DIY makes their debut among other things.
The Princess Rant for WWE NXT September 9, 2015
Taped from Multiple Locations
Hosted by Rich Brennan and Corey Graves
Carmella vs. Peyton Royce
Royce is making her NXT debut. They trade headlock takedowns and Carmella gets a rollup for two. They fight over a backslide and alternate two counts. Atomic Drop from Carmella and a dropkick gets two. Carmella goes for a suplex but Royce blocks it and gets a snap fisherman’s suplex for two. Chinlock time and Peyton uses the hair to keep the hold going. Carmella fights her way out and gives Royce an elbow on a blind charge. Top rope frankensteiner from Carmella and the Staten Island shuffle running shoulder gets two. Now Carmella goes for the chin lock because she’s visibly blown up. Peyton fights to get to her feet and backs Carmella into the corner. Big roundhouse kick from Royce and a middle rope cross body gets two but Carmella reserves a suplex into a downward spiral and gets the code of silence for the submission. Pretty fun. **
— Samoa Joe asks Finn Balor if he’s ready. Balor says he wants to win the tournament for Dusty. They leave and Samoa Joe reminds him not to forget his belt. It’s subtle but what works is that Finn is skeptical from the beginning. He knows what’s coming.
— Footage from the Dusty Classic Round 1 matches that didn’t make the broadcast. Enzo Amore and Colin Cassidy beat Angelo Dawkins and Sawyer Fulton with the rocket launcher. Dash Wilder and Scott Dawson defeated “The Drifter” Elias Samson and Tucker Knight with the shatter machine.
— Nia Jax is coming soon
Dusty Rhodes Classic Round 1: Tyler Breeze and Bull Dempsey vs. Johnny Gargano and Tomasso Ciampa
The not-yet-named DIY have some craptastic Nitro mid-card music, I wish they would dub “Rebel Heart” over it. Ciampa and Breeze start things off a Breeze gets an armdrag and poses so Ciampa slaps the shit out of him. Crowd chants “Bull is gorgeous”…all right…Dempsey tags in and drops Ciampa with a shoulder. Breeze back in and he gets a waist lock on Ciampa but they do a blind tag and Gargano drops Breeze with a slingshot spear. He misses a charge but hits a roll through kick and jumping reverse neckbreaker for two. Breeze eagerly tags out so Dempsey overpowers Gargano but gets caught with a standing enziguri. Tag to Ciampa and a running knee gets two as we take a break.
We’re back and Ciampa has a sleeper hold on Dempsey but Bull falls back to break the hold. Tag to Gargano who dropkicks Breeze off the apron so when Bull drops him with a shoulder and tries to make a tag Breeze isn’t there. Bull squares up with Johnny and puts him down with a bionic elbow. He goes to the ropes and knocks Breeze off the apron again. Gargano takes advantage of the distraction and Ciampa gets the pin with a double leg rollup. Eh didn’t know if it wanted to be a comedy match or a showcase. **
Breeze jumps Bull after the match and knocks him cold with a superkick. I like Breeze.
— The Lucha Dragons say something in Spanish that I don’t have time to translate and then switch to English to say they can’t wait to honor Dusty Rhodes and beat Finn Balor and Samoa Joe.
— Dana Brooke trash talks Bayley and sounds like she’s reading off a cue card.
— A random video on Tye Dillinger back in happier days.
Dana Brooke vs. Billie Kay
So both the IIconics are in action this week. Brooke’s wrestling gear isn’t as hideous this week…and she’s wearing Chuck Taylors so there’s a plus. Lot of stalling as the crowd contemplates if they want Dana or they don’t. Headlock takedown from Billie Kay and they grapple over this for a while, quite a while. Dana escapes with a hair pull and gets a one count. Kay with a head scissors reversal takedown and back to the headlock. Dana reverses the headlock with another hair pull and she starts choking Billie. She’s basically the Giant Gonzalez. More choking and a clothesline from Dana. A knee drop but she ignores the cover and goes for the chin lock. Another knee drop from Dana gets two. Head scissors from Dana and she elevates it with a plank, which actually looks very cool. Billie rolls it over to get two. A couple of lariats get two. A frankensteiner and a big boot get two for Billie. Dana comes back with an enziguri that she took forever to execute. Fireman’s carry into a falcon arrow gets three for Dana. Last week Billie carried Eva Marie to a ** match. Dana Brooke is no Eva Marie. 1/2*
— Apollo Crews is excited after his debut and he says he’s ready to takeover NXT. I could cry thinking about how much he could have accomplished there. Save him Triple H!
(The commercial is a trailer for 12 Rounds 3: Lockdown starring Dean Ambrose. Looks like a shitty Die Hard that takes place in a police headquarters but I bet Ambrose had a couple of funny lines. It actually has a 54% on Rotten Tomatoes)
— Look back at Bayley winning the women’s title and her super fan Izzy’s reaction. Then Izzy got to hang out with Bayley at the performance center, etc. etc. Last I heard from Izzy she was working house shows at 11 or 12 years old. Yikes.
— And next week Bayley returns!
Dusty Rhodes Classic Round One: Lucha Dragons vs. Samoa Joe and Finn Balor
This was from a Smackdown taping (I think) from Providence, Rhode Island. Jimmy Uso and Tom Phillips are on the call. The Smackdown crowd wasn’t all in on Finn’s entrance at the time so there’s no cool visual of a large arena throwing their hands up. Bummer.
Finn and Sin Cara do a wrestling sequence as the crowd jumps in with “NXT” chants…who knew? Armdrag takedown from Finn and Sin Cara reverses it. Rope sequence and nice dropkick from Finn. Kalisto comes in and gets dumped. Finn hits the sling blade on Sin Cara, dumps him over the ropes and follows with a somersault plancha on both guys as we go to a break.
We’re back and Samoa Joe is in and roughing up Sin Cana. Slam and a tag to Balor for a double team that gets two. Sin Cara, however, comes back with a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker. Kalisto comes in and gets two, tag to Sin Cara and a slingshot senton gets another two. Sin Cara with a waistlock takedown and a nasty kick. Tag to Kalisto and the monkey flip/somersault splash double team gets two. Tag to Sin Cara and he’s being stiff as hell with the punches and kicks. Waistlock takedown. Finn fights to his feet and hits the pele kick. Hot tag to Joe, who hits the avalanche and jumping side kick. Kalisto in and he gets a kick and a senton. Sin Cara with an elbow and a tornado DDT but Finn makes the save. Sin Cara with a springboard moonsault on Balor but he’s not the legal man. Joe goes for the muscle buster but Sin Cara escapes. Blind tag and Kalisto gets a hurricanrana for two. He tries it again and Joe absolutely destroys him with a powerbomb. Muscle Buster and the coup de grace make the pinfall academic. Started slow but once they got rocking the crowd loved it. ***1/4
Bottom Line: Very good main event and the debut of DIY are the highlights of an otherwise average episode.