Csonka’s NXT Takeover: Orlando Review 4.01.17

Csonka’s NXT Takeover: Orlando Review 4.01.17

OFFICIAL RESULTS
– Sanity defeated Tye Dillinger, Roderick Strong, Kassius Ohno and Ruby Riot @ 12:20 via pin [***¾]
– Aleister Black defeated Andrade “Cien” Almas @ 9:35 via pin [***]
– Triple Threat Elimination NXT Tag Team Title Match: Champions The Authors of Pain defeated the Revival & DIY @ 23:40 via pin [****¼]
– NXT Women’s Championship Match: Champion Asuka defeated Ember Moon @ 12:10 via pin [***¾]
– NXT Championship Match: Champion Bobby Roode defeated Shinsuke Nakamura @ 28:00 via pin [***]

– Jose was attacked by Sanity at AXXESS and is out of his match tonight, so who will replace him??? Hmmmmmmm……….

– The disembodied voice of Triple H welcomes us to the show.

Tye Dillinger, Roderick Strong, Kassius Ohno and Ruby Riot vs. Eric Young, Killian Dain, Alexander Wolfe and Nikki Cross: Ohno was the mystery partner, and got a great reaction. They did the big brawl right away, which was the perfect start to play off of the established feud. It settled down to the ladies battling, and Cross tossed riot around a bit and than tagged out once Riot started to fight back. Wolfe and Ohno faced off, with Ohno dropping he and Young with strikes. Ohno is not fucking around here, trying to rip off Wolfe’s arm. Young distracted Ohno, allowing Sanity to take control. They worked the heat until Wolfe missed an elbow and Strong tagged in and ran wild, great fire from Strong here as he dished out a back breaker buffet. Wolfe then turned Strong inside out with a German, allowing Dain to tag in and work him over. Strong tried to dive for a tag, but Dain leveled him with the dropkick. Young then worked a hanging dragon sleeper, which led to a near fall on Strong. Sanity then worked him over with rapid-fire offense, working quick tags. Tye made the save to break up the pin. Young kept the heat and also knocked Ohno to the floor before slamming Strong to the corner, but then missed the dropkick. Tye finally got the hot tag, he ran wild and attacked everyone. The crowd went wild for his hot tag, Riot took out Cross and they rolled to the floor. Tye then hit a high cross and then the suicide dive until Dain cut him off. It broke down, Ohno took out Wolfe, but Dain speared him to the apron. Riot then looked for a dive but was cut off by Cross and they brawled. Back in, Tye looked to finish off Young to get his revenge and worked him over with corner strikes; superkick to Dain and Wolfe makes the save. Ohno cuts off Wolfe and levels him with a rolling elbow. Young dispatches him, but Strong is back and attacks Young. He faces off with Dain as the crowd is lit. Cross attacks Strong, but Riot is back and attacks Dain. Riot hits the dropkick on Cross on the floor, back in and Wolfe boots Tye, and that allows Dain to hit the one winged angel for the win. Sanity defeated Tye Dillinger, Roderick Strong, Kassius Ohno and Ruby Riot @ 12:20 via pin [***¾] I know that some people do not like Sanity, but I have no real issue with them, they play a role and give some talents something to do. This was a great choice for the opener, they worked a great chaotic match, which was very fitting of the feud, and kept the crowd the entire time. Tye’s loss was rather definitive, so he may be a post-Mania call up, we’ll see. This was a ton of fun.

Aleister Black vs. Andrade “Cien” Almas: Black’s entrance is cool, where he’s basically lifted up out of a coffin. Almas looks like he wants to strike with Black, which is a bad idea. They both worked for takedowns, working at a good clip before standing off. Almas went traquilo, but Black was not amused. Almas then sent to the floor, Black teases a dive and takes a seat center ring. Almas back in, and Black lays him out with a kick to the chest. Almas then fired up with chops and laid the boots to Black before slapping the shit out of him. Almas then worked the hanging arm bar in the ropes, headed up top and hit the missile dropkick. He then worked the arm, but Black used kicks to escape. Almas kept the heat, but Black then blocked his strikes and started to light up Almas and sent him to the floor. Black then followed with a moonsault to the floor, back in and they traded counters with Almas going back to the strikes. Black catches him with a knee strike, but Almas works the am bar in the ropes again. Black then counters the missile dropkick into the powerbomb, but Almas then works for the am bar again. Almas beats him down in the corner, but misses the corner knees, and they trade pinning combos. They do a double down spot, Black counters the arm bar but Almas catches him with the kicks. To the corner, and Almas hits the double knees. Black counters the hammerlock DDT, but Almas hits a snap German for 2. Black then hits the jumping knee strike, some kicks and then the black mass kick for the win. Aleister Black defeated Andrade “Cien” Almas @ 9:35 via pin [***] This was a good debut for Black, but far from a homerun. Part of that is the fact that Almas took so much of the match, with him coming across more as the featured performer. I think that this was done because they wanted to protect him since he was losing again and also because they aren’t sure what to do with him. I also felt that the crowd was very in and out of things, especially compared to the opening match. Part of that is the fact that the opener had a on of build and that it featured some really over guys like Tye and Strong. This was cold going in with essentially no build other than its announcement. The match was good, but far from both guy’s best efforts. I really wish they had a clue what to do with Almas.

Triple Threat Elimination Match for the NXT Tag Team Titles: Champions The Authors of Pain vs. the Revival vs. DIY: EVERYONE FIGHT EVERYONE TO BEGIN! DIY and the revival were reluctant allies early as they attacked the AOP. DIY got a table out, but Akem put a stop to that and tried to fight DIY off, but was slammed to the steps. DIY and the Revival faced off, and then renewed their rivalry. But their desire to battle each other allowed the AOP to get back into the match. The Revival were bastards, refusing to tag in and that allowed the AOP to work over Ciampa, thy then sneaked in at just the right time, and worked double teams on Akem. DIY then refused to tag in and left the revival to fight and waited for their moment to return. Gargano got to run wild for a bit, hitting a cannonball to the floor. Great run here for Gargano, he’s such a great babyface. He went for a dive; the AOP caught him and then tossed him into Ciampa. AOP started to toss fools around, and took the heat on Gargano, working double teams and scoring a near fall. The crowd tried to rally Gargano, he fired up and finally got the tag with an unintentional assist from the Revival. Ciampa ran with kicks and a snap German suplex and then another. Ciampa hits the knee strike on an Author, but it only gets 2. Ciampa kept up his attack, looked for a sunset bomb through the table, Gargano over to help and the Revival knocks the Author through the table, assisting again out of necessity. Revival and DIY surround Akem, he tried to fight them off, and did. Powerbomb on Ciampa stopped as dash tags in and clips the knee and locks in an inverted figure four. DIY backs off, and then Gargano locks in the Gargano escape as the crowd loses their shit. Rezar finally makes the save and everyone is down. The Revival works over Rezar, and then Gargano and Dawson attack and hit the DIY finish and shatter machine follows from the Revival. The alliance ends as they brawl because they still hate each other. Gargano and Dash then hit suicide dives onto the AOP. Ciampa cut off by Dawson, they battle up top, SUPERPLEX onto the pile on the floor! Bodies are everywhere. Back in and Rezar takes out Dawson, and they hit Ciampa with the last chapter to eliminate DIY. The crowd deflates before chanting bullshit. The AOP take control, working double teams but the Revival fight back and hit a doomsday device and uppercut into a German and then another for the near fall. Rezar fights both men off, hits a choke slam, the last chapter is cut off, Dawson gets a near fall, but the AOP then hit powerbombs. The Revival keep fighting, Dawson is down but gets a desperation roll up for 2. Rezar hits a DVD to the corner, and then the AOP hit the super collier, and retain. Champions The Authors of Pain defeated the Revival & DIY @ 23:40 via pin [****¼] This was a great tag match, that would have been better with a layout change. The early story of DIY and The Revival being reluctant allies to try and slay the monsters worked really well, but it peaked a bit too soon, and the DIY elimination hurt the overall heat and flow of the match. I think if DIY sticks around and we get a hotter finish, that this becomes a real MOTY contender. Still, this was an overall great title match; the AOP are only in their early 20s and haven’t had the benefit of working the loops with a ton of great and experienced teams, but have more than done their part in the last two great tag title matches.

NXT Women’s Championship Match: Champion Asuka vs. Ember Moon: They worked an aggressive, but basic opening stretch, with the crowd into both early as they battled to a stalemate. Asuka faked the handshake and tried to attack, but Moon was ready for that. They shoved each other, and Asuka then hit the ass attack. Moon fired away with kicks, sending Asuka to the floor, Moon followed, but Asuka then sent her to the barricade with an ass attack. Moon beat the count back in, but Asuka maintained control, hitting another ass attack to take Moon down and cut her off. Moon fought off the German, and then the Asuka lock and then sent Asuka to the floor. Moon then hot a springboard high cross to the floor, and then rolled her back in, Moon up top, but Asuka avoids her and hits the shining wizard for 2. Asuka then laid in kicks to the chest of Moon, and then works for the submission, but Moon tries to power out as Asuka is on her back while she stands. Moon fades as Asuka works the choke. Moon finally escapes, avoids the ass attack and lays out Asuka with the superkick. They both avoid kicks, Moon then hits a basement dropkick and Asuka is pissed, but Moon hits the sack of shit slam. Corner clothesline by Moon follows, but as she goes for a springboard, Asuka counters with the German. They trade strikes, rolling forearm by Moon and the capture suplex hits for 2. Moon up top, Asuka follows and cuts off the eclipse, but Moon dumps her to the mat. Asuka then heels it up, slamming the ref into the ropes and knocking Moon to the mat. That allows Asuka to hit the head kick and retain. Champion Asuka defeated Ember Moon @ 12:10 via pin [***¾] This was a very good match, with Moon taking the champion to the limit, forcing Asuka to use the ref to steal the victory. While it would have been nice for Moon to win, I don’t feel that she was hot enough/built up properly to take the title at this time. Hopefully this is what was needed to make Asuka fully heel, they have been trying, but she’s come off as too much of a bad ass to hate; but by screwing the babyface that’s been growing on popularity, that may finally do the trick. Really nice work from both ladies here. Asuka found a challenger that could not only keep up, but that was about to win, so she did what she had to do (cheat) to keep her title.

NXT Championship Match: Champion Bobby Roode vs. Shinsuke Nakamura: Roode kicked at the knee early, testing to see if Nakamura is actually 100%; Nakamura shakes it off and lands a kick of his own. Nice callback to the last match. Nakamura dicked around a bit, which amused Roode; that was until Nakamura started to throw kicks at him. They then worked into a fun back and forth stretch, Roode cut off good vibrations but ate a kick to the melon before taking a powder. Roode would then send Nakamura to the floor and into the guardrail. Back in the ring, and Rood beats down Nakamura in the corner. Solid heat by Roode, focusing on the neck of Nakamura set him up for the DDT. Nakamura would fight off the sleeper, hitting a high kick, strikes and then repeated kicks before sending him to the floor. Nakamura then hit the running knee to Roode, and then another as Roode laid on the apron. Back in the ring, Roode fought off suplex attempts by attacking the head and neck, and then decapitating Nakamura with a lariat. Nakamura connected with a running boot from the corner. but Roode then countered Kinshasa and clipped out the knee and then went on the attack, posting the leg. Roode then worked the figure, making the knee the focus, and playing off of their last meeting. Nakamura would escape, and then lock in an arm bar. Roode tried to power out, but Nakamura pulled him down to the mat. Nakamura immediately is on his feet and laying in kicks to Roode, goes for a running knee but Roode moves and Nakamura hits the buckle and is back down, clutching the knee. But he’s then right back up and throwing kicks full force, rendering the work on the knee by Roode largely ineffective. They traded strikes, Roode kicked the bad knee to take control, but when he went for the DDT, knee’d him in the head, with that same bad knee; come on dude, at least try. Roode powders to avoid Kinshasa. Nakamura rolls him back in, but Roode kicks the knee and hits the DDT, but Nakamura kicks out. Roode got the ring bell, the ref took it away, and Nakamura hit a high kick and then a reverse XPLODER; Kinshasa countered into the spinebuster, which got 2. Nakamura fought off the DDT, but Roode clipped out the knee again, and pulled Nakamura to the corner and then hits a tornado DDT to retain. Champion Bobby Roode defeated Shinsuke Nakamura @ 28:00 via pin [***] Ok, so lets get into this. I love that Roode won clean and I also loved how they did the finishing stretch; there was no overly long comeback from Nakamura, he just got his knee clipped and ate a super-sized version of Roode’s finish for the definitive loss. With a lot of definitive losses on this card, we could be seeing several call-ups this week. I love that Roode first targeted the neck to set up his finish, a basic, but often forgotten part of some matches. He then went back to the knee, calling back to their previous encounter, which took Nakamura out for weeks. Roode didn’t forget this and didn’t want you to forget. Now after watching Nakamura for years, I have decided that there are three kinds of Nakamura matches; 1) steal the show “G1” style Nakamura, 2) sketchy selling Nakamura, and 3) get by on my charisma and do next to nothing “house show” Nakamura. We were firmly in a Nakamura #2 style match here. All too often he seemingly forgot or dropped the selling of the knee, only going back to it when Roode would cut him off and go back on the attack to the wounded knee. I didn’t hate the match, but I feel that it was rather inferior to their last match, which was awesome, told a great story, pulled me in, made me care and also flew by for me (even though it was 27:30 long, nearly as long as this match). They tried to tell another great story here, to add a chapter to the book that they started last time, but it just didn’t match up in quality to the last one. In my opinion, this was a bit long in the tooth at times (in terms of how Roode worked his heat), but they also did a lot of nice things overall. I would never call this bad, I’d call this a good, but disappointing main event, simply because we saw them kill it the last time out.

– End scene.

– Thanks for reading.

“Byyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyye Felicia!”