For the third consecutive year, the NXT brand made its way to upstate New York for a show at the Washington Ave. Armory in cold(and about to be REALLY buried in snow) Albany, NY.
Crowd size was pretty decent, considering this isn't the most star-studded lineup NXT has brought in.
To the show!
Match #1: Kassius Ohno vs. Patrick Clark: Kassius looks like he's not missed many meals recently. Yikes. As expected, there were a lot of Chris Hero chants during the match. Ohno wins with a jumping spin kick.
Match #2: Daria Beranato vs. Mandy Rose: Despite both having appeared on WWE TV in some capacity, the crowd didn't seem to know who these two were. Very flat match with Rose picking up the win by holding Daria down with her feet on the ropes.
Match #3: Steve Cutler vs. Oney Locan: Surprisingly stiff match between these two, who worked hard to get the crowd into it. Highlights include some Flair-esque stiff chops by Locan and a cannonball dive to the outside from the top rope by him as well. Cutler wins by turning a sweet double underhook backbreaker into a Boston Crab for the win. These two impressed me.
Match #4: Andrade "Cien" Almas vs Aleister Black: I'm going to be honest, Almas bores the hell out of me. This match did very little to change my opinion on that. The two worked a solid back and forth with Black drilling Almas with a knee to the head for the win.
Match #5: For the NXT Women's Championship: Asuka vs. Ember Moon vs. Nikki Cross: This match went the usual WWE Triple Threat formula with each woman going one on one while the third one sold something on the outside. Moon blew a clothesline spot and kick spot VERY badly in the match. Not her best stuff. Finish saw a superplex-powerbomb Tower of Doom off the top turn into Asuka kicking Nikki's head off for the win.
INTERMISSION. Roman Reigns was booed mercilessly every time he was shown on the mini-Tron.
Match #6:SAnitY (Killian Dane and Alexander Wolfe)vs. Andre Dawkins/Montez Ford: This was actually kind of entertaining with Wolfe trying to mimic dance moves Ford and Dawkins did during the match. Eventually, the two monsters got the upper hand, hitting an awesome finish that saw Dane powerslam Dawkins onto Wolfe's knees for the three.
But, SAnitY is not done. Oh, no. The beatdown continues post match with Eric Young grabbing the mic saying SAnitY will rule tonight, tomorrow and the year to come, and issues an open challenge.
So, who will step forward to save the day and give these dastardly heels their comeuppance? What man has the fortitude to take on such a challenge?
TENNNNNNNNNNNN
And, there goes the roof.
Match #7: Eric Young vs. "The Perfect 10" Tye Dillinger: In my opinion, this was a much better match than the one they had at Takeover: San Antonio. Probably since the rest of SAnitY had been run off to the back, and there was no Numbers Game (TM Michael Cole) to break up the flow of the match. There were some pretty cool spots, and the match ended with Dillinger hitting the Tye Breaker for the win. Afterwards, he seemed emotional as he waved to the crowd. Is a call-up to the main roster in the cards? I mean, after the Rumble, they gotta know he's over, right?
Match #8: DiY/Shinsuke Nakamura vs. NXT Champion Bobby Roode and NXT Tag Team Champions The Authors of Pain: Massive reactions for Nakamura and Roode's entrances, of course. Roode did a little Heel 101 by refusing to get into the ring with Nakamura. Eventually, after the Authors got the heat on DiY, the two rivals had a nice exchange to the delight of the crowd. The end saw Nakamura DRILL Razar with the Kinshasa which he sold beautifully for the win.
Post-match: Nakamura thanked the crowd, then he and DiY did his ropes pose in synchronization.
All in all, a good show, but as stated at the top, with no Enzo/Cass, Owens, Balor, Corbin, Joe, Aries etc. like we've had in years past, it felt a bit flat on star power. Guess that's why they call it developmental, after all.
The "Philly" show I was at had the same lineup and results.
But...at my show, this Montez Ford guy had bright red shoes and the crowd picked up on it to the point of inserting that into the usual Bayley songs. "Hey, we want some red shoes" and the like. Suddenly, the entire crowd got into the match huge, huge to the point that I wanted them to change the finish. Of course Sanity still won, but the crowd obviously stayed hot because Tye came out next.
Honestly, that turning point made the entire night for me, making it one of the best live shows I've been to in years.
"Put on your helmets, we'll be reaching speeds of 3!" "It was nice of you to give that dead woman another chance." "All right, look alive everybody...oh sorry Susan."- MST3K: Space Mutiny
YOUR 2015 W NCAA March Madness tournament champion!
Originally posted by J. KyleAlmas can't even win at a house show?
This guy isn't re-signing.
Almas has won house show matches in the past, and Black is the former Tommy End, so I'm not sure that this result is particularly meaningful.
He seems to be on a losing streak as of late and Del Rio has said he's unhappy where he is (losing more often than not) so my knee jerk reaction is we're losing him before he even takes your (?) suggestion of the boxer's robe with the hood colored like his mask.
Almas is sticking around. He appears to be off TV for the next NXT cycle and maybe getting another restart, so other people are should be getting the wins. They haven't given up on him and this may make more sense later.
Ok, wait a minute. A-Train vs Shannon Moore: Match on Smackdown A-Train vs Edge: Match on Velocity Since it's the same A-Train in both matches, we can only assume that someone in charge thinks Shannon Moore > Edge.
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