NXT World Champion: Finn Bálor
NXT World Tag Team Champions: The Revival
NXT Woman's Champion: Bayley
NXT TakeOver: Dallas
April 1st, 2016
Dallas, Texas
NXT World Tag Team Championships: American Alpha vs. The Revival
Still holds up, I've seen this maybe 9 or 10 times, and now that I've rewatched NXT from the start I've noticed the little things, like Dawson having his best showing on the mat against Gable and kinda edges him for the most part, which no one has done since Gable has been in NXT. Some really cool stuff like kids really trying to slow down the pace, with a bunch of illegal double teams but Alpha has everything scouted and seems to be 1 step ahead the whole first half. Revival finally gets control when Dawson suckers Gable to the floor for a quick chase and Dash drills him with a clothesline on the floor. Really good RV hot tag, it's not brutal but everything is really solid and laid out well, theirs' this awesome false hope spot with Gable countering a double backdrop into a double DDT, Dash then rolls to the floor and goes under the ring to pull Jordan off the apron before the tag can be made. Sadly, they would fuck up a double team and almost drop Gable on his neck that's really the only blemish on this match. Jordan's hot tag is still the best in the WWE at this point, the match breaks down and both teams have this awesome near falls, the match would end when Dawson tries to roll Gable up but he kicks out and they trade roll ups until Jordan blind tags in and hits his killer shoulder tackle and they hit Grand Amplitude for the win. Good stuff, if it wasn't for Sami/Cesaro this would be the best opener in NXT so far. It's most definitely the best tag match in NXT. ***3/4
Jim Ross, Kota Ibushi, and Funaki are all in the crowd.
Baron Corbin vs. Austin Aries
Decent big vs. small guy match, Aries comes out pissed so he takes the fight to Corbin early. Corbin manages to weather the Aries flurry before hanging him up on the top rope to take over, lots of trash talking and holds for a few minutes. Aries would eventually fight back but Bas Corbs would drop him with a Deep6 on the floor, he then counters the End of days in the ring and rolls Corbin up for the win. The highlight of the match, was Tom mentioning Aries once ended Joe's 21-month reign as a world champion, several years ago. Good for you face fucker. **
Scott Hall & X-Pac are in the crowd.
Sami Zayn vs. Shinsuke Nakamura
This might be Sami's most masterful performance during his entire WWE/NXT run, he's the most serious I think he's been so far. Outside the Owens matches but that was built off hate, this is more Sami knowing how dangerous Nakamura is and not wanting to be embarrassed. Plus this is his house he can't let the big foreign guy come in and make a name for himself off his name. Good feeling out process to start, they go back on forth on offense, it starts off with some respectful showman-ship but it quickly turns into stiff strikes. Nakamura offense is based around his MMA background so we get lots of elbows and knees to the mid-section. Sami has a lot of Nakamura's basic offense scouted so he able to counter them, and that's what really keeps him in the match. AWESOME! Exchange of forearms between the two, with Nakamura’s nose being busted up, that would lead to some heated exchanges and some real dickish cheap shots from him like stomping on his head. Sami’s counter out of the triangle choke just to return the favor with boots to the head, and he further gives Nakamura recipes with kicking him in the head while he was up against the ropes. They trade near falls and continue to just strike the shit out of the other, the finishing stretch is super hot, you know you have the fans in the palm of your hands when they bite on the blue thunder bomb. As the match goes on, Nakamura now has Sami's big stuff scouted like the Helluva kick and the turnbuckle DDT. Nakamura avoids the corner Exploder and hits the flying knee off the middle and then the Kinshasa to for the win. I have to lower my rating a bit, as it's not as clean and perfect as I remembered it being, but it's still a damn good high level top tier match. ****1/4
After The Match; Nakamura offers his hand and Sami is clearly disappointed and looks like he doesn’t want to. But in the end, they shake and hug. Nakamura leaves and SAMI stands alone in the ring.
Sami gets a huge ovation, as he stands in HIS ring soaking it up. THIS IS A HUGE LOSS! Like losing Sasha, Becky and Charlotte were all huge too, but now they lose their heart and soul, for the 2nd year in a row. Thankfully, this wasn't isn't due to injury it's to the main roster. NXT is built off Sami's blood, sweat, emotion, and tears. He's always been their guy, not Neville, not Finn, and it won't be Nakamura (which we would later find out) It's always been Sami he's the most genuine babyface of all time, the most relatable. The only guy that really came close was maybe Big E and Bayley. And I don't think they really get that babyface again until Gargano? Should be an interesting 2 years, Not looking forward to those Joe/Nakamura matches tho, still have a sour taste in my mouth.
Bayley/Asuka video package airs.
Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley is sitting in the crowd cause SHE BUILT THE WOMAN'S DIVISION!
NXT Woman's Championship: Asuka vs. Bayley
This is Bayley's biggest challenge as champion, I would say bigger than Sasha in the Iron Woman match, as she Asuka debuted that night and since then all Asuka has done is run through all the woman. They pretty much play off the Sami/Nakamura story with the face of their respected gender's division having to defend spot against an
JAP arguably better wrestler. Bayley hasn't faced anyone the caliber of Asuka, she a better striker, Bayley has to resort to combo moves and stick and move attacks but Asuka never seems like she's in trouble, I guess it's a selling issue too. This is also the most offense someone has ever had against Asuka so far, but nothing works so she has to resort to the front guillotine that worked against Nia. But, Asuka manages to fight out and breaks out an ankle lock counter. Bayley has a nice counter and hits a sweet through the ropes 'rana to the floor. Bayley eventually goes to target both legs of Asuka just looking for that 1 opening, but Asuka's selling is spotty. Bayley makes the mistake of going for holds that worked for her in the past, or trying to go toe-to-toe in the striking exchange instead of hitting her big finish, and that leads to Asuka trapping her in the Asuka Lock. Bayley tries to fight it and survive as long as she can, but in the end, she passes out. NEW CHAMPION! This is way more enjoyable than I remembered it being. ***
After the match; The crowd is stunned, Asuka celebrates with the title as Bayley is heartbroken on the floor as the ref and EMT's all check on her.
Credit, Bayley, she was a fantastic transitional champion, and I liked her run as the vet lovable top dog. But I will always believe Bayley is a better chaser than champion, same with Sami.
BOBBY ROODE IS IN THE CROWD!
Finn busts out this awful, red, blue, black spiderman/Texas chainsaw massacre adjace Demon. Now it just feels like he's doing them for the sake of doing it.
NXT World Championship: Samoa Joe vs. "The Demon" Finn Bálor
Again JOE TURNS BACK THE CLOCK! Joe's eye gets busted open in the first 10 seconds of the match, he has nasty gash right above the eye on the eyebrow. And both men gives no fucks. I think they kinda improvise, with Joe hurling Finn into the crowd long enough for Joe to at least wipe some of the blood out of his eye.
Kinda, awesome he uses the blood as motivation and completely destroys Finn with strikes, the refs and EMT's keep trying to tend to him and it keeps fucking up the pace and hate, but credit both guys for fighting through or shoving the EMT's out of the way to continue. After the 4th stop time we get a "FUCK PG" chant, Awesome big of storytelling is Finn being the dumb person he is, he doesn't attack Joe while he's being attended to and when Joe is cleared to return Joe beats the shit out of him. It's largely a Joe showcase
After the 6th stop a "Let Joe Bleed" chant breaks out, somewhere, Scott Steiner is smiling. Finn would eventually fight back and hit all his big match stuff. Joe has most of it scouted as he knows Finn all to well at this point, and let's be honest their nothing that differents Finn the person to Finn the Demon outside some paint. Joe hits the muscle buster and Finn again kicks out, Finn then miraculously recovers and hits all his finishing sequence including Coup de Grace but as he picks him up for 1916, Joe slips out and applies the choke but Finn runs up the ropes and they do the Bret/Piper, Bret/Austin pin spot for the win. ***
Again this match is really good, but 90% is due to Joe being OLD JOE. Really good show.