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| Photo Credit: Michael Silveria |
Here's what went down:
1) Matt Riddle d. Kassius Ohno (small package --> pinfall)
This is one of three matches that may've gone as dry runs leading up to the bright lights of Takeover. I was surprised by the amount of kids that were in the front row, most of whom got Bro Bumps same as me. Riddle came out hot early but Ohno gained an advantage by working over the exposed ankles and feet of the notorious KOB. There was a point where it looked like Riddle was going to get back into it but Ohno stomped the foot to set up a bike kick and tight forearm shot. Riddle got an Everest German suplex, Ohno fired back with a running Liger bomb, and after a series of reversals Riddle won in a surprising manner.
2) Kairi Sane & Io Shirai d. Jessamyn Duke & Marina Shafir (Savage elbow --> Sane pinfall Shafir)
So! The underlings are coming along; liked their selling and stooging while also making manifest their size advantage when they had the upper hand(s). But in the end, God's Moonsault nearly put both Io and Duke in the front row, and Kairi finished Marina off with the elbow. Props to my buddy Jon five seats down for getting a selfie with Io post match.
3) Velveteen Dream d. Dominic Dijakovic (Purple Rainmaker --> pinfall)
For about 15 minutes, the Dream was the mayor of San Diego. Sparse as the crowd was, he wanted everybody in on the experience, non verbally mocking people who were on their phones not taking pictures of him or just even sitting down in the crowd. He even did a lap around the ring and high fived a bunch of us, me included. Dream landed some juicy rights early, seems to have fully incorporated the Jericho style springboard dropkick into his arsenal as well. He hit two axehandles to the outside; D2 blocked the third with a goozle, then chokeslammed him into the apron. Dijakovic didn't work heel here but did seem to be annoyed a few times at Dream's wellspring of support. Both men did the Flair Flop to the outside off of corner whips, and while Dom was able to avoid it once he ended up trapped in the corner after missing one of what would've presumably been 10 punches, got superkicked -- Dream Valley Bombed -- and our second straight match ended with a ridiculously beautiful elbow drop. (Kairi's is better but it's close.)
4) Street Profits d. Forgotten Sons (Blockbuster Doomsday Device --> pinfall)
Hot take: Montez Ford might be the most entertaining guy on the roster. He's hysterically good at turning what would usually be dead spots in a match into something closer to great supporting accents of a fully realized character, whether it's the pre-match dancing, interacting with the crowd, his partner, his opponents...he covered it all and shone through the duration of the match. Also--the Sons--might be good? I really liked their array of tandem backbreakers they employed, and hopefully we get a similar match for Wednesday's show with better lighting and a bigger crowd. Profits went over and celebrated with the crowd afterwards, as is their wont; but why are they using that two-step finisher when that BDD has signature finisher written all over it?
Kona Reeves came out. No one was pleased. He did all of the things you'd think a heel would do to get San Diegans riled up, and they all worked. We would've taken the complaints more seriously if someone like C*amp* was delivering them; suffice to say Reeves found the sobriquet of America's Finest City wanting.
Hilariously enough, my friend Sean happened to say after his rant how great it would be if Rey Mysterio showed up right then; over the course of the weekend I'm going to have him say "Alison Brie, five billion dollars, a tarp, and twelve dessert toppings" just for gits and shiggles. The culero chants died off, a familiar theme whistled through the arena, and the biggest pop of the night went to the King of Mystery. He stated it was his first time enjoying NXT live, intimated that Dominick (who's currently being trained by Lance Storm if memory serves) might be going black and yellow when the time comes, then demanded an apology on behalf of the town and the raza. Reeves apologized, Rey accepted it, then Kona jumped him when he was going to leave. A couple beats later he was eating a 619 and headed back to the Wal*Mart he got his vest from. Cheers and high fives all around, leading into intermission.
5) Tyler Bate d. Adam Cole [BAY BAY] (Tyler Driver '97 --> pinfall)
The fact they could just put on this match with no hype and not even feel the need to put it on TV or have it in a Takeover -- well, at least for now -- shows you how hard WWE's "third brand" is flexing right now. Bate was a surprise for the show and got a huge pop, followed by some "Big Strong Boi" chants that Cole responded to once the bell rang with a hilariously note perfect "Okay, that's enough now." This was probably the match of the night, drawing This Is Awesome chants down the stretch. The finishing run full of counter sequences were so great my note taking skills could not keep up, though Bate won (surprisingly?) cleanly by slipping the Florida variant of the Last Shot to finally hit his rebound lariat and signature Driver.
6) War Raiders d. Undisputed Era by DQ in a NXT World Tag Team Title match (Fish interference)
The Raiders got a good reception throughout, as did some peak Sleazy Kyle, who referred to our town as San Antonio. He's from Canada, we have plenty of high quality Mexican food here, no football team; why wouldn't he be confused? All 4 men were throwing bombs late and it looked like the Raiders were going for Fallout when Fish saved the day and the belts. No one came out to save the Raiders, so the Era laid them out and left triumphant, missing the low level ovation the New Age Vikings got afterwards.
7) Shayna Baszler d. Bianca BelAir to retain the NXT Women's World Championship (Kurifuda Clutch --> submission)
Yes, this probably won't be referred to on TV. Get over it. I've heard several different reactions to this match; my feeling was it was fine though several people thought it was boring possibly due to Baszler actually getting the majority of the offense. It took a while for her style to grow on me as well, so I do see the complaints while I don't wholly buy into them myself. Be on the lookout during Takeover to see if Baszler uses BelAir's hair whip to pull her into the post. Bianca did land a good spear but was never close to hitting the KOD; Baszler got the rear naked choke out of a victory roll attempt in a fine subtle bit of innovation.
8) Aleister Black d. Johnny Gargano by DQ (Ciampa interference)
Johnny did more heel stuff then I've seen him do to date without actually cheating (unless he had the tights on a late rollup). He again mimicked Black's sit down across from him, fired up the crowd for a dive then didn't do it, mocking the 10 count punches in the corner to the point where it looked like he was doing a back and forth hand gesture unsuitable for TV. Several WarGames spots repeated here, some teased repeating and found new counters. But it was two nights before the big show: of course Ciampa was going to run out and ruin things.
Do Unto Others didn't land tandem offense but were fine with both stomping away at Black while occasionally looking askance at the other; it seemed they were going to Meet in the Middle when the One & Only Young Me came out and helped Black clear house. (Hilariously, on 3 separate occasions Johnny ended up accidentally superkicking Ciampa -- or were they accidents) Johnny got dropped, Ciampa went to Mass, and Ricochet sent everybody home happy by saying he was going to win Saturday and Black was going to get back the Big X as well. He thanked us all for everybody in the back, and they both did a couple of laps around the ring. I got a high five from the King and managed to semi bro hug Aleister, wish him best of luck on Saturday and sent my fiancee & I's love to his cats. He has gotten s h r e d d e d, and I just saw him live like 6 weeks ago. I mean...
NXT's coming back in July. I'll probably be there, maybe even front row.
NXT stop? Takeover, (Kofi Kingston voice) baybeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! (/)
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