Authors of Pain, as well as Kairi Sane vs Vanessa Borne. Going into what is the second biggest event of the year for NXT, this had a lot riding on it to take us home in style, But was it any good?

Charly Caruso is in the NXT Control Centre to give us an update on the Dusty Classic goings-on including footage of Michael B. Hayes, Dustin Rhodes & a third man who presumably means something to someone arriving to watch the big match but also to confirm that one-half of the tag-team champions, Bobby Fish is injured and won't be able to compete on Saturday. What does this mean? Well, let's find out...

Dusty Rhodes Classic Final // Strong x Bitter def. Authors of Pain // Double DQ

There was an interesting cycle of intent to this match as last time Roderick Strong was in the ring with the Authors was the WarGames match when he stood alongside them but the aim has always remained the same - to dismantle The Undisputed Era. Equally interesting is the fact that no one on commentary thought to mention this. Despite not having a conclusive ending, this is still a match of two halves as it didn't really kick into gear until the Roderick Strong hot-tag. There was a weird atmosphere as you have basically tweener Dunne playing the (surprisingly effective) bruiserweight-in-peril as the Authors work him over with a faintly uninspired heat section but the crowd were half-behind the big murder men, possibly they are mistaking babyface for actually having baby faces, also for this, see Braun Strowman. As previously mentioned, when the Strong hot-tag kicked in, there was no doubt who the crowd were behind as the tag wasn't the only thing that was hot. I'm on about the crowd, not Roderick's chiseled chin (though that thing sure is chiseled). The fascinating thing about Strong x Bitter is how over three short-ish matches, they've really begun to gel and find a certain continuity between performances. They still aren't as cohesive as Dunne is with Mark Andrews or Trent Seven or Strong is with Austin Aries but they've really managed to carve a niche in the division and the double team Bitter End they've been using is a thing of beauty. Just as the match was really hitting a good bit, Adam Cole and Kyle O'Reilly crashed the ring, attacking all four competitors, leading to a Double Disqualification. I don't have a problem with a screwy finish like this as such as it seems completely in character for The Undisputed Era, even though I can see how some might take umbridge with us not being given a good, clean finish here. It's odd that the problem I had with this match was the Authors as recent performances seemed to really show a massive up in quality of performances by them and this seemed like a slip back into old habits and weak heat. Hopefully another pre-Mania Triple Threat will bring out the best in them again.

Cole & O'Reilly beat up everyone until they try and bail, William Regal appears and tells the Era that they thought they were being clever, making sure they had no opponents for their titles on Saturday but instead, now they have more than one and books a Triple Threat between The Era, Strong x Bitter & Authors of Pain for the titles and the Dusty Cup.

We get a mighty fine video package for the NXT North American Championship Ladder match. Highlights of this include EC3 chilling by the pool, Velveteen Dream wearing a nice floral shirt and Killian Dain enjoying an oil-drum fire.

We get an even better video package for Gargano v Ciampa which if it doesn't have you feeling misty-eyed, you feel nothing. Other plus sides of this, video and photos from Gargano's wedding giving us NXT cameos for 'Dustin' Chuck Taylor & M-Dogg Matt Cross. Seriously though, this was crazy good.

Kairi Sane def. Vanessa Borne // Pinfall

Quick squash m8. This was quite clearly a match to re-establish Sane as being part of the Women's title scene post-TakeOver. Borne is still struggling to bring the heel swagger she emits during her entrances to her ring work, still looking a little clumsy when in control though she does sell well for these short matches. This was too brief to really be a showcase for either women as though Sane has the audience right where she wants them, her particular match-style works a lot better given fifteen-plus minutes than the two/three minutes here. Sane, unsurprisingly, wins with the Insane Elbow top rope elbow drop. The plus side of this is with Baszler, Moon, Sane and maybe Nikki Cross, Candice LeRae and Dakota Kai in contention for the title, the NXT women's division is in good hands

The crowd of disembodied hands listen to Lacey Evans make a statement about her place in the Women's division. She does her standard thing: calls people trash, talks about her past as a marine and a mother, she saves her last words for Kairi Sane, stating that she will take her opportunity and show her what class looks like.

The Undisputed Era complain to, or more exactly, at Regal backstage about him being unfair, Regal tells them they have three options: Cole competes in both matches, O'Reilly defends the tag titles alone, Cole gives up his spot in the Ladder Match.

We get another excellent video package, this time for Almas v Black. The production team normally do sterling work on these but I have to give them extra credit for this week as they have gone above and beyond.

We get a recap of Moon brawling with Baszler last week. Moon is interviewed afterwards, she's not sorry for what she did as Baszler was disrespecting a coach and acts like she deserves everything without earning it. Shayna started this but Ember is going to end it.

Next Week: Kairi Sane vs Lacey Evans.

Lars Sullivan vs. Killian Dain // No Contest

The big thing of note here is that these two have shown that if the WWE wanted to run a G1-style big lads tournament, they could make it work as this was, for the most part, your classic super heavyweight clobber-off. They worked a good contest, especially considering neither men has exactly been known for doing much in the way of longer matches, except for in multi-man competition such as the NXT Championship Number One Contender's Fatal Four-Way where they first threw hands but they held their own and my attention, keeping the most of it quite simply being the two men trading strikes and power moves in an effort to assert dominance though neither men was able to actually get the upper hand. The finish, while the crowd loved it, seemed poorly thought out to me as the match was thrown out after the four men also in the ladder match hit the ring one after another and did a bit of shtick to increasingly loud pops. This wouldn't have been a terrible way to end an episode if they hadn't pulled the Double DQ finish to the Dusty Classic Final just at the beginning of the episode. Having an hour of TV with three short-ish matches, two of which have non-finishes feels a little like they're going too much in the way of 'keeping something for the pay-per-view'. That said, it was satisfying seeing how over each man's signature taunt is and I'm sure that sometime after TakeOver, we'll get a rematch betwixt these two that on the basis of this, could be really rather good.

On The YouTubes

EC3 tells Cathy Kelly why he's going to be the one to win that shiny, new belt.

Ricochet also tells Cathy Kelly why it is, in fact, He, who will be winning the shiny, new belt.

Finally...

SIt's an odd one because as an episode of television, it was slightly disappointing with two non-finishes to matches including a concluding moment to the show which was both exciting and deflating but also as a part of an ongoing story and a go-home show for Saturday's show, the lovely little video packages running through the show and the almost-preview matches for the Ladder and Triple Threat Championship matches really did make me more excited about what comes next. This wasn't a leap in itself but it was certainly a good lift-off, now let's hope they stick the landing.

Written 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

NXT 282 Review // The Undisputed Era vs Aleister Black & Roderick Strong

On 11th January 2018, NXT aired its 282nd episode of NXT, taped at Center Stage, Atlanta, GA on 4th January. Our main event of the evening was set to be an NXT Tag Title rematch between SaNItY and The Undisputed Era but shenanigans would occur and, well, you can see in the headline what happened. The show also featured a few big debuts/ returns in the form of Lio Rush taking on Lars Sullivan, Kassius Ohno against Raul Mendoza and MMA star and MYC finalist Shayna Baszler taking on Dakota Kai. But was it any good?

We get a unique cold open as Adam Cole welcomes us to 2018, the year of the Undisputed Era, Bobby Fish says they closed 2017 in style by winning the tag titles, but that's just the beginning, in 2018 they prove to everyone why they're the baddest, Kyle O'Reilly talks of how their year of dominance begins tonight as they're going to take out SaNItY and Cole swears to take out anyone who gets in the way of him becoming NXT Champion.

Shayna Baszler def. Dakota Kai //Ref. Stoppage

Both of these women were in the Mae Young Classic with Kai being eliminated in the Quarter Finals by Kairi Sane and Bazsler by the same woman in the finals, we see backstage footage of Baszler bullying recruits until Kai steps in and most importantly, we get the NXT debut of Nixon Newell, heal up soon, Nixon. They lock-up to start as Baszler powers to the corner, holding the lock, she breaks just before 5 before sweeping Kai's legs out, Kai goes for a waistlock but is forced over into a double wristlock, Shayna wrenches at the finger and elbow joints before applying a leg stretch to the shoulder and hitting a knee to the head, she grinds down the hand with her foot and stomps out the shoulder leaving Kai defenceless for a referee stoppage.

Quick Squash m8. The first and certainly not the last of its kind for 2018 as Baszler announced herself as a cocky, destructive force with just a shade of a certain Bruiserweight to her heelish antics. While there's no story for her at the moment, I hope bigger things are to come for Kai who is too talented to be just developmental enhancement talent.

Post-match, Baszler locks in a Kirufuna Clutch (grounded sleeper) on Kai till Ember Moon comes in to break it up, Baszler walks away signalling that she wants Moon and most importantly, the NXT Women's Title around her waist.

The Authors of Pain speak, not just Paul Ellering but the actual Authors! They speak of being the baddest force in NXT and how anyone who gets in their way will suffer, Ellering says they don't care where or when or who but they want their titles back. How about in Philidelphia, Paul?

Christy St. Cloud backstage with Bazsler being asked about why she broke Kai's damn arm, William Regal turns up and tells her that going around bullying people, breaking arms and attacking people after matches, just call him Shania Twain because that don't impress him much, more importantly, it won't earn her a title shot. Baszler shrugs it off, she ain't shook, not one bit.

Kassius Ohno def. Raul Mendoza // Pinfall

Well, this was refreshing, a match with no outward storyline that wasn't just a quick squash (m8) and begins with a good ol' handshake, you crowds may chant 'this is awesome' but you know what is awesome? Respect. Mendoza starts in with a waistlock transitioning to a headlock but Ohno lifts him with his head to show dominance, Mendoza gets a sunset flip for a 2 but Ohno reverses it into a package of his own for a 2, Ohno with a lateral press for a 1 and throws Mendoza to the corner who flips the ropes, hits a shoulder tackle, goes up top, Ohno picks him up for a powerbomb by Ohno but Mendoza flips him with a hurricanrana, he lays into a seated Ohno with kicks but Ohno is nothin' to mess with and knocks his head off with a boot, in the corner, Ohno hits corner elbows for a 2, picks up Mendoza into a Gory special but Mendoza rolls through for a pin, Ohno is immediately back up and hits a forward slam and a senton for a 2, picking up Mendoza, he immediately springs to life with an arm drag, an enziguri, another arm drag and another enziguri for a 2, he jumps onto Ohno but is caught into an electric chair position, dropped onto the ropes and Ohno hits an elbow to the back of the head and another High Tension running elbow strike for the pin.

This was good work by both men, Ohno was his usual dominant self but he worked hard to make Mendoza look good and the offence that Mendoza got in was crisp and effective. Ohno seems to have been put into the Player Coach role for the forseeable but it works for him and if he can keep putting on enjoyable stuff like this, you won't hear me complaining.

Zelina Vega is getting the 'interview by disembodied hands' treatment. She speaks about how she and Andrade are more on the same page than ever and it's more work to stay the champ than to become it and at Philly, Andrade will put in the work. When asked about Johnny Gargano earning a title shot, Zelina says Johnny hasn't earnt a shot, he got lucky and took advantage of an opportunity, they've beaten Johnny twice and that Ciampa was always the success not him and that Andrade won't need to try to beat him again, when asked whether there'll be a change in tactics for match 3, Zelina refuses to disclose secrets but says there'll be no running for Johnny come Philly.  

Christy St. Cloud is with Jonny Wrestling, he acknowledges a lot of people didn't think he had a chance of winning his shot at the title, suddenly, a wild Velveteen Dream appears, Dream tells Johnny to say it, in this instance 'it' is not his but thank you for him getting lucky as Dream was meant to have the match with Kassius Ohno but he was injured, he tells him that he could have beaten Ohno in 30 seconds, not the twenty minutes it took Johnny, Johnny got lucky against Black and that he can't beat Almas, he tells Johnny that Dream earnt his spot and Johnny doesn't deserve it. I'm fully up for these two having a match, they're both great and I'm sure this match will be.

Street Profits stuff happens, they're backstage being all street and profitty, they eventually get to the point that they want a tag title shot, they go to Regal's office that is now just a table of water, they ask when they get a title shot, Regal announces that next week the Street Profits will take on Authors of Pain for the number one contendership. They seem happy about this.

Lars Sullivan def. Lio Rush // Pinfall

This is Rush's return to TV since he got into hot water for making jokes about Emma losing her job, my guess, this won't go more than a minute, Sullivan rushes but Rush dodges, moving around the ring lightning quick avoiding Sullivan, on the ropes and Rush hits a handspring heel kick, goes for a springboard but is caught and choke dropped by Sullivan, Sullivan whips Rush from one corner to the other, goes for a shoulder tackle but Rush dodges, Sullivan crushes him in the corner, goes for another but Rush dodges again, Rush goes in for an attack but is hit with a massive clothesline and the Freak Accident side slam for the pin.

Well, I was wrong, it lasted longer than a minute. Not by much, but it did. Rush being destroyed here was an appropriate act of comeuppance for him making a bad joke but give him his credit, I haven't seen a crowd get this hopped up by someone just dodging for a long time. Sullivan did his big man thing, it still works.

Post-match Lars is on the mic, he faced opponent after opponent in 2017, sometimes two at once and they all fell, but now he keeps going back to a force he'd never dealt with before but that brings him joy as he wants to destroy, he's going to take Killian Dain and break him like a toy, he grabs Rush, picks him up and hits a top rope Freak Accident on him to make a statement.

Backstage and The Undisputed Era lay out SaNItY or at least the male members. Where's Nikki Cross when you need her?

The Undisputed Era (Bobby Fish & Kyle O'Reilly) def. Aleister Black & Roderick Strong // Pinfall

Before the match begins, The Era lads are in the ring and looking real smug because SaNItY aren't there to take their rematch after Cole & The Gang 'kicked the chaos out of them' and promised to do so to anyone who opposed them, before Cole can finish, out comes Nikki Cross who tries to murder everyone while two referees really fail to hold her back effectively, Cole says 'as I was saying...' but before he can finish, out comes Regal to announce that they will still have a tag title match tonight and, but before Regal can finish, out comes Roderick Strong to announce he'd fight them and that he's going to go backstage and, but before he can finish, out comes Aleister Black to announce he'll team up with him, they nod at each other and charge the ring, laying into Fish and O'Reilly as Cole flees just before Black kicks Fish out of the ring and into the ad-break, back from the break and the match proper starts, Black and O'Reilly start as Fish comes in and both members of the era take all the kicks, O'Reilly tries to go for kicks of his own but Black has All The Kicks and throws in some Muay Thai strikes and a knee for a 2, O'Reilly rolls out to recuperate but a wrecking ball dropkick from Strong takes them both out and he rolls O'Reilly back in and straight into an O'Conner roll for a 2, Black is straight onto the arm wrench, Pulled arm-first to the corner and a tag to Strong as O'Reilly is whipped into a single leg dropkick for a 2, Strong hits chops and a backbreaker for a 2, O'Reilly goes to escape but is pulled back again for a tag to Black who immediately goes for yet more kicks but O'Reilly dodges to the apron, Black follows but O'Reilly dodges back again, before Black can follow, his leg is swept by Fish onto the floor and into the second break, back again and Fish and O'Reilly are working quick tags, wearing down Black with a nice near fall off a modified figure-four/slingshot senton combo, Black goes to escape but O'Reilly leaps on him and just hits a shit ton of palm strikes, tag to Fish as O'Reilly runs at Strong knocking him off the apron, both men hit corner forearms on Black and an exploder suplex from Fish gets another good near fall, Fish immediately applies a cravat chinlock but Black elbows out, he's whipped to the ropes but on the rebound gets a sunset flip for a 2, and his back up, dropping Fish with a high knee, this gives Black the breathing room to get a tag, Strong bursts out hitting forearms and dropkicks, there's a lovely spot where he keeps throwing O'Reilly into Fish before chopping him on the rebound repearedtly before he hits a backbreaker on O'Reilly and a belly-to-belly on Fish and a high knee on O'Reilly but Fish breaks the pin, Strong throws Fish out and O'Reilly is back up with a roundhouse but Strong responds with another knee, Black crushes Fish outside and rolls him back in, he goes to follow but Cole pulls him out, Black doesn't like this and chases Cole up the steps but this leaves Strong alone in the ring with two men who hit Total Elimination for the pin.

This was a fun, little match with both teams working hard to pack a lot of content in. It's impressive considering common storytelling logic that Black and Strong were so good that I even thought they might pull it off and walk away with the titles. If I had to criticise the match, I did feel that it was a little too rushed, taking some of the drama and emotion out of proceedings as clearly, it was a lot of set-up for Black and Cole to have another match (and with a Number One Contender's match next week, it would seem odd to have a quick title change so soon before a TakeOver) but as an event in itself, still a lot of fun.

Post-match, Black comes back in and kicks away at the Era but Cole posts him, the three men hold down and batter Black with Cole hitting a shining wizard onto Black before using his foot to lift Black like Black does, Fish and O'Reilly hit another Total Elimination and Cole hits Last Shot onto a chair. Out comes Regal again who has really had enough of this shit for one day and announces that with Philidelphia's extreme history, there'll be a match between Aleister Black and Adam Cole at TakeOver: Philidelphia, and it will be Extreme Rules.

On The YouTubes

Lio Rush has had a lot of time to think since not being ready for everyone's response to his Asuka joke and now that he's come back and still losing, he's got a lot of re-evaluating to do...

Papa Hunter talks about meeting Dusty Rhodes for the first time at the venue we came to you from tonight.

William Regal checks on Black as he's helped to his feet, the audience gives him an ovation as he walks to the back.

Dakota Kai talks about how she's feeling after her match with Shayna Baszler. Not great, Bob.

Finally...

A good, entertaining start to the new year over here on the developmental brand. Not by any means a standout episode as everything was good but nothing was great but with some strong character work, especially by Baszler and Dream, 2018's looking good over here. The future's bright everyone and the future's not just now, the future's yellow.

Article By Jozef Raczka (@NotJozefRaczka)