The Fallout of NXT Takeover: Toronto (Pretty sure that was last week? oh well) is here and we’re still in Canada! We kick off with one of the favourites, Asuka!
Asuka has a pretty easy squash match with Nicole Mathews and after a brutal amount of kicks and securing the Asuka Lock, Mathews taps out proving how dominant and successful Asuka can be. Leaving the question of who actually has the power to fight back and give her a proper challenge?
We see a recap of what happened last week when Rich Swann found out that he couldn’t handle Sanity, but they could manhandle him around the ring instead. No Way Jose went out to defend his friends honour but ended up eating the ring mat. Now back on this week No Way Jose will face Eric Young in a sanctioned match, where there is absolutely no way the other members of sanity will interfere at all. Totally not going to happen.
An interview with Samoa Joe where he gloats about being the best when all of a sudden Tye Dillinger interrupts saying he could take on Samoa Joe. Joe explains that he isn’t on his level, but Tye responds with talk of 10 reasons why he’s better than the champ and treats him to one (or 5?) of them, in the form of a masculine slap in the ol’ face, before scampering away – truly the epitome of bravery. Remember that scene in 300 where some guy says “This is madness!” and Leonidas looks at him, slaps him on the cheek and runs away, to the safety of his home?
The next match of the night is No Way Jose vs Eric Young. Jose is pretty fired up in this match, throwing Young so hard into the corner he flies over the top rope. Even with the other members of Sanity interfering behind the referee’s back, Jose manages to put up a decent defence and avoid an early defeat. The dancing Dominican gains momentum with a few stiff clotheslines before succumbing to the traps of the numbers game. Young seizes the victory with a sucker punch to the back of the head and finishes Jose with a Wheelbarrow Neck Breaker.
So Jose hasn’t redeemed anything and Sanity continue to leave a path of destruction behind them, maybe this will lead to Jose and Rich Swann getting a group together so they could tackle Sanity in a fair fight? Either way the match was fine, a little short but was okay. Nikki Cross even drop kicks Jose from the top rope when his back is turned just to add insult to injury, a thought has just popped up as to whether a Nikki Cross vs Asuka match could be possible in the near future? If it happens you better give me all the praise for calling it!
Up next is Samoa Joe vs Tye Dillinger ,but first, an interview with Asuka in which she says there is nobody left to take her on… two people come to my mind Asuka! Please Ember Moon or Nikki Cross ! The former because it could be one hell of a good match… admittedly, the latter is me wanting to be right and damn the consequences.
The fight with Joe and Dillinger commences with both men getting in good shots, Dillinger fighting with something to prove is a good way to get the audience invested while Joe wanting to punish his opponent for the disrespect he was shown gives him and edge to be more brutal with his moves. Joe dominates the match most of the time but with the energy of the home-country crowd, Dillinger is able to fight back and tries to bring Joe down piece by piece. Dillinger goes for the Tye Breaker, Joe reverses it into a German Suplex but before he can land a second one, Dillinger sneaks in a Superkick. After another attempt at the Tye Breaker, Joe cranks it up a gear and out-wrestles Dillinger with a series of submission moves, crescendoing to a Coquina Clutch that renders him unconscious – a classic babyface trope that allows the loser to retain their “Never Give Up” spirit.
It’s easy to feel sorry for Tye and now he’s lost again after putting himself out there, but we all knew there was no way he was going to beat Joe tonight. It was a really fun match but there needs to be a way for Tye to be built up again so we don’t see him slipping into the role of perennial silver-medalist, a la Dolph Ziggler.
This was a shorter episode of NXT than usual, but it did the trick. The match of the night goes to the main event mostly because there was more investment towards wanting Tye to come out on top. Next week’s episode is one to look forward to, with the NXT Championship rematch between Shinsuke Nakamura vs Samoa Joe headlining the show, because who doesn’t want to see those two fight forever?