By John Moore, Prowrestling.net Staffer (@liljohnm)
NXT TV
Aired November 14, 2018 on WWE Network
Taped October 17 in Winter Park, Florida at Full Sail University
The NXT intro theme aired…
Vic Joseph, Nigel McGuinness, and Percy Watson were on commentary…
1. Bianca Belair vs. Mia Yim. Belair started the match with some taunting and grabbing on Mia. Bianca got a belly to back suplex on Mia. Mia came back with a snapmare and headlock. Mia hit Bianca with some Muay Thai knees followed by a dropkick rally. Nigel counted four dropkicks. Belair regained control and locked in a chinlock on Yim. Yim countered with a rollup. Belair came back with a shove and pin attempt. Belair locked Yim in a sleeper and then got a noogie on her. Bianca went into more taunting while rubbing Mia’s face in the mat. Yim took advantage of the taunting to get some strikes in on Belair. Belair locked Yim in a cravate.
Vic Joseph noted the great leverage that Belair had in her squat. Yim dodged a dropkick to gain a window of opportunity. Yim mounted another dropkick rally topped off with a gutwrench suplex. Belair recovered and hit Yim with a spinebuster for a nearfall. Belair was cocky again which allowed Yim to nail Belair with a Muay Thai Pele Kick combo. Belair reversed the Eat Defeat with a right hand and the WWE version of the Burning Hammer for the win.
Bianca Belair defeated Mia Yim via pinfall in 8:15.
John’s Thoughts: A good match between two talented women. I would have liked to see a stretched out program between these two but at this time they seemed handicapped with Belair’s booking due to her having an undefeated streak. The one thing I’d hope Belair fixes in her game is to mix up her restholds a bit. She’s great when she’s rubbing her opponents face in the dirt and stuff but the restholds come off as filler. Maybe if she’d taunt during the chinlocks then she could draw more heat.
The Babyface team for War Games were interviewed. Pete Dunne and Ricochet argued about who would represent their team for the man advantage match. Hanson yelled and said he’ll do it. Ricochet said “you heard him”… [c]
Percy Watson thanked Bring Me The Horizon for providing the “Wonderful Life” song for NXT Takeover War Games…
An Aleister Black vs. Johnny Gargano hype vignette aired. The video replayed Gargano’s heel promo from last week with Aleister Black responding to the contrary in other sound bites…
Cathy Kelley interviewed Matt Riddle about his NXT experience. Riddle said he’s happy. He said he made his “de butt” (Debut). Kassius Ohno cut in and ranted again. Ohno brought out all the other wrestlers like Nakamura and Roode who he lost to when they came into NXT. Ohno said the Bro business is trash. Riddle said he’s going to leave the Ohno guy lying in the ring next week. Kathy apologized for Ohno interrupting. Riddle said he’s used to stuff like that happening but he’s happy because now it’s time to fight… [c]
John’s Thoughts: This has been the oddest build because they are telegraphing the hell out of Ohno losing by bringing up the fact that he loses to everyone new.
Vic Joseph thanked Motionless in White for the song “voices” for NXT Takeover…
Enhancement Wrestler Karissa Rivera was already in the ring (she kinda looks like a Black Trish Stratus)…
2. Lacey Evans vs. Karissa Rivera. Lacey Evans wore her sailor themed attire this week. Evans brought Rivera to the ground and did pushups on her prone body. Evans hit Rivera with a slingshot Bronco Buster. Rivera got a few chops in and a dropkick on Evans. Evans wiped the sweat off her chest and then went insane on Rivera. Evans slammed Rivera’s head into the ground until the referee had to pull Evans off Rivera. Evans hit Rivera with the Women’s Right for the victory.
Lacey Evans defeated Karissa Rivera via pinfall in 1:49.
Evans took the mic. She said NXT is full of classless “nasties”. Evans said the women in NXT don’t know how to carry themselves with sophistication. Evans said she’ll lead by example as the lady of NXT. She said she was going to teach those that are classless some manners with “The Women’s Right”…
John’s Thoughts: Evans is a great heel at this point and miles ahead of where she was about half a year ago. Not only is NXT building up Evans as a solid heel, but they are also spending time doing a good job building up her Women’s Right finisher. I still think the 1920s cosplay gimmick is a handicap to her. Just let her be a Marine and team her with the Forgotten Sons to enhance both acts…
A Tommaso Ciampa and Velveteen Dream vignette aired…
Percy hyped Hanson vs. Kyle O’Reilly for the War Games advantage for after the break… [c]
Nigel McGuinness thanked Nita Strauss for providing the song “Mariana Trench” for NXT Takeover War Games…
A Kairi Sane and Shayna Baszler video package aired. The video focused on Jessamyn Duke and Marina Shafir interfering in Baszler’s last title match. Sane said she lost and her treasure box is empty now. Sane said it’s not fare that Baszler’s suddenly attacked. Sane said Baszler isn’t able to beat Sane twice. She said Baszler won’t have her friends this time. Sane said her championship and treasure is coming back…
John’s Thoughts: Random tangent, I love the way that NXT handles their dynamic match bumper cards. They remind me of the way Smackdown used to do their match advertisements back in the Paul Heyman days…
Hanson made his entrance by himself and so was Kyle…
3. Hanson vs. Kyle O’Reilly for man-advantage at the Takeover War Games match. O’Reilly tried to chop down the tree with precision strikes. Hanson absorbed the strikes and no sold them. Kyle cornered Hanson and worked on him with CQC. Hanson fought out with a shove. O’Reilly grounded himself in Octopus BJJ stance. O’Reilly trapped Hanson’s leg but couldn’t get a takedown due to the heavy base of Hanson. Hanson tackled O’Reilly with a shoulder tackle. Hanson dominated with power strikes. Hanson beat the drum on O’Reilly in the corner which led to O’Reilly stumbling on the ground. O’Reilly caught Hanson entering the ring and got a dragon screw leg whip on him. O’Reilly landed and grounded Hanson with a CQC combo.
O’Reilly locked in a heel hook while Hanson fended off O’Reilly with boots. O’Reilly went into ground and pound. Joseph noted that O’Reilly is constantly doing reversals to adjust to Hanson. Hanson recovered and hit O’Reilly with a body slam. Hanson missed a splash. O’Reilly blindsided Hanson with a chop block on the non-injured leg. Nigel noted that this might hurt Hanson on Sunday. O’Reilly went back at the leg with a dragon screw. O’Reilly locked Hanson in a heel hook. Hanson broke the hold by punching O’Reilly’s kneecaps and he booted O’Reilly off. Hanson landed O’Reilly with a back body drop. Hanson hit a few punches and a side slam on O’Reilly. Hanson followed up with a running low crossbody.
Hanson hit O’Reilly with a running power slam for a nearfall. O’Reilly went back after the legs of Hanson but Hanson recovered and sent O’Reilly outside. Hanson flew outside with a suicide dive. Hanson hit O’Reilly with a bronco buster. On cue, Adam Cole came out to argue at Hanson. Cole yelled “don’t you dare!” several times. Hanson took his time going to the top and missed a moonsault. O’Reilly hit Hanson with a roundhouse and pin attempt. O’Reilly turned the pin into a cross armbreaker. O’Reilly distracted the referee so Cole could hit Hanson with a enzuigiri. O’Reilly hit Hanson with an axe and smash for a nearfall.
Cole yelled “do your job!” at the ref while the referee yelled “you’re not supposed to be out here?”. Ray Rowe ran out to equalize Cole. Hanson hit a lariat no O’Reilly. Rowe tossed around cole until Roderick Strong and Bobby Fish ran out to put the boots to Rowe. Pete Dunne ran in for the save. Dunne did his finger break spot on Cole. Ricochet came out of nowhere to hit everyone with a Tope Con Hilo. Kyle O’Reilly nailed Hanson with the title belt for the pinfall victory.
Kyle O’Reilly defeated Hanson via pinfall in 11:57 to gain advantage for his team at War Games.
Cole kept yelling, “You did it!” in his emotive face. Vic Joseph closed out the show…
John’s Thoughts: Nothing special or unique, but everything was simple and effective in building towards War Games. Of coruse, the babyfaces never have the advantage in these type of matches due to the need for sympathy to be put on the babyfaces, so it was a foregone conclusion that O’Reilly would win. That said, the match was solid by the end. If the Undisputed Era ever breaks up or they want to turn O’Reilly to a singles wrestler, they have a blue chipper on their hands because O’Reilly may be a better singles wrestler than he is a tag team, and he’s an amazing tag team wrestler.
This wasn’t a great episode of NXT, but it wasn’t a bad one either. It was just enough to count as a go-home show with video packages and one more piece of build for War Games. The highlight of the show, was the short but sweet Lacey Evans segment in my opinion. I’ll be by tomorrow with my NXT Hit List and Members Exclusive Audio Review. I’ll also be at the NXT San Jose tapings tomorrow so I should be by with some sort of notes for the taping…
Be the first to comment