Worlds Collide: NXT vs. NXT Alumni: As Long As WWE Doesn’t Hear About It
IMG Credit: WWE
Worlds Collide: NXT vs. NXT Alumni
Date: April 14, 2019
Location: Pier 12, New York City, New York
Commentators: Byron Saxton, Percy Watson
So you might remember the When Worlds Collide tournament from over Royal Rumble weekend. Well now they’re doing a series of one off shows with nothing on the line, though this time around we have some interesting concepts, such as this one with a pretty simple name. This could be entertaining or it could be rather boring so let’s get to it.
The announcers run down most of the card.
Kassius Ohno vs. Aiden English
Yes English does still wrestle. The fans given Aiden an AIDEN DAY chant and Ohno congratulates him for getting a chant while being a commentator. That’s too much for Aiden, who hammers away with right hands in the corner and a running elbow makes it worse. Ohno shoves him off the top to the floor though and follows Aiden outside for a right hand (Ohno: “OHNO DAY!”).
Back in and we hit the chinlock until Ohno switches to a double arm crank. Aiden fights up and reverses a neckbreaker into a falling DDT for two. The big running flip dive to the floor (When did Aiden learn to do that?) knocks Ohno down again and a backsplash gets two more back inside. Ohno isn’t having any more of this and kicks Aiden in the face, setting up the Roaring elbow to the back of the head for the pin at 5:57.
Rating: C-. Ohno’s shouting insults were a very nice addition here and they helped what was an otherwise dull match. There’s only so much you can get out of Ohno vs. English as Ohno is a role player and English hasn’t had much success outside of his Vaudevillain days in NXT. Not terrible, but the ending coming out of nowhere didn’t help things.
Harper vs. Dominik Dijakovic
This is Harper’s big return after his wrist injury. The fans welcome him back and it’s Harper going straight at him for a lockup in the corner. After the clean break, they trade shots to the face with Harper’s knocking Dijakovic outside. Back in and Dijakovic blocks a suplex attempt and nails the suplex toss in a great power display. More of the same gives Dijakovic two but Harper is right back with a DDT to put them both down.
A heck of a right hand lets Harper hit a slingshot hilo and a big boot gets two. The swinging Boss Man Slam gets the same but Harper goes up and gets chokeslammed back down. They slug it out on the apron and it’s Harper neckbreakering him out to the floor in a crash. Back in and a half nelson suplex drops Dijakovic on his neck again but it’s too early for the discus lariat. Dijakovic shouts DIE so Harper superkicks him, only to get kicked right back in the face to give Dijakovic two.
For some reason Dijakovic goes up top but gets German superplexed…so he flips onto his feet because he can. Another kick puts Harper on the floor for the Fosbury Flop (Dijakovic doesn’t quite clear the rope but come on.) for two back inside. A top rope moonsault gets two more so Dijakovic picks him up by the beard (Fans: “NOT THE BEARD! NOT THE BEARD!”), which you just don’t do. Harper isn’t cool with that and blasts Dijakovic with the discus lariat for the pin at 11:49.
Rating: B. And that’s pretty much it for Harper, who asked for his release a few days later. At least he went out on a very good match between two big monsters, with both guys trading bombs until one of them couldn’t get up. I had a good time with this one and that’s all you can ask for from a hoss fight like this.
Post match respect is shown in a nice touch.
Sanity vs. Undisputed Era
Alexander Wolfe/Killian Dain (with Eric Young) vs. Kyle O’Reilly/Bobby Fish here. Fish and Wolfe start things off with Kyle going to his back and Wolfe waving down at him. A hiptoss lets Wolfe wave again and the threat of wild swinging sends O’Reilly bailing to the floor. Back in and Wolfe spins around and has a seat on the mat, freaking O’Reilly out enough that he bails over for a tag.
Dain comes in for the running crossbody on Fish and Wolfe drops a knee for two. O’Reilly tries his luck again and gets German suplexed down. He pops up with a roar…and then falls outside in a funny moment. With Fish yelling at Wolfe, O’Reilly sneaks back in and snaps Wolfe’s leg around the post to take over. The slingshot hilo gets two but Wolfe grabs the rope to avoid a dropkick.
O’Reilly is sent outside and it’s Dain coming in to clean house. The Samoan drop/fall away slam combination is as impressive as ever and a backsplash into the Vader Bomb gets two on O’Reilly. Fish’s exploder gets two on Wolfe with Dain making the save. The Backstabber into the backsplash from Dain crushes Fish for two but O’Reilly comes in off a blind tag and chop blocks Dain. High/Low finishes Dain at 9:07.
Rating: C+. This didn’t have anywhere near the heat you might have expected, though can you blame Sanity for not being all fired up here? They’re almost on the same level as the Colons at this point and I don’t see that getting any better. The match was entertaining enough though because of the talent in there, but not exactly must see.
Post match the Era goes after Dain again so Young comes in for the save.
Tyler Breeze vs. Roderick Strong
Feeling out process to start with Strong going to a wristlock. Breeze spins out and puts on a wristlock of his own before snapping off a dropkick to send Strong into the corner. A catapult makes it even worse for Strong but he’s fine enough to knock Breeze off the top and out to the floor.
Back in and we hit the first backbreaker (you knew those were coming), setting up Strong putting his knee in Breeze’s ribs and pulling on the neck. Strong’s dropkick gets two and he mocks Breeze’s picture taking abilities. It’s off to another backbreaker, this time with Strong keeping Breeze over his knee. The chinlock with a knee in the back stays on the designated target before Strong mixes things up with a modified Gory Stretch.
With that broken up, Breeze is fine enough to hit an enziguri for a quick near fall. The Supermodel Kick gets two more and there’s a crucifix for the third straight two. The Beauty Shot is countered into a backbreaker to give Strong two of his own and Breeze is in trouble again. Some kicks to the face get Breeze out of a Strong Hold attempt but he gets caught in the belly to back faceplant for two more. Back up and another backbreaker is countered into a quick Unprettier for the pin on Strong at 13:13.
Rating: B-. Good match here, which is the case every time Breeze is around NXT. You would think that this could mean he gets to go somewhere because he’s capable of pulling it off, but WWE has decided that someone of Breeze’s size, look and gimmick isn’t going anywhere and that’s a big problem with the whole brass ring concept. At least he can do things like this here though, and that’s as good as it’s getting for him at the moment.
Overall Rating: C+. Perfectly watchable yet also skippable show here, with the matches mostly working and the wrestling being pretty good at times. It’s an interesting concept that could be done on a much bigger scale in the future, though I would be worried to see what kind of things would happen if WWE was actually paying attention to the idea.
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