NXT NOVEMBER 15TH 2017
Street Profits vs. Tino Sabbatelli and Riddick Moss
These two teams are starting to gain some traction and having a feud to occupy them is a good next step to help establish them. This was a fairly quick and to the point match. Ford was worked over for a while by Sabbatelli and Moss, but when Dawkins got the tag, he made a quick comeback and beat Sabbatelli pretty much out of nowhere with a jab, before Street Profits hightailed it through the crowd to celebrate. The sudden nature of the win was a surprise, I’m guessing they’re not done with the feud though.
A video covering the Aleister Black/Velveteen Dream feud aired.
Lars Sullivan vs. Raul Mendoza
Mendoza tried to play cat and mouse early, but Sullivan headbutted him out of mid-air and didn’t look back from there, winning with a deadlift into his modified side slam, which they’re calling the Freak Accident. The move looks a lot better with the deadlift thrown in, hopefully he keeps that. Sullivan teased attacking Mendoza after the match but Ohno ran out to confront him, with Sullivan laughing at Ohno and leaving.
Gargano met with Regal in his office and he was back in self-belief mode this week. Regal said he knew Gargano belonged as well and told Gargano he’d be facing Pete Dunne for the UK Championship next week. That’s going to be taped in Houston and should be great.
War Games hype video, focusing on the story between the three teams. It feels like the story part has lost a little steam the past couple of weeks, particularly with Drew being taken out of the story altogether, but this video did a strong job of making the feuds the focus again.
Ember Moon vs. Mercedes Martinez
This turned into a decent match after a bit of a slow start. Mercedes more than matched Ember for a lot of the match. Ember wiped Mercedes out on the ramp with a dive through the second and bottom ropes, but Mercedes cut off the Eclipse and got a two count with a Tower Of London. Ember avoided a fisherman’s buster though and was able to get the win going into Takeover with the Eclipse. Post match, Nikki came out through the crowd, before Peyton and Kairi showed up as well for a vaguely awkward staredown.
They announced Gargano/Dunne and Riot/Deville for next week, so they’re the two pre-Takeover matches in Houston.
Drew came out for his face to face with Almas to close the show. Drew congratulated Almas on Zelina’s plan to get him a title shot working, but now they were both in trouble. He said it was clear what kind of man he was, but when the pressure was on, would Almas be able to say the same? He told Zelina that Almas would find out he was the mountain and called Almas out to face him like a man, not to prove something to him or Zelina, but to prove something to himself, before implying Zelina had him on a leash. Zelina came out alone, followed by Almas who immediately started a brawl with Drew. Zelina tried a crossbody on Drew, who caught her, but the distraction allowed Almas to hit a chopblock and give Drew the hammerlock DDT. Zelina then held the NXT Title up for Almas, before the two left.
RECOMMENDED VIEWING: A decent but unremarkable last show before Takeover. Like last week, nothing really stood out on it’s own, but as a whole show it was fine.