It’s been a few weeks since my last NXT review and what a great time to jump back in. Tonight’s main event is a fatal-four way elimination match to determine the number one contender for Shinske Nakamura’s NXT Championship. Either the Glorious One Bobby Roode, Rodrick Strong, Andrade “Cien” Almas, or the “Perfect 10” Tye Dillinger will join Nakamura at the top of the Yellow brand. Who will it be? Lets find out!
Billie Kay vs Daria Berenato
This is my first exposure to Berenato and at first glance her “fighter” gimmick could work. She actually has legitimate MMA and judo experience, not many people on the entire WWE roster can say that, let alone her being the only woman that has anything close to that type of background. And with the popularity of the women’s divisions in the UFC (Ronda Rousey and Amanda Nunes are headlining UFC 207 on the 30th of this month), why not give it a try?
So, you have yourself a potentially badass MMA character, so let’s just have her lose in a few minutes. I get that it wasn’t clean and their real objective is to build up Billie and Peyton, but still c’mon. I honestly was liking what I was seeing from Berenato, sure she still has some work to do to get better in the ring. But, her moves were cool and reflected the gimmick and she showed some really great intensity. But, a character like hers can only work if she’s built up to look like she’s unstoppable. She didn’t even have to win, have the same distraction scenario, but have her kick out and then lose later on. That would have been a nice little moment to make her look serious, but alas.
Rating: D+
As for Kay and Royce their post match promo was okay and I genuinely want to see Asuka destroy them, so I think they’re doing their job.
Oh and somebody else I’m getting my first exposure too…Percy Watson on commentary. One match in and I already hate him. He sounds like a poor mans version of Byron Saxton and if that’s not the worst insult I’ve ever handed out, I don’t know what is. Why does WWE INSIST on having three man commentary booths? They never work and they never will. Especially when you force Corey Graves, the best color guy in the company, to lower himself to work with this buffoon. Geez. Okay it’s the first match maybe I should give him a chance.
The Authors of Pain vs Jobbers
Absolutely dominating performance from the AOP. The double power bomb spot looked really sore. And the stoppage finish was also a nice touch. It’s used just rarely enough that it really has an impact when it’s brought out. FINALLY, the AOP have a direction and some type of goal that they are working towards. But, honestly you didn’t need months of Ellering talking about a “master plan”, when the pay off was just going to be going for the tag belts. Either way though, I’m glad they are actually working towards something.
A simple tease between Asuka and Nikki Cross. Definitely wouldn’t mind seeing those two in the ring together. The unstoppable vs the unstable. Maybe after the champ disposes of Kay and Royce, we’ll see the showdown in San Antonio.
NOTE: So apparently the jobber that they stopped the match for was legitimately hurt and the stoppage was not planned. I’m not going to rag on the AOP because it looked like an honest mistake. This is the first time they’ve ever hurt anyone as they usually do a good job of making their offense look good, while actually working light. The silver lining at least is it really did make the AOP look like world beaters.
Great Great Great video package recapping last week’s qualifying matches. The song worked, the editing was great. One of the better hype videos I’ve seen all year. I was already so jacked for the main event and this got me into the stratosphere. And we’re only 21 minutes into the show at this point, so it looks like these athletes are going to have plenty of time to do their thing.
Tye Dillinger vs Andrade “Cien” Almas vs Roderick Strong vs Bobby Roode
I can legitimately say I would be happy with any of these four winning and that’s a great sign. Dillinger is a such a likable character as the guy that can’t win the big one, Almas has been great in his heel run, Strong is an awesome worker, and Roode has top star written all over him. Now it’s time for the guys to put on a show.
Great match from these four. Didn’t expect any less. Sure the first half of the match had the cliche “two guys fighting, while the other two waited outside the ring.” But, you’re going to get that in pretty much every multi-person match. Almas showed how freakishly athletic he is. But, the highlight of the early parts of the contest had to be Strong. This was one his first chances to proves he’s one of the best in the world on NXT TV. And he did just that, carrying the early stages of the match.
You just knew it had to be Dillinger and Roode for the final two. The old rivals had some great drama together and a couple of the near falls really had me jumping out of my seat. It really pulled on my heart strings to see Dillinger get so close yet again, but that’s a good thing, it means we’re invested in him.
Really interested to see what they do with all of these guys. Strong worked the best match of the four, hopefully he’ll get a chance to put on some more barnburners in the future. Almas is a great heel and is lighting quick in the ring. They need to capitilize on how much the crowd is into Dillinger right now, keep him close to the top of the card. And, of course, as expected, Roode gets his shot at the big time. Can’t wait to see his interactions with the Champ as we head towards the Alamo Dome.
In the end, all of these guys could have realistically won this match and that’s really great on NXT’s part.
Rating: B+
Five weeks away from San Antonio and it’s going to be interesting to see how things shape up. I’ll be back for good now with the weekly reviews. And as always thanks for watching along with me!
Read More: NXT Review 11/16/16: Toronto Here We Come
