NXT DECEMBER 13TH 2017
Andrade “Cien” Almas w/Zelina Vega vs. Fabian Aichner
This was short but packed a punch. Aichner threw everything had had at the champion, as he hit a nutty springboard dive and a springboard tornado DDT, before a distraction by Zelina allowed Almas to shove him to the floor and throw him into the steps. A hammerlock DDT later and Almas won. Weird match, in the sense that it was kind of an unconvincing win for his first match as champion, but Almas didn’t really lose anything from it either because it was so quick and dynamic.
Sanity promo. They showed the scar on Wolfe’s head and he was wearing some kind of neck brace, as Young said the outcome of War Games wasn’t ideal but they’d finish what they started in Houston next week.
The Authors Of Pain vs. Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch
Very similar to the opener. Short, exciting, the underdogs came out swinging and got offence in to pop the crowd, but then they quickly got put away. AOP hit the Super Collider and pinned Oney with the Last Chapter.
Recap of Dunne versus Bate from Takeover Chicago to hype their match next week.
Ember Moon vs. Peyton Royce w/Billie Kay
I’m not sure exactly when Peyton got quite so over. It seemed like it just happened at Takeover and it’s carried over from there. There was some good stuff here. Billie got somewhat involved early, via being dove on, but was basically a non-factor after that. Instead Ember got the the clean win with the Eclipse. I think they could have gotten a Takeover match out of these two, but having Peyton lose clean suggests they won’t be going that direction next. Might be good for Ember, because I could see a Takeover crowd routing for Peyton over her right now. Billie attacked Ember after the match and Peyton hit the facecrusher onto Billie’s knee, before Nikki Cross of all people made the save. After chasing Iconic off, Nikki eyed up Ember’s title before running off.
WWE.com video of Street Profits interacting with fans, which they dubbed “Street Talk”.
The person from the teaser video last week was revealed as Shayna Baszler.
#1 Contenders Tournament
Aleister Black vs. Adam Cole
Cole came out with Fish and O’Reilly, but they left before the match as they’d been banned from ringside. This didn’t get a tremendous amount of time, but it was a solid match. The early stages were carried by the character more than the action, as Cole mocked Black a little early on and paid the price. Cole gained control after the break, before again getting too cocky and allowing Black into the match. They picked things up considerably towards the end, with near falls for both and the Black Mass being avoided a couple of times by Cole. Surprisingly, it ended with Black hitting the Black Mass and winning, 100% clean, to advance to the fourway. I wasn’t sure what they were going to do in regards to the result as Black still has the undefeated streak but Cole is Cole, so erred on the side of there being shenanigans. Turns out there were none. Where this leaves Cole now, I don’t know. Black, Dain and Gargano have now qualified with Strong versus Sullivan to come.
RECOMMENDED VIEWING: As a primer for NXT, this was a pretty good show. You got the sense they were trying to get their time’s worth from this show with the way the two opening matches were laid out and they managed to cram most of the important stars into the hour one way or another. As far as the matches go, Ember versus Peyton and Cole versus Black both got decent time and were both solid, while the first two matches were both entertaining short sprints.
NXT WEEK: Pete Dunne versus Tyler Bate for the UK Championship and Sanity against Fish and O’Reilly for the Tag Team Championship.