NXT – December 9, 2015: Trying To Get Hyped
NXT
Date: December 9, 2015
Location: Full Sail University, Winter Park, Florida
Commentators: Byron Saxton, Corey Graves, Rich Brennan
It’s the go home show for Takeover: London and that means it’s time for all the hard pushes before the next major show. The bit match for tonight is the always useful combining of two matches into a tag as Finn Balor and Apollo Crews face Baron Corbin and Samoa Joe. The card for next week’s show looks good though and that’s all that matters. Let’s get to it.
Opening sequence.
Colin Cassady/Enzo Amore vs. Corey Hollis/John Skyler
Enzo and Cass are totally serious for once. Hollis and Skyler actually get an entrance. Cass pounds Hollis into the corner for some hard elbows to start before easily tossing him across the ring. Enzo comes in for some trash talk and a nice dropkick before it’s back to Cass, who throws his partner at Hollis in the corner. The East River Crossing sets up the Rocket Launcher for the pin on Hollis at 2:40.
Enzo says that’s how they feed their family and Dawson/Wilder aren’t messing with that. They’ve been doing this longer than any team in NXT and the champs had the nerve to try and take out Cass. That jeopardized their futures and the only people who get to determine their futures are in this ring right now. Cass isn’t standing for those two taking them out either and they’re getting retribution and the titles in London. Where in the world did that come from? For their first ever serious promo, this was excellent and I was loving it.
Dana Brooke and Emma are ready for Asuka and want her to remember that this isn’t Japan. Emma was the one that paved the way for the Divas Revolution (can we PLEASE find a new plot device for the Divas?) and they imply interference in Asuka’s match tonight. Dana is annoyed at Tom Phillips for being too tall to pat on the head.
Video on Tye Dillinger.
Asuka vs. Deonna Purrazzo
They circle each other for a bit until Asuka grabs the hammerlock. After going over to a wristlock, Asuka snaps on an armbar to send Deonna into the ropes. A hip strike drops Deonna again and here are Emma and Dana on the stage. Deonna tries to use the distraction and gets KICKED IN THE FACE for a knockout win at 2:55. The gasp from Emma and Dana made the whole thing even better.
Mojo Rawley talks about Blake and Murphy not being successful in the club and Zack Ryder has no idea what he’s talking about. They’re sure they’ll win tonight though.
Alexa Bliss yells at Blake and Murphy for losing recently but they promise that the Hype Bros will be broken.
Another long song by who appears to be Elias Sampson.
Hype Bros vs. Blake and Murphy
Blake, Murphy and Bliss are wearing what look like Freddie Kruger shirts that were run over by lawnmowers. Even the fans call then Freddie Kruger. Mojo dances a lot to start and Ryder facepalms on the apron. Blake works on a wristlock to start as Graves wants to go to prison instead of watching the Hype Bros. Blake and Murphy are sent to the floor, leaving Mojo to declare that none of them are hyped. Ryder baseball slides both of them and drops Blake with a flapjack to set up the Broski Boot.
Murphy comes in for the first time and takes Ryder down before it’s back to Blake for a chinlock. That goes nowhere so it’s Murphy coming in with a chinlock of his own. Ryder fights up and kicks them into each other before diving over to tag in Mojo. Rawley cleans house (Corey: “It’s like someone shaved a Tasmanian devil.”) and everything breaks down. Blake’s superkick only gets two and it’s the Hype Ryder for the pin on Blake at 6:24.
Rating: C. Totally fine match here between two teams that aren’t the most interesting in the world. Blake and Murphy don’t seem to have much of a future aside from being a midcard team here in NXT while the Bros look like they’ve been thrown together for the sake of giving them something to do. Still though, not a bad little match here.
Baron Corbin doesn’t like Apollo Crews because he’s a rookie who doesn’t deserve anything. Joe is still mad about Finn Balor not giving him the title shot he deserved. Tonight, Crews and Balor get their warmup beatings.
Peyton Royce vs. Bayley
Non-title. Royce is clearly a heel here as she’s a sexier character than the majority of the roster. Peyton starts with an armdrag (Fans: “BETTER THAN EVA!”) and Bayley doesn’t look to be 100% coming in. A running knee gets two for Royce and there’s that annoying Bayley chant again. We hit the chinlock on Bayley but she comes back with some right hands, only to walk into a spin kick for two. The middle rope elbow staggers Royce though and the Bayley to Belly is good for the pin at 4:07.
Rating: C+. Not a great match or anything but this is the kind of match that Royce needed to look like a future player in the division. If there’s one thing NXT is great at, it’s setting up someone as a threat after they start off looking like any other wrestler. She might not go anywhere, but this was a really good performance from someone who hadn’t shown much potential otherwise.
Post match Eva Marie and Nia Jax come out. Eve is booed out of the building until Jax takes the mic and says she doesn’t need Eva to do the talking for her. Bayley is lucky that Nia didn’t get here earlier because Bayley has been lucky so far but that ends in London. I still see no reason why Nia has Eva with her.
Apollo has been trying to get in touch with Balor all week but Finn hasn’t answered. Balor says he’s ready and that’s all that matters. Crews is fine with that but promises to come for the title after London. Balor doesn’t seem cool with that.
Video on Sami Zayn getting hurt back in May and his return next week.
Finn Balor/Apollo Crews vs. Samoa Joe/Baron Corbin
Joe immediately tags out to avoid fighting Balor. Finn tries to bring in Apollo so Corbin tags out as well. Apollo slams Joe down and we take a way too early break. Back with Crews in the wrong corner and Corbin flipping him to the mat for two. Joe comes in for an armbar and a big elbow to the jaw. It’s back to Corbin but he misses a charge and hits the post, allowing the hot tag to bring in Balor.
The champ hammers away on Joe in the corner but Joe reverses him and tries the Muscle Buster. Finn reverses into a sunset flip for two, followed by the Sling Blade. Baron shoves Balor off the top and into a Death Valley Driver (I haven’t seen one of those in a long time), setting up the Koquina Clutch to knock Balor out at 9:46.
Rating: C+. Again this wasn’t great but it set up the two matches quite well. I could have gone for more interaction between Crews and Corbin here as their match isn’t the most interesting in the world but it’s good enough so far. Joe vs. Balor has gone from what felt like a filler feud to a match I want to see so they’re certainly clicking there. Good stuff here and it accomplished its goal.
Joe poses with the title over the unconscious Balor to end the show.
Overall Rating: B-. Above all else a go home show is supposed to make me want to see the big show more than I did coming in and that goal was accomplished here. Other than that we had some good wrestling and a solid promo from Enzo and Cass, but I’m not as hyped up for London as I’ve been for recent Takeovers. The show is going to be awesome because that’s how Takeovers work but I’m not as interested as I could be. Still though, another good show this week as you should expect.
Results
Enzo Amore/Colin Cassady b. Corey Hollis/John Skyler – Rocket Launcher to Hollis
Asuka b. Deonna Purrazzo via knockout – Kick to the face
Hype Bros b. Blake and Murphy – Hype Ryder to Blake
Bayley b. Peyton Royce – Bayley to belly
Samoa Joe/Baron Corbin b. Finn Balor/Apollo Crews – Koquina Clutch to Balor
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2 thoughts – this feels like a whole new class of “kids”, this Takeover feels rushed,
This really feels like the 3rd class of NXT. We started with the Ascension, Wyatts, Seth, Dean, Roman, Tyson, Cesaro, Neville, ect. The last year-18 months was dominated by Owens, and the incredible women’s matches. Now its on Finn, Joe, Corbin, Crews, Bayley, the Mechanics, ect. And that’s one of the things with NXT, I think like your favorite college football team, you see a great class graduate or go pro, and then you have to get used to the freshmen and sophomores grow up and replace those guys.
For me, this feels almost too close to the last Takeover. I guess we’ve had the Dusty Classic and a great Sasha/Bayley ironman match in October, but one of the things I think that helped the previous ones was more breathing room and drawn out feuds. Like one more round of tapings could have been done and another month of programming, and then run a Royal Rumble weekend show like Brooklyn.
Either way, NXT is the closest thing in the modern day to the excellent WCW Saturday Night format that worked so well for so long, and if they slowed the main roster down to be more like NXT and just wrote simpler stories, it’d be incredible.