By Jason Powell
NXT TV on the USA Network/WWE Network
Taped November 29, 2017 in Winter Park, Florida at Full Sail University
NXT opened with a video recap of Andrade Almas winning the NXT Title, Drew McIntyre suffering an injury in the match, and William Regal announcing the qualifiers for the four-way match that will determine the new No. 1 contender to the NXT Title… The opening montage aired… The broadcast team of Mauro Ranallo, Nigel McGuinness, and Percy Watson checked in and previewed the show…
1. NXT Champion Andrade “Cien” Almas (w/Zelina Vega) vs. Fabian Aichner in a non-title match. The bell rang and Almas immediately dropkicked Almas. Aichner came right back with a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker and then performed a crazy springboard dive onto Almas, who had bailed to ringside. Aichner followed up with a springboard tornado DDT for a two count. Almas caught Aichner going to the ropes and shoved him to ringside. Almas followed and ran him into the ring steps. Almas followed up with his hammerlock DDT finisher and scored the clean pin…
Andrade “Cien” Almas beat Fabian Aichner in 2:15.
An Aleister Black video package aired and hyped him as appearing later in the show… [C]
Powell’s POV: A brief yet entertaining match with Aichner getting some offense in before the champion put him away clean. The broadcast team put over Aichner’s showing against the champion effectively afterward. It’s a shame we may not hear from Vega on the USA Network show, as she is a terrific talker. For those not seeing the show, it’s a standard NXT broadcast in terms of production. Meanwhile, I’m surprised they didn’t play that same Black video package in the advertising for NXT on Raw and Smackdown this week. Black’s look and flashy kicks are definitely attention grabbing.
McGuinness set up a video package of “the incredible journey” of NXT Women’s Champion Ember Moon… [C]
Powell’s POV: It’s wise to feature the video packages focussing on the champions and how they won their titles for viewers who may be seeing the show for the first time on USA Network.
2. Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch vs. Authors of Pain (w/Paul Ellering). Locan and Burch threw some strikes early that got the crowd fired up. AOP came back with clotheslines. Lorcan was dumped into the corner and then AOP hit their super collider powerbombs. They followed up with the Last Chapter on Lorcan for the win… [C]
Authors of Pain defeated Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch in 1:15.
Powell’s POV: A nice showcase for Authors of Pain who come off as even more badass than The Bludgeon Brothers in addition to having a much better look. Sorry, that Bludgeon Brothers gear does nothing for me. It will be interesting to see how similar the introduction of AOP to the main roster is to what they are doing with Bludgeon Brothers now. I assume they are going with short matches to cram in as many notable names onto this show as possible.
McGuinness hyped Pete Dunne vs. Tyler Bate for the WWE UK Title, and Sanity vs. Bobby Fish and Kyle O’Reilly for the NXT Tag Titles for next week’s show on WWE Network…
Sanity delivered a promo backstage. Eric Young did the bulk of the talking and said they would finish what they started in Houston (at the Takeover: WarGames event)… A video package aired on Adam Cole… McGuinness hyped the main event… [C]
A brief video featured a silhouette of a wrestler. The lighting changed and it was revealed to be MMA fighter and Mae Young Classic finalist Shayna Baszler…
Ring entrance for the main event took place starting with Adam Cole. McGuinness said Undisputed Era has turned NXT on its head. Watson said he wants to see what Cole can do without his backup. The great Aleister Black entrance followed. McGuinness put over Black’s striking ability while Ranallo and Watson focussed on the darkness of the character…
3. Adam Cole vs. Aleister Black in a qualifier for the four-way to determine the No. 1 contender to the NXT Title. Cole escaped a leg scissors and mocked Black by blowing a kiss and doing his “Adam Cole Bay-Bay” bit. Black dumped Cole out of a headlock and then threw a series of quick strikes that concluded with a knee to the head. Cole went to ringside and Black sat down and crossed his legs in the ring heading into a break. [C]
Cole was in offensive control coming out of the break. Black came back and set up for his finisher, but Cole rolled to ringside to avoid it. Black caught Cole coming off the ropes with a kick for a two count. Cole performed an enzuigiri and a backstabber for a two count. Cole performed the Last Shot for a near fall.
Cole went for a superkick on a kneeling Black, who caught his foot. Black delivered a knee to the head. He toyed with Cole by holding his foot under his chin as Cole stood up. “Come on, what do you got?” Cole asked. Black blasted him with the Black Mass kick and scored the clean pin…
Aleister Black defeated Adam Cole in 11:20 to advance to the No. 1 contenders four-way.
The broadcast team ran through highlights of the match. A graphic showed Black, Killian Dain, and Johnny Gargano as three of the four men in the four-way match that will determine the No. 1 contender. McGuinness hyped the UK Title and NXT Tag Title matches for next week and thanked viewers for joining them on USA Network. The show ended five minutes before the top of the hour…
Powell’s POV: A good main event featuring two of NXT’s finest. Black stood out in a major way and Cole also shined as an arrogant heel despite taking the loss. This was a good hour (well, 55 minutes) of television and viewers who had never seen NXT before had to come away impressed by the showcase of some of NXT’s top talent. This also served as a nice hook for WWE Network given that the NXT show will continue to air on that platform for now. Speaking of which, it will be very interesting to see how this show performs in the ratings tomorrow and where it ends up if the numbers are strong. Thanks for watching along with me tonight. John Moore will be by on Thursday with his weekly audio review, which will be available exclusively to Dot Net Members.
So that was the great NXT? Meh…
plz review the WWE Network version with Ember vs Payton