By JCH
NXT 18/7/19
A lot has gone on since we last spoke loyal readers. F.R.G has gone from being a cult figure in a small NXT blog to an infamous wrestling twitter GIF villain thanks to Kip Sabian.
Tonight - Adam Cole is in action and Kushida takes on Apollo Crews, but first to the ring is my boy. Matt Riddle.
He is taking on Arturo Ruas also of a martial arts background
Matt Riddle vs Arturo Ruas
Why I like Matt Riddle wrestling matches, especially against another Martial Art expert - They look like MMA fights without the boring bits. After a nice amount of scrambling for position and armbar attempts they get into some stand up. Throwing kicks at one another, Riddle catches Ruas with a big kick to the head. Ruas responds with an aggressive takedown.
Riddle back up throwing strikes, then he hits THE FLASH KNEE, best male knee in wrestling, before going to the hammerfists and the ref stops it. TKO win for Riddle.
Good little match, Comms played up Ruas a lot as a threat to Riddle due to martial arts background, but when it came to it, he wasn’t on the same level.
As he celebrates Riddle is attacked from behind by Killian Dain. Who destroys Riddle. Multiple Sentons. Inside and outside the ring. The last one taking Riddle and Dain through the stage!
Maybe this is where Riddle is heading for Takeover
Backstage with the Street Profits
They call out Fish and O’Reilly. They do it in a lot more entertaining and charismatic fashion than that.
Fancam of Mia Yim battering Marina Shafir in her car at a love event. Seems harsh Mia. She hasn’t even done anything yet!
Dexter Lumis vs Bronson Reed
Dexter Lumis out first. His gimmick appears to be ‘creeper’. Creepy music, rubbing the ropes intimately, a death stare. He doesn’t do an inset interview as Mauro tells us it would be too weird.
Bronson Reed is formerly Jonah Rock. He tells us how no-one talks about Australian Strong Style and he plans to change that.
Lumis holds up his hand at the start of the match as if he’s framing Reed. Reed on top early with shoulder tackles before Lumis hits a big elbow to knock Reed out of the ring. Reed moves out the way of a flip to the outside by Lumis who lands on his feet then gets caught by a crossbody from Reed. Nice start here.
Back in the ring and Lumis goes for the ground and pound. He frames Reed again and works the ears and the head. Attacking the senses. Now he’s on to the eyes. He licks the face of Reed and smiles. Reed doesn’t like that and fights back. Hits a nice power slam on Lumis coming off the ropes. Reed in control now. Combination, finishing with a big senton gets a 2 count. Lumis fights out of a suplex and hits a belly to back suplex on the larger Reed, then a kip up into a jumping elbow drop. Looked smooth.
Top rope for Lumis, frames Reed but takes too long and misses Reed. Reed drops Lumis, straps are down, top rope and super splash from the top from the big man gets the job done.
Good little match that. Enjoyed my introduction to Dexter Lumis, whilst Reed showed some nice moves. We will get to see more of him later in the tournament.
Interview with Tyler Breeze.
He says everyone in NXT has a group, has friends and he needs to adapt. He is interrupted by The Forgotten Sons. They tell him it’s a place for men now.
Tyler ‘I’m a man, I’ve got this beard. Nice to see you again, weren’t you Buddy Murphy” Brilliant. Blake tells him he’s seen nothing like Jaxon Ryker before. Tyler says he’s seen everything. Looks to be setting up a Ryker vs Breeze match.
Kushida vs Apollo Crews
Crews gets a huge reaction from the NXT crowd.
Kushida wins the early ground battle. Narrowly missing a big PK at the end. Then they go to an acrobatic reversal sequence that ends with a huge dropkick from Crews.
Crews chases Kushida round the ring as he gets on the apron Kushida catches him with a double handspring kick. Apollo counters an attack with a sort of pop up gutbuster. He then hits a massively delayed vertical suplex. Going to one arm at one point to encourage the crowd. Gets a 2 count.
Crews in control, corner splash then a huge overhead belly to belly throw gets a 2. Nice. Crews still in control with strikes. Kushida throws Crews to the corner, catches shim trying to leapfrog over him, pops him up and volleys Crews. Nigel points out the kick was to the arm, setting up for the submission. Hand spring elbow, hip toss and the dropkick from Kushida, as always so smooth. Kick in the corner then a tornado DDT gets him a 2 count.
Kushida back to the arm with strikes. Goes for an armbar but Crews blocks it. Throws Kushida into the ropes and hits a huge boot. brilliant. 2 count. Multiple deadlift Germans from Crews, the last one he threw him all the way over so he landed on his head.
Then a standing SSP for Crews. Only a 2!!! Great action here. Crews goes for the gorilla press, but the arm gives out. Reverse STO from Kushida sends Crews into the buckle. Kushida springboard Hurricanrana, Crews rolls through for a 2 of his own. Overhead kick from Kushida. Enziguri from Crews. Everyone is down and we can catch our breath. Great match.
Crews heads up top. Kushida meets him there. Crews knocks him to the floor, but Kushida comes back hits the double heel strike and meets Crews on the top. Hits a flying rolling armbar off the top rope Crews battling to stay out of the armbar and Kushida transitions to the Sakuraba lock, it’s in. Crews taps. It’s over.
Really strong match.
This Kushida is giving his opponents their dream matches gimmick is going really well so far.
Keith Lee interview - He feels like he’s been passed over a bit due to the stop/start nature of his NXT tenure. He calls out Damian Priest. We get that match Next week, along with Io Shirai vs Kacy Catanzaro.
Here comes NXT top heel Adam Cole to rapturous applause. What do the kids say? SMH. HAHAHA after typing that I see F.R.G literally shaking his head. YES! His lack of interest in shouting BAYBAY or pointing really impresses me.
Cole is on the mic. F.R.G looks like he’s on his phone. Cole calls the crowd morons and gets some more boos. Cole says he will defend his NXT championship right now against…. he shows a video…. it’s going to be that guy he mocked at the gym isn’t it! Yes, here comes Tawan Tucker.
Cole says it’s just you and me one-on-one. No undisputed Era. Tawan has a mike and says - Just you and me, that’s too bad. I didn’t come alone. REBEL HEART hits and here comes Johnny Gargano. Storms the ring attacking Cole and battering him through the crowd. Cole sent through the barricade. Is TAWAN TUCKER going to win the NXT Title????
Referees drag Johnny away, Cole back to his feet suddenly Gargano appears. Flying from the ramp to take out Cole. Beats Cole back to the ring. Garga-No Escape. Cole is tapping in the middle of the ring. Get in the ring Tawan. Pin him!!!!
No, it’s the end of the show. Johnny is back! And we’re heading for a rubber match in Toronto.
Stars of the Show
1.Kushida
2. Apollo Crews
3. Matt Riddle
Montez Ford Award –
Dexter Lumis – First time I’ve ever seen him and he was something different for sure. Weird character and backed it up with some decent in ring.
Takeover Prediction
Adam Cole vs Johnny Gargano
Fish and O’Reilly vs Street Profits
Roderick Strong vs Velveteen Dream
Shayna Baszler vs Mia Yim
Matt Riddle vs Kiliian Dain
Will they up it to 6 matches to get Kushida on there??? Or is Riddle and Dain a TV match? We will see
Top 10 Overall Stars
1. Johnny Gargano 16
2. Matt Riddle 13
3. Shayna Baszler, Io Shirai, Ricochet 10
6. Kyle O’Reilly, Bianca Belair, Adam Cole, Roderick Strong, Kushida 9
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