We are looking for reports on all WWE, NXT, Impact Wrestling, ROH, Evolve, and other notable live events. If you attend a show, you are encouraged to send a report or even basic results to dotnetjason@gmail.com
NXT Live Event
San Diego, California at Viejas Arena
Report by Dot Net reader Brad Acevedo
We were given the option to vote between three “classic” NXT matches to watch during intermission with Bayley vs Sasha winning the popular vote. The show started about 15 minutes late with most of the time being eaten up by a package of Hardy Boyz ladder match highlights (earning plenty of Delete chants).
1. No Way Jose defeated Kona Reeves in about 5:00. Not much love for Kona but he did a fine job heeling up and jawing with the crowd. Jose had a super fun entrance consisting of steam effects and an arena wide conga line (which my wife joined in on, ending up just three people behind Jose himself).
2 Ruby Riot and Lacey Evans defeated Bianca Blair and Mandy Rose in about 5:00. Bianca sports a braid of hair almost as long as she is tall, which seems like a tripping hazard waiting to happen. Ruby was super over and Lacey won over the crowd with her fun throwback gimmick. She slapped Mandy with her glove before having her skirt torn off (she wore modest wrestling trunks beneath) and worn by Mandy, Fun match with Ruby scoring the win with a Pele kick.
A child at ringside introduced the next match, a cute touch.
3. Kassius Ohno defeated Oney Lorcan in about 10:00. Slow burner match that picked up with Lorcan’s explosive offense and crowd pleasing antics such as literally asking Ohno for more strikes. Surprisingly, it took two rolling elbows to put Lorcan away and the pair posed together on the ramp.
4. DIY defeated Tino Sabbatelli and Riddick Moss in 14:00. Moss got cheap heel heat by ragging on the Chargers recent departure from SD to Los Angeles. There were fun mid match antics involving Moss and Ciampa battling it out in a push up contest. Afterwards, a strange scene in which Ciampa stole the ring announcer’s shoe. The crowd actually let loose with a “Where’s your shoe?” chant, prompting Ciampa to attempt to put it back on, declaring the announcer that he’s “not quite Cinderella”… Weird but amusing.
Intermission, featuring highlights of Bayley vs Sasha and a barely audible five second promo by Sonya Deville (FKA Daria Beranato).
5. Drew McIntyre defeated Patrick Clark. Lots of Purple Rain chants for Clark’s offbeat Prince style gimmick. They’ve erased the last vestige of Drew’s previous pre 3MB run by eliminating his cool ink drop splatter video wall. His new video consists of orange lightning arcs and his name flaking off the screen a la fiery embers. Cool, but I miss the old intro including the “Broken Dreams” theme.
6. Asuka defeated Sonya Deville in about 8:00. Asuka was easily the biggest pop of the night. Sonya still has the epic theme she sported as Daria. Asuka scored the pinfall with a series of strong kicks. I like Sonya and her MMA gimmick but she got absolutely no love from this crowd.
7. Tye Dillinger and Hideo Itami defeated Bobby Roode and Andrade “Cien” Almas in 20:00. Easily the biggest pop I’ve heard for Almas, I attribute it to our proximity to Mexico. He got a steam effect for his entrance as opposed to the silly sparkler effects. All four men were very over with Roode’s sing along entrance being the highlight. There were plenty of antics especially between Roode and Tye trading Glorious and 10 chants. At one point, Roode scooted away from Tye on his rump prompting a brief “He’s Got worms!” chant… God, I hope that doesn’t catch on. A very entertaining match with a crowd pleasing finish of Tye hitting the Tye Breaker on Roode and Hideo performing the GTS on Almas.
And that was that! Our fifth pro wrestling event overall. The show took place in the smaller San Diego venue at the local university as opposed to the Sports Arena that Raw and Smackdown work out of. The arena was about 65-70% full, decent turn out. Despite not having a huge crowd, the crew worked their butts off and my wife and I had a blast. I hope they come back soon.
After the match Tye made a speech about it being his last night in NXT. He thanked everyone from the crew to the fans. The lockeroom emptied and everyone did 10’s as a final curtain call.