NXT MARCH 15TH 2017
The Ealy Brothers vs. The Authors Of Pain
This stemmed from last week when The AOP attacked The Ealy Brothers before their match with The Revival, with The Ealy Brothers demanding this match as a result. The Ealys got an inset promo, which was better than their YouTube/WWE.com one, essentially saying blood was thicker than water and warning the AOP not to underestimate them. The Ealys are clearly still very green and this was pretty rough going. The AOP managed to salvage it when Rezar gave one of them a stiff clothesline and headbutted the other while he was still on the apron. A slightly awkward Super Collider lead to them hitting the Last Chapter for the win.
After the match Ellering said The Revival were the next name in his book of destruction and he created the algorithm for greatness in tag team wrestling. DIY came out and said they were the ones who could finally defeat the AOP and The Revival saved them from losing last time. They asked for a fair championship rematch, which brought out The Revival. They complained about sitting on the sidelines in San Antonio and claimed that they were the greatest team in history. Regal ultimately came out and made a triple threat elimination match for Takeover.
Heavy Machinery, Tucker Knight and Otis Dozovic, got a short video hyping that they were ‘coming soon’, although they have already debuted under that name.
Hype video for Asuka, ahead of the match with Ember at Takeover. Asuka, for whatever reason, was interviewed whilst lounging by a pool. Came across as kinda heelish, although they’ve done stuff with Asuka before and not turned her. The main line was her saying the moon never shines brighter than the sun and she was the sun.
Macey Estrella vs. Nikki Cross w/Sanity
Squash win for Nikki, after hitting six swinging fisherman’s neckbreakers. No Way Jose and Dillinger jumped the rest of Sanity after the match but Nikki raked Dillinger’s eyes, allowing Sanity to fight back. Young gave Jose the wheelbarrow neckbreaker with Dillinger forced to watch, then Dain gave Dillinger a senton. This beatdown got a bit more heat than the angle last week did.
Another Tommy End, still not named, teaser video aired.
Recap of Ember beating Billie last week and Billie’s injury taking the Eclipse. They then aired footage from earlier in the week of what was supposed to be Andrea getting a medical update from the Performance Center. The cameras caught Almas pushing Ho Ho Lun into a locker and Oney Lorcan standing up for him, daring Almas to try it with him and Almas walking off. Lorcan was interviewed and said he couldn’t stand bullies, telling Almas to try bullying him.
Andrea interviewed Ohno before the main event, with Ohno basically saying how his last NXT run ended didn’t sit well with him and he was going to put it right by winning the title. Roode was also interviewed before his entrance, Roode saying Ohno was a failure who didn’t deserve a shot at his title and he was going to show why this was his NXT. Nakamura was then shown watching on a monitor backstage before the match got underway.
NXT CHAMPIONSHIP
Bobby Roode (c) vs. Kassius Ohno
A good indicator of how this UCF crowd weren’t your typical Full Sail crowd, Roode got more of a reaction than Ohno and his chants were louder when the people who knew Ohno got dueling chants going. That seemed to fix itself a little once the match actually got going though. Ohno controlled things early on, with Roode taking over after the commercial break. They went through two commercial breaks, so the match got plenty of time. It wasn’t a particularly remarkable match, particularly in the middle. It picked up towards the finish though. Ohno countered the Glorious DDT and hit the big rolling elbow but knocked Roode out of the ring and when he threw Roode back in for a senton, Roode kicked out. Roode ended up avoiding the Death Blow, ran Ohno into the top rope throat first and hit the Glorious DDT to retain and confirm that it’s Roode against Nakamura at Takeover. I’d like to think Roode and Ohno have a better match in them, since it wasn’t a case of them not working well together. This however was merely solid.
RECOMMENDED VIEWING: If you’re particularly interested in seeing Ohno back in NXT then Ohno/Roode is fine. Don’t go in with high expectations though.
NXT WEEK: Oney Lorcan versus Andrade “Cien” Almas and Sanity versus Roderick Strong, Tye Dillinger and No Way Jose