By Jason Powell
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NXT on WWE Network
Taped June 24 in Winter Park, Florida at Full Sail University
A recap video aired… Tom Phillips and Corey Graves were on commentary… Entrances for the opening match took place…
1. NXT Champion Samoa Joe vs. Rhyno. There were light dueling chants for both wrestlers. Joe applied the dreaded neck nerve hold on Rhyno at one point. Spock would be proud. Rhyno got back to his feet and Joe caught him with an inverted atomic drop, but Rhyno ended up moving to avoid a running senton. Phillips had a nice call as he spoke about how when guys of Joe and Rhyno’s size miss, they miss big. Rhyno went for his Gore finisher only to run into a boot from Joe, who came back with with a unanage and applied his Coquina Clutch finisher for the tapout win…
Samoa Joe defeated Rhyno via submission in 6:25.
Backstage, Asuka was asked who she will defend her NXT Women’s Championship against with both top challengers meeting in the main event. She said she would fight Bayley, then said she would face Nia Jax, then closed by saying she would fight both… Graves hyped American Alpha vs. Authors of Pain… [C] Phillips set up a WWE Draft recap video…
Powell’s POV: The Joe vs. Rhyno match was a little flat in that it’s just hard to buy Rhyno as a real threat to Joe at this point. Meanwhile, I like that Asuka was presented as a fighting champion who would face both challengers, and it was cool that they made the show feel current by inserting the draft recap video. By the way, I’m filling in for NXT guru Zack Zimmerman tonight, but he will return next week.
American Alpha made their entrance, but they were attacked from behind by the Authors of Pain and thrown off the side of the entrance ramp. Once the beatdown was complete, Paul Ellering walked out and escorted AOP to the ring. Phillips said we’d find out after the break whether there would even be a match between the teams following the break… [C]
William Regal came out while the trainer checked on American Alpha, Chad Gable and Jason Jordan blew off the trainer and brought a referee to the ring with them for the match. Alpha cleared AOP from the ring briefly…
2. American Alpha vs. Authors of Pain (w/Paul Ellering). The ref called for the bell to start the match once AOP reentered the ring. AOP hit a nice move where one member held Gable in a bearhug and the other member hit a running clothesline (or just a clubbing shot) to the back of Gable’s head. Gable eventually made the hot tag to a flat reaction. Jordan had his usual strong flurry of offense and the crowd was still flat. Jordan performed a suplex on one member of AOP and the broadcast team marveled over the fact that the AOP member was able to kick out at just one.
Gable checked back into the match and performed a nice suplex of his own on one of the big men and got a two count. Jordan pulled one of the AOP members to ringside and took a punch to the head. Gable applied an ankle lock on the other member, whose partner tried to pull him to ringside. Jordan dove over the top rope onto the AOP member on the floor. There was a brief NXT chant. Gable went for a baseball slide, but he was caught and flung into the apron. Jordan was run into the ring steps. AOP performed their clothesline finisher on Gable and got the win while Ellering smiled at ringside…
The Authors of Pain defeated American Alpha in 6:45.
Powell’s POV: A good match that deserved better from the live crowd. This was filmed late in the taping, so I have to assume that the Full Sail crowd was just burned out and would have been hotter for the same match had it taken place earlier in the show.
Backstage, The Revival were asked what was next for them as tag champions. Dash Wilder said they shattered the spirits of American Alpha. Scott Dawson boasted about being the only two-time champs in NXT, and said there are no teams left who can beat them. Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa showed up and said they have already beaten The Revival and the only thing they haven’t done is hold the tag titles… A shot aired of Bayley warming up backstage for her match against Nia Jax… [C]
Powell’s POV: A simple and effective angle with the tag champs and their new top challengers that left me looking forward to the inevitable title match.
A Hideo Itami video aired to promote his return for two weeks from now… [C]
3. Austin Aries vs. Patrick Clark. The broadcast team acknowledged Clark’s history on Tough Enough. Clark has his own smiling face on his tights. Aries won with the Last Chancery by submission. After the match, No Way Jose ran out and attacked Aries. Graves noted that it was a new side of Jose that they haven’t seen because he was so intense. Aries fled through the crowd…
Austin Aries beat Patrick Clark in 2:00.
A shot aired of Nia Jax preparing for her match with Bayley… [C]
Powell’s POV: A quick showcase win for Aries. It was nice to see Clark again, but those tights with his face on them are too much. Does he wear those and work as a heel when he works indies or something? Jose showed decent intensity in running off Aries and this was a logical next step for their feud.
4. Bayley vs. Nia Jax. Graves said Bayley has defeated Jax in the past, “but not this Nia.” Bayley sold a lot in her underdog role. She started to come back, but Nia flung her down hard on the mat and then Bayley went to ringside heading in the break. [C] After the break, Bayley had to race back to the ring at nine to beat the ten count. Bayley managed to fling Jax to ringside, then she clotheslined her off the apron.
Jax also had to scramble to get back to avoid being counted out. Bayley threw punches at Jax on the apron. Bayley performed two running spears in the corner and then ran into a knee. Later, Bayley dodged a couple of Nia’s strikes while running the ropes, but then ran right into Nia, who followed up with a Jackhammer for a good near fall. “How in the hell did Bayley kick out of that,” Graves asked. Jax dragged Bayley over and went to the second rope, but Bayley popped up and performed a Bayley to Belly from the second rope for the win. Graves said the heart and the will to dig down deep is what makes her so popular…
Bayley beat Nia Jax in 13:40.
Powell’s POV: I enjoyed their NXT Takeover match more, but this was a solid television main event with Bayley slowly taking down the bigger opponent. This was a solid edition of NXT television that suffered a bit from a flat crowd. It’s hard to blame the fans for being so flat since it was late in the taping, but at times this felt like NXT was playing to the Impact Zone crowd across town. Thanks for watching along with me. Check out my WWE Cruiserweight Classic coverage on the main page.
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