NXT Recap: 9th November 2016 – Shinsuke vs. Joe Heats Up

Recap of last week: It was a Dusty Classic special last week, Shane Thorne beat Roderick Strong after Austin Aries was injured and the match turned into a singles match. #DIY beat The Revival via forfeit, Authors of Pain beat Rich Swann & No Way Jose and in the main event SAnitY beat TJ Perkins and Kota Ibushi.

 

What was good?

#DIY vs Authors of Pain

Another pre-taped match, just like last week, except we seem to be in some fancy hall as opposed to the dark arena we saw last week. AOP are much bigger than #DIY but the latter didn’t wrestle in the last round and got through with a bye.

Ciampa and Akam start off and predictably Akam uses his strength against Ciampa while Ciampa uses speed to his advantage. He and Gargano use a blind tag to get the better of Akam but that doesn’t last long. There’s a good spot where AOP have #DIY in opposite corners, they go for a pair of Clotheslines but #DIY duck and hit a couple of nice Running Elbows. AOP get the upper hand again and go to whip #DIY into each other but they do a Do-Si-Do and Gargano hits a Superkick to Akam while Ciampa hits a Knee to Rezar. Really good spot.

Another great spot, Gargano goes for a Suicide Dive through the ropes onto AOP but instead they catch him, and when Ciampa goes for a dive of his own they throw Gargano into him, awesome, even Corey Graves marked out.

AOP have the upper hand with Paul Ellering interfering, and they hit a weird Side Slam/Stamp move. AOP cut the ring in half and work him over with double team moves and frequent tags while Gargano plays Ricky Morton until he reverses a Powerslam into a DDT, which looked awesome, and tags out to Ciampa.

Ciampa manages to get the upper hand on the much larger Rezar and even hits a German Suplex on the big man! But only gets a two count. Rezar manages to get Ciampa in a Fireman’s Carry position and when Gargano goes for a Cross Body he catches him! Holding them both up, and hits a Fallaway Slam on Gargano and an awkward looking Samoan Drop on Ciampa, landing right on Ciampa’s head.

AOP go for that Powerbomb move where they slam their opponents into each other, but they reverse them into Hurricanranas. They get Rezar in the ring and hit their Knee/Superkick finisher but Paul Ellering, like a good manager, distracts the ref. The Revival come out from under the ring and take out Gargano while AOP hit their finisher The Last Chapter (the Side Russian Legsweep/Lariat move) for the three count and the pinfall victory. They now go through to the finals of the Dusty Classic to face either TM61 or SAnitY.

Good match, #DIY made AOP look really good and they also built up the feud between #DIY and The Revival.

Regal is in his office where he announces #DIY will take The Revival on for the Tag Team Titles in a 2 out of 3 Falls match due to Revival’s interference in #DIY vs Authors of Pain. Yes!

It’s now time for the NXT Championship match contract signing between champion Shinsuke Nakamura and Samoa Joe. Shinsuke is out first followed by Joe who leaves the stage shortly after coming out, only to re-emerge with his own table and chair. He gets on the mic and says he’d love to join them in the ring but with Joe’s history with Regal’s security it seems they’re more interesting in Shinsuke’s wellbeing and not his.

He says he’d be angry if he was Japan’s biggest star and came to NXT to get beaten down by him, and says he’s a benevolent future NXT Champion, and says he will give him the opportunity for revenge at NXT TakeOver: Toronto, then demands that Regal brings him the contract, and instead of telling Joe to fuck himself and telling him he won’t get his title shot if he doesn’t come to the ring, Regal brings him the contract which Joe signs.

Joe goes to pass Regal the contract but instead drops it on the table, awesome heel move, disrespecting the GM Regal. Regal brings the contract back to Shinsuke who, rather than sign it, drops it and then attacks the security, Powerbombing one of them through a table, THEN signs the contract.

 

What was bad?

We go to Charley Caruso at the Performance Centre for an update on the Dusty Classic, it’s the same stuff we saw last week so there’s no point in this unless you haven’t seen last week. She pops up throughout the episode to introduce the tag matches, but who cares? Stop talking and show us wrestling!

Tye has a pre-taped promo, he just says the same thing he’s been saying for weeks; Bobby Roode asked him to be his partner and then he turned his back on him and that he will beat Roode. Blah blah blah.

SAnitY vs TM61

SAnitY attack TM61 before the bell rings. When the match starts Shane Thorne gets the better of Alexander Wolfe despite just being attacked, but SAnitY soon get the upper hand. Sawyer Fulton is tagged in and works Thorne over with a painfully long Nerve Grip, followed by a weird looking Sliding Headbutt to Thorne’s midsection in the corner.

Fulton tags to Wolfe who moshes for some reason. Wolfe works Thorne over with slow offence for a hundred years. Nick Miller manages to get onto the apron (oh yeah he’s been on the floor for this entire match) but Wolfe knocks him off the apron before Thorne can get a tag. Fulton gets Thorne up and Wolfe goes for a Jumping European Uppercut, like the one he did earlier, only he doesn’t jump this time and instead hits his own partner in the back allowing Thorne to get the tag.

SAnitY get the upper hand again however and go for their Vertical Suplex/Powerslam move but Thorne takes out Fulton allowing Miller to get the pinfall on Wolfe and they get the three count victory.

Jeez, what an awkward match! Everything SAnitY did looked weird and just plain bad, and TM61 didn’t do nearly enough. The only good thing was how into the match the crowd were. TM61 will now fight the Authors of Pain at TakeOver: Toronto on the 19th of November.

 

What was okay?

Promo with Bobby Roode, he says Tye wants to blame him and say it’s his fault they lost but it was Tye’s fault and he embarrassed the name of Dusty Rhodes and that he’s not even close to being a perfect 10 and he will make TakeOver: Toronto glorious.

Rachael Evers vs Ember Moon

I have no idea who Rachel Evers is, I looked her up, and all I could find was someone called Rachel Iverson, who may be her but I don’t know, and a Rabbi called Raphael Evers, and I don’t think that’s her either. Apparently she’s been on NXT before but I’ve never seen her. She’s against Ember Moon, and it’s been a while since we’ve seen her so it’s nice to see her again.

Some decent technical offence, Ember looks great, she’s really quick and, quite frankly, one of the best women in WWE today. She lands on her feet from a Hip Toss, hits a nice Head Scissors followed by a stiff Elbow but misses a Springboard Crossbody from the middle rope.

Evers hits a nice Gutwrench Suplex for a two count and then goes into a rest spot. Ember gets the upper hand and hits some nice Knee and Forearm strikes and later a pretty stiff looking Dropkick before going up top for the Eclipse, the Corkscrew Stunner thing she does.

The in-ring offence was good but the crowd really let this down, they were silent throughout the whole match, and it was really noticeable coming from the live show matches we just saw. That’s what happens when the audience has to sit through eight weeks of TV tapings, they get bored and the show suffers.

 

Overall

Good show. There were a few more downs than ups compared to previous episodes, but overall it was good. The opening match between #DIY and Authors of Pain was good, good to see NXT getting new tag teams over, and building up to the Tag Title match at Toronto between Revival and #DIY. TM61 vs SAnitY meanwhile was pretty poor I thought, that was one thing that let this episode down, but again at least we’re seeing new tag teams being built up.

Another thing that let the episode down was the crowd reaction for Ember Moon vs Rachael Evers, which was a good match but the crowd were dead, and the contract signing was good too.