NXT APRIL 19TH 2017
Roode opened up the show coming out for a promo. He claimed he’d made Wrestlemania week glorious for the second year in a row, taking credit for selling out the building for Takeover and calling himself the biggest box office superstar in the business. Roode said he’d gotten rid of the last flickering star of the old NXT and the future of the brand was in his control. He ran down the segment last week with Nakamura’s farewell and pointed out he wasn’t on the stage with everybody else, because he wasn’t going to listen to the crap that came out of Nakamura’s mouth. He said Nakamura didn’t leave NXT, he beat him so bad that Nakamura had to get out of NXT. Roode said nobody in the arena or stood on the stage last week deserved to be or belonged in his NXT, so they could either jump on board of Bobby Roode’s NXT or they could hit the bricks like Nakamura. Hideo Itami chose this point to interrupt. Roode got in his face confidently and Itami slapped him. Roode then teased a fight, but walked right into a GTS. Itami looked at the NXT Title before leaving.
Kayla interviewed Tyler Bate and Jack Gallagher, ahead of their United Kingdom Championship match on NXT next week. They were both very complimentary of each other, but there was a little bit of tension when they both suggested they’d be champion next week.
They came back after commercial with Roode still laid out in the ring, being checked out by referees and medical staff. He groggily got back up and started to leave.
Heavy Machinery were shown at the Performance Center earlier in the day, with Tucker preparing to lift weights, when Almas confronted Drew McIntyre and said he’d see him next week.
Andrade “Cien” Almas vs. Danny Burch
They were pushing the story that Almas was out partying after Takeover again here. Burch got to look good early, until Almas stepped up his game and won decisively with the hammerlock DDT.
Video on Asuka, with Ember, Riot, Iconic, Liv and Daria all putting over her reign as champion. They also highlighted Asuka cheating to beat Ember and the fact that Asuka had been getting cockier in recent months, with the video ending with the other women saying they’d be the one to beat Asuka and become the next NXT Women’s Champion. This was good and the kind of thing Asuka’s reign needs, a little reverence and some focus on everyone else wanting to be the one to finally beat her.
Recap video of Dillinger’s feud with Sanity ahead of the cage match tonight.
Iconic vs. Liv Morgan and Aliyah
This was a little awkward, nothing too bad but Liv and Aliyah are still rookies so it is what it is. Aliyah took a big spin kick from Peyton and only just kicked out at two, which seemed to be where the confusion sprung from. The finish saw Billie try to help Peyton on a sunset flip attempt, Liv take Billie out and Peyton get rolled up by Aliyah for the three. Billie and Peyton threw tantrums after the match.
STEEL CAGE MATCH
Tye Dillinger vs. Eric Young
Young came out with Sanity but sent them to the back. The match started with Dillinger closing the door himself after catching Young with a right hand. He went for the Tye Breaker early, but Young went to the eye to get out and threw Dillinger into the cage. Young controlled things, with Dillinger preventing him from escaping through the door a couple of times and blocking him going out over the top before slamming him off the top rope. Dillinger got back on top from there throwing Young into the cage repeatedly and hitting a big superkick. Young ended up bleeding but interestingly there was no stoppage.
Young and Dillinger stopped each over going over the top, before Young knocked Dillinger back into the ring and hit an elbow off the top of the cage rather than climb out, only getting a two count for his trouble. As Young went for the door Dillinger grabbed his ankle, so Young went to hit some more offence, but got caught with the Tye Breaker. When Tye went for the door, Nikki Cross took out the ref and Dain and Wolfe blocked the door. Riot, Strong and Ohno ran out to brawl with them, with Dain wiping out Ohno, Strong and the ref against the side of the cage. Dillinger ended up hitting a dive off the top of the cage to Dain and Young with Wolfe preventing him from climbing out, then escaped through the door before Wolfe could get in after him for the win. Strong and Ohno celebrated with Dillinger. Kind of a weird ending in that Dillinger didn’t really win decisively, but the fact he’s going to Smackdown means it kinda doesn’t matter how he won. And he won the feud without any of Sanity having to get pinned, for what that matters.
RECOMMENDED VIEWING: The cage match picked up by the end and was a good capper to the Dillinger feud, without being a must-see match. The rest of the show was fairly skippable, the Asuka video and Roode segment both being effective but not essential.
NXT WEEK: Drew McIntyre versus Andrade “Cien” Almas, Jack Gallagher versus Tyler Bate for the United Kingdom Championship and Aleister Black in action. So next week’s show should be a return to form.