Eric Young def. Tye Dillinger
Well, this would appear to be the swan song for Tye Dillinger on NXT. At least, we hope. This was probably the obvious choice to begin the evening’s festivities, and I thought that both men brought great energy. The match throughout the duration had a good pace, and I believe that both men worked well together. Tye Dillinger was able to utilize is fast paced, unique offense while Eric was able to use the numbers game and his heel tactics to try to gain any advantage that he could. The interference from insanity towards the end was a bit much for me as I thought it sort of hurt the dynamic between the two men, but it wasn’t enough to sway my opinion of the match. Overall, I thought it was good, but not a great match, which is sort of sad, because if this is really Tye’s last appearance in NXT, I would have wanted the match to have a little more energy and flow to it, but it’s what we got. Nonetheless, a decent start for the night. ***
Roderick Strong def. Andrade Celmas
I’ll be honest, I tuned in and out of the match. But I will say this. Roderick Strong has great ring presence. He just seems to know the ropes and when to do certain moves and how to execute them. I must also say that Andrade, a regular on NXT programming getting a lukewarm, at best, reaction to the crowd is sort of concerning. Then again, I haven’t turned into NXT television on a consistent basis, so maybe the crowd knows something I don’t. Nonetheless, I thought the match started off with a slow pace with nothing really worth seeing, but then once we got towards the middle and ending sequence, the match picked up in a good way, with many good reversals and some nice mat work, especially by Strong. I thought the match was slightly better than the first one just because of superior ring work from both men. Again, nothing spectacular and probably forgettable, but both men gave a very strong effort, and I respect that. ***1/4
The Authors of Pain def. DIY (C) – NXT Tag Team Championships
I must admit, that much was much better than I had anticipated. I was just wondering how the dynamic between the big Authors of Pain and the smaller more technical DIY, but it turned out to be a great combination. I was surprised in that The Authors of Pain were allowed to take the tag titles from DIY so soon. I understand that they were undefeated and they wanted to build that up, but isn’t it too early to take the titles off of them after they had just won it at the previous Takeover event? I think the purpose could have been accomplished had they have DIY retain off a disqualification or something. I’m not mad at the decision, I’d just like to know where the mindset is of them. Nonetheless, I thought the two teams worked well with each other and augmented their skills greatly. By that I mean, because of the strength of The Authors of Pain, what DIY, smaller wrestlers, would do to them looks more impressive. And you are also able to appreciate the strength of The Authors of Pain a lot by pitting them against technical masterminds. I especially loved some of the ending sequences towards the end where Ciampa was able to kick out of a double team powerbomb move by The Authors of Pain. They also teased ending the match like they did in Toronto, but the difference in The Authors of Pain’s strength showed, and they were able to get out of it and reversed the double superkick into their powerbomb finish for the win. It was good to see and by far The Authors of Pain’s best match. The Revival was a better foil for DIY both in the ring and in character, but this was still a very good outing. ****
A WILD SETH ROLLINS APPEARS?! I got to say, it was ingenious booking. Seth Rollins, an NXT alumni, and the first NXT Champion knew that Triple H would be at an NXT event, so making a surprise by hijacking the show was very creative. I’m sure the live crowd was very shocked, and I certainly was as well. It wasn’t too long, it accomplished its purpose, and it served as a great tease for what’s to come with Rollins and Triple H. Fun little segment.
Asuka (C) def. Nikki Cross, Peyton Royce and Billie Kay – NXT Women’s Championship
Welp, they’re no Four Horsewomen, that’s for sure. However, they indeed busted their collective asses, in more ways than one. While the match ended far too abruptly for my taste, I thought everything that they needed to accomplish was done, just in a shorter time frame. Asuka retained looking strong as ever in the process, Cross was able to get in some offense before she needed two competitors to take her out of the running, and Royce and Kay were able to get a cool spot in with the double suplex on top of the announcer’s table. They also looked like a formidable duo despite not getting the job done. It’s hard to grade, though, because the match was too short for my taste, and I thought they could have done much more and could have accomplished what they wanted to. Nonetheless, a more than decent effort than all four involved. It appears that no one but Goldberg will be defeating Asuka for the title at this point. ***
Bobby Roode def. Shinsuke Nakamura (C) – NXT Championship
I wish I could have been there live so I could have seen the two most awesome entrances in all of WWE back to back. Oh well, it’s still epic nonetheless. Anyways, I really didn’t know what to expect coming into this match. I don’t think that Roode was able to afford a loss here just because of the popularity he’s reached, and Shinsuke Nakamura just won the title back in Toronto, so the ending was anyone’s call, but the ending was bound to be……..glorious either way. The match itself was kind of weird to me. It was definitely a good bout, but I didn’t feel as though it was something that I would remember aside from Roode winning the title. The actual mat work between the two, when they weren’t taunting each other(a minor pet peeve of mine in the match), it was a good watch. Both of them definitely complimented each other in a great way and they were able to work a solid main event style match. I’m not sure if I could all it better than the bouts with Samoa Joe, even though it’s more than up for debate. It’ll be interesting to see what the future holds for Roode as NXT Champion. Many said Hideo Itami would be the one to take the title off of Nakamura, but it looks like they wanted to strike while the iron was hot. Couldn’t blame them for doing so anyways. The match all in all, was a very good showing, but it didn’t really have that NXT feel, if that makes sense. ****
Conclusion:
Dallas last year was amazing. San Antonio? Eh. Maybe it’s me, but I was sort of left feeling “meh” for the first time at an NXT event. Hell, it didn’t even really feel like NXT at all in my opinion. Maybe it’s because Samoa Joe, Bayley, The Revival and some of the recent pioneers of NXT weren’t there. The times appear to be a-changing. Now the show by itself was certainly a good watch. I can’t fault the effort of all of the competitors tonight, as I thought they put their best foot forward and put up a great effort. However, it was missing that spark, despite having two title changes. I enjoyed myself, but I probably wouldn’t want to watch the entire show all over again. If there was one match I’d watch again in its entirety, it’d probably be the tag match and the final ten minutes of the Roode/Nakamura match because of the uncertainty of what could happen. Overall, I’d say if you didn’t watch this show, give it a try, but for the first time in a while, I felt as though that you could miss an NXT event without feeling like you missed out on something big. I liked it, didn’t love it. Ah, well. Thumbs in the middle, leaning up.
