WWE SmackDown Live Review // 13th February 2018

SmackDown continued to move towards Fastlane this week with some big changes made to the 11th March main event. The show featured a major storyline involving Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn interrupting a scheduled match between Baron Corbin and Dolph Ziggler, before Owens faced Corbin and Zayn took on Ziggler, with Corbin and Ziggler being added to the WWE title match at Fastlane if they were able to pick up the win. But how did it all go down in Bakersfield? Lets take a look! 

Dolph Ziggler vs. Baron Corbin didn't happened because Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn attacked both men

then...

Baron Corbin def. Kevin Owens // Pinfall

then...

Dolph Ziggler def. Sami Zayn // Pinfall 

There were some big changes on SmackDown Live this week, as Dolph Ziggler pinned Sami Zayn and Baron Corbin did the same to Kevin Owens to insert themselves into a WWE Championship match at Fastlane that will see AJ Styles defend against all four of the above. However, the advertised match had been Corbin vs. Ziggler for a place in the match, so how did we get here? Let's start at the beginning. The opening segment saw Corbin about to enter the arena to face Ziggler, only for the show to cut back to the backstage area where Owens and Zayn were assaulting the 2017 Money in the Bank winner. This was followed up by the pair heading out to the arena to leave Ziggler laying also. The segment had a tonne of energy and left a number of questions open for the rest of the show. The moment where Owens and Zayn had finished laying out Corbin and said they were heading for Ziggler was brilliantly done and helped to raise the tension for what was about to follow, aided by Zayn then attempted to go through the crowd to assault Ziggler from behind. It was cool to see what we thought the show was going to be shift in front of our eyes and the whole interaction felt fresh and different, with Owens & Zayn's motivation of wanting to make sure no one ended up joining their match with Styles came across very clear.

After Commissioner Shane McMahon had informed General Manager Daniel Bryan of his plans for the foursome, the first match was Baron Corbin's victory over Kevin Owens, thanks to an impressive End of Days. This was a solid contest, that struggled to draw the crowd in due to the ambiguity over Corbin's character. It was clear that Owens was the heel, but not massively clear if Corbin was still heel or had turned babyface and therefore it appeared like the audience struggled to get into what was going. This was especially clear when Owens looked on a rest hold and the crowd chanted "Rusev Day" (it's actually baffling that they'd even think about leaving the Bulgarian off the show). Corbin hadn't shown enough for the audience to get behind him and even if he sold the attack from earlier well on the way down to the ring and after the match, it wasn't particularly present in the match and therefore his "in" for gaining some sympathy was removed. This wasn't helped by the fact that Owens is generally the more exciting performer to watch. The back and forth finish was a lot of fun with the working well together before Corbin escaped a Pop-Up Powerbomb and hit his finish for the win. Whether Corbin is now a babyface going forward or not really isn't clear, but he's now got his first shot at the WWE title since failing to cash in his Money in the Bank briefcase in August. 

The main event saw Dolph Ziggler defeat Sami Zayn with a superkick in the first ever televised match between the pair. This match didn't suffer from the same affliction as the Owens vs. Corbin match as it was made very clear that Ziggler was the underdog (not from the underground) and the Show-Off reached deep into his babyface bag, selling within an inch of his life throughout. Whilst the majority of the action was good stuff, including highlights like Ziggler hitting a picture perfect dropkick to Zayn's gut as he dived off the top rope and a big exploder suplex off the top from Sami, it was in the final minute or so that the match excelled. After a strong near fall from a ZigZag, Zayn's vicious side came to the fore as he threw Dolph shoulder first into the ringpost repeatedly, with Ziggler selling like he'd been hit by a truck, completely out on his feet, only to sneak a two count with a roll-up after Zayn took too long going for a Blue Thunder Bomb he really didn't need to hit. This set up Zayn's out for the subsequent loss as he clearly had the match won, only to end up costing himself as Ziggler blocked a Helluva Kick with a kick of his own, this time of the super variety. Crisp and fluid wrestling throughout, that did a good job of getting the character shift over with a great conclusion, the main event was easily the best match on the show this week.

Charlotte Flair def. Sarah Logan // Pinfall 

This week's only women's action saw SmackDown Women's Champion Charlotte Flair walk out victorious over Riott Squad member Sarah Logan, winning with Natural Selection, after a poor match. The match had started fairly inconspicuously, with nothing much of note either good or bad, but during the split-screen advert break something seemed to fall apart and it appeared like everything Flair and Logan attempted went wrong in one way or another. I had been looking forward to seeing what the pair did together, so I was more than a little disappointed while watching them botch sunset flips. The match did pick up later on with Logan hitting what looked like a crotch clutch suplex after Flair had missed a big boot and got her foot caught up on the top rope standing out. After the match Corey Graves said on commentary "I have a feeling this rivalry is just getting started!" and I had to wonder "Where the fuck have you been, Graves?". The feud (also involving Becky Lynch & Naomi, who were present at ringside) has been going on since November and I'm still not quite sure why. The Riott Squad haven't felt like a threat to SmackDown's top three women since their debut, not helped by the fact that Logan is yet to win a singles match in WWE or NXT.

Kofi Kingston & Big E def. Shelton Benjamin & Chad Gable // Pinfall 

Shelton Benjamin & Chad Gable's crusade to rid the SmackDown tag team division of comedy acts came to sudden half this week as they suffered a loss to Kofi Kingston & Big E of the New Day's Midnight Hour, after initially interrupting Big E's pancake eating world record attempt. New Day have gone pretty mad for p-cakes lately and it seemed only sensible that they'd have a big Shrove Tuesday celebration, before giving up their eggs, milk and flour for lent. The segment was a little long winded, but came good in the end when Benjamin and Gable started throwing those pan-based deserts to the mat one by one, whilst Big E furiously attempted to stop their blasphemous acts. It probably shouldn't have worked, but it was played very well by all involved, with Benjamin & Gable being particularly entertaining. The tag match that followed might have been for the dignity of pancakes everywhere, but was actually a rather lovely tag bout. The classic New Day tandem of Kingston & E was back together for the first time in 2018 and both excelled in their roles as Kingston took face-in-peril and Big E came soaring in with his magnificent hot tag. The best action actually came with Kofi battling against Benjamin & Gable, as the trio worked in a number of strong hope spots, with Kingston firing up for the tag only to run straight into a rolling koppu kick. It appears that The Usos are moving into a feud with the Bludgeon Brothers, so I'm not quite sure where this result leaves the rest of the tag team division, but I'd be very surprised if The New Day don't have a role at WrestleMania.

Jinder Mahal interrupted Randy Orton accepting Bobby Roode's US Open Challenge

A United States Championship open challenge from Bobby Roode, appeared to be delivering us a match between Roode and Randy Orton, only for Jinder Mahal to come out and spoil the party before it could begin. I'm unsure how I feel about Mahal, because his involvement in this feud will undoubtedly bring down the quality of any resulting matches from this storyline, but he was actually used well here, acting as the spoiler for the two babyfaces. His appearance made me groan, but I'm sure that was the exact reaction I was suppose to have. Whilst Mahal stirring up the pot went on for a little bit too long and using the "SmackDown Top 10" rankings (that WWE decided not to change this week, with no explanation of how often they will be updated) to drive a storyline is more than a little lame, the idea at the heart of it was a good one and it was fun to see the tension build between Orton and Roode. Mahal would end up standing tall, getting the best of both men with a pair of Khallas, after Orton had RKO'd Samir Singh. Considering we'll almost inevitably have to get a couple of Mahal matches during it, this very well could be the peak of this storyline.

Also this week

- Seth Rollins discussed the Montgomery Bus Boycott, as part of Black History Month. 

- In a well-directed segment, The Usos cut a promo about their tag team dominance, only for the Bludgeon Brothers to cut the segment short as they attacked the television playing the promo with their big ol' hammers. 

ATPW Scale Rating // 5.21 out of 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 

WWE NXT #262 Review (Aired 23rd August 2017)

On 23rd August, WWE aired its 262nd episode of NXT, taped at the Barclays Center, Brooklyn, New York on 19th August before the TakeOver special later that evening. The show's main event had the WWE UK Champion Pete Dunne team up with one-time ICW Champion Wolfgang to take on the team of Moustache Mountain, the man who beat Wolfie for the ICW title Trent Seven and the man Peter beat for the WWE UK Title, Tyler Bate. With appearances from the Iconic Duo: Peyton Royce and Billie Kay, No Way Jose, Sarah Logan & No Way Jose, could it break the post-TakeOver curse and deliver a knockout hour of television?

No.

• No Way Jose comes out to a big reaction from the Brooklyn crowd, grabbing a bunch of people from the crowd for a conga round the ring, when out comes big Lars Sullivan who I hope is going to start a new gimmick as John Lithgow from Footloose and try to get all dancing banned from NXT. He does a murder at the ringside. At least it's a step up from attacking his tag partners, he's now just attacking random people.

• We get a re-cap of Johnny Gargano vs Andrade "Cien" Almas. Kayla Braxton chats with Johnny backstage. He talks of how the road to mediocrity is paved with excuses, Johnny is owning his defeat and promises his fans and himself that this is far from the end.

• Asuka has a press conference, she covers her usual beats, Ember Moon is strong but she is stronger, she is still the champion, something in Japanese, find her some competition etc...

• The team of Pete Dunne and Wolfgang (who I will insist on calling Peter & The Wolf) are backstage, Peter considers his winning the title to be the beginning of the UK brand and that his every successful defeat only goes on to elevate the brand. Talking of his title, Wolfie would like a title shot after they beat Moustache Mountain later. Hold your horses, Peter says, let's just see how tonight goes...

Peyton Royce (w/ Billie Kay) def. Sarah Logan

Between her outfit, theme music, titan-tron and the commentary team, they are really playing up how much of a 'country gal' Sarah Logan is, did you know she wrestled a goat? They begin with a lock-up, Logan takes control with a headlock, broken by Royce, Wristlock, broken by Logan who lifts up Royce, Royce escapes, headlock, rope bounce into a shoulder tackle, drop toe hold into an armbar takedown, Royce breaks out, throws Logan to the ropes and hits a spinning heel kick, in the corner Royce continues her kicks and chokes her with the sole of her boot till the referee breaks it up, slap, middle rope hanging knee, rope assisted octopus hold, strikes, Irish whip, Royce goes for another heel kick but Logan does to hit a lovely delayed release German suplex, she controls the action with strikes and shoulder barges hitting a front dropkick for a 2 count. On the ropes, Logan goes for another suplex but Kay on the apron, holds on to stop Royce being hurt but ends up with Kay taking the bump, O'Connor roll by Logan for a 2. Roll-up by Royce for a 2. On their feet and Royce hits a knee strike and a Bridging Fishermans Suplex for the win. I don't know what the point of playing up Logan's involvement in the Mae Young Classic only to have her lose is. The match itself was as good as you can expect from a just over 4 minute standard NXT match but really it just seems like a wasted opportunity, just use a Liv Morgan or an Aaliyah for this and it's perfectly fine but if you want to make the MYC seem like it could be anyone's to win, don't have them taking relatively clean losses just days before.

• Recap of the Tag Title match and the ensuing nonsense.

• Recap of the NXT Title match and the ensuing nonsense.

• Bobby Roode is backstage after his match, he wants to get out of Brooklyn as quickly as possible, the backstage crew turn up to try and interview but he doesn't want to talk to them, Roderick Strong turns up in the doorway in a suit, he blows Bobby a kiss and tells him he'll see him soon. Bobby shouts at his assistant to get the car.

• Bobby is being interviewed again, this time about his Smackdown: Live debut. He talks of how the one thing that's true about Bobby Roode is he leaves no unfinished business, he wants to first get revenge on Roderick Strong for blowing him a kiss? Then he'll get his rematch, take back his NXT title, head off to Smackdown and make it glorious. Well, I guess if Kevin Owens and Sasha Banks can do it...

• Aleister Black does not care for your interviews, he has somewhere to be. Also, damn does he look fly in a suit.

Pete Dunne & Wolfgang def. Trent Seven & Tyler Bate

As they make their entrances, Tyler is over as fuck, Trent is over as fuck, Peter is over as fuck (almost too over, once again Brooklyn, boo the damn heels), Wolfgang is there too. Pete and Tyler start off the action giving us some proper catch-as-catch-can graps on the ground with Peter nearly getting a pinfall early, kip-up from Bate as they bask in the glow of how good they are for a combined in-ring age of 43! Back from the break and Bate hits a dropkick, tags in Seven who hits something like Wade Barrett's old Wasteland finisher before Bate bounces off his shoulders to hit a meteora, Peter hits Seven in the jaw, tags in Wolfie, Seven fights back with some of the best chops in the game and a lovely DDT, Peter distracts Trent in the corner, allowing Wolfie time to recuperate and hit a running uranage slam for a 2 count. Wolfgang tags Dunne back in who works the shit out of Trent's arm joint twisting it almost into itself before curb stomping the shoulder, kicking and twisting it repeatedly, Seven and Dunne seem set to win the gruntiest match of the year award for this. Peter having all but broken Trent's arm goes for a pin but only gets a 2. Peter & the Wolf work on stopping Seven getting the pin, Wolfie tagged in hits two gutwrench takedowns,  gets Trent in a fireman's carry but Seven escapes, the two men trade waistlocks and Seven hits a dragon suplex, the duo crawl to their respective corners and tag in their partners. Tyler hits a gutwrench suplex followed by a deadlift German but Dunne flips out of it, throws Tyler to the ropes who hits his springboard rebound lariat, followed up with an airplane spin which goes on for ages till he drops Dunne back and Wolfie stops a pinfall happening but takes a massive chop from Seven for his effort. Trent then in turn takes a big forearm from Dunne who in turn gets both Bop and Bang from Bate, step-up enziguri from Dunne, allowing him to blind tag Wolfgang, Bate thinking Dunne is still the legal man hits a Tyler Driver '97 but Dunne rolls out of the way as Wolfgang connects The Howling Swanton Bomb for the pinfall victory. Wolfie can't take his eyes off that lovely UK title belt as they celebrate. The in-ring action was excellent as you could expect from these four who work hard to get the crowd excited and excited they do indeed get. It does suffer from that overall feeling that singles competitors doing a tag match can where it feels like it's fully going through the motions in terms of structure and invention. Hopefully the potential Wolfgang vs. Dunne match lives up to expectations as Wolfgang did get a lack of response in comparison to the British Strong Style lads but then, Brooklyn does seem to have a lot of beach-ball loving dickheads in the audience. That said, still a very fun match.

ATPW Scale Rating: 3.5/10

Well what did you expect from the post-TakeOver NXT? If you really expected anything amazing, well you're just being silly. The main event was a very fun tag match but really by now we all know an accept that this is an episode of water treading TV. Check back in next week to see if I care again yet.

Article by Jozef Raczka (@NotJozefRaczka)

WWE NXT #251 Review (7th June 2017)

On 7th June, WWE aired the 251st episode of NXT, taped at Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida on May 25th. The show's main event saw the returning No Way Jose battle the man who injured him, SaNItY's Killian Dain [Damian O'Connor]. In-ring action also saw the likes of Peyton Royce, Hideo Itami [KENTA], Oney Lorcan [Biff Busick] & Heavy Machinery with appearances from Roderick Strong and NXT Champion Bobby Roode. With a solid line-up like this, what could go wrong?

Heavy Machinery def. Sullivan & Andrews

Lars Sullivan [Dylan Miley] and Tucker Knight to start, they do a big lad lock-up which is like a normal lock-up but they're big lads, Sullivan powers Knight to the corner, break, headlock by Knight, there's an odd moment as Sullivan is referred to by Nigel McGuinness as Lenny from Of Mice and Men, don't use this match as evidence in your GCSE English kids. The two big lads trade shoulder barges till Sullivan hits a clothesline, Irish whip to the corner but Knight reverses with an uppercut and a boot before hitting a huge dropkick by which I mean a standard dropkick but he's a big lad. Knight runs at Sullivan only for Sully to catch him for a slam, now Sullivan should really consider what he's doing here as he tags in the much smaller Victor Andrews who gets in no offense as Heavy Machinery rag-doll him about before hitting their Compactor tag finish for the pin. The audience seems to love Heavy Machinery though I'll never understand why, I guess it's like with the Hype Bros. Sullivan seems set to be the next Performance Centre mega-push. That taken into account, this was fine.

• After the match, Heavy Machinery start shouting about how they want the Authors of Pain and Sullivan gets annoyed at another person for failing him so decides to beat him up, just don't tag them in if you don't think they have a chance, it's your own time you're wasting.

• Christy St. Cloud tries to interview SaNItY about No Way Jose's return, Killian Dain is angry and Irish.

Strong tries to play the Roode Lottery

Roderick Strong is in pumps, skinny jeans and a plain grey tee, make an effort lad, you're on telly. He talks about how he's making a statement, how being in NXT, having a lovely wife and son is making him feel on top of the world, how he feels he's exposed the true him to the fans and they reward him with support, long story short: he wants the NXT title. As if by magic, so appears the NXT Champion Bobby Roode, wearing a very nice suit, Roddy! Roode delivers one of, if not, his most blistering promos since coming to NXT running down Roddy for coming here and assuming he's owed a title shot for his above-average win record, reasonably hot wife and seemingly normal son (his words not mine). His buzz-term that the commentators can refer back to for this is 'the Bobby Roode lottery' as he laments the working man's attitude that for a small amount, people hope to luck out and win big instead of earning their money. What works particularly well here is that Roode's motivation while it could be perceived as standard heel cowardice, is also well motivated in a surface desire to elevate the title by making people earn their shots. Equally good is how it realises that Strong doesn't need much more than a desire for the title, he doesn't have much in the way of a character beyond being a genuine human being so putting him against the Streets of Rage villain become real that is Bobby Roode creates a wonderful immediate clash of styles. Here's hoping that they can deliver in the ring on the potential built here, though I've no doubt they can.

• Nikki Cross [Nikki Storm] is being mental backstage. Talking about wanting to play again and headbutting stuff, it's nothing new but it certainly is disturbing.

• Paul Ellering reads from the Book of Pain which is long and boring, no one can lift the damn thing, it's full of facts on potential opponents and instructions for wrestling.

Royce def. Logan

More expert reporting from Nige as we find out that Sarah Logan [Crazy Mary Dobson]'s first match was as a child against a goat. Logan locks up and is powered to the corner by Royce, Irish whip to the other corner, fireman's carry takedown into an armbar by Logan, beautiful roundhouse by Royce for a two count, crosschin (or whatever you want to call a crossface on the chin), leverage pin by Logan, Royce hits a two amigos and a death valley driver for a two count, big slaps and headbutts by Logan for another close two. Royce fights back and hits the Bridging Fisherman's Suplex for the pin. A very fun match with some well-paced stretches of violence only ruined by a lack of heat for the heels. As good as their iconic mannerisms are, somehow the clean victory here almost makes their partnership feel less important as it implies they don't need each other to get a win. Hopefully the duo get something good to do soon, they're too iconic to be pushed to the sidelines.

• We cut back to an interview with Andrade Almas [La Sombra] after he lost to Cezar Bononi last week, he's walking to his limo with three ladies when Thea Trinidad [Rosita] turns up asking what has become of him before giving him a slap and walking off but Almas is too damn tranquilo to care.

Itami vs. Lorcan ends in a No Contest

This match was just full-on bonkerballs. The two men lock-up, Oney Lorcan over-powers Hideo Itami pushing him to the ropes and separates like a nice lad, graps happen, standing headlock pushes Lorcan to the ropes, as they separate a stiff slap to the cheek by Itami who's not as nice a lad, Itami gives Lorcan a stiff AF shot for a two count, Lorcan back up, strikes and runs the ropes only to be caught by a knee to the gut, back up and the same thing happens again for another two count. Into the corner and a boot and a running blockbuster from Lorcan sends Itami to the outside, Lorcan heads for a tope only to be caught on the apron by a brace of kicks, onto the top rope and a flying lariat from Itami gets another two count. Itami continues to pummel Lorcan who catches Itami in a roll-up for another two. Out of the roll-up and Lorcan decided to throw some slaps of his own but Itami decided no, he will only sell for the stiffest strikes, as Lorcan wriggles out of a GTs, Itami shows him what the stiffest strikes look and feel like as he delivers The Stiffest Strikes, Lorcan fights back, Itami to the outside and a tope rope plancha by Lorcan, back in the ring and Itami is acting 'injured' til Lorcan gets close enough to kick straight for the knee and strike him all the way to fuck and hit a GTS, while Lorcan is out, Itami thinks about going for the pin, only to hit two more GTS' and be attempting to hit a fourth when Kassius Ohno [Chris Hero] runs out...

... Ohno screams before Itami gets annoyed and shoved him, Ohno shoves back much harder, pushing Itami to the floor, Itami, giving Ohno full murder eyes, rolls away to a chorus of boos. This was not only a superb match for the time it was given but the ending managed to use the brutality of the GTS brilliantly with Lorcan doing some of the finest knocked-out acting I've seen. While some could argue that potentially this could have been called as a win for Itami by referee stoppage, it still makes Itami look like a nasty fuck and sets up not only a rematch with Lorcan down the line but a match with Ohno that could be a violent treat indeed.

• We get a Drew Packagetire, covering his time in WWE before in brief but also his re-arrival in NXT. Next week: Drew McIntyre vs someone.

• Also next week: That big women's title re-match from Takeover: Chicago.

• Christy St. Cloud is the busiest interviewer in NXT as she grills Ember Moon [Athena]. Moon talks about her missed opportunities but before she goes for the title, she needs to deal with the Iconic Duo.

Dain def. Jose

So, when do we discuss that the Nigel McGuinness-Tom Phillips-Percy Watson experiment isn't working? Can it be now? I know that chemistry isn't an immediate thing but even in early editions of teams like the heyday of 205 Live's commentary with Mauro Ranallo, Corey Graves and Austin Aries or CWC's Mauro Ranallo and Daniel Bryan or if Smackdown had literally just been Mauro Ranallo, there were suggestions that something could be made from it. Heck, even Tom Phillips has developed a decent act with Corey Graves but the three men just manage to sound constantly like they have recorded in three different rooms at three different times with only occasional interactions. I can see that NXT is the developmental brand still so it makes sense to use it as a proving ground for new commentators as Michael Cole is only awake three days a year and they need to train up the next generation but Percy Watson has managed to show both a lack of personality or insight in his time in the booth, Tom Phillips seems more distracted by sending people saucy snapchats than the matches leaving Nigel to try and actually remind them they have to do some story telling. During this match, they just about get round to talking about how No Way Jose is out for revenge after SaNItY put him on the injury shelf briefly while adding nothing that the showing of the clip from WM Axxess didn't. In an interview with the AVclub, Jim Ross spoke about how watching great wrestling like classical music and how the commentary team's job is to provide the lyrics atop that music (notice how much better the calls were when Jim and Nigel were calling the UK title match at Takeover), I am willing to give Nige, Tom and Percy time to work out their harmonies but if they keep going this way, I think it's time to try someone new. Also, please just move Nigel over to RAW/205 Live, he was great with Michael Cole and I think he would mesh well with Graves.

In regards to the match, it was a bit dull. Killian Dain got the pin off an Ulster Plantation. The most notable things were the new SaNItY music with added pan flute because if you didn't know, Dain is Irish and also the crowds interesting chant at Dain of 'Fuzzy Wuzzy'.

Finally...ATPW Scale Rating: 4.8/10

The middle section of this week's show was dynamite with Itami and Lorcan putting on the best sub-8 minute match NXT has had in a long time, possibly since Samoa Joe v Tomasso Ciampa, Royce v Logan being surprisingly fun and a great promo from Bobby Roode. It's just a shame that the opening and the closing segments were so plodding and free of excitement that it cut off the episode at the legs. Still, with no Takeover's booked until August's return to Brooklyn, it's good that they are focusing on building feuds outside of just the titles while always keeping the prize in sight.