WWE NXT Review and Reactions
This week's show saw the stars of NXT return to Full Sail after a couple of weeks of taped shows from the Japanese and Australian tour airing and while those shows provided us with some great matches I was extremely happy to see Full Sail shows back on my screen. Before the show kick-started footage of Billie Kay and Peyton Royce attacking current NXT Women's Champion Asuka in the car park which would set up for the opening moments of this week's show. Royce and Kay were set to compete in tag team action, a match that wouldn't last very long at all and would of course see the Australian duo continue to gain momentum picking up the win within a few minutes. I've mentioned this a few time recently here on my blog and over on twitter that I really have been enjoying the work from these two women. They have fantastic chemistry and the pairing just works so much better now that they both have defined characters and know what direction they are going. I'm totally on board with the work they are providing and I do believe that it will be a good year for both superstars. After the match, Asuka came down to the ring after Royce and Kay cut a promo directly at the champ. For weeks the focus on this storyline has been Royce and Kay proving they are real competition for Asuka and knocking the champ of her top spot. However, Asuka proved there was no stopping her and she was out for revenge following the attack at the top of the show. Eventually, the numbers game did play against her and it was the save from Nikki Cross that shook things up a little. Again, I have mentioned plenty of times that I am loving the work from Cross and of course Sanity as a whole. I've hyped these guys up more than anyone and I've already said how I believe this will be a fantastic year for the faction and the stars individually. After running Peyton and Billie out of the ring Nikki made it clear what her intentions were attacking the champ also and a backstage segment soon after saw Nikki along with Sanity members Eric Young and Alexander Wolf allowed us to hear from Cross who claimed she was coming after the NXT women's Championship and was ready to take what she believes is hers. I've wanted to see this from the NXT Women's division for a while. Since the four horsewomen along with Carmella and Alexa Bliss got the call-up to the main roster the division has fallen a little flat and the buzz has faded just a little however, the work we are seeing from these four women is very interesting at the moment and I do believe that twenty seventeen will be the year we see some life and energy put back into the NXT women's division. As far as the next champion goes I have to back Nikki Cross here. I would love to see her as champion for so many different reasons, I do, however, find it interesting they're taking their time with Ember Moon.
Ellias Samson was in action next in a simple squash match that I honestly struggled to get into. I've said it before and I will say it again, I just cannot jump on board with this guy. Yes, I do think he has an interesting character to some degree and there is no denying he's a talented in-ring performer but he's lack of charisma and how poorly he's character is being portrayed is just making things really difficult for him and he just cannot get over with the fans. Unfortunately, I don't think Ellias Samson will be an NXT success story but I do think we are going to at least get a couple of decent matches out of him, let's not give up just yet.
If you read my "WWE Superstars to Watch in two thousand and seventeen" blog post you would have seen me talk greatly about Oney Lorcan and if you follow me on twitter and have been reading my blog for long enough you would have seen me talk about him quite a bit. I have made it clear that I think the WWE have something very very special with these guy. He does remind me of Cesaro a heck of a lot, he's very over with the fans yet I'm not sure if the WWE will give him the kind of push he deserves. He's someone that we haven't seen a great deal of yet but someone I believe is going to have a brilliant year and really standout in two thousand and seventeen. Recently he has been turning heads in the NXT universe and that really did shine through last night when he took on Andrade Cien Almas (there is definitely a spelling mistake in there somewhere). The crowd reaction was fantastic for Lorcan last night. He was easily the fan favourite in this match and I was surprised to see just how over he actually was considering we haven't seen as much of him but it looks as though he has been killing it in house shows over the past few months and of course his recent performances have grabbed the attention of the NXT universe and it did make me so so happy to see. Looks like my predictions may just be right. The match itself was one of the stronger matches of the night. We had some great spots that looked really good on screen so I can imagine it was brilliant in person. The two have a decent amount of chemistry and as we saw in their previous match these two know how to kill it in the ring against one another. They do both have very different in ring styles but it worked so well as it did before. I was for sure entertained throughout and I liked that I genuienly didn't know who was going to walk away with the victory. A part of me was expecting Cien to score the win and I wasn't too surprised when he did so. I, of course, would have liked to have seen Oney Lorcan pick up the win but I understand that Cien has the stronger character right now and the win will benefit him more at this point. He did cut a little promo after the match. It was nice to hear from him, I do think he is actually a really strong and unique heel and again, he's someone I believe will have a strong year. As for Lorcan I really do want to see the WWE work on building up his character and bringing more of him to our screens.
We also got to see Tom Phillips conduct and interview with NXT champion Shinsuke Nakamura and a contract signing between Nakamura and number one contender Bobby Roode is set to take place next week ahead of their championship match set to take place at NXT Takeover during Royal Rumble weekend. I'll be talking more about this next week.
And finally, this week's NXT main event saw DIY defend their NXT tag team championships against former two-time champs, The Revival. Last year these guys put on the match of the year NXT Takeover Toronto and raised the bar extremely high for tag team wrestling. I have spoken about that match plenty of times already so I won't go into it too much, instead, I will link that full post bellow where I speak about why this match was the best of two thousand and sixteen. It was easily one of my favourite matches I have ever seen (bold statement, I know) but what that mans is that everyone expects them to deliver fantastic matches every single time they step in the ring against one another because every other match they have provided us with has been so so strong. Now, last night I have to say they did not disappoint in the slightest and once again put on one heck of a tag team match.
Overall I really did like this week's show. I felt as though it was one of the best in a while and one of the first in quite some time that I've been able to actually get into. I am going to try and make these posts a regular feature here on my blog but I do plan on giving you a few Lucha Underground reviews here and there when they return for the rest of the season. As always you can let me know what you thought of this week's NXT by leaving a comment bellow or by tweeting me at @TezangiVictoria.
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