NXT 9-18-19 - USA Debut

I'll be watching the AEW on TNT debut live in person - and plan on watching that live instead of NXT, but I might as well watch NXT tonight since it's a huge show as well even if it is split up over 2 hours between USA and the WWE Network. Io's out looking super-hot. LOL @ A TRUE ALTERNATIVE! IT'S A TRUE ALTERNATIVE...TO WWE'S OWN PRODUCT! It's a 4 way with Io, Bianca, Mia Yim, and Candice LeRae. Bianca gets a press slam for 2 on Candice. 619 to Mia and a missile dropkick to Belair gets 2 once again.

Mia gets 2 off a tornado DDT. Candice hits a slick and nasty back suplex on the apron to Io before eating a fallaway slam by Bianca. Tower of doom after an ad break. Candice gets an octopus on Io before Mia yakuza kicks her face off.  Code blue gets 2 when Io breaks it up. KOD to Candice before a save nixes that.

 

Shotgun knees to Candice in the corner and she goes up for a moonsault, but Mia tosses her off into Bianca. POISON RANA TO MIA and a lionsault ends it! Candice will now face Shayna, and she'll be a perfect foil to Shayna and it's her first title program too. Great stuff - easiy the best women's match on WWE TV all year. Shayna, Marina, and Jessamyn surround her

Lee vs. Dijakovic is hyped up with Riddle vs. Dain getting a Network plug. Maluta is on USA but Matt Riddle isn't...yeah that's stupid. Cameron Grimes has a wacky hat and a fantastic theme song. Mushroom stomp ends it and hey, they put a guy over strong! Velveteen vs. Roddy is hyped up before a Damian Priest music video. Roddy's out, followed by Dream who looks like the fucking man!

 

Some nice matwork starts things off until Roddy eats a lariat to the floor. Roddy lands a slick baseball slide with a crane camera shot. More first-gear matwork here at 8:45. This is the wrong kind of match right now. Roddy runs wild with running knees, elbows, a Robinson backbreaker, and a tiger bomb for 2 before a Strong hold. Roddy slings Dream...in the area near the ref for a bump. Cole helps Roddy, but it only gets 2.9. End of Heartache off a Cole superkick and a KOR ref distraction ends it and Roddy wins it. Pre-NXT hour 2 ad on the Network buries Thunder and shows the worst of the show - and says that it's all viewable on the Network. Well, Wrestlecrap is still a thing.

 

Hour 2 starts with a recap of the main event and the opener. Candice vs. Shayna happens on the first true Wednesday Night War show on 10/2. Arturo Juas is his opponent while Mauro talks about the latter being a big fan of Marco Ruas.  Dunne forearms his jaw off. Juas lands a slick round kick to the chest before eating a nasty overhand chop. Suplex into an armbar leads to a triangle instead. The fingersnap is turned into a submission that ends it. This was fantastic and completely unlike anything on WWE TV.

Xia Li's Chinese takeout font is astounding to see in 2019. She'll face Aliyah, with Vanessa Borne. Xia lands a series of fantastic kicks before a tornado kick ends it. This was impressive for Li, if a bit sloppy at times. Beth has two speaking voices - Weird. Stilted. or YELLING ABOUT. HOW IMPORTANT. EVERYTHING IS! Lio Rush retruns tonight to face Oney Lorcan, with the winner facing Drew Gulak in the future. Guy in '90s getup and a wacky name NEEDS A NAME GRAPHIC. Imperium sans WALTER jumps him. WALTER gets a huge chant AND APPEARS!

 

WALTER says that the ring is sacred and KUSHIDA says it's his time. Kushida nearly gets his ass kicked, but he evades them and wants a match. Cool stuff. WALTER in NXT is going to be great. Lio comes out while Mauro talks about him having more issues than a magazine but appreciating him not suffering in silence. Oney rushes into the corner and gets a blockbuster for 2. Lio comes back with a triple tope. The 205 Pound Championship already sounds more important than the cruiserweight title since WWE has helped kill that term dead. Lorcan gets a tiger bomb for 2. 

Mauro talks about Lorcan being trained by Lance Storm and he gets a half crab. Nasty snap slam gets 2 for Lorcan. GIANT chop hits for Lorcan while an ONEY RULES chant breaks out. Bottom rope Lethal injection by Rush gets 2. Powerbomb into a deep half crab is locked on by Lorcan. Lio goes for a kick combo, but Lorcan counters and gets ANOTHER HALF-CRAB. Oney's gotten the half-crab over here. Nasty STF is locked on and he passes out. This is tremendous. They're getting both guys over nicely here. Hot damn -  a match designed where BOTH GUYS ARE GETTING OVER BASED ON THE MATCH!?

Lorcan lands some nasty chin-holding slaps and he runs into a blockbuster, but he eats a spanish fly and lands the dragon's call - the split-legged frog splash. THIS RULED. This was the best WWE TV match all year and I could see this being an easy 4 1/2 star match. Lio gets a title shot and it's a shame he'll be back on 205 Live, because this was tremendous.

Riddle is out to face Dain. Now this is the kind of look Damo should've always had in WWE. Deadlift German by Riddle and then an exploder, but a broton is blocked. Dain hits him with a kendo stick and hits a senton. They fight backstage with the Forgotten Sons watching and Riddle gets smashed into the production truck. V trigger to Dain before WALTER and his goons beat him up. Street Profits make a save and then the Sons beat them up. Well that was a fun way to have chaos, not end a match, and tell a grander story about the locker room being united. It's very much like the old days of babyface and heel locker rooms.

 Everyone's just slugging it out forever. This is tremendous - it's the kind of chaos TNA always wanted, but could never convey. Dain hits a suicide dive onto a random pile of people and then we get some production cues over the mic. Then the show just kind of ends with Gunner standing tall. GUNNER MANCHILD STANDS TALL ON THE FIRST NIGHT OF THE WEDNESDAY NIGHT WAR!

WWE Clash of Champions 2019

The gold theming for the LEDs helps this show stand out a bit visually. OH THANK GOD A LENGTHY RECAP OF THE ROMAN REIGNS MYSTERY HOUR! Shame it wasn't Old Man Jenkins. Cruiserweigh title is up and Aiden splooges over Humberto. This gets a big match lights-out intro to attempt to make it seem important. This fails spectacularly as no one gets a reaction. THIS IS PAWS-DOWN THE GREATEST OPPORTUNITY OF LINCE DORADO'S CAREER! - that was a Striker-esque all-time bad line from Aiden.

Drew gets a long kneeling Corbinlock on Carrillo. Drew gets a gutbuster on Lince for 2. Kneeling half-nelson on the mat for Drew. Lince gets a handspring kick and either knees Drew or misses before Carrillo lands a basement dropkick for 2. Doomsday Fosbury flop by Lince to the others gets a mild applause. This gets a complimentary 205 chant briefly before a 2. Lince does some crazy shit and Drew steals the pin to win.

This Charlotte-Bayley video package is just ridiculous. So Charlotte's a bitchy heel - but at least she admits it, while Bayley is...siding with her best friend and wants to be a role model. So the story of this Charlotte vs. Bayley match is that Bayley is an underdog who must fight from underneath to defeat the cocky legacy star who has been given chance after chance to succeed? Bayley and Sasha cut terrible promos about being able to meet tough challenges and beating the odds.

Cedric comes down to face AJ with Cole saying that the former Cruiserweight Champion is here to win his first major title. CA hits a snap Michinoku driver for 2.9! SUPLEX ON THE APRON BY AJ. Clash on the floor hits, but he rolls him and that takes time, so it only gets 2. Ushigoroshi hits for AJ. Calf slicer is on, but Cedric escapes, so AJ just kicks the leg out a bunch. AJ goes for a kick on the apron and he catches the foot and lands the spinning back elbow for 2.  AJ hits the forearm and Cedric takes a crazy bump for it before a Clash ends it. Well, Cedric did get the always-dreaded MOMENTUM before the match by winning on Raw. And then Cedric gets his ass kicked. THIS'LL GET HIM OVER! A night of champions...a clash of champions...for the Raw tag team titles of the World! Coach is just the best.

Corey wants the faces to screw each other in this. Corey brings up that Roode's greatest success was in a team and then Dolph lands a big leaping DDT on the floor to Seth. Seth avoids another and shoves Dolph off before tagging Braun in. Braun charges in and runs wild before Seth tags back in and then runs wild with a slingblade and a suicide dive. Boy, this is a bit like having Ricky Morton play a babyface in peril and then eventually do his own comeback. Braun accidentally charges into Seth and a Glorious DDT hits Seth and Bobby Roode pins the UNIVERSAL CHAMPION.

Braun says that Seth lost the title and he's on a losing streak - that he'll continue. Becky cuts a goofy promo burying Sasha for doing nothing but dye her hair while she had the biggeet year in history. There is no bigger match than this. "It doesn't get any bigger than this!" - you JUST SAID YOU MAIN EVENTED WRESTLEMANIA. IT LITERALLY DOES GET BIGGER THAN THIS. Charlotte comes out to a great babyface reaction in her hometown and Bayley's getting boos - so that's good. Charlotte jumps her and gets 2 off a yakuza kick - so they made the mistake of having two rapid-fare knockout-style covers up front for title matches. Charlotte destroys her on the floor and then boots her again, but Bayley smashes Charlotte's face into an exposed buckle and wins it. Well that sure was a thing.

Revival is out to face the New Day for the SD Tag Titles. Woods is out after the knee breaker stuff with a brace and gets taken out early. E is a face in peril, but Woods recovers and tags in and lands the honor roll lariat.  E catches Dash on the floor, but he eats a headbutt before the suplex can be done and then land a Shatter Machine on the floor. Vic calls a chop block to the knee a cock block. Shatter Machine to Woods leads to them taking the knee brace off and then the tights before Dawson locks on a Trailer Hitch and that ends it and they become former NXT, Raw, and SD tag champs.

 

Dawson says the titles are no longer covered in pancake batter - they have been revived! Alexa and
her rack and Nikki are interviewed before Truth blows his cover. Nikki takes out Mandy and mocks her. Truth and the 24/7 guys come out. Hawkins using Edge's '98 gear design is hilarious. Alexa goes for a cradle on Truth, but it gets 2 and they just run around before Mandy and Alexa wrestle a bit.

Miz and Nakamura have a pretty boring match. I dig them showing Sami's beating at the hands of Taker, but it would've made more sense to show that BEFORE HE CAME OUT. Becky vs. Sasha gets a non-finish of sorts with a DQ after Becky hits the ref with a chair. Sasha gets a great close call with a pair of backstabbers and a crossface.



Kofi vs. Orton is a bunch of nothing. Punt misses and Kofi hits the tornado kick to win it.  Street Profits run down tonights events before Angelo says he loves stinkfaces and they talk about KOTR. KING BOOKAH returns and he tells them to get their heads right. Rowan vs. Roman starts off strong with punches in the corner. Drive by hits on the apron. Rowan beats him with steps for a while before Roman uses them and gets 2 off the superman punch. Long walk and brawl. "No matter how agonizing the action is!" - thanks Corey! They brawl on the stage and use a jib camera - with Rowan getting the ass end of the ass-kicking here. He preps for a ramp-running spear and HARPER BOOTS ROMAN. Iron claw slam ends it!

Seth starts off his match with three superkicks and a high fly flow for 1. Braun goes to bowl him over but eats a dop toehold. Another superkicks puts him on a table and he wants a frog splash, but Braun darts up and sends him down. Strowman gordbusts him off a superplex attampt and Braun hits a splash for 2.9. Seth gets a sleeper and it turns into the Stomp for 1! A second one hits for 2! A THIRD GETS 2 and then a pedigree hits alongside a fourth stomp for the win. Well that was a bit better than I expected. A blackout leads to THE FIEND and Sister Abigail on the ramp before a mandible claw. The horror movie music sting works great for this act.