Tag Team wrestling takes center stage tonight as the 2nd Annual Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic kicks off. Theres not much else advertised, but all the tournament hoopla should be more than enough.
The show opens with a basic video package of William Regal introducing us to the tournament.
The Bollywood Boyz vs The Authors of Pain 1st Round Match Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic
First off, The Bollywood Boyz are a fun team and they should definitely stick around. I’m not sure how I feel about the AUP being in the tournament, however. How will they get booked? Logic states that they should probably win the whole thing. But, will they? As the matches go on, them being around should produce some intriguing matchups. We’ll just have to wait and see. No rating for this squash, seems to be happening a lot with AUP matches recently.
Rich Swan vs Patrick Clark
So, Rich Swan gets the win and for the 3rd week in a row, a former CWC competitors looks solid. But, oh my god Patrick has to be the story coming out of the match. Now I can’t make a determination on the first appearance, without even any video packages to hype him up. But, what I can say is it seems like their heading towards the “borderline homosexual” character which ,for some reason, still has to be considered “weird.” It’s 2016, we really don’t need gimmicks like that anymore. Finally, another interesting note. The camera seemed to awkwardly cut away from Clark when he posed on the apron.We weren’t able to see what he did but some in the audience looked shocked. Did he do something he wasn’t supposed to do or was it a mistake?
Rating: C-
Peyton Royce vs Danielle Kamela
Kamela is clearly very green and it showed here, as Royce was in control almost the entirety of the contest. Tom Phillips mentioned that she was a sports broadcaster and a cheerleader before coming to NXT. I thought we were in the era of hiring real women’s wrestlers and not random women from other careers. Ugh. I’ve complimented Billy Kay in the past and she pairs well with Royce. They just have to be wary of becoming another typical “mean girls” team and that segment with Liv Morgan did not ease that concern. It was just awful.
Rating: D+
Glorious 10 Backstage Interview
Bobby Roode is so entertaining. These two are no doubt going to be the story of the tournament and I really hope to see them win it. I also hope we get plenty more of these segments, such an engaging dynamic between the two.
Dan Matha Debuts
Yes! Ha Ha!! Man it felt good to see Joe kick the crap out of Matha. The guy could not be any more generic and fully represents the type of wrestler we just don’t want to see anymore. This is the era of the Samoa Joes, Kevin Owens’, and A.J. Styles’ in the WWE, hopefully there is no place for someone as boring as Matha. Joe yelled into the camera that Regal has one more week or he will “escalate things”, so it’s safe to say we’ll hear from Regal next week. Seems like the safe bet will be the rematch at Takeover: Toronto. But, who knows? Maybe they’ll throw a curveball.
No Way Jose and Rich Swan Backstage Interview
Yet another match made in heaven for the Classic. Tye Dillinger and Bobby Roode were destined to tag together and these two top that. What I’m really looking forward too is their first entrance together. The crowd might lose their voices from all the chanting!
Andrade “Cien” Almas and Cedric Alexander vs The Revival
Far and away the best match of the night. The Revival aren’t by any means high-flyers but they can still put together a solid match with two quicker paced guys. They obviously had to win because you can’t have your tag champs losing in the first round.
As far as Almas’ heel turn, I think its a great idea. In spite of his in-ring prowess, he really wasn’t connecting with the fans for whatever reason. So instead of forcing it, they just went with it and turned him heel. Cough cough Roman Reigns. As long as they’re giving Almas something to do, thats a good thing. If a feud with Alexander is the idea so be it, he’s already hugely over with the NXT faithful.
Rating: C+
After a pair of first round matches, excitement is building for what turns the tournament will take. While almost all of the episode was focused on the classic, good on creative for getting some storyline elements over as well. As always I’ll be back with another review next week. Thanks for reading!
Read More: WWE NXT Review 9/28/16
