NXT – October 12, 2016: Glorious Old NXT
NXT
Date: October 12, 2016
Location: Full Sail University, Winter Park, Florida
Commentators: Tom Phillips, Corey Graves
We’re still in the first round of the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic but more importantly we’re seeing more in the Samoa Joe path of rage as he tries to get his NXT Title back. In the next few weeks we should also be seeing more matches announced for the upcoming Takeover: Toronto special. Let’s get to it.
Opening sequence.
Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic First Round: Sanity vs. Glorious Ten
Before Sanity comes out, we have Roode and Dillinger exchanging cheers from the crowd. Sanity are four people in masks and leather jackets who receive a rather impressed reaction. Two of them take off their masks to reveal Sawyer Fulton and Alexander Wolfe, both of whom attack Dillinger while Roode stays on the floor. The double teaming continues with Roode walking away just over a minute and a half in to make this a handicap match. A powerslam/suplex combo put Dillinger away at 1:59.
The smallest member of Sanity (a woman named Nikki Cross) beats on Dillinger until the leader gives Dillinger a wheelbarrow suplex into a neckbreaker. The leader is…..Eric Young. Granted the Canadian flag patch on his jacket was a bit of a hint.
Billie Kay and Peyton Royce laugh off the idea of fighting Liv Morgan because she has no friends.
Roode blames Dillinger for what happened because Roode isn’t a tag wrestler.
Liv Morgan vs. Billie Kay
Morgan starts with a dropkick and backslide for two before a gutbuster gets two for Billie. The torture rack with an arm trap makes it even worse for Morgan until an STO gets her out of trouble. Not that it matters though as Royce trips Morgan, allowing Billie to hit the big boot for the pin at 3:30.
Rating: D+. Neither of these two are worth much at the moment but NXT has indeed managed to start turning them into something more than random talent. Maybe they’re going to build Morgan up someday but at the moment she’s glorified cannon fodder for the heels of the division.
We look back at Andrade Cien Almas turning on Cedric Alexander last week.
Almas yelled in Spanish after last week’s show.
Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic First Round: TM61 vs. Tino Sabbatelli/Riddick Moss
Moss (formerly known as Mike Rawlis) and Sabbatelli compete against each other so often that they figured they might as well team up. Miller starts with Moss and it’s TM61 taking over early on. Thorn comes in with a slingshot senton until Tino low bridges him out to the floor. Back from a break with Tino coming in for some forearms to the chest as the crowd is split on him.
Sabbatelli starts cranking on an armbar and we get some muscular posing. Moss gets in some trash talking but walks into a jawbreaker. The hot tag brings in Miller to clean house as everything breaks down. Sabbatelli’s interference doesn’t work and it’s Thunder Valley for the pin on Tino at 12:02.
Rating: C. Sabbatelli is an interesting case as he looks great and has the athletic background from being in the NFL but he definitely needs ring time and experience. Moss was a more intense version of the guy we’ve seen for a long time now. TM61 is slowly growing on me but I haven’t seen that great performance from them yet.
Buddy Murphy vs. Wesley Blake
Murphy has had a run of bad luck such as travel issues and having his furniture sold for not paying the bill on his storage unit. They stare at each other to start as the fans are more into Blake than Murphy. Buddy nips to his feet and both guys try big kicks at the same time. Blake is knocked out to the floor so Murphy hits a big running flip dive to take over. Fan: “MAMA MIA!” Cue Samoa Joe to jump Murphy for the DQ at 3:12.
Rating: C-. This didn’t have time to go anywhere but Murphy continues to look very good in the smaller sample sizes. He’s got a somewhat better look and is much better than Blake in the ring but for some reason they won’t just let these two split up. Joe coming in is probably the best outcome though as I don’t know how long these two could hold a crowd.
Joe says time is up so Regal needs to bring him Shinsuke Nakamura or his title. After a break, here’s Nakamura with a quickly removed neckbrace. The fight is on and security is suddenly the most hated team in the building. Their attempt to break up the fight goes nowhere and it continues on the ramp with Nakamura kicking Joe low.
Nakamura is dragged backstage but comes right back, only to be taken back again and again. Joe walks away on his own while Nakamura fights security. The distracted Nakamura is blindsided by Joe but nails Kinshasa inside to end the show. That’s more emotion than I’ve ever seen from Nakamura and it added another gear to his awesomeness.
Overall Rating: B. It’s back to what makes NXT great as we had a show dedicated to moving things forward this week. We now have half of the second round set for the Dusty Classic, the reveal of Sanity and Nakamura returning for the showdown with Joe. This felt like a show designed to make you want to see more in the future and it worked very well in that regard. The wrestling wasn’t the point here and the storytelling more than makes up for it.
Results
Sanity b. Glorious Ten – Powerslam/suplex combo to Dillinger
Billie Kay b. Liv Morgan – Big boot
TM61 b. Tino Sabbatelli/Riddick Moss – Thunder Valley to Sabbatelli
Buddy Murphy b. Wesley Blake via DQ when Samoa Joe interfered
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WHYYYYY are Blake and Murphy being treated like Tito and Martel? Murphy is way better in the ring than Blake, and this needs to end so one of them can move forward.
Yo KB What I Wonder is why would Rodde would offer to be Dillingers tag parter for the DRTTC if he was just going to walk out on him anyway? Is it a classic case of a heel being a hipocrite? I also imagine that this will get some heat on Rodde form the fans as Dillinger is somewhat beloved by them.
Hypocrite yeah.
Sanity feels like Wyatt Family: Urban Edition
I have never been the biggest Young fan in the world but he is a good hand and I’m willing to give serious Young a chance. Cross is supposed to be good and looks like the ringer of the group. Wolfe is not big enough for this super intimidating muscle role. Fulton is sold out for the role though and he sorta intrigues me.