Yo-Yo's Roomie

Remember when Seth Rollins literally did fuck some racism?

8/17/16 The Takeover: Brooklyn 2 go-home is heavy on the hype and video packages and light on original content, but here we go. Hideo Itami Vs Mustafa Ali: Here's Ali playing a heel, which already feels very wrong. Itami is just lacking a crispness and fluidity since he came back. He never was really firing on all cylinders before the injury actually. This doesn't really click, but is short and gets another notch in the win column for Itami. William Regal is in his office making an address about Takeover. He's interrupted by Billie Kay, who is complaining that she's not on the card. Regal tells her she'll face the debuting Ember Moon. NXT goes to this well for making matches way too often, and it's really lazy and, frankly, tiresome. Carmella, Nikki Glencross and Liv Morgan Vs Alexa Bliss, Mandy Rose and Daria Berenato: Very weird match here. Mella and Bliss are no longer on NXT, and this is Glencross (Nikki Cross), Rose and Berenato (Sonya Deville) debuting cold (ie. with no hype whatsoever), making Liv Morgan the only actual NXT TV wrestler in the match. And she's a jobber. Straight away Graves is doing his gross horndog act with Rose. I didn't know Rose and Deville came from Tough Enough. This is actually decent, considering who's in it. Just solid structure really. Cross looks the best worker here. Just completely guessing that she's the most experienced worker in the match. Funny seeing her and Alexa's interactions here. Carmella probably looks the worst out of anyone. It took her a while to get decent I think. The face team win when Carmella makes Rose tap to the Code of Silence. I think that's Morgan's first ever televised win. The 'main event' is a sit-down interview with Joe and Nakamura. This is fine, but nothing groundbreaking. Joe thinks Nak is disrespecting him, but security steps in to keep them apart. They've done a decent job of not having these two get physical with each other, saving it for the match, but nothing about this build has really clicked for me. I think they've tried to make it a personal rivalry thing, but it isn't really there. They'd maybe have been better off just going 'pure sports build' for this one. Elsewhere, I think I said before the last Takeover that the card makes sense and looks good, but the build hasn't really been there, and you could kinda say the same about this one. Although the card feels even more thrown together this time. Bayley/Asuka is by far the best booked match. They waited until real late to make the tag title match official, even though it was obvious it was coming. But that kinda hurt the build a bit. Roode/Almas has no build. Ember/Kay is just the standard debuting star Takeover match, which I guess makes Kay the female Tye Dillinger. And Aries/Jose does have a storyline behind it, but they seemed to just forget about progressing the story and jump right to making the match. I dunno, I'm sure the show will deliver, but this feels like a lazy effort from NXT. Episode MVP: Nikki Cross.

8/10/16 We're kicking off tonight with the contract signing for the women's title match at Takeover. Bayley and Asuka make their way out. Always seems weird to see Asuka dolled up. Just not used to it. Bayley says htat last time they met, she wasn't ready for how good Asuka is, but this time she is. Asuka retorts that Bayley doesn't have what it takes to beat her. She offers her hand, but Bayley slaps it away and tells her to sign the contract. Bayley is very aggressive here and gets in Asuka's face. Asuka just walks away with her signature smile. Very simple, but effective, story being told of Asuka condescending Bayley, and Bayley acting in defiance to that. I like the dynamic here, and am looking forward to this match, probably more than any other that we'll see at Takeover. The Authors of Pain Vs Rob Ryzin and Adrian Nails: Nailz is back! Quick squash for AOP, who continue the assault after the match. TM61 come out for the save, but get beat down too. Andrade 'Cien' Almas Vs Angelo Dawkins: Seems liek it's been a while since we saw Andrade. Dawkins, meanwhile, is still stirring the shit. Almas debuts the hammerlock DDT to pick up the win. After the match, Bobby Roode comes out and says Almas was a little sloppy, and then announces that the two of them will face off at Takeover. Man, I can see Almas getting killed by the crowd in Brooklyn. William Regal is in the back in his office. Austin Aries comes in and is bitching about not having a match at Takeover. Regal puts him in a match with No Way Jose. Aries looks flustered, but what did he expect? Pretty weak way to make that match, after those two guys had had a couple of hot brawls prior to this. Billie Kay Vs Liv Morgan: The Billie Kay mini-push continues as she puts away Morgan. Kay being a big time Charlie because she did a job on Smackdown once is a weird, but kinda fun, gimmick. Some of the Cruiserweight Classic guys are at ringside, and we see highglights of Johnny Gargano Vs Tomasso Ciampa from the first round. Looked like a good match. Then we cut to them in Regal's office. Regal says he hopes their match didn't affect them teaming up together, because they're getting a match with The Revival at Takeover. They promise to win the belts. Tomasso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano Vs Patrick Clark and Tucker Knight: Gargano and Ciampa win with the knee/kick combo on Clark. Samoa Joe Vs Mojo Rawley: Mojo comes on strong in the early going, but Joe soon turns the tide and picks up the win with the Kokina clutch. He locks it in again after the bell, and that brings out Shinsuke Nakamura. Security is in to keep them separated, but Nakamura gets in a cheap shot on Joe while he is being restrained. Episode MVP: Bayley. I'm liking her fire in this feud with Asuka.

8/3/16 Hideo Itami Vs Sean Maluta: Itami makes his return to a big pop. I'm interested to see what his role will be in NXT now. Never heard of Maluta before. I guess he's a Cruiserweight Classic guy, and has some connection to the Samoan dynasty. Not really a great deal to this match. Itami gets in most of his signature stuff and wins with the running knee. The Revival are in the back being interviewed, and say they've beat everyone. TM61 enter the scene and say they want a shot. Revival tell them to get to the back of the line. Then Tomasso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano show up and say they're waiting for their shot. Revival say they've already promised a match to TM61 so can't defend against them. Mojo Rawley Vs Chris Atkins: Atkins is some big, burly Australian dude. I was hoping we'd seen the last of Mojo in NXT. This ends pretty quickly when Samoa Joe comes out and beats both these guys down. Joe cuts a promo about how he is pissed at William Regal for making the match against Nakamura. Mojo comes back in and attacks Joe and the two have a little brawl, which ends with Joe laying him out with the Kokina Clutch. Bayley is interviewed in the back about her upcoming match with Asuka. Asuka comes in and invites Bayley to ringside for her match tonight. Asuka Vs Aliyah: Bayley joins the commentary team, but when Asuka comes out she grabs a chair and sets it up at ringside, inviting Bayley down for a closer look. Bayley heads ringside, but folds the chair up and tosses it aside in an act of defiance. This was all cool little character stuff to build up the rivalry between Asuka and Bayley. Asuka lays a beating on Aliyah and finishes with the Asuka Lock, which she keeps on after the bell until Bayley hits the ring. Asuka was pretty much wrestling as a heel in this match. A video airs of Oney Lorcan cutting a promo after his win against Tye Dillinger, whenever that was. Lorcan says he has to keep getting better and that means going back to his roots. No idea what this is leading to. Then we get a vignette for Ember Moon. Bobby Roode comes out for his debut appearance in NXT. They made it sound like it was going to be a match (you know, when they say someone is debuting tonight, you assume it's a match), but he just comes out in a suit to cut a promo. A long promo. A really long promo. It starts off as a typical babyface promo ("I'm happy to be here" etc) but then turns into a heel promo when he says he's going to replace all the regular fans in NXT with executives and CEOs. I think they should have held off on this until after Roode had wrestled at least one match, because the fans were crazy into him. The Revival Vs TM61: So, this is a non-title match, and it's pretty solid. The Revival end up getting the win after Dawson hits a DDT. They then cut a promo listing all the teams they've beat, whcih brings out Gargano and Ciampa, who point out that the Revival hasn't beat them. They have a brawl, which Gargano and Ciampa come out on top of, and Gargano covers Dash with Ciampa symbolically counting to three. The show ends with them holding up the tag titles. Obviously that's gonna be the Takeover match. Episode MVP: Bayley.

What is he doing these days? Is he still commentating 205 Live?

I enjoyed him when he first came to WWE. He was one of my standout performers of 2001 before he got injured. Of course, that was 15 years prior to this, so it's understandable that he isn't the same performer.

Kevin Nash has the proportions of a muppet.

7/27/16 Shinsuke Nakamura Vs Wesley Blake: Blake has new music and new get-up. I'm not really sure what the idea is. It kind of reminds me of when they tried to make Rob Conway, the Con-man, a thing. Except without the awesome Randy Newman-esque music. A video shows Blake and Murphy arguing earlier about I don't even care anymore. I guess they each want to prove they are the better man. Blake shouldn't be getting much in against Nakamura, and he doesn't. After the match, Regal comes out and says that at the next Takeover, which is the return to Brooklyn, Samoa Joe will defend the NXT title against Shinsuke Nakamura. Crowd is very happy with that one. Billie Kay Vs Santana Garrett: So Kay's thing now is that she recently made her Smackdown debut against Dana Brooke (I presume she was just doing a job), and now she thinks she's a big star or something, and has a bad attitude. This is per Phillips. Graves isn't really on board. It is a first win for Kay though, against the always solid Garrett. Speaking of main roster debuts, we see footage of Bayley's debutat Sasha Banks's mystery partner, and then cut to Bayley in Regal's office. She asks for her rematch against Asuka in Brooklyn, and Regal agrees. TM61 Vs Rob Ryzin and Adrian Nails: What's funny is that wiki lists one of the jobbers here as Nailz, complete with link to his page. It definitely is not Nailz. It's some scrawny guy wearing jeans who looks barely trained. Squash win for TM61, who then shake the jobbers hands and applaud them after the match. Nice guys. Oh shit, Hideo Itami is returning to the ring next week. No Way Jose Vs Steve Cutler: I guess Cutler has a new mean attitude. He's tired of seeing these new guys come in and get all the opportunities. Of course, he still jobs pretty quickly. That must have been so disheartening for him. He had all this anger and frustration and he thought that he was going to use that to launch himself to the top. "I'll show them. I'll show them that Steve Cutler is a man not to be messed with". And then he goes out and gets beat in like 2 minutes. Jose cuts a promo on Austin Aries. Kota Ibushi Vs Buddy Murphy: It's Cruiserweight Classic star Kota Ibushi making his NXT debut. Did they think Ibushi was going to sign with them or something? I seem to remember hearing that at the time. Big pop for Ibushi and this is a fun match. It should have ended when Ibushi gave a wicked kick to Murphy's ear and then followed up with a quickfire German suplex. That was the apex of the match as far as crowd excitement went. Samoa Joe comes out to address Regal's announcement from earlier. He refuses to face Nakamura, saying that he hasn't earned his shot. Regal comes out and says that he makes the decisions around here, and if Joe refuses the match then he will have to forfeit the NXT title. Joe is pissed but agrees to the match, saying it's the biggest mistake Regal ever made, and that Nakamura might not make it to Brooklyn. Nakamura's music hits and the challenger comes out to a big pop. This is lame though, as he just stands on the stage doing his mannerisms in Joe's general direction as the show goes off the air. Episode MVP: Kota Ibushi.

7/20/16 This is billed as 'Fight Night' as we have three big matches on tap- American Alpha Vs Authors of Pain, Bayley Vs Nia Jax and Samoa Joe Vs Rhyno. Samoa Joe Vs Rhyno: Two big burly dudes going at it, but this didn't really get going for me. I don't think Rhyno has much to offer anymore. At least, not in this type of match. The crowd seemed kind of uninterested too. Joe picked up the win with the clutch. A video package shows us that a bunch of NXT stars have been drafted to the main roster- Finn Balor, Nia Jax, Alexa Bliss, Carmella, American Alpha and Mojo Rawley. AA are the only ones I'll really miss. It seems like they're run in NXT was pretty short, and there was still a lot they could have done with them. The Authors of Pain Vs American Alpha: AOP attack AA before the match, leaving them lying in the aisle. Regal comes out to check on them, and I'm thinking this is pretty lame that they're not gonna do the match, but then AA start pushing people away and we are going to get the match. And what a fun match it is. AOP, who still don't have names, are pretty green you can see, but Gable and Jordan make this match work with their bumping and selling and fighting spirit. Gable is particularly good as guy who doesn't realise he's the smallest man in the fight. Great pop when he T-bones one of the AOP. Another great pop for Jordan diving over the top rope to take out one of AOP. AOP pick up the win in the end, as they should really. AA jobbing on their way out of the territory. Really good sprint. The Revival are being interviewed in the back. They say that no team has beat them or could beat them. This brings in Johnny Gargano and Tomasso Ciampa. They point out that they have beat the Revival before, and they're coming for the belts. Austin Aries Vs Patrick Clark: Phillips and Graves inform me that Clark was a Tough Enough competitor. He's dressed ridiculously in an American flag outfit, but looks to have a lot of charisma, and some good athleticism. I'm wondering why I've never heard of him. Only after the fact do I find out that this is The Velveteen Dream. Awesome. I don't really know anything about this guy, but I'm looking forward to seeing him do his thing. This is a squash win for Aries, but after the match, No Way Jose attacks and chases him off. Jose looked good here, showing lots of fire. Bayley Vs Nia Jax: Oh man, I loved Bayley in this. Like, I fell in love with her a little bit in this match. Her performance was aces. To Nia's credit, she looked pissy and reckless in a good way, and was really clobbering Bayley. She should never do a jackhammer again though. Man, she's lucky she didn't kill Bayley with that. Nia can't put Bayley away, so she takes a chance going up to the second rope. That's her downfall as Bayley climbs up and delivers a super Bayley-to-Belly for the win. The crowd pops huge. They just love Bayley so much. This was a good David Vs Goliath match, to end an awesome episode of NXT. Episode MVP: Bayley. 3 star matches: The Authors of Pain Vs American Alpha, Bayley Vs Nia Jax.

7/13/16 The show starts with Samoa Joe making his first appearance at Full Sail since the last Takeover. He comes out and says he's here to see Finn Balor Vs Shinsuke Nakamura, but that the winner of that match won't be getting a shot at the NXT title. He says he already beat the Demon, and that he brought strong-style to the US a long time ago, and if Nakamura is the king, then Joe is the emperor. Rhyno comes out and says that he has to go through Joe to get to the top so that's what he'll do. They have a staredown, and then Joe walks off and says he does things on his time. Good promo from Joe. We've already seen Joe/Rhyno so I'm not particularly interested in that. Shinsuke Nakamura Vs Finn Balor: Lots of ballyhoo, video packages and whatnot, and it's already time for the main event. Definite big match atmosphere for this, and the fans are chanting 'this is awesome' before the match even starts. The match is fine, but for me it's the weakest of Nakamura's 3 big matches so far. It didn't really have a hook, other than both guys working really hard. And the crowd of course was really into it, which always helps. Balor got to kick out of a Kinshasa, before finally falling to a second one. Afterwards, the two embraced, and the fans thanked Finn for his efforts. This definitely felt like his NXT goodbye, putting over the new ace. Episode MVP: Balor. 3 star match: Finn Balor Vs Shinsuke Nakamura.

7/6/16 Bayley Vs Alexa Bliss: Bayley picks up the win to continue her comeback. She cuts a promo saying she may get knocked down but she always gets back up again. She mentions having to watch Nia Jax take her opportunity at Takeover. Jax comes out and they have a little staredown, and then agree to have one more match. Blake and Murphy Vs The Hype Bros: What are they even doing with Blake and Murphy? Just end it already. This is basically an angle to set up Rhyno's return to NXT. He comes in and gores everyone. I'd forgot all about him. A video airs hyping up next week's Balor/Nakamura match, with a bunch of different guys giving their opinions. You know it's a big deal because even Triple H is on here. The Revival Vs American Alpha: 2/3 falls for the tag titles. This is awesome. I loved this. These two teams just have great chemistry. They do a bunch of elaborate shit, but it never looks choreographed because they all have great timing. This is kind of a greatest hits match for them, taking all the really good Southern tag stuff they've done, and all the bomb-throwing, and putting it in one match. We're already deep in the match when the first fall occurs, AA picking it up via submission with the ankle lock. Revival pretty quickly tie with a submission victory of their own after having worked on Jason Jordan's leg throughout the match. There's some great nearfalls now, and a great spot where it looks like Jordan is going to eat a Shatter Machine, but Gable comes in and shoves Dash out of the way before he can complete the move. In the end, it's Gable who takes a Shatter Machine on the apron, and gets pinned, and the Revival retain the belts. Real quality work. All four guys were great in this, but Scott Dawson was the definite standout. It just seems like he was born for tag wrestling. Episode MVP: Dawson. 4 star match: American Alpha Vs The Revival.

I was just goofing around. No offence meant.

"Delayed flights"? Okay, let her out of the basement, dude.

Yes, that's right, he did have an MMA aesthetic going on. I'm actually in the middle of watching an Austin Aries shoot right now and he's talking about his time in NXT. Funnily enough, he paints himself as, maybe not a model employee, but someone who was on his best behaviour because he was aware of the reputation he was coming in with.

6/29/16 Alexa Bliss Vs Carmella: This match got way longer than you'd expect it to, but to be fair, they did well out there. What I didn't like was the finish, where Bliss was portrayed as a badass, grabbing Carmella by the throat and dropping her, and then finishing her off with the newly-named Twisted Bliss. Bliss should not be booked as a badass. We see a backstage promo from Shinsuke Nakamura talking about his match with Finn Balor. He talks about his friendship with Balor, and how their families know each other. Nakamura comes off well here. It's amazing, when you let someone just talk naturally and from the heart, even in a second language, they can come off much better than when reciting someone else's words. Cathy interviews Bayley, but they are interrupted by Alexa. She says if Bayley wants the women's title, she will have to go through her. Andrade 'Cien' Almas Vs Noah Potjes: Potjes is a good-looking guy. He must really suck if they haven't done anything with him in all this time. Standard win for Almas. It's Balor's turn for the serious promo now, and he says that when he went to Japan, it was Nakamura who helped him settle in, and he was happy he got the chance to return the favour when Nakamura came to NXT. But now the time has come for them to face-off, and the fans are in for a real treat. They're really building this match up as something big, throwing around terms like 'historic'. That seems a bit over-the-top to me. Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa Vs The Hype Bros: I don't want the Hype Bros on my TV ever again. I don't even particularly dislike them. I just get depressed when they come out. It's like 'ugh, these guys?' The match is fine. Graves is putting Mojo over on commentary, which is a rarity for him. Gargano and Ciampa pick up the win, and then cut a promo about how they beat the Revival the other week, which they think puts them in line for a title match. American Alpha's music hits and the former champs make their return to Full Sail. They say that they have a rematch with the Revival, and that they will get revenge on the Authors of Pain too. Next the Revival come out and cut a promo from the stage. Dawson says that they call the shots now, and neither of the teams in the ring is going to get what they want. This brings out William Regal who reminds the Revival that it's him who calls the shots, and he makes The Revival Vs American Alpha for the tag belts next week, 2/3 falls. I'm down for that. American Alpha and Gargano and Ciampa shake hands and the latter team leave. The Authors of Pain come out of the crowd and attack AA. Gargano and Ciampa try to make the save, but they get beat down too. The show ends with AOP standing tall. Really good angle to end the show, I thought. Episode MVP: Scott Dawson. He cut a good promo at the end there.