WWE NXT Review // 7th March 2018

On 7th March 2018, WWE aired its 290th episode of NXT, filmed at Center Stage, Atlanta, GA on 2nd February. Our main event was a Number One Contender's ICW FIght Club rematch as Aleister Black took on Killian Dain for a shot at Andrade Almas' NXT Championship with New Orleans. The show also featured first round Dusty Classic action as the Authors of Pain took on the men they defeated in the final of the last Duty Classic, TM61, as well as appearances by Bianca BelAir and Tommaso Ciampa. But was it any good?

Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic First Round // Akam & Rezar vs. Nick Miller & Shane Thorne

After the mild disappointment that was their Dusty Classic final, I wasn't expecting much here but slightly surprisingly, this delivered the goods, hitting a hot opener that wasted no time and got the crowd really going by the end. Working off a reasonably classic tag formula (if you haven't worked out by now, if I'm being nice I call it classic, if I'm being mean, I call it standard), the four men worked hard, throwing in some classic hits from their repertoire while throwing in some new touches like a devastating out of the ring on to the apron powerbomb onto Nick Miller. With a lot of people expecting the redemption story of the newly returned TM61 to continue here, the finish worked well, playing off this as Thorne nailed a big slam setting up Miller for a top rope moonsault but Rezar was straight in to break up the pin, sending Thorne out of the ring and hitting The Last Chapter legsweep-lariat combo for the win. The match was very well thought out and packed a lot into its nine minutes but it did seem like maybe it needed just a few more minutes of good action to really make it stand out. 

William Regal is backstage being interviewed about if he has a particular favourite going into the Dusty Classic, obviously he says no because that would make the entire tournament pointless, he could just make his favourite number one contender. Pete Dunne turns up and says that the UK title isn't leaving the UK, Roderick Strong turns up and says he beat him but he'd love a rematch sometime, The Undisputed Era turn up and taunt Strong for losing in big matches, Dunne reminds Cole he shits the bed in big matches too. Regal breaks it up before the kids start scrapping. 

Bianca BelAir hangs out backstage before her match.

SaNItY talk about how they're going to win the Dusty Classic and Dain is going to beat Aleister Black but they do it in a crazy way like. Nikki Cross steals the segment by just maniacally laughing at everything.

Bianca BelAir vs. Drew Renee

Quick squash m8. If Renee got any offense in, I missed it. BelAir won in less than a minute with the AlleyOop Powerbomb. I'm expecting big things this year from the 'EST' in NXT.

Christy St. Cloud is talking to Lacey Evans about her match with Dakota Kai and talks about her lack of class and her arm that was broken by Baszler, till Baszler turns up and Lacey Evans bails. Baszler demands Moon respond to her challenge.

Heavy Machinery talk about beef.

Tommaso Ciampa segment

Ciampa entering to a chorus of boos and a crowd of Johnny Wrestling signs, would pull from the Zack Gibson playbook, refusing to talk until the crowd stopped, only making them louder every single time. He repeatedly walked away from the microphone, refusing to give them the satisfaction. Sadly for Ciampa, this made them even louder still. As he walked around the arena, he grabbed fan's Johnny Wrestling sign, tore it in half and beat it down with his crutch before leaving, making it quite clear he didn't need the crutch anymore. Somehow, without uttering even a single word, Ciampa just delivered the best promo of the year thus far.

Next Week: UK Championship action as Pete Dunne takes on Adam Cole and two more Dusty Classic first round matches in the form of SaNitY vs. Sabbatelli & Moss and Street Profits vs. Heavy Machinery.

Aleister Black vs. Killian Dain

This was never formally announced as a number one contender's match but with both men having made their intentions clear in previous weeks, we may as well treat it as such, though this is not the two fighter's first encounter having competed before in ICW and SWA with Dain coming out on top in both encounters. Things started off hot with Dain getting a near fall off a John Woo before things would go mostly back-and-forth with Black utilising his superior striking ability while the man the crowd once chanted 'fuzzy wuzzy' for, used his obvious size and strength advantage, keeping Black grounded with submissions work and standing splashes. While this wasn't quite the wild, violent spectacle we were promised, it was still a very good, little match, playing off the classic David vs Goliath dynamics but never making Black look beneath Dain with some of the near falls including a buckle bomb-vader bomb combo looking incredibly close. The match came to a close as Dain had Black up for the Ulster Plantation electric chair driver but Black managed to slide out and nail the Black Mass spinning roundhouse kick for the pin. I'm still unsure that Dain is really the breakout star of SaNitY and the one they should be pushing so hard as a solo star but if they are intent on doing so, I will say that this here is easily his best singles encounter in NXT and another good notch on the winpost for Black. Lovely stuff but still, never felt like it was quite the war that the last few weeks promised us.

On The YouTubes

Authors of Pain and Paul Ellering are backstage with Christy St. Cloud, Ellering puts over the rest of the tournament, stating it is stacked from top to bottom but that they will still come out on top. He also tells The Undisputed Era that they've seen the tag champ's best but they haven't seen theirs. So Ellering's also seen ReDragon vs Young Bucks, it has a 9.02 on Cagematch.

So it was a Number One Contender's match. The contract signings next week by the way. With four announced matches and a contract signing, expect at least one DQ finish.

Finally...

This was probably the most consistent episode of NXT this year, even if there wasn't a standout match like Gargano-Almas IV, everything delivered and mre importantly, it all set up for more good things. This week was really good, next week looks like it could be even better. What more could you ask for? 

Written By Jozef Raczka // @NotJoeRaczka

WWE NXT Review // 14th February 2018

On 14th February 2018, WWE aired its 287th episode of NXT, filmed at Stage Center, Atlanta, GA on 1st February. Our main event was a TakeOver: Philidelphia rematch as Shayna Baszler once again tried to take the NXT Women's Championship from Ember Moon. This was not the only title action on the show as Roderick Strong also challenged Pete Dunne for the WWE UK Title. With action from the newly returned TM61 as well, the show had a strong pedigree, but was it any good?

WWE UK Championship // Pete Dunne (C) def. Roderick Strong // Pinfall

Well, to the surprise of no one, this was a bloody corker. There is so much complexity to Dunne's & Strong's performances as they often work a clean and simple structure but throw in so any little details that you feel like there's no suspension of disbelief required while you ask 'why would that happen?' The match started with the two trying to out-wrestle the other as Dunne worked over the arm and wrist joints while Strong tried to apply early pressure onto the back as set-up for either his Stronghold liontamer or End of heartache suplex/backstabber combination finishers. The action really kicked into high gear when taken around the ring as Dunne, having learnt from previous attempts at stomping the hand on the ring steps, instead stomped for the elbow but still on his third go of steps work was caught into another lethal backbreaker variation by strong as he was dropped right onto those same steps. Dunne's battleplan seemed simple but very effective as he attacked the arms because the messiah of backbreakers can't break his back if his hands don't work but the match still did a lot to show the gutsiness of Strong's babyface performance, even managing to get some convincing false finishes off an angle slam and a Stronghold. Of course, the finish came as Dunne escaped the Stronghold by attacking the arm, nailing a running bicycle kick and the Bitter End pumphandle reverse STO for the pin. This was a very good, exciting way to start a show even if it lacked a certain emotional connection that would have dragged it up into the realms of 'great'.

Next week: Johnny Gargano vs Andrade Almas IV: NXT Career vs Title, we get an accompanying recap of the story of Andrade and Johnny.

Also next week: Velveteen Dream faces No Way Jose, when asked about it, Dream ain't shook, not one bit. He also dismisses the very notion of Tyler Bate. How rude.

Aleister Black turns up looking like the main henchman from Nicolas Winding Refn film, he speaks of paths and how his has tested him but even having succeeded in almost every test so far, there is still a devil on his back. Up turns Killian Dain who tells him that it is in fact he upon Black's back, not the devil and then basically if he wants to go for the NXT title, he'll have to go through him because this worked out well for Dain when he lost his previous two number one contender's matches. Black tells Dain he's going to fade to black. Watching these two try and kill each other should be fun though especially as Black seems to bring out the best in everyone.

Shane Thorne & Nick Miller def. John Skyler & Andrew Duntworth // Pinfall

Quick squash m8. Pretty standard stuff as they condensed the Tag-Team structure down into two minutes. There was a nice moment where Skyler decided to try and pull it back for his team by going after Thorne's repaired knee, suggesting that the Aussie team have presented a target for the other tag teams to aim for. The finish came in the form of a Greetings from Thunder Valley for the pinfall. It was what it was.

NXT Women's Championship // Shayna Baszler def. Ember Moon (c) // DQ

Let's look at this not just for the match, which, while solid for the time given, was only really set-up here, there was a much larger angle at play. The story here was that Moon, still taped up from Baszler's post-title match attack, was trying to see if she could put away Baszler before she could attack the arm but Moon got too fired up and putting pressure on the injured arm, especially during a lovely suicide dive onto the announce table, ended up probably causing as much damage to herself as Baszler did. Baszler, noticing an opening would attempt to break what was left of Moon's arm on the outside until up would turn Kairi Sane, seeking vengeance for Baszler choking her out, beating her down and hitting a mighty spear in the ring to send Shayna packing. All three women performed beautifully here with Moon showing great aggression as she started off the match taking down Baszler and trying to just kick her to fuck, Baszler continues to be presented as a terrifying force, even if sometimes it seems at the detriment of Moon but you get the sense of a greater plan at work here and Kairi turning up and sticking it got a good pop out of the crowd. It's hard to judge this purely on its own as this feels too much like a chapter in a story that we'll only be able to properly comment on when we see where it goes next but for what we got, this was a hot main event angle, even if not quite a great match.

On The YouTubes

Roderick Strong is a tad disappointed that he lost. Still, you've got 205 Live aswell now, eh bud?

TM61, on the other hand, seem pretty jazzed that they won. They also call out the entire NXT tag division, I wonder if they're building to some sort of 'Classic' tournament...

Finally...

Another very good, very fun show with one extremely watchable match in the opening and some great storytelling elsewhere. I wish they'd given the main event a bit more time to develop some drama in the actual match itself but certainly, it's enough to keep me excited to see where this is all going next. Also Dunne's increasingly luxurious hair combined with a black and white edition of his singlet was a great look. I feel like that's what's important here.

Written By Jozef Raczka // @NotJoeRaczka

WWE NXT Review // 31st January 2018 // Roderick Strong vs. Tyler Bate

On 31st January 2018, NXT aired its 285th episode of NXT, taped at Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, on 27th January before NXT TakeOver: Philadelphia. Our main event saw former WWE UK Champion Tyler Bate compete with Roderick Strong for a future shot at the title that Tyler lost. We also had in-ring action from TM-61, the Ealy Twins, Nikki Cross & Lacey Evans as well as interviews and 'exclusive footage' from the aforementioned TakeOver event. But was it any good?

We open on a flashy video package recapping the entire TakeOver event, if you didn't see it, expect to see each match recapped over the course of the show anyway.

Nikki Cross def. Lacey Evans // Pinfall

Quick. Squash. M8. Nikki Cross rushed straight at her opponent hitting a crossbody and pummeling her with strikes. Evans would send Cross out of the ring but Cross pulls her out and just keeps on pummeling, eventually Evans would cut off Cross and work a brief heat section till she misses a second rope moonsault until Cross is back on top, laying into her and hitting the Swinging Fisherman's Neckbreaker for the pin. It could have been a lot better but for the time given, both women looked good. Cross has probably become the most over part of SaNitY and hopefully, it won't be long before she's holding gold of her own.

We get video recaps of the four matches that weren't the main event. We also hear from Baszler who claims that she may have not got the title but looking at Moon after the match, she feels more like a winner, and Velveteen Dream who's happy that he won, I think.

Nick Miller & Shane Thorne def. Gabriel Ealy & Uriel Ealy // Pinfall

On their entrance, Shane Thorne jumped into the ring and looked like he had a little stumble, I was worried that he might be about to re-injure himself. Luckily, such fears were unfounded as the former GHC Tag-Team Champions flew right back into competition and literally too as Thorne, seemingly wanting to show people how fully working his legs are hitting a tope con hilo here and a corner cannonball there, Miller also hit a pretty bloody near-perfect moonsault. The Ealy twins haven't been working long and they didn't do much here of anything but they didn't do anything wrong so there's that, plus points here to Mauro for establishing that Gabriel has the right arm tattoo and Uriel the left arm tattoo so now we know. The finish came as they hit Thunder Valley double gorilla press slam for the pin. Not an amazing showing but in terms of reminding us what TM-61 can do, it went a long way.

Post-match: TM-61 are on the mic. They say that he documentary they showed the past two weeks told us who TM61 but they are now so much more, they are the mighty and The Tighty, Sixty-One. Also they don't kneel.

Video recap of Gargano vs Almas with the standard 'exclusive footage' which as always, is slow-mo and videos they'd put on their YouTube after, worth a watch anyway because this match is that good.

So EC3 was in the front row at TakeOver, so was Trevor 'Ricochet' Mann and War Machine. They'll all be on TV soon enough probably, especially as they were discussed here.

Next Week: Adam Cole vs Killian Dain & SAnitY vs Undisputed Era for the Tag Titles.

WWE United Kingdom Championship Number One Contendership // Roderick Strong def. Tyler Bate // Submission

There's not much to say here, it's not that this match wasn't good because it was, but there isn't really a story to discuss here. Both Bate and Strong are very capable of delivering astonishing matches and telling truly astonishing stories in the ring but this was quite simply two men who both wanted the same thing, roughly the same amount but quite simply in this instance, Strong came out on top. As a first-time singles encounter, this showed a lot of promise and some very good chemistry as both Bate and Strong have a similar combination of all-around athleticism and some of the sequences in this match were so well executed, it's hard to quibble yet at the same time, I couldn't help but feel that this was only as good as it needed to be, possibly hampered by being kept short with a TakeOver to film afterwards but certainly lacking a really hot stretch to push it into the upper echelons. The result was the right one, with Strong having worn down Bate's back enough that he couldn't hit the Tyler Driver '97 allowing Strong to hit the End of Heartache backbreak/stabber combination for the pin. The right person won as even though Bate and Dunne put on three classics, it's time to try some new combinations. Could we be about to see the first American UK champion? Let's see...

On The YouTubes

Pete Dunne shrugs off new UK Title Number One Contender, Roderick Strong. Typing or reading this lasts as long as the video.

Finally...

This didn't fully break the post-TakeOver curse, especially not in the same way as the superb Dunne v Gargano match from post-WarGames but it was still fun and it did just enough to suggest bright things are on the horizon in 2018.

Article By Jozef Raczka (@NotJoeRaczka)

WWE NXT Review // 24th January 2018 // Johnny Gargano vs. Velveteen Dream

On 25th January 2018, NXT aired its 284th episode of NXT, taped at Center Stage, Atlanta, GA on 4th January. Our main event had NXT Championship implications as Johnny Gargano put his spot in the main event of TakeOver: Philidelphia against Andrade Almas on the line against Velveteen Dream, the man who should have had his spot in the Number One Contender's Tournament if not for 'injury'. The show also featured Authors of Pain taking on the team of Damien Smith & Chase Brown, Bianca BelAir taking on Indie stalwart Latoya Allsopp (or Luscious Latasha as she's better known) & a returning No Way Jose taking on Cezar Bononi. With only days till TakeOver, there was a lot riding on this episode's success as a go-home show, but was it any good?

We get a cold open as Velveteen Dream discovers The Performance Centre has hooked up it's lighting to clicker switches and its music and smoke machines to Alexa. He talks about how everyone has a dream and everyone here dreams of being champion and everyone's path is different, especially his and Johnny's, but Johnny's path while it may one day lead to the championship, it's not happening today, one dream will be over. I like these stylised approaches to opening promos, it makes NXT feel different to any other in-ring product the WWE has, also, the Dream manages to find a good blend here of weirdness to actual content. Fun stuff.

No Way Jose def. Cezar Bononi // Pinfall

Quick squash m8. This was pretty much what you'd expect from this kind of match as Jose dominated early on till Bononi cut him off with a Judo throw and a dropkick, managing a pumphandle powerslam for a 2, after he threw Jose to the ropes, Jose would return with a swinging neckbreaker, a sequence of strikes and the pop-up forearm gets Jose the pin. Jose was his normal energetic self and did manage to get the crowd going but the action itself was clumsy and Bononi's selling seems odd and laboured. It did what it had to do but it didn't exactly make for an entertaining ride there.

We get another video package for Adam Cole v Aleister Black II. Much like last week's, it was well-made and a good way of telling the story if you hadn't seen their previous three interactions but as a part of the go-home NXT, it did feel a little like padding.

Bianca BelAir def. Latoya Allsopp // Pinfall

Another quick quash m8. Allsopp, under her better-known name of Luscious Latasha is a thirteen year veteran of the scene having worked predominantly in SHINE wrestling and Woman's Superstars Uncensored, a company we've discussed before around these parts. While she gets very little in the way of offence here, she works hard to make BelAir look good, a deed that's not exactly difficult as BelAir is a very fun performer. Not really much to say about this match as it was mostly just re-establishing BelAir as someone to watch, something very much achieved by a moment where Allsopp went for a diving axe handle and BelAir ponytail-whipped her in the air. Eventually, BelAir would get the pin off a Reverse Powerbomb-Alley Oop Thing. Decent stuff but hardly thrilling.

Percy Watson sits down with Ember Moon, Shayna Baszler & an ominous non-copyright backing track for the Table for 3 you never knew you didn't want. He asks Ember about why she called out Baszler and Moon reiterates last week's point about Baszler being a bully and thinking she can come in, take shortcuts and try and injure people, Ember questions if she's trying to over-compensate because she doesn't think she can hang with such heavyweight talents as Aliyah, Baszler responds by stating that she knows what she's doing but you have to stir the waters to catch a fish and Moon is the big fish at the moment, Moon reiterates that she is the big fish and this is her division and her division has a code that they follow and as champion she has a responsibility to make sure people are following that, come Saturday, Baszler is going to see how far away from ever being in Moon's position she is. Baszler, smirking her way through the interview tells us that she doesn't care what people think about the route she's taken to get here, when she walks away with the title, they'll have to get used to it. This didn't exactly raise my excitement for the match but it didn't diminish it either which is something.

WHO ARE TM61? Part II

We carry on from last time, covering the fact that they share a name with a missile as well as the item used to teach Will O' Wisp in Pokemon. We then go to the story of how Shane Thorne injured his leg, hitting a double stomp on Roderick Strong back in the second round of the last Dusty Rhodes Tag-Team Classic and then went on to perform on it for a few months after, only leading to further injury. What's interesting is that it really doesn't seek to dive too deep into either man as an individual but more seems to sell them as a unit, it's important and refreshing to see them being sold as two people genuinely interested in tag-team performance and not just using it as a leaping pad to singles stardom. Also this week we get some more premium-strength Harley Race, it's always a delight to see the first ever United States Champion back on our screens. Next week, TM61 are back in action for the post-takeover NXT. It would have been a nice surprise to have them back without all the build-up but as far as build-up goes, this has been really enjoyable. Plus we got to watch them fuck up promos which is always fun.

Authors of Pain vs. Smith & Evans never gets started as the pair of tiny men get killed with big boots and corner valley drivers, on the mics, Akam & Rezar tell Undisputed Era to look at this as on Saturday it's their turn, they then pick them up for the Supercollider double powerbomb, as they leave the ring, Rezar nearly trips on a tiny man which is my new favourite thing. 

Next Week: Nikki Cross vs Lacey Evans

NXT Championship Number One Contender's // Johnny Gargano def. Velveteen Dream // Submission

Now, this is more like it, a match with stakes, energy and most importantly, the time to actually build drama. The two men went back and forth over a match given two ad-breaks worth of content, it started off strong as Dream came to the ring in a tassled crop-top made of a Johnny Gargano shirt, not as strong a look as his Aleister Black leggings from the last TakeOver but still, a strong look. They worked a good opening section as the two men worked a technical back-and-forth with Dream coming out on top but making the mistake of taunting Johnny leaving him with an opening to lock in a GargaNo Escape immediately but Dream was able to break on the ropes. The meat of the encounter was a simple tale of Gargano targetting the right arm to weaken the effects of the Purple Rainmaker while Dream tried to follow up on Gargano's neck that he injured off a draped swinging neckbreaker. While there were some strong sequences outside as Gargano dropkicked Dream onto the announce table and followed it with an apron cannonball, the best work happened in the centre of the ring with both men throwing everything they could at each other but neither seemingly able to get enough of an advantage early on including a second-rope tornado flatliner from Gargano and a beautiful twisting DDT from Dream earning some convincing near falls.The finish came as Dream hit a top-rope death valley driver but Gargano was able to kick out, Dream would go back up to attempt a Purple Rainmaker diving elbow drop but having taken armwork from Gargano, had to use his left instead of his right giving Gargano a chance to dodge, hit a low SUPERKICK and lock in the GargaNo Escape for the tapout. On a pure in-ring level, this was up there with some of the best TV encounters of recent years with Gargano earning a strong win but Dream hardly looking less than legitimate in defeat. If there's an issue with Dream's work so far it's that by running at Gargano's pace, he made for an exciting opponent but almost too exciting as if you didn't know, you might think this was a face v face encounter. Still, I'm sure that if they are as committed to Dream as they should be based on his performances in the last few months, they'll find a way to make the crowd boo him. As it stands, this was still a highly engaging match that really cements Gargano's position as the best male babyface in WWE since Sami Zayn.

Post-match, Andrade Almas and Zelina Vega come down to the ring and taunt Gargano with the title, as Almas hands the title to Vega he goes for a sucker punch but Gargano has worked him out and fights back immediately but Almas takes him out with some stiff strikes, posing in the ring with the title, Gargano climbs back to the ropes and hits an enziguri and a slingshot DDT on Almas, posing with the title to close out the show.

On The YouTubes

Almas is pissed that Gargano got one over on him, Vega says that at TakeOver, Gargano is done for.

Kassius Ohno mocks Dream in a corridor for losing, Dream tells him that at least he looks good doing it so Ohno pushes him into a wall. Well, I guess we have our fifth match for TakeOver then.

You know that one cocky promo Undisputed Era have been doing for a few weeks now? Yeah, they did it again. This tie for a mild change, there's an actual target for their threats in the form of Authors of Pain instead of just being generally antagonistic.

Finally...

Not exactly the home-run it should have or indeed needed to be but still a show with a lot of good points to it. Gargano V Dream was the obvious highlight, with only that and the second part of Who Are TM61? feeling entirely necessary, but nothing felt outright bad, not even the first match. The other positive is there's a lot of newer talent being given a spotlight here which can only be a good thing in the long run.

Article By Jozef Raczka (@NotJoeRaczka)

TV Review: WWE NXT #217 - Buddy Murphy v Wesley Blake

The 12th October episode of WWE's NXT show was headlined by former Tag Team Champions Buddy Murphy and Wesley Blake facing off with each other for the first time, although Samoa Joe had other plans. TM-61 (Nick Miller [Mikey Nicholls] & Shane Thorne [Shane Haste]), Tino Sabbatelli and Riddick Moss featured in the other high profile bout. After a less than stellar episode last week, would NXT show any signs of improvement? 

If you'd been watching the last few weeks of NXT then I'm sure you'd have been able to guess that Samoa Joe was about to interfere during Buddy Murphy and Wesley Blake's grudge match. It just felt like the natural progression of the two storylines. Murphy and Blake were actually doing some pretty good work in the ring, telling a cool story of them both being very familiar with each other and I feel like the crowd was getting into it by the time Joe came charging down the ramp. There's definitely space to redo that match at a future date or even reform the team because of the attack. What followed with Joe calling out NXT Champion Shinsuke Nakamura once again was a brilliant watch. The King of Strong Style standing on the stage and removing his neck brace produced a great visual, before the stakes were upped in a pull-apart brawl. Joe and Nakamura brought the intensity in a brawl that had a very different feel to their pre Takeover: Brooklyn II brawl. In the end it was Joe who was left laying in the ring, after plenty of twists and turns. After wanting to fight Nakamura for weeks, it will be interesting to see how Joe reacts over the next few weeks. 

In the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic, TM-61 defeated Riddick Moss and Tino Sabbatelli to advance to the second round in a mostly dull encounter. This was Sabbatelli's debut and Moss's first bout in around a year and whilst they both looked great, I didn't see much from them to get particularly excited about. It was telling however that Full Sail Arena began dueling chants about Sabbatelli, instead of getting behind a TM61 side who are yet to get over with the audience, despite obvious talent. The contest felt like it was overly long for what felt like a foregone conclusion for a Miller & Thorne and despite the size of Moss & Sabbatelli they didn't have any convincing near falls across almost ten minutes of wrestling. In the Quarter Finals, TM-61 will face either Team Aries or Niko Bogojevic & Tucker Knight. 

 Best of the Rest

• Billie Kay [Jessie McCay] defeated Liv Morgan in a scrappy bout, after Peyton Royce had tripped Morgan. 

• In Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic First Round action, the debuting SAnitY (Alexander Wolfe [Axeman] & Sawyer Fulton) def Bobby Roode & Tye Dillinger [Shawn Spears], with Roode leaving Dillinger and Eric Young and Nikki Cross [Nikki Storm] being revealed as the other members of Sanity.

Finally...

ATPW Scale Rating - 5.25/10 

Show in a Sentence - Great show ending angle, pedestrian elsewhere, except for SAnitY introduction, which needed more time.

Strongest Segment - Buddy Murphy v Wesley Blake interrupted by Samoa Joe 

Weakest Segment - TM61 v Riddick Moss & Tino Sabbatelli 

Words - James Marston

TV Review: WWE NXT #212 - Austin Aries v Andrade Almas

With Andrade Almas and Austin Aries colliding inside the ring, would this week's episode of NXT manage to turn around the brand's recent poor form?

Austin Aries continued to gain momentum, as he went over Andrade "Cien" Almas in a good match. The contest was a strong showcase for both men, who seemed to have some deal of early chemistry with each, as they went through a series of slick action. The action before the ad break was nicely balanced, with Almas managing to stay one step ahead of Aries' tricks of the trade, whilst also showing a degree of showmanship himself as he out-whited Aries run around the ring by pulling out the old spider between the top and middle rope situation. There was some nice little touches, like Aries pulling on Almas' tights as Cien attempted to escape a headlock, which managed to add a little extra spice to what could have ended up a fairly straightforward bout, at least structure wise. The finish was well performed with The Greatest Man That Ever Lived turning Almas' springboard rana attempt into a snap powerbomb, before transitioning seamlessly into the Last Chancery for the victory. Almas' double knee smash in the corner was protected throughout, with Aries managing to dodge the move twice, which would set-up a potential rematch between the two nicely. It would perhaps be worrying for NXT that whilst the crowd were split on Aries, they seemed pretty indifferent about Almas.

Cruiserweight Classic contestants Ariya Daivari and Tony Nese made their NXT debuts in a losing effort to the hot and cold tandem TM61 [Nick Miller and Shane Thorne] in a cracking tag bout to kick off the show. To my knowledge, this was the first time that Nese and Daivari had ever been in the same match, let alone tagged together, so I was  surprised to see how fluid they were as a unit, putting on some cool double team sequences and working over Thorne well. There was some nice little touches to their work as they controlled the match and found different ways to prevent the hot tag to Miller that I got a real kick out of. The mid-match dive sequence that saw Thorne almost end up in orbit was also damn impressive stuff. The conclusion felt like a slight deflation, however, as Thorne was back inside the ring almost immediately, and whilst his selling was strong, I'd have preferred to have seen him do it on the outside of the ring as he attempted to recover from his prolonged beatdown. TM61 went on to win with Thunder Valley on Daivari as they continue to show promise, but not completely deliver it. 

NXT Champion Shinsuke Nakamura had his first outing since winning the belt, in a simple squash bout with Steve Cutler. Nakamura is always an entertaining performer to watch and this match resembled a cat playing with a ball of string as he batted Cutler about the ring, appeared to let him take control for a moment just for a change and then rocked him with an inverted exploder suplex and a Kinshasa to get the win. Even with Nakamura being the Champion, this match didn't deserve to go on last, because Cutler is still pretty much enhancement talent for the brand and the one win that he was given last week wasn't going to convince anyone that he was either a viable opponent for Nakamura or that he was capable of having a good match (even with some of the calibre of The King of Strong Style). Samoa Joe's appearance on commentary gave the most interesting developments, as he appeared much more subdued following losing the NXT Championship and walked out following a brief stare down with Nakamura.

Ember Moon made her NXT TV debut, picking up a swift victory over Leah Von [Leah Von Dutch] in another good showcase for the former Anarchy Championship Wrestling performer. This felt like an abridged version of Moon's Takeover: Brooklyn II bout with Billie Kay and I enjoyed it much more because of that. All the focus was on Moon and Von did a good job of allowing her opponent to shine, by extenuating certain elements of her character, managing to get a strong reaction out of the Winter Park crowd in the process. That diving corkscrew stunner finish Moon has is a thing of beauty and now perfectly called The Total Eclipse. Asuka claimed she'd driven the competition out of NXT, and at this moment with only two broadcast contests to her name, it feels like Moon could be #1 Contender, already. 

Finally...

ATPW Scale Rating - 4.81/10

A much better show from NXT this week, than what they've put out over the previous two episodes, as the show contained two quality contests. Austin Aries and Andrade Almas had a cracking outing that complemented both of their styles well and probably deserved to end the show, whilst TM61 continued to develop in a stellar tag team collision against the debuting Ariya Daivari and Tony Nese. The other two matches were quick squash matches for Shinsuke Nakamura and Ember Moon, both of which showcased the talents well, but it's hard to rate that kind of match particularly highly, especially when one of them includes the NXT Champion. 

Whilst this show was an improvement, as a whole it still was a below average hour of wrestling.  

Content - James Marston
Banner Credit - Kai Stellar