By JCH
Hello loyal readers. JCH here to bring you the latest instalment in NXT. Main event tonight is Keith Lee vs Kassius Ohno. Yes Please!
STREET PROFITS v THE METRO BROTHERS
Here come the Sultans of Swag. The Street Profits. The Full Sail crowd love these, but they don’t seem to me like they will ever be at the top of the time. I mean Angelo Dawkins has been there since 2012! Good luck to them tho, I don’t dislike them. They are taking on Chris and JC the Metro Brothers. Who in the blue hell are these guys? They look like they’ve come straight from Rydell High. How’s Danny Zuko doing?
The Street Profits look aggressive this year. They push each other to amp each other up until Dawkins decks Ford. Dawkins then decks both of the T-Birds and Ford with a big air Frog Splash for the win. Profits into the crowd to celebrate. FRG has a massive Street Profits flag. Suddenly the Profits are attacked by the Forgotten Sons. Numbers game makes the difference. FRG gets a birds eye view of one of these attacks.
‘We Forgot You’ chant from Full Sail. One of the sons says they will be ‘Forgotten No More’
Squash match to showcase the new aggressive Street Profits, then post match attack to set up a TV feud. Simple and effective. I now have a small interest in seeing the Street Profits vs The Forgotten Sons, something I didn’t 6 minutes ago. Objective achieved.
MATT RIDDLE & KEITH LEE PROMO
Rids and Keith Lee interviewed backstage. Riddle’s outfit is incredible. A backwards hat, a satin lemon tie that isn’t straight, lilac shirt and blue trousers. You know he’s wearing sliders as well! I Love this man. Rids is sad he can’t be ringside to see Keith destroy Ohno, he just hopes Lee leaves a little bit of Ohno for him. Lee does arm exercises in the background and basically just spends the interview basking in his own glory. What a duo!
SHAYNA BASZLER & BIANCA BELAIR FACE OFF
Watch me Shine hits and here comes the E-S-T. Bianca Belair is out. Lots of clips of the crowd dancing badly. ‘Even though the year 2019 just started, I got 20/20 vision when it comes to that NXT Women's Championship’ Nice line. Bianca runs down Shayna and her cronies before Baszler interrupts.
Good promo from Bianca who oozes self-confidence. Shayna talks up Bianca’s physical accomplishments then says ‘it doesn’t matter how strong your arms are I will rip them off your body’ Bianca ‘The only thing my arms will be doing Is holding up your title’ Nice comeback.
Shayna says Bianca is afraid and she’ll ‘change your vocabulary from Undefeated to Overrated’ I’m Loving this exchange. It’s a great contrast. Bianca is the first person who matches Shayna stature wise and her loud self-confidence contrasts superbly with the quiet self-confidence Shayna has built up from her accomplishments.
You can see Shayna trying to sew the seeds of self doubt into Bianca’s own hype train, will she be successful? Bianca looks like she wants to respond with an attack but has an eye on Jessamyn and Marina.
Shayna tells them to step back and Bianca clocks her, ducks two attacks and rolls away, blowing kisses from the ramp having got the upper hand in this one. Great work from Shayna and Bianca in that segment. Two of my favourites who I was already looking forward to seeing and this just upped the anticipation.
ADRIAN JAOUDE vs. DOMINIK DIJAKOVIC
Adrian Joude cartwheels into the ring and then does some Martial. Dijakovic has got the Dominick back in his name. Maybe only a certain amount of people are allowed 2 names in the WWE universe. So with Andrade losing 2 names there was a spare one for Dominick Dijakovic?
Joude the BJJ expert, trying for take downs early. Playing to his strengths. Sensible strategy. Nigel talking up Joude being 17 years unbeaten as Brazilian wrestling champion. Impressive resume. This is like an MMA match.
Joude dominates keeping Dijakovic grounded for a few minutes before Dijakovic gets an advantage with a strike. Joude tries to take him on with a striking exchange and loses. Not sticking to his strengths. Bad strategy. Joude then catches a stamp into a knee bar. Back to his strengths. He then runs in and gets absolutely punted in the face. Followed by Feast Your Eyes for the win.
Really nice little match. When Joude stuck to his BJJ and the ground game he was in control, when he strayed from that strategy Dijakovic had the advantage and picked up the win. DIjakovic impressive again, but I like what I saw from Joude as well.
WAR RAIDERS PROMO
Promo video from War Raiders. They have the Undisputed Era chairs and fire torches. They set the chairs on fire. That was different. I like variety. It was good.
NXTUK Takeover recap video. Was a decent show. The opener was the best match by a street though.
Be Yourself, can’t be no one else…..and Johnny Gargano is out singing his own lyrics as he walks down the ramp and looks to the audience with a sort of ‘do you still like me? I Don’t know why you wouldn’t, I’ve made my choices and I’m fine with them’ kind of look. He’s taking on Humberto Carrillo. I was impressed with him in a tag match a few weeks back in I believe my first review.
Lovely counter sequence to start before Carillo hits a lovely enziguri then a springboard armdrag of the top rope. Johnny moves out of the way of a dive so Humberto stops leapfrogs him back in to the ring and runs the ropes again but Johnny with the slingshot spear before Carillo can get out. Fantastic stuff.
Carrillo fights out of an abdominal stretch and knocks Johnny down with a handspring back elbow. Johnny rolls outside where he is hit by a top rope tope. Carrillo to the top rope. Missile Dropkick, standing moonsault for a near fall. Carrillo for a top rope moonsault met with Gargano’s feet. Superkick, lawn dart, slingshot DDT and its over.
Cracking match that. Carrillo looked great, but Johnny is that damn good. He calls out Ricochet to turn up next week. He takes a Johnny ‘Freakin’ Wrestling sign from a kid in the crowd and looks at it lovingly...
TOMASSO CIAMPA PROMO
Tomasso Ciampa promo - He says he’s not going to fight Black next week, he’ll see him at Takeover Phoenix as he’s a main event player and that’s what main event players do. Good point, well made Tomasso.
MAIN EVENT - KASSIUS OHNO v KEITH LEE
Out first comes Kassius Ohno. This guy is very good. He seems to be the NXT gatekeeper. He may like that role, he gets to work with a lot of really good up and coming talent. Like this man. The man of the Hour, King of the Ring, Intelligence and Power. Keith Lee. I miss his old music. This should be a banger.
Keith gets the better of the early exchanges so Ohno bails and then walks away as Lee threatens a dive of sorts. ‘Oh Bask in his glory’ from the Full Sail crowd. Lee still in charge despite Ohno’s stalling tactics. Huge back body drop. Ohno takes control. He hits a massive boot to the face, then another. And another. Big Boots and another one, and another one, and another one (to Busted Year 3000).
Huge forearm strike from Ohno. Lee blocks the Irish whip so more big strikes from Ohno. Lee fights out of the rest hold but takes another knee to the head, but he gets the knees up to block the senton. Both struggle to their feet and now Lee get’s the better of striking exchange.
Slingshot crossbody from Lee. Great athleticism from the former Aggie. GigEm. Ohno begging then throws a tired punch that Lee catches. Mongolian chop from Lee who ducks the spinning lariat and hits the pounce to send Ohno flying. Ohno Shoves Lee into the ref. Then a massive nut shot. Rolling Elbow 1-2-3. Ohno with a win.
Rare victory for Kassius Ohno even if it was by nefarious means. Good match. I think they have better in them. Here comes Rids. Running down the ramp fighting off refs and yes he is of course wearing sliders. We go off the air with Ohno smiling from the ramp and Riddle angrily pointing at him from the ring. That feud isn’t over yet!.
Another good episode of NXT that. The Joude v Diajkovic and Gargano v Carillo matches were both fun, there was a good main event and an excellent promo segment from Shayna and Bianca.
Stars of the Week
Bianca Belair
Shayna Baszler
Johnny Gargano
Humberto Carrilo
Keep checking all the good stuff on the site...
We did a Nerd Watch Wednesday last night of the 8 women Survior Series match from 1995 featuring great wrestling and shitty commentary. I have almost finished the latest Stardom show which should be ready to go for the weekend.
Ross and Dom continue to review NXTUK and 205 Live, plus we are at PROGRESS on Sunday which should lead to a Hazy memories piece next week. If you think wrestling is fun then this is the place to be!
P.S Apparently Dom has an instagram as well. I’m not sure if he’s mentioned it. The stories from live shows are normally pretty funny though and worth a look.
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