NXT [NXT SPOILERS] For AUGUST 31, 2016

[RIPPA]

Per PWI

Quote

Tom Phillips and Corey Graves are still your commentary team.

Andrea D'Marco and Mike Rome are the new ring announcers for tv 

Dark match: Daria Berenato def. Billie Kay 

Week 1 Andrea D'Marco 

- Tye Dillinger def. Buddy Murphy 

- Tommaso Ciampa is being interviewed backstage when he's confronted by The Revival. The Revival beat him down on the way to the ring. They continue the beat down of Ciampa, before stopping to cut a short promo talking about how Gargano and Ciampa had to face reality. The Revival then laid Ciampa out with the Shatter Machine.

- Steve Cutler def. Kenneth Crawford 

- No Way Jose def. Angelo Dawkins 

- Liv Morgan def. Aliyah 

-Shinsuke Nakamura cuts a promo calling this the Era of Strong Style. He says he came to NXT to face the best competition and has beaten Sami Zayn, Finn Balor, and Samoa Joe.

- Asuka def. Danielle Kamela in 9 seconds.

Per WON

Quote

Dark Match --
- Daria Berenato defeated Billie Kay

Daria Berenato won by submission with the Hell's Gate.

- Tye Dillinger defeated Buddy Murphy

Long match, Buddy Murphy hit knees off the top to the shoulders of a standing Tye Dillinger for a near fall. Dillinger set up his exposed knee neckbreaker for the win.

- On-screen promo by Tommaso Ciampa talking about Johnny Gargano’s injuries at the hands of The Revival. He was then jumped by The Revival and run through the door leading to ringside, where they continued the beating and cut a promo about being top guys as they continued beating down Ciampa with Gargano nowhere to be found.

- Steve Cutler defeated Kenneth Crawford

Steve Cutler used a fisherman into a sit-out slam for the win.

- No Way Jose defeated Angelo Dawkins

No Way Jose hit a punch and clutch slam for the win.

- Liv Morgan defeated Aliyah

Liv Morgan got the pin with a spin kick.

- Shinsuke Nakamura in-ring promo about this being the era of strong style.

- NXT Women's Champion Asuka defeated Danielle Kamela

Asuka won in 10 seconds with the Asuka Lock

 

[SirSmUgly]

• I still don't know why they broke up Blake and Murphy. They were a perfectly fine sleazy tag team. In fact, Murphy looks more like Jimmy Del Rey each time I see him. 
• Dillinger's really nailed the goofiness of his gimmick while still coming off as a dude who can hang around and win competitive matches. 

 

• The Revival showing up and Gargano deciding to just start swinging was great, as was the resultant beatdown. I thought Gargano and Ciampa would be a stopgap feud for The Revival, but it looks like they might run this match again at the next big show, especially if they want to put the belts on a stopgap team to get them over to the Authors of Pain. 
• Man, Ciampa came off like a total badass trying to struggle to his feet and then laughing. This segment was aces. 

 

• The cameraman's decision to cut out Kenneth Crawford not landing on his feet with that weird zoom-in was strange and vomit-inducing alike. In fact, the random-zoom ins and cuts were noticeable to me. They were actively taking away from the match. 
• Neither Cutler or Crawford looked particularly impressive in this go-round. 

 

• I really like NWJ. He's still finding the balance between the fun of his gimmick and the ability to be serious enough to be put higher on the card, but he's really likable and easy to root for. 
• Angelo Dawkins is awful at transitioning onto offense. NWJ feeds Dawkins his back, and Dawkins clumsily throws a weak forearm. Even his reversal whip of Jose into the ropes was noticeably week.
• I keep hoping NWJ will just use the fastball heart punch as a finish instead of that weak full nelson slam. Maybe next week. 

 

• "Sockless loafer boy," LOL
• Aries weaseling out of Almas's challenge by referring to his busted eardrum was priceless. 

 

• Morgan/Aliyah was what it was. Two wrestlers who aren't very good at this point having a decent match relative to their skill level. 

 

• I get the complaints about Nakamura basically being a dude who just wants to get his shit in so far in NXT, but he's so charismatic that I don't care. Also, he's notoriously rote and takes it easy unless he's wrestling a big match, and I can live with that because he's so entertaining otherwise. 
• I don't know about even having him talk this much, though. Not because he's hard to understand or anything (he cut a pretty good promo, actually), but because he sort of has an aura where he doesn't really need to talk that much. That's different from most other wrestlers, it's special, and they should preserve that.
• I was waiting for a Samoa Joe attack that never came. I swerved myself.

 

[Niners Fan in CT]

Aliyah seems to have improved. If you believe Breaking Ground she was pretty much the worst talent in developmental but her character work was okay here and her in-ring was definitely passable.

[Iron Moose]

I've enjoyed Aliyah and Liv performances in the past, but I felt like this match was ... simultaneously weightless and a climax to a story we had not seen the rest of. Both Aliyah's viciousness (the running knee to start, the punching in the ropes, kicking during the submission - these are things you do once you have a history with someone) and Liv's finishing kick felt unearned / came out of nowhere. Maybe a less decisive finish (flash pin after a harder kick?) would have worked better.

[JCM]

Well for those that wanted NXT to be more like a developmental brand here you go. Dillinger does nothing for me. Total one note gimmick enhancement talent that's too over for the role he should be in, but not good enough to push up the card. Cutler is terrible. The guy with the shaved head and eyebrows was better. Crawford has some potential. I thought Jose looked pretty good I can see some improvement with him. Everything Dawkins does looks awkward to me. He just doesn't seem comfortable in the ring.

Liv Morgan is one of the least convincing pro wrestlers I've seen. I just can't imagine her doing anything that could hurt someone. Aliyah looked pretty good until she got in the wrong position for Liv's slow turning blind kick of doom. Itami cut a damn fine promo, and you can tell he's been working at it. Best part was probably the Revival beatdown on Ciampa.

[Go2Sleep]

Itami's English has improved tremendously over the past year. Solid promo from Nakamura too.

Aliyah should've saved that submission until she's supposed to start winning matches. That would've been a great hold to give the "who can break out of it" build. Liv needs a new finisher. That's a "whiff or potato" move if I ever saw one.

Am I the only one who really wants to see Revival/AoP? I hate the idea of using DIY or TM61 as transition champs. Just let the two badass teams go at it, the crowd will get into it one way or the other.

[sydneybrown]

Liv Morgan needs to step it up.  She's awesome as the hot chick who gets killed but now as someone with credibility she got exposed as the face who pulls out the victory.  Especially when you have to go to a wide shot for the finish.   And I agree with the Aliyah submission.  That looked like a badass finish and it got treated like a headlock.

[turk128]

That was a swank SSP.

Liv Morgan seems to be picking up what Carmella left... good and bad.

Aliyah's character work seems to be coming along well.

[Niners Fan in CT]

I don't know if we've discussed TM61 all that much, when I saw them in Japan I thought okay these guys seem to fit in here and they were entertaining for what they were with all the moves and shit but I am not sure they are a good fit in NXT. Even the video package for them did nothing for me, it just reminded me of how boring and generic they are. I would not be upset to never see them again.

[Burgundy LaRue]

Morgan is coming along fine.  She's been wrestling for less than two years.  That's what I hate about NXT, or the perceptions often surrounding it--it's supposed to be developmental, but BAH GAWD forbid if someone actually needs to, I don't know, develop. 

And being that she's actually from Jersey, Liv's character actually suits her better than Carmella.

She has work to do, but she's hardly hopeless out there.  Let the cake bake before complaining about the flavor.

[odessasteps]

Maybe the Tv show should only be for experienced people and not for the relatively new people. 

(Hypothetically, since i dont watch the show if that is what they are doing.)

[Burgundy LaRue]

I don't watch NXT religiously, but Liv has been working as enhancement talent at tapings.  I guess they're looking to do something different with her since beyond Asuka and Ember Moon, the women's division is wide open.  Again, not saying she's close to ready--she's not.  But have others tell it, she should retire right now.

[Matt D]

I'd vote for Buddy Murphy over Rollins in March Madness.

[Firebreaker Chip]

Feel like if they told Nakamura to recite the alphabet for a promo he would do a load of dramatic pauses and weird facial expressions and blow the roof off the building by the time he got to about H

[Josh Mann]

That Revival beatdown was so NWA on the Superstation-like it was ridiculous. There wasn't anything about that which wasn't fucking amazing, from them, to the announce work to Ciampa giving them the Brando "One Eyed Jacks" stare before eating one last shot. 

On any other show, Aries would have ran away with Best Promo Segment. But not on this show.

[NikoBaltimore]

13 hours ago, Josh Mann said:

That Revival beatdown was so NWA on the Superstation-like it was ridiculous. There wasn't anything about that which wasn't fucking amazing, from them, to the announce work to Ciampa giving them the Brando "One Eyed Jacks" stare before eating one last shot. 

On any other show, Aries would have ran away with Best Promo Segment. But not on this show.

All that was needed was David Crockett to cry in agony over what they're doing to poor Ciampa.

[Jiji]

On 9/1/2016 at 5:36 PM, Josh Mann said:

That Revival beatdown was so NWA on the Superstation-like it was ridiculous. There wasn't anything about that which wasn't fucking amazing, from them, to the announce work to Ciampa giving them the Brando "One Eyed Jacks" stare before eating one last shot. 

On any other show, Aries would have ran away with Best Promo Segment. But not on this show.

I commented to a bud that that was straight out of the NWA/4 Horsemen playbook. Two opportunistic heels taking advantage of the lone babyface, everybody laying it in, the babyface showing fight but ultimately getting overwhelmed. All perfect. I've been of the mindset that NXT is going to easily be The Revival's peak in WWE due to McMahon hating tag teams, their size and style working best against smaller indy guys more prevalent in NXT, and their appearance. This recent stretch of super matches has me doubting that, and I do hope I'm wrong. 

This episode was the first one that's felt like an actual developmental territory show in forever. Not exactly fun but probably necessary. Liv is super rough around the edges and didn't look ready to be on TV in a singles match, developmental or not. As others have mentioned, she's fine bumping around and selling but her offense was brutal. Kenneth Crawford's music popped us hard! That shit was a straight up a Jim Johnston b-track for Marc Mero's second theme they must've found in a dusty warehouse bin. Hilarious.