NXT ran their second Seattle show at The Paramount, a theater downtown. The max seating for it is 2,800, and there were at least 2,000 people there, no question. The setup is great, too; the ring is on the stage, so while the entrance ramp is small, it makes the crowd on one side super hot and creates a hell of an environment. It was a pretty good show, too.
No Way Jose defeated Kona Reeves with The Pitch. No Way Jose's charisma is off the charts, place was going nuts for him and he ran up and down the crowd during his entrance, really getting people hyped. Kona Reeves can best be described as a "Wrestling Participant," at this point there seems to be nothing that stands out about him. Average match, No Way Jose carried the whole thing and won with the Pop-Up Punch. Would have been a lot worse if not for Jose's infectious charisma getting the crowd going nuts.
Lars Sullivan defeated Demitrius Bronson with a waist-clutch slam. Demitrius used to be on the Seahawks (practice squad) and came out in full Seahawks uniform to wild cheers. They had a very basic match, Lars hit mostly power moves while Demitrius' entire offense consisted of dropkicks and shoulder tackles. Lars won with a waist-clutch slam, then hit two more after the match ended.
Aleister Black defeated Andrade Cien Almas with the Black Mass. First really good match of the night. Almas played the crowd so well as a heel, but was still getting a lot of cheers, while Aleister Black was one of the most over guys on the show. Lots of hard kicks by Black and wicked chops from Almas. Black has an aura about him when he wrestles that just makes him feel like a big deal, a guy you really need to pay attention to. After some near-falls and big moves, Aleister puts him away with the Black Mass. Aleister is going to be a main eventer in NXT very, very soon.
Asuka came out for a promo, just bragging that she was untouchable and that nobody would ever be able to beat her. She's interrupted by The Iconic Duo, and Billie and Peyton taunt Asuka that eventually she's going to have to fight the two of them and they will be able to defeat her. They eventually attack, but Asuka easily fights them off and KO's them both with kicks. Asuka is crazy popular.
Drew McIntyre defeated The Velveteen Dream with the Claymore Kick. There were some loud "3MB" chants early on, to which Drew responded with a quick air-guitar solo to a big pop. This match honestly sold me on Velveteen Dream, he looked great the whole time. Wrestled as a very old-school heel, lots of taunting and antagonizing the crowd. He got a lot of offense in against Drew, then sent him out to the floor and teased a dive from the top, only to drop to the apron and taunt. He worked over the arm for a while, Drew made his comeback and started to go wild, but got cut off by the side-flip DVD for a really close nearfall. Drew was making another comeback but got stopped by a knee, and Dream whipped him into the ropes only to get hit with the Claymore for the 3. Drew looked as good as he always does, but Velveteen really stood out here.
NXT Tag Team Championship: The Authors of Pain defeated Heavy Machinery with the Last Chapter to retain. Otis Dozovic is something to behold live; he's built like a refrigerator with a head glued on top, and he has a really weird but lovable charisma that made the crowd get into him. Fine tag match, similar to their tag match on TV this week, mostly just the two teams hitting big power moves on each other and brawling. Otis hit an overhead belly to belly suplex on Akam and made it look almost disturbingly easy, then got a nearfall with a World's Strongest Slam. The AoP finally send Tucker Knight out of the ring and demolish Otis with the Last Chapter to retain. Crowd gave Heavy Machinery a big ovation after the match.
Ember Moon defeated Ruby Riot with the Eclipse. Both women were over, dueling chants the whole match. Really great stuff from both of them, but Ember was especially impressive the whole match. She controlled a lot of it, working over the head and neck of Ruby and trying to get a submission win with a crossface. Ruby made her comeback, starting with a crazy backdrop that drove Ember right on her neck, then later with a brutal knee strike to the face. Finally, Ember hits a springboard cross body, and goes up top with the Eclipse for the three count. They shake hands after the match, and Ember raises Ruby's hand to a big pop.
NXT World Championship: Bobby Roode defeated Roderick Strong with a low blow and the Glorious DDT to retain. This was a goddamn great, great, great match. They started by brawling all around the ring, and Strong eventually clotheslined Roode over the barricade which sent Roode tumbling off the stage and into the orchestra pit. They brawled there, and eventually got back into the ring to start the match. Strong domianted the start, but Roode cut him off and spent a lot of the match working over the chest/stomach. These two were at their absolute best; everything Roode did looked like it was the "proper" way to do it, while Strong played a great face in peril until he made his big comeback after a Superplex. He started rocking Roode with chops and strikes, but Roode put him down with a spinebuster, then grabbed a chair. The ref yanked the chair from him, and as Bobby turned around Strong went for a knee but Roode dove out of the way and Strong nailed the ref. Ref went down, and Roode hit the Glorious DDT and covered, a second ref ran out after a few seconds but Strong got his shoulder up. Roode, furious, sent the second ref away and woke the first ref, only to get hit with the back suplex facebuster for a crazy nearfall that the entire crowd thought might be the end. Roddy pulled him up for a suplex, but Roode pulled the ref to distract him and hit a low blow, then the Glorious DDT for the 3. Just a fantastic, fantastic match from start to finish.
After the match, Roode started beating down Strong. Crowd started chanting USE THE CHAIR so Roode grabbed it and held it up, then tossed it aside and flipped the crowd off, only to get hit with the End of Heartache. Strong put the chair on top of Roode and held the belt up to a big pop, then left the belt in the ring and headed to the back. Roode grabbed the mic and announced that he was still the NXT Champion, and concluded the show with "Hey Seattle... you suck."
Really fun show, the top 2 matches were both really good with the main event being especially great. Hope NXT comes back here soon, running shows at Paramount is always really cool.
Submitted July 15, 2017 at 11:50AM by TheBrianJ http://ift.tt/2uklZJ5 SquaredCircle
No comments:
Post a Comment