{"id":3697,"date":"2017-04-05T22:11:48","date_gmt":"2017-04-06T02:11:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonprowrestling.com\/?p=3697"},"modified":"2017-04-05T22:12:36","modified_gmt":"2017-04-06T02:12:36","slug":"nxt-recap-4517-el-vagabundo-debuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2017\/04\/05\/nxt-recap-4517-el-vagabundo-debuts\/","title":{"rendered":"NXT Recap: (4\/5\/17) – “El Vagabundo” Debuts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Did you miss NXT<\/em><\/strong> this week? Well, I\u2019m here to make it all better. It\u2019s the weekly\u00a0NXT<\/em> Recap, right here at Last Word on Pro Wrestling. Did you miss out on LWOPW’s\u00a0NXT Takeover: Orlando<\/strong><\/em> predictions? Check them out and catch up here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So, what happened at\u00a0Takeover<\/em>? Additionally, what is the state of the yellow brand now that the next set of call-ups has taken place? Even further, who exactly is<\/em> El Vagabundo?\u00a0Let’s find out, shall we?<\/p>\n

NXT Recap: (4\/5\/17) – “El Vagabundo” Debuts<\/h2>\n
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Photo: WWE<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Match: Peyton Royce vs. Aliyah<\/strong><\/h3>\n

As we open our show tonight, we see the weekly women’s division bout. Of course,\u00a0Nigel McGuinness<\/strong> took ample time to make something of a creep of himself commenting on the women. Nevertheless, this one got underway. Peyton Royce<\/strong> looked like a cowardly heel and worked herself over, as per usual. She and\u00a0Billie Kay<\/strong> just work so well together\u00a0as a heel duo, it’s actually quite impressive.<\/p>\n

Royce took her\u00a0time to gloat during this one, as it was basically over when it began. No one was expecting her opponent to win. Lo and behold, no one was wrong on that one. And while\u00a0Aliyah<\/strong>\u00a0got some offense in at points, the outcome was, again, very clear. After a fisherman (fisherwoman?) suplex, Peyton Royce took home the win.<\/p>\n

Winner: Peyton Royce<\/p>\n

Analysis:<\/strong> This…didn’t really feel like an opening segment. Honestly, it felt like it should’ve been in the middle of the show. However, it worked really well, aside from where it placed on the card. Royce looked cowardly but powerful, Aliyah looked strong-ish. Each woman got their stuff in, and the right woman won. Outside from the placing, I have no personal complaints about this opener.<\/p>\n

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Photo: WWE<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Match: Heavy Machinery vs. The Bollywood Boyz<\/strong><\/h3>\n

After their dominance last week,\u00a0Heavy Machinery<\/strong> already look incredibly strong. This week, they took on the\u00a0Bollywood Boyz<\/strong>. And just like last week, they absolutely dominated the entire bout. No, seriously. The Boyz got almost no offense in whatsoever. A few punches and kicks were all they could really muster during this one. Following a series of bear hugs between Heavy Machinery and a brutal<\/em> finishing move, this one was already over.<\/p>\n

Winners: Heavy Machinery<\/p>\n

Analysis:\u00a0<\/strong>Okay, Heavy Machinery, we see you. You’re strong, ready to fight, and bulldozing (pun intended) through the tag division. Simply put, you are the next NXT Tag Team Champions. That’s quite\u00a0obvious. However, what else can you show us? Do you have any other facets to your characters? Then again, maybe you don’t need a character if you can just beat up everyone.<\/p>\n

“Exclusive Footage”: NXT Championship Match<\/strong><\/h3>\n

No formal analysis on this one, it’s too short of a segment. However, this bit of “unseen footage” was really cool. The footage included talking head style interviews with Nakamura and Roode. Additionally, there was new backstage video of both competitor’s entrance. The match was, as fans know, incredible, with\u00a0Bobby Roode<\/strong> coming out on top. Now,\u00a0Shinsuke Nakamura<\/strong> is a member of\u00a0SmackDown Live<\/strong><\/em>, while Roode remains on the yellow brand. Presumably, Roode is staying down in\u00a0NXT<\/em> to “hold down the fort.” As WWE continues to bring up new stars,\u00a0somebody<\/em> has to stay on the yellow brand to be an anchor. Right now, it’s Roode. And fans should be grateful for that. In addition to the match,\u00a0NXT<\/em> showed a touching tribute to Nakamura, which was incredibly well-done.<\/p>\n

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Photo: WWE<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Match: Oney Lorcan vs. ???<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Before this match, an announcement came out that said Drew McIntyre<\/strong> will be among us next week.\u00a0I am so excited<\/em>. Anyways, it turns out that the series of question marks became a man named\u00a0El Vagabundo<\/strong>. And by that, I mean that it was very clearly\u00a0Elias Samson<\/strong>. If the scraggly beard didn’t sell it, the guitar over his shoulder certainly did. After losing his Loser Leaves Town match against\u00a0Kassius Ohno<\/strong>, Samson is now carrying the gimmick of taking on a new gimmick every week. A sad fate, that is. After making his entrance, “El Vagabundo” played a song for the fans, telling everyone to shut their mouths.<\/p>\n

Oh, wait. It looked like Lorcan had started to catch on. But before he could unmask E; Vagabundo, he suffered a kick to the gut. Rather abruptly, this one got underway. When we came back from commercial break, El Vagabundo still had the upper hand. Of course, all the commentators were none the wiser to The Drifter’s horrible disguise. This is like\u00a0Damien Mizdow<\/strong>, but a little less funny. Yeah, it was a humorous idea at first, but it wore thin pretty quickly. Nevertheless, both Samson (who eventually became unmasked) and Lorcan are terrific wrestlers, and after a great bout, Lorcan came out on top.<\/p>\n

Winner: Oney Lorcan<\/p>\n

Analysis:<\/strong> This match started out pretty funny just because of the gimmick with Samson…I mean El Vagabundo. The gimmick change kinda wore thin, but it was alright while it lasted. After the bout, Samson was forcibly taken out by security. Again, kinda funny. And it begs the question: What will be Samson’s gimmick next week? Additionally,\u00a0Drew McIntyre is back<\/em>. Just let that sink in, people.<\/p>\n

A Hundred Words or Less<\/h3>\n

For those who said, \u201cToo long; didn\u2019t read\u201d, I offer you this. Tonight\u2019s\u00a0NXT<\/em> in one hundred words or less. Tonight, we saw an opening women’s bout between Peyton Royce and Aliyah, that didn’t feel like it belonged there. Then, Heavy Machinery obliterated the Bollywood Boyz, and built themselves up even further. After that, we were treated to an unseen backstage look at last Saturday’s NXT Championship match. Finally, the debut of El Vagabundo blew everyone away. Until it turned out that he was really just Elias Samson in a badly-fitting mask. Overall, tonight’s NXT nabs itself a rather solid\u00a07.75\/10<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Main Photo: WWE.com<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What is the state of the yellow brand now that the next set of call-ups has taken place? Who is El Vagabundo? Let’s find out, shall we?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1787,"featured_media":3711,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,3],"tags":[120,703,701,116,532,702,513,117,118,47],"class_list":["post-3697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nxt","category-wwe-universe","tag-bobby-roode","tag-elias-samson","tag-heavy-machinery","tag-nxt","tag-nxt-recap","tag-oney-lorcan","tag-peyton-royce","tag-pro-wrestling","tag-shinsuke-nakamura","tag-wwe"],"modified_by":"Jamie Greer","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1787"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}