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NXT Live Events
Poughkeepsie, New York at the Mid Hudson Civic Center
Report by Dot Net staffer Zack Zimmerman
Tom Phillips came out 30 minutes before to talk to the crowd a bit, and once again 15 minutes before belltime to do the five dream match thing. One guy said Finn Balor vs. AJ Styles, another said Finn Balor vs. Shinsuke Nakamura. A young lady said Nakamura vs. Dean Ambrose. A little girl booked a future WrestleMania main event of Finn Balor vs. Brock Lesnar. The final two guys wanted Joe vs. Tye Dillinger tonight, apparently unaware that Dillinger is on the Florida tour.
The building holds about 3,000 people and was filled to capacity with another enthusiastic and tuned-in crowd, though this crowd was admittedly the worst of the three nights in terms of reactions.
1. Chris Girard beat Mojo Rawley. Card subject to change apparently, as the poster lists Mojo vs. Riddick Moss and Girard vs. Austin Aries. This match was a move-for-move repeat of their match the night before in Kingston, RI with Girard winning after a running blockbuster.
2. Bayley and Carmella defeated Dana Brooke and Peyton Royce. This match was quite similar to their match in Lowell, but they did a few things to change it up a bit. Bayley pinned Dana Brooke after the Bayley-to-Belly.
3. Manny Andrade pinned Tommaso Ciampa. Andrade is a stud and this was his best performance of the weekend. Once again, he came out to silence and left to a wild ovation and loud “Manny” chants. Ciampa delivered big as well in his second match of the weekend to receive two standing ovations. After a great back-and-forth match with some exciting near-falls, Andrade won with the running CMLL knees in the corner.
4. Shinsuke Nakamura over Elias Samson. These two have some fun spots that they do together, but as a whole their matches together are paint-by-numbers. After a shine, heat, comeback, and Kinshasa, Nakamura scored the pin.
Intermission
5. American Alpha retained the NXT Tag Team Championships over The Revival in a best-of-three-falls match. American Alpha won the first fall with Grand Amplitude. The Revival won the second fall with the Shatter Machine. The champs retained with tandem ankle locks after a white-hot finishing sequence. This was a really solid tag team match and their best of this tour, though frankly I’ve about reached my limit of seeing these two teams together after three straight nights.
6. Asuka forced Alexa Bliss to submit to retain the NXT Women’s Championship. This one went just about as long as their match in Lowell, but it was a dramatic improvement. The pace didn’t drag as much and the time on offense wasn’t as heavily skewed in Bliss’s favor, which made for more consistent crowd investment and a better overall match. Asuka got the win with the Asuka Lock.
Tom Phillips briefly discussed the history of the WWF at the Mid-Hudson Civic Center throughout the years and thanked the fans. In another “card subject to change” moment, he announced that the main event would now be a Triple Threat (it was listed on the poster as Joe vs. Balor in a rematch).
7. Samoa Joe defeated Finn Balor and Austin Aries in a Triple Threat to retain the NXT Championship. This was a very good match, but it didn’t last longer than maybe 10-12 minutes. There were some believable false finishes for all three competitors before Joe stole the pin on Aries after Balor hit Bloody Sunday.
Post-match, Joe left with the title before Aries and Balor shook hands. Aries left before the crowd chanted “See you Monday” at Finn. Balor said that a lot had changed this weekend with the crowning of a new NXT Champion. Balor said that a lot of rumors are swirling about Monday night but the reality is bad news for Samoa Joe: Finn Balor is staying in NXT. He hit the turnbuckles one more time to send the crowd home happy.
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