WWE SmackDown Live Review // 6th February 2018

For the first time since May 2016, SmackDown returned to Kansas City, Missouri on 6th Feburary 2018, as the building blocks for Fastlane began to be laid down. The show featured best pals Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn battling each other to become #1 Contender to AJ Styles' WWE Championship in the main event, as well as Bobby Roode putting the WWE United States Championship on the line against Rusev. Lets take a look at how it all went down at the Sprint Center Arena. 

Shane McMahon & Daniel Bryan clashed over Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn

then...

WWE Championship #1 Contendership // Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn // No Contest

The AJ Styles/Sami Zayn/Kevin Owens/Daniel Bryan/Shane McMahon saga rolls on for another week and supposedly onto 11th March's Fastlane PPV at the very least. This week we began with an overly long chatter segment featuring McMahon, Bryan and Styles. This included the line "the stakes have epic implications of what's going to happen" from McMahon when discussing the main event between Owens and Zayn. That line isn't far behind Michael McGillicutty's classic "Genesis of McGillicutty" promo from NXT Season 2. Both Bryan and McMahon struggled saying the word "ripping" for some reason and the crowd mostly just allowed them to have a conversation. That is until McMahon threw a barb Bryan's way about vicariously living through Owens and Zayn, because the former WWE Champion was desperate to get back in the ring. The crowd gave the moment the reaction it deserved, making note of the tension between the two and the apparent sign that an in-ring return for Bryan could be on its way. Seemingly because creative couldn't come up with a way to end the segment effectively, AJ Styles came out to interrupt, cut a decent travelling champion style promo, before telling the Commissioner and General Manager to stop obsessing over Owens and Zayn.

The main event between Zayn and Owens resulted in a no contest, after Zayn got into the face of guest commentator AJ Styles and the WWE Champion teed off on both competitors. Daniel Bryan then confirmed that Styles would have to defend against Owens and Zayn at Fastlane, this time in a triple threat match. Despite the non-finish, the clash between Zayn and Owens was actually pretty damn good, telling a quality story of two friends wanting to remain respectful but soon getting out of hand. It was a relatable narrative, that was driven by the vocalisations of both men, but in particular Kevin Owens. K.O. ducking to the floor after a particularly spicy strike from Zayn and yelling "calm down" at his pal was brilliant stuff, because we all know that it never works, whilst Owens' "I'm the one that wins the titles" after the aggression had heightened told of just how far the match had come as the pairs true characters began to show through. The wrestling action was great also, complimenting the story with the pair able to counter a number of their signature moves, before the highlight of the match came when Zayn slickly escaped a Pop-Up Powerbomb attempt and nailed a half and half suplex and blue thunder bomb for a decent near fall. It's a shame that this story has been going on so long, because I'm not sure how they're going to fill the next four episode of SmackDown Live before Fastlane and as good as the triple threat has potential to be, it really should have happened at Royal Rumble instead.  

WWE United States Championship // Bobby Roode (C) def. Rusev // Pinfall

Bobby Roode picked up his second successful United States title defence with a clean win over Rusev, following the Glorious DDT, in a good TV bout. Following the match, Randy Orton flew through the air to deliver an RKO to Roode and then Aiden English and Rusev got on a piece for good measure. Where this is going I'm not sure, but RKOs are fun, so why not? Rusev gave Roode a much better challenge than that of Mojo Rawley at Royal Rumble, moving from a nice amateur style opening section to a stellar back and forth closing stretch. The Bulgarian controlled long stretches of the match, with Roode making comebacks after both commercial breaks. Before the finish, the highlight for me was a strong near fall for Rusev, that came bang in the middle of a supposed comeback from Roode, with English acting as a distraction, allowing Rusev to recover and nail a Machka Kick for a long two count. It seemed that more than a few members of the crowd bought in the false finish as well, as they looked for the uber popular founder of Rusev Day to pick up the upset. It was pleasing to see the Bulgarian Brute back in a top slot on SmackDown and hopefully he'll be given some more big matches soon.

Charlotte Flair def. Liv Morgan // Submission

The only women's match on the card saw Charlotte Flair remain undefeated since July, after the SmackDown Women's Champion bested Liv Morgan with the Figure Eight. This was a basic match, boosted by a spot where Morgan's Riott Squad partners Ruby Riott and Sarah Logan were removed from ringside for interference and held back the occasional sloppy moment. This was particularly prevalent in the finish, when after Riott and Logan had been chucked out, the finishing sequence was a bit awkward in how it was put together, even if the moves themselves were relatively well performed. Flair spearing the fuck out of the sub-eight stone Morgan was unarguably the highlight for me, whilst Flair's aggression at the start following the Squad's attack on her last week was also rather nice. The commentary team kept discussing the "rumours" that Flair had asked for this match herself, I'm not sure what this was supposed to mean or how I was supposed to feel about it.

Shelton Benjamin & Chad Gable def. Konnor & Viktor // Pinfall

After cutting a hand-held promo about wanting to bring prestige back to the tag team division, Shelton Benjamin and Chad Gable continued their rebuild following their loss at Royal Rumble with a swift victory over The Ascension, with the Powerbomb/Diving Clothesline combination, in a fun squash. The crowd wasn't all that bothered, mostly because the Ascension haven't won a straight tag team match on TV in two years (12th February 2016 episode of Superstars - vs. Fandango & Damien Sandow), but the bout did it's job and featured some enjoyable action. Viktor's energetic hot tag was the peak of the contest as he got to show off just a little of what he's capable of, before the finish ended up being a bit messy and lacked the finesse we've seen from the promising Benjamin & Gable tandem in a recent months. 

The Usos killed it on the mic

The Usos are bloody brilliant and their promo outlining their "Street Code" was another example of that brilliance. The concept really shouldn't have worked and quite honestly sounded a bit lame, but I never should have doubt Jimmy & Jey because they're are high calibre dons that should be respected at all costs. The two brought passion and charisma to their lines, coming across with their natural chemistry, whilst discussing the changes they've gone through over the last 18 months. Referencing how fan opinion had changed and getting a great reaction when they mentioned that they'd gone from "Yeah, they might be alright" to having match of the night, the two closed with their paranoia catchphrase before leaving unchallenged. A confrontation beforehand would seem to hint that future challengers could be...

Harper & Rowan def. Mat Fitchett & Kenny Alfonso // Pinfall

Now undefeated in nine match, The Bludgeon Brothers ran through AAW's Mat Fitchett and a lad without a cagematch profile called Kenny Alfonso, winning with a double crucifix powerbomb. Big lads squashing small lads is almost always a cool thing to watch and this was no different, as Harper & Rowan lobbed Fitchett & Alfonso all over the place en route to taking the victory.

Also this week...

- The New Day larked around backstage apparently answering questions on Twitter, but mostly making tongue in cheek references to the Corey Graves-Booker T feud.

- Daniel Bryan unveiled the first SmackDown Top 10, which was as follows: #10 - Tye Dillinger, #9 - Randy Orton, #8 - Becky Lynch, #7 - The Usos, #6 - The New Day, #5 - Bobby Roode, #4 - Naomi, #3 - Shinsuke Nakamura, #2 - Charlotte Flair, #1 - AJ Styles.

-  For Black History Month , Roman Reigns and Titus O'Neil discussed the Memphis Sanitation Strike.

ATPW Scale Rating - 4.71/10 

Written by James Marston (@IAmNotAlanDale)

SmackDown 953 Review // Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn vs. Kofi Kingston & Big E // Lumberjack Match

The first SmackDown after Survivor Series 2017 had Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn all over the episode, as the fallout from their interference in the show's main event began. The show's main storyline was whether the duo would be fired by Shane McMahon and Daniel Bryan, with the duo featuring in the main event, a Lumberjack match against Kofi Kingston & Big E from the New Day, whilst the show's other big story included the debuts of Ruby Riot, Sarah Logan and Liv Morgan and their appearance during a SmackDown Women's Championship match between champion Charlotte Flair and Natalya. But was it any good? Let's take a look!

Daniel Bryan intervened before Shane McMahon could fire Kevin Owens [Kevin Steen] and Sami Zayn [El Generico]

Then...

Lumberjack Match // Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn def. Kofi Kingston & Big E // Pinfall

As an opening segment, Daniel Bryan saving Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn from being fired and setting up a Lumberjack match main event did it's job. It had elements of drama and built well to Bryan's interruption of Shane McMahon, gave us a main event to look forward to, as well as a storyline that would run throughout the show in multiple backstage segments. That being said, not everything hit it's mark. The main thing that didn't work brilliantly was McMahon coming out and talking up how well SmackDown performed at Survivor Series, despite losing the Series 4-3. Honestly, (and here's a niche reference) it reminded me of my football team, Walsall's manager, Jon Whitney during post-match interviews, trying to make excuses and putting elements of performance over results. McMahon came across as a bit of a loser and he would've been better off flying into calling out Owens and Zayn to get over how furious he was at their interference. Zayn however was on excellent form as he hammed it up, clearly enjoying his recent character shift, whilst getting a strong reaction when being told to "Shut up" repeatedly by Daniel Bryan.

Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn petitioned Baron Corbin and Bobby Roode to help them out in the Lumberjack match with both men telling them where to go...Shane McMahon complimented Daniel Bryan on booking the Lumberjack match, before leaving with his backpack, with the expectation that Bryan would be firing Owens & Zayn after the match was over...Owens and Zayn continued to look for allies and seemed to have some support after speaking to Rusev and Aiden English...Owens & Zayn then interrupted Dasha Fuentes' interview with Bryan, telling the SmackDown General Manager if he fired them tonight then it would be the biggest mistake he'd ever made...

A solid main event, that soldiered along with a simplistic story and featured a wild finish. The idea that the lumberjacks were willing to attack Sami Zayn or Kevin Owens, but that Big E and Kofi Kingston had a pass was put over early and continued to be the theme throughout. It was a logical narrative, following up from Survivor Series, but it could have been improved by using Rusev and Aiden English as rebellious lumberjacks, because having Owens and Zayn fighting against the entire roster risked turning them babyface, through the sheer odds stacked against them by those in charge. Whilst the commentary team was saying weird things like "Sharks don't have hands, Saxton", the tag team action was decent and basic, highlighted by Big E's wonderful hot tag sequence, all belly to belly suplexes and big splashes. The finish seemed to come out of nowhere though with Kingston sending Zayn to the outside onto a group of lumberjacks and after a Baron Corbin punch aimed for Zayn connected with Bobby Roode, a mass brawl broke out and rolled through the ring with everyone seemingly getting involved and when the dust settled, Zayn took advantage and got a roll-up on Kingston for the win. Thinking about it there was more than a few similarities between this finish and the one seen on RAW in Manchester a few weeks ago when The New Day's invasion caused Cesaro & Sheamus to walk out with the RAW Tag Team Championships! 

After the match, The New Day circled on Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn, but after Owens escaped through the crowd after a little help from Rusev, Zayn ended up taking the brunt of the attack, as The New Day got their revenge and seemingly brought their involvement in the storyline to an end...The show closed with Kevin Owens on his knees backstage begging Daniel Bryan for his job, before getting booked in a match with Randy Orton (who Shane McMahon had mentioned he'd had to send home because he was so furious with Owens & Zayn in the opening segment) for next week.

Liv Morgan, Ruby Riot [Heidi Lovelace] and Sarah Logan [Crazy Mary Dobson] caused chaos during the SmackDown Women's Championship Match

Liv Morgan, Ruby Riot and Sarah Logan made their SmackDown debuts attacking Naomi and Becky Lynch in a violent backstage segment, that concluded with Lynch getting sandwiched in between a double door...Natalya told Dasha Fuentes that the only change that matters in WWE is the title change that will happen later tonight and also called Ric Flair a "hot mess"...

Before Liv Morgan, Ruby Riot and Sarah Logan interfered, Charlotte Flair and Natalya were actually having a pretty good SmackDown Women's Championship, in front of a crowd that was invested in Flair as the champion. A wicked sitout powerbomb, a long spell in the sharpshooter for Flair and a cool combination backbreaker and flatliner into the top turnbuckle combination from Charlotte, lead us into a Natalya spilling to the floor following a spear and the introduction of the three most recent NXT graduates as they jumped Natalya on the floor.

After the match, Ruby Riot, Liv Morgan and Sarah Logan battered Natalya on the outside, before turning their focus to Charlotte Flair, taking turns to hit some signature offence on the SmackDown Women's Champion, in a mirror image of Paige, Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville's appearance on RAW the previous evening.

Jinder Mahal tried to get a leg up on AJ Styles

It was no surprise to me that out of all of the losers from Survivor Series, AJ Styles did the best job of addressing his loss in a promo. Styles talked about how despite the praise he'd received for his effort in the match, there were no prizes for second place. It was refreshing to see acknowledgement of disappointment and it makes Styles even more of a likeable babyface, whilst a reference to Rocky II and a potential rematch with Brock Lesnar means that if that match comes around again it will feel even more electric than the first time round. Jinder Mahal decided to turn up on the screen and tell Styles that he was "up here" again, despite Styles already staring at the ramp...someone should really tell Mahal that the screen isn't on the ceiling. Mahal's promo was shaky and garbled, but the long and short of it was that we're getting Styles vs. Mahal for the title at Clash of Champions on 17th December. I was hoping we'd get the rematch on television and a bigger, more interesting clash for the final PPV of the year,. but what are you gonna do? The segment concluded with the Singh Brothers attempting to attack Styles from behind, only for the WWE Champion to easily fend them off, nailing Samir Singh with a crowd-pleasing Styles Clash.

Shelton Benjamin def. Jey Uso // Pinfall

For a match that went less than five minutes on television, I thought this was a great outing from Shelton Benjamin and Jey Uso. The bout featured some hard strikes, a massive leaping knee from Benjamin to knock Uso off the top rope to the floor, as well as a good series of near falls after Chad Gable and Jimmy Uso started scrapping at ringside, before Benjamin was able to pick up the win with Paydirt after Uso missed a Superfly Splash.

The Usos turned up later on to shill some merch, ahead of Black Friday...

The Bludgeon Brothers def. The Hype Bros // Pinfall

For the final time, the Bludgeon Brother received a short vignette, before the message "Tonight" appeared on screen...

Harper and Rowan murdered Zack Ryder and Mojo Rawley, picking up a quick squash win with a two-man crucifix powerbomb on Rawley.

Finally...

It was cool to have storyline flow throughout a show this week, with the various backstage segments with Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn, Daniel Bryan & Shane McMahon complimenting the moments that book-ended the show involving those guys and The New Day. The addition of Liv Morgan, Ruby Riot and Sarah Logan shakes up the Women's division on the blue brand, although the similarities between Paige, Mandy Rose & Sonya Deville doing the same on RAW are obvious. The two shorter matches were fun with Jey Uso and Shelton Benjamin doing well with their time and The Bludgeon Brothers looking impressive in their intense and dominant debut. Even though I'm not thrilled by the prospect of another Jinder Mahal PPV title match, I wouldn't say there was anything on this show that I actively disliked as a whole segment, being able to find more than a few things I liked about everything that went down this week. With just three more episodes before Clash of Champions I'm looking forward to seeing how the brand goes about fleshing out that card with only AJ Styles vs. Jinder Mahal currently scheduled.

Review by James Marston 

NXT #269 Review - Johnny Gargano v Andrade Almas

On 12th October 2017, WWE aired its 269th episode of NXT, taped at Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida on 14th September. In our Main Event, the man they call 'Johnny Wrestling' took on the man who kept him from success in Brooklyn with year, Andrade 'Cien' Almas. The undercard had action from the Street Profits, Lars Sullivan, Danny Burch & the first qualifier for the NXT TakeOver: Houston Women's Title Fatal Four Way. But was it any good?

NXT Women's Title Match Contendership Triple Threat: Peyton Royce (w/ Billie Kay) def. Nikki Cross & Liv Morgan (9 minutes or something like that)

As you'd probably expect, Liv and Cross begin by taking Royce out to the floor, Cross tries to take out Morgan but she dodges and takes her to the corner, Royce is quickly back in and straight into an enziguri, Cross locks in a sleeper but Morgan breaks in the corner, Cross shoves Morgan at Royce and both of them work over Cross before they begin going at each other, Royce gets the best of the back-and-forth nailing some knee strikes and holding on a tarantula submission until Cross breaks it up Dragging Royce to the floor, back in the ring and Cross hits a Missile Dropkick on Morgan and takes out the Iconic Duo with crazy strikes, Cross works over Royce with strikes until Morgan intervenes, Cross hits a neckbreaker on her for a 2 and is removed from the ring by Royce again, Royce sets Morgan up top but Morgan fights back, after some top-rope tussling, Cross turns it into a tower of doom but before she can do anything with it, In comes the Undisputed Era with Mae Young Classic first rounder Taynara Conti who they send in after Nikki Cross who takes her out immediately but Cross goes straight into a roll-up from Royce for a 2, Cross his a Hangman's Neckbreaker on Royce but Morgan breaks it up, Cross hits a Draping Neckbreaker on Morgan but Conti breaks up the pin, Cross chase Conti around the ring and back into a spinning heel kick and a Fisherman's Suplex from Royce for the pin. A fun opener with a surprising amount of psychology to it that never fell into just being a spotfest. It did suffer from a lack of convincing near falls and a slight adherence to the structural basics of a triple threat though little moments like Royce holding on the rope-hung tarantula, taking advantage of the lack of countouts helped elevate proceedings. Morgan continues to impress and looked confident against the two more seasoned performers. The Undisputed Era heel shenanigans were effective but in that the rest of SaNItY weren't there to back up Cross, it felt a bit weird.

Velveteen Dream def. Lio Rush (2.40), Quick Squash m8, still not a bad first showing for Rush, it was nice to see Jessika Carr is not just refereeing the women's matches.

Lars Sullivan def. Danny Burch (3.05) another Quick Squash m8, Danny hoped to get some retribution for his friend Lorcan's defeat last week. He doesn't.

We get a re-cap of the finish of last week's episode. There'll be a sit-down interview with Drew McIntyre next week. Fighting champion, everyone.

Street Profits def. Damien Smith & Maros Estrada (1.52) Even Quicker Squash m8, Full Sail are loving the Profits.

Next Week: Ember Moon v Ruby Riot v Sonia Deville to join Kairi Sane & Peyton Royce in the Fatal Four-Way at NXT TakeOver: WarGames. 

PLUS: SaNItY vs The Undisputed Era in Trios Action.

Andrade 'Cien' Almas (w/Zelina Vega) def. Johnny Gargano (About 14 minutes, I'll look it up in a bit)

These two worked one of the year's best non-title matches in Brooklyn so this has a lot of potential, lock-up to begin as Johnny does some wrestling, powering the larger (but not more cut, looking good Johnny boy) Almas to the ropes, Andrade escapes with a Crucifix and cuts off johnny's momentum with a shoulder block, Gargano looks to end things early with the GargaNo Escape modified crossface hold but Almas gets to the ropes, Gargano still goes at him with slaps, a hurricanrana and a dropkick for a 1, further slaps follow as they find themselves back on the apron, Almas manages to get in a suplex attempt but more like GargaYes Escape (sorry) as he slides out and straight into a big boot to send us into the ads, back from the break and Almas is working over Gargano with a rope-hung armbar but breaks the count, back in and Almas covers for a 2, Alms works over Gargano with strikes but Gargano responds with strikes, they trade strikes until Gargano strikes with an enziguri and heads up top, Almas tries to strike back up Gargano takes him down with a tornado flatliner, he goes for the slingshot spear but Almas counters it, going for a powerbomb but Gargano flings him out of the ring and hits a lovely tope suicido, brolls him back in and Almas hits a big boot and goes for a tornado DDT but Gargano counters, goes for the lawn dart but Almas rolls him up for a 2 and hits a low German suplex for another 2, Almas goes for the El Idolo hammerlock DDT but failing that tries for another rope-assisted armbar failing that, he settles for a superkick, more strikes are traded and Gargano hit a clothesline and a desparate superkick for a very close near fall, up top and Almas weaponises the ref to drop Gargano crotch-first onto the buckle, Almas works over gargano up top but Gargano fights out and hits a sunset flip powerbomb but Almas flips out of it but runs straight into a cozy as shit lariat and then Gargano breaks his face with the lawn dart before locking in the GargaNo Escape, Zelina Vega tries to distract Johnny by flashes the cut-off #DIY t-shirt she's wearing but Johnny refuses to let that distraction shit stop him and locks in further but Almas crawls to the ropes, Vega tries to do more distraction into an Almas roll-up but only for a 2, Almas picks him up for a bomb but a sunset flip from Johnny gets another two and another superkick but Almas smashes Johnny to the corner, hitting a pair of double knees and El Idolo for the pin. This was great, not quite as great as their TakeOver encounter but still streets ahead of so much that's going on in terms of performer chemistry, rock-solid heel-face dynamics, strong storytelling and the two guys just being real, damn good at wrestling. The need to have a slow start to build into the ad-break stopped these two going full sprint from the off and this maybe left the opening feeling a little awkward but it was quickly recovered and the ending stretch with Vega doing just enough shenanigans on the apron while giving Almas still a clean finish makes the team look both strong and effective. Generally though, this was real good stuff. 

On The YouTubes:

Taynara Conti approaches the Undisputed Era about fulfilling their half of their 'deal' but Adam Cole informs her that she's finished being useful to him. Bit mean.

Peyton Royce & Billie Kay celebrate Royce's success tonight even if Kay didn't do sh*t to help. Kay hopes to join Royce in the match to guarantee an Iconic Success.

Johnny Gargano is consoled by Wililam Regal after he lost to Almas. Again. Who is this Wililam Regal and does he know Trent Sevenc?

Another week, another solid opener and a near brilliant main event with a lot of wheel-spinning, quick squashing and next week set-upping in-between. Watch the first match if you want to, definitely watch the main event. Everything in-between, if you've got time it wasn't bad.

Article by Jozef Raczka (@NotJozefRaczka)

NXT #267 Review - Adam Cole vs Eric Young

On 28th September 2017, WWE aired its 267th episode of NXT, taped at Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida on 14th September. This week's main event had the competition debut of the Baybay of wrestling, Adam Cole against current NXT Tag Team Champion, Eric Young. A thoroughly packed undercard featured another debut as the CWC's Fabian Aichner took on Kassius Ohno, Liv Morgan faced Vanessa Borne while Oney Lorcan, Lars Sullivan and Heavy Machinery were also in action. With all this taken into consideration, was it any good?

We get a backstage cold open as William Regal tells us that there will be a fatal four-way at TakeOver: Houston to determine the holder of the vacant NXT Women's Title with a guaranteed spot Mae Young Classic winner, Kairi Sane. In two weeks, they'll start matches to determine the other three.

SaNItY hit the ring. Eric Young talks about making a mark, that SanITy wrote the book on making the mark, between this and Authors of the Books of Pain and Domination, the NXT library is getting stocked up. In this universe time and space doesn't exist or matter, what matters is chaos, the only thing that's certain is change and tonight Eric Young is going to take Adam Cole to the edge of sanity.

Lars Sullivan def. Oney Lorcan 

Before making his entrance, Lorcan is backstage, he says he didn't like Lars and how he pushes people around so he's going to teach him a lesson. They feel each other out to begin as Lorcan goes straight into a side headlock, he's bounced off the ropes and into a shoulder tackle, Sullivan deadlifts Lorcan who escapes with his elbows and lands a dropkick but Sullivan the big lad no sell rule and throws Oney out of the ring, he goes out to get him but Oney kicks him in the face to escape and then elbows Sullivan off the apron, Lorcan goes for a tope but is caught perfectly and dropped onto the apron before being gorilla pressed into the ring, back in and Lorcan hits European uppercuts and palm slaps to try and level Mr. Sullivan but he can't quite take him down till he himself is levelled by a large lariat from Lars and Sullivan slams him with the Side Spinebuster for the pin. This was a lovely, little violent spectacle. It made Lars look incredible but as always, Oney Lorcan still looks like the real fucking deal even in defeat. When they eventually let him escape from the sub-five minute match position, it's going to be beautiful.

Post-match, Lars goes to do a murder but Burch comes to Lorcan's rescue, giving Sullivan a bit of "come on then if you think you're 'ard enough". Friendship is alive again in NXT.

Kayla Braxton is backstage with Ruby Riot, the Iconic Duo have requested a rematch with Riot and 'her friend, Nikki Cross', Riot corrects Kayla, Cross is not her friend, she doesn't know what Cross is doing but if the Duo want a fight, she'll give them one and if Cross turns up, she'd better not get in her way.

Heavy Machinery def. Demetrius Bronson & Patrick Scott

Quick squash m8. Tucker and Patrick to start, Tucker quickly overpowers the tiny man with some wrasslin, Scott slaps Knights chest and immediately regrest it after, suplex to his corner and tag to Demetrius Bronson who is immediately taken out by Knight, tag to Dosevic for a double shoulder barge and a double diving headbutt, Bronson to the corner and jump into a sleeper on Dosevic, Bronson tries to take out Dosevic from the second rope but is caught into another suplex, tag to Scott who is run down by Dosevic and crushed with an elbow drop, Scott in the ring but he's corner splashed to death, tag to Knight and they hit the Compactor splash on both opponents for the pin. By Heavy Machinery match standards, this didn't annoy me too much but it really didn't do much to further any storytelling as Machinery aren't doing anything at the moment.

William Regal is being interviewed by some floating hands with microphones about Houston outside the PC, Johnny Gargano is leaving the PC and Regal tells him that he's going to give Gargano the rematch he wanted against Andrade Almas. Lads.

Inside the PC, Christy St. Cloud is with Roderick Strong, he's training like this could be his last chance, he's doing this for his family but also for himself, Drew McIntyre talks about knocking him out but Strong is the guy that always gets back up, he's got close to the title before but this time will be different because he knows he's indestructible and he wants Drew to know this might just be business but to Roddy, business is personal and he won't stop till he hears "...and new, NXT Champion Roderick Strong".

Liv Morgan def. Vanessa Borne 

Hey everyone, Liv Morgan's still alive having not been in a televised match since NXT #246 back in April when she was in a battle royal for the Women's Title number 1 contendership, her opponent, Vanessa Borne, is another MYC competitor who lost in the first round to Serena Deeb. They lock-up to start as the two women try to power into a bodyslam but neither can hit it, they trade pinfall attempts, Borne hits a reverse elbow and goes to hit a second but Morgan dodges underneath, takes down Brone and hits a leg drop for a 1 count, Borne powers back htting forearms and a snap suplex to ground Morgan before slamming her head into the mat and a low boot, in the corner and Morgan dodges again spearing Borne into a schoolboy pin for a 2, Borne retaliates with a lariat for a 2 of her own but Morgan hits a drop toe hold into an O'Connor Roll for a 2 before hitting running facebusters and an enziguri into a kip-up, a corner stomp, a running bulldog and a Jumping Double Knee smash get Morgan the pin. These two worked a good match showing enough fire to propel them through the limited time sprint they had with Morgan looking possibly the best she's ever been. It lacked a little bit in dramatic tension but that can be pinned down to lacking the time to really let the story develop any structure.

We see a re-cap of Velveteen Dream crashing Aleister's Black Mass. Cut to: footage from the PC of Aleister Black kickboxing, he gets out of the ring and into an interview about the Dream. Black says that in this age of individuality, there is always one who thinks they're more unique, more special and left to their own devices, they have nothing left but to antagonise the hoard to get attention. Aleister Black refuses to acknowledge a child who holds their breath to get want they want, that throws a tantrum for attention and that if by being bizarre, Patrick (Velveteen Dream' Clark) thinks he has Black's attention, he's wrong. Savage

We get a hype-up promo package for recent NXT signee Fabian Aichner who lost to Jack Gallagher in the first round of the Cruiserweight Classic having done some great work in the past year on the independents (check out his matches at PROGRESS Chapters 37 & 41). He also had an interview earlier in the day on the YouTubes...

Kassius Ohno def. Fabian Aichner

If you were guessing lock-up to start, you guessed correctly, Ohno takes control into a headlock, Aichner tries to escape but Ohno adjusts into a cravate hold, Aichner escapes with a snapmare takedown into a standing armbar, breakout by Ohno into an uppercut from Aichner who goes for a boot but Ohno catches and hits a bigger one, knocking Aichner out of the ring, Ohno goes to follow but Aichner slides back in so Ohno does a flip on  the ropes, Aichner runs into a big boot Ohno and back in the ring Ohno runs into a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker, Ohno rolls out of the ring and Aichner follows with a springboard crossbody to the outside on Ohno that only just avoids him headbutting the floor, back in the ring and Aichner with a delayed vertical suplex for a 2 count, he clubs Kassius' back with forearms and tries to go for a powerbomb but Ohno rolls him into a small package for a 2, a Euro uppercut by Aichner who runs the ropes, Ohno jumps for a Lou Thesz press but is caught into a fallaway slam, Aichner goes for a triangle springboard moonsault but Ohno dodges, hitting an elbow to the back of the neck, a shotgun kick, knees to the head, a cravate suplex and a Cyclone Kick for the pin. This was everything it needed to be, making Aichner's low-key re-debut at Full Sail as competitive a match as you were going to get in such a short time, displaying both his power game and his ability to the flips that Florida love. Ohno is picking up some steam again after a great TV feud with Itami and is looking like a strong contender to be contesting for some kind of title again soon.

A man is interviewing Drew McIntyre about his match with Roderick Strong, anyone who wants a match, all they have to do is ask and Strong has earnt his match but that he needs to give Drew his full attention, Drew believes Roddy could beat him but that next week is his first televised NXT title defence but it will not be his last.

Hype-up package for Kairi Sane. Nothing you haven't seen before if you watched the MYC.

Adam Cole comes out to the most generic entrance music I've heard in a while (bay. bay). Before the match, Cole gives a promo asking how NXT ever made it without The Undisputed ERA, that there's something new in the air, he asks the audience to take in the moment and how they feel change, a shock to the system and that are untouchable, unstoppable, undisputable, systematic, hydro-matic, ultro-matic, why, they're greased lightning!

Adam Cole def. Eric Young

Eric Young is out with his gang, Adam Cole is out with his, Young tries to psyche out Cole by not doing shit while Cole screams 'fight me', Cole goes for a clothesline but Young dodges and hits a double leg takedown before wailing on Cole, he powers him to the corner but the ref breaks things up, giving Cole a chance to cheap shot Young, he does the 'bay bay' shtick which is far too over for a heel, boo the heels Full Sail, fuck sake, back to the match and the two of them run the ropes and flip over each other till Young hits a running neckbreaker, a brawl looking to break out between the two gangs creates distraction for Cole to hit Young from being, work him over in the corner and hit him out of the ring with a leaping roundhouse kick, landing between the two warring factions, Cole rolls out and rolls Young back in for a 2, straight with the knees to the back , Cole works a grounded chinlock, Young escapes this but ends up back in a standing sleeper which he escapes as well with a belly-to-back suplex, both on their feet again and Young hits a reverse elbow, a big boot, running discuss strikes and a neckbreaker to ground Cole, he goes up top, Cole follow but is quickly knocked back down, ReDragon get back on the apron to distract Young from hitting an elbow drop but they are pulled down by the rest of SaNItY, Young decides to join the chaos and hits a crossbody to ReDragon on the outside, back in the ring and Cole hits a Standing Shining Wizard (not the shiniest though. We miss you, Nixon) for the pin. What could have been a lovely match resulted in probably one of the most ignominious debuts on NXT since Solomon Crowe. Cole was given nothing special to do and showed off no reason why he should be immediately pushed to the top of the deck, if I didn't know of some of the corkers he'd performed before coming to WWE, I can't imagine what I'd think of him. Young in the low-key face role, however, is shining and really can get the crowd behind him. Overall, not great.

On The YouTubes:

Kassius is hoping to keep this momentum going and beat some more people.

Some good, some bad but frankly, an overstuffed edition of NXT. 5 matches over the hour, which between them took up less than 25 minutes of screen time and a lot of heavy-lifting promo work made the entire affair feel a tad rushed. Perhaps if the undercard had been split over two weeks and given more time to actually let things have some impact, it could have been improved. Lorcan v Sullivan & Ohno v Aichner are both good fun if you have the time but otherwise, nothing much worth your time here.

Article by Jozef Raczka (@NotJozefRaczka)

WWE NXT #246 Review (Aired - 3rd May 2017)

On the 3rd May, WWE aired episode #246 of NXT, taped at Full Sail University on the 19th of April. The show's main event was a Battle Royal to determine a Number 1 Contender to Asuka's NXT Women's Championship. In a show also featuring in-ring action from Hideo Itami, Killian Dain, Danny Burch, Kona Reeves, Heavy Machinery and many more, could NXT finally break the habit of a lifetime and present a Battle Royal that wasn't incredibly messy for the first 5 or so minutes? Well, I'll save you waiting to find out that one, no. No they could not.

Dain def. Burch

Killian Dain would come to the ring sans Nikki Cross or Alexander Wolfe for tonight, I know that Cross is probably preparing for the Battle Royal later on but that doesn't explain Wolfe's absence. The two men lock-up, Dain quickly overpowers him, Burch fights back but gets shoved back, he gets a reversal in, goes top rope but Dain pulls his leg out from under him, crossface strikes by Dain and an elbow to the head, Burch gets in some more offense, Dain hits Barrett's old Wasteland finisher, a running senton and repeated elbow drops, Burch is back up, he gets in some comeback offense with a reverse elbow, an enziguri, second rope for a front dropkick, a headbutt, European uppercuts only to be interrupted by a standing missile dropkick into the Ulster Plantation by Dain. A fun, predictable match. No one and I mean no one would ever expect Burch to win but it did enough to establish the force of Dain with Burch showing some spirit. Eric Young hung around on the outside doing nothing.

• We get a Patrick Clark video, he's now going by 'The Velveteen Dream' to which I have so many questions that I will wait until there are at least some answers prepared before I ask.

Heavy Machinery def. a pair of tiny men

The aspiring face team murder a pair of tiny men,. I actually think that at least one of them might have died when the two of them did a double rope rebound body splash directly onto his head.  The crowd seem really into these big lads and I still don't fully understand why is it because they're just big? At one point they pull both members of the opposite team into the ring and begin attacking them because they can and that's how being a face works in the modern era. The finish has both men picked up for the forward slam-bulldog combo. Just a bit shit really.

• Post-match Heavy Machinery have a promo, they establish they like weights and protein shakes, somewhere Allie is remembering her Cherry Bomb days and bemoaning their lack of acknowledging the virtues of sex as well. Anyway, they want a title.

• #DIY are interviewed backstage, they talk about how Heavy Machinery think they are owed a title match, they establish that they are still owed their 1on1 rematch and that they should get a shot before Heavy Machinery, no disagreement here.

Itami def. Reeves

Bobby Roode was seen chatting to Kona Reeves backstage before the match, presumably telling him how to be glorious, the crowd didn't get the memo as they give him no response, at any point during the match. They make so much noise for Itami but they point blank refuse to do anything for Reeves which is a shame as in his brief sections of heel control, working over the injured shoulder of Itami, he looks very promising. A sneak attack before the bell by Reeves would set the tone, stomping Itami in the corner, Reeves is pulled back by the ref, off the bell he runs at Itami who dodges sending Reeves into the ring-post, Itami kicks him in the chest, Reeves reverses with a lovely forearm and begins more stomping, eventually Itami begins his comeback with a stiff, disrespectful slap to the face, rebound clotheslines, chest kicks, more slaps, more kicks, a fine-as-hell hesitation dropkick in the corner then picks up the big man for the GTS and go to sleep he does. Another quick squash, another predictable result but it got over that despite two recent, extended injury breaks, that Itami is still ready to go and that if he can get the crowd to respond more (difficult with the notoriously awful Full Sail crowd), Reeves might have a decent future ahead of him.

• We get a Drew McIntyre package. It tells us he's big, he's a Scot and yeah, that's it.

Who Is Roderick Strong pt.2

Last week's edition really focused on the former ROH World Champion's childhood, this was about his transition from a Young Man to Adulthood. A lot of this focused on the relationship between Strong and his wife, UFC star Marina Shafir, with a nice immediacy to the footage as it showed their daughter who was only born about 10 days ago. It was a relaxing change of pace after the heartbreaking traumatics of last week to go to the gentle, human story of Strong as a guy who's just wrestling because he wants to provide for the people he loves and wrestling is the only way he knows how to do this. That said, with WWE's burgeoning relationships with multiple Indies, it might have been nice if we could have had video evidence of him wrestling for someone other than just IPW. We cover his Ring of Honor days using some quick photos of  SmackDown Live's Kevin Owens (Née Steen), RAW's Seth Rollins (Née Tyler Black), 205 Live's Akira Tozawa & Tomohiro Ishii. It was overall a fascinating approach that they took a guy who has been criticised for having no character and instead build him up as a real person instead of a gimmick, whether it will work remains to be seen but for now, I have to give a lot of credit to Strong and the NXT production team for creating a fantastic mini-documentary that has been a highlight for me, these past two weeks.

• William Regal and Bobby Roode are in the office, Regal is a bit in love with Strong, Roode is unhappy with Itami getting opportunities he doesn't feel he's earnt, Regal announces next week a Number 1 Contender's Match for Roode's Title between Itami and Strong.

Asuka Crashed the NXT Women's Championship No. 1 Contenders Battle Royal

Macey Estrella, now Lacey Evans, Billie and Peyton, Nikki Cross, Liv Morgan, Ruby Riot, Ember Moon get entrances, so I guess then that Aliyah, Bianca Blair, Candice LeRae, Kimberly Frankele, Rachel Ellering now Rachel Evers, Sarah Bridges, Daria Berenato now Sonia Deville nor Victoria Gonzalez are winning. The first performer to get focus is all 6"1 of Gonzales who begins fighting both of the Iconic Duo. Battle Royal stuff happens, seeing Candice LeRae in an NXT ring without any build-up makes me lament how great Asuka v LeRae could have been. Up until the Ad break and no eliminations till we come back and Gonzalez has been eliminated already by the Duo because NXT can't control when they air ad breaks in this pre-recorded product. The Duo take out Blair aswell,  Aliyah eliminates Evers to massive boos Sarah Bridges is taken out with a dropkick by Morgan and Deville is eliminated by the Duo, Bridges and Deville argue outside the ring, lets see if that goes anywhere, Riot eliminates Frankele, nuclear heat for Billie Kay as she boots out Larae, Cross eliminates Aliyah to 'thank you Nikki' chants, maybe don't have an aspiring babyface take out an indie darling NXT. Down to the final 6 (Moon, Riot, Morgan, Cross, Royce, Kay) and the heels dominate, Cross gets in one of the more unique eliminations I've seen by getting Morgan over the ropes and then practically mauling her hands until she has no choice but to drop off the apron, Moon manages to take out Kay and Royce with a beautiful superkick to Kay and practically deadlift suplexing Royce out onto the floor. 

The final three present some very smooth action making it seem like you could have had a much better match if you'd just used them to begin with, the high point of the match comes when Nikki Cross takes an Eclipse and appears to die as Ember Moon tries to carry 'The White Chocolate Cheesecake of Sports Entertainment' out of the ring but her limp body refuses to go over. After some near eliminations and some successful building of tension, Moon would set up Riot for the Eclipse as well only for Asuka to run out, toss Moon off the turnbuckle (taking a landing that may have legit injured her shoulder) before giving her an assisted suicide dive headfirst into a barricade and hitting some of the kickiest kicks I've seen from the Goldberg-surpassing NXT Womens Champion. With all three women lying prone, Asuka, not requiring vocal amplification would scream 'NO ONE IS READY FOR ASUKA' before running away. As the medics attend to the three women, Nikki Cross would leave the ring muttering Asuka's name before noticing Moon practically dead in the corner and stopping to point and laugh at her in what was a delightful moment. Regal would come out to announce that at Chicago, it  will be a Fatal 4 way against Cross, Moon and Riot. Like practically all Battle Royals, until it gets to the point where you can seat the number of participants around an average dinner table, it's all very messy. Even then, I'm not entirely sure how they justify a No Contest finish in a Battle Royal as I didn't realise there were DQs in those, though I am glad that if this was the result they were heading for, they didn't attempt a simultaneous final elimination as if Styles and Harper couldn't do it convincingly, it would have been significantly harder to choreograph for three. That said, off the interactions of the Final three, this next Takeover could already have a show-stealing match.

Finally...

This was a step down from last week as beyond the final stretch of the Main Event, the in-ring action was nothing to talk about with the first 3/4 of the show being squash city. Luckily a compelling and vicious beatdown by Asuka and the second part of the fantastic 'Who Is Roderick Strong' vignettes helped save the show. With two weeks to go till NXT Takeover Chicago, there still seems to be a severe lack of build outside of the three title matches with talents like Kassius Ohno, Aleister Black, The Iconic Duo and many more currently without anything to do. Not necessarily the worst episode of NXT but after a couple of weeks of solid storytelling, this was overall a step-down but there was just enough to suggest that with a bit of an up in the ante over the next fortnight, Takeover could be something special.

ATPW Scale Rating: 4.8/10

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