Asuka vs Ember Moon (NXT, 8-19-2017)

NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn III, Brooklyn, NY

A request! This is a rematch from April, where Asuka beat Ember at the Orlando TakeOver during WrestleMania week, a good match where there was a lot left on the table to run it back later on, and this is later on.

Asuka still has the NXT women’s championship, which she’d held since April 1, 2016, making 16 successful defenses to this point, most recently a June win over Nikki Cross in a last woman standing match.

(Requests open and tips always appreciated!)

Asuka vs Ember Moon (NXT, 4-1-2017)

NXT TakeOver: Orlando, Orlando, FL

A request! I was in Orlando for this WrestleMania week, but I did not get to go to this, as I was covering whatever FloSlam were doing over at Orlando Live Events in Fern Park. I’m honestly not sure I’ve ever even watched this show!

Asuka is in the midst of her incredible and truly dominant NXT run, but Ember Moon was starting to look like a solid threat to that.

(Requests open and tips always appreciated!)

Charlotte vs Sasha Banks vs Becky Lynch vs Bayley (NXT, 2-11-2015)

NXT TakeOver: Rival, Winter Park, FL

A request! It’s a FATAL FOUR-WAY for Charlotte’s NXT women’s championship. Charlotte is the champion. The others want the belt.

It’s pretty much that simple.

(Requests open and tips always appreciated!)

Asuka vs Roxanne Perez (NXT, 10-10-2023)

WWE NXT, Orlando, FL

Didn’t get to watch this one live during NUCLEAR TUESDAY because it was head-to-head against a mid-match Bryan Danielson vs Swerve Strickland. I was hoping this would go head-to-head against, like, Chris Jericho or Edge “Adam Copeland,” but it did not. Sad, really.

What I hope for here is something like the famous ’94 RAW Bret Hart vs 1-2-3 Kid match, but I also have my doubts.

(Requests open and tips always appreciated!)

Becky Lynch vs Tiffany Stratton (NXT, 9-30-2023)

NXT No Mercy, Bakersfield, CA

A request! I did not do a review for the first Stratton vs Lynch match, but I did happen to watch that one and thought it was really good. And joking about Becky getting busted down to NXT so she can fruitlessly chase a legacy as deep and meaningful as Charlotte Flair’s aside, I have no actual problem with her winning the NXT title.

1. Wrestling belts are pretend.
2. NXT is, basically, pretend. It has had so little actual impact on what happens for someone when/if they move up that it’s hard for me to take NXT seriously in the sense of, like, “protecting” talent. If you watch it every week and want to do so, feel free, just prepare for disappointment when people get to the big shows.
3. Working with Lynch makes Stratton better — or should, if Stratton is worth her salt, as she damn sure appears to be — and gives Stratton the rub of hanging with an established, true, actual superstar. Not WWE Superstar. A superstar pro wrestler. This idea doesn’t always (or even usually!) work like that, but I think this is the exact type situation where it does.
4. It gives NXT a shot in the arm. That seems to be working. I fully expect NXT to beat AEW in the numbers head-to-head this coming week when Dynamite does a Tuesday one-off, but mostly I’m looking forward to a fun ass night of wrestling because both shows appear to be loading up.

(Requests open and tips always appreciated!)

Carmelo Hayes vs Ilja Dragunov (NXT, 9-30-2023)

NXT No Mercy, Bakersfield, CA

A request! I haven’t watched the show, usually can’t do Saturday nights live, but glad to be encouraged (with money!) to watch this one (and another one later!).

Hayes is defending his NXT championship against Dragunov. I’m not that familiar with Hayes because I just have not watched NXT much at all during his rise to the top, but I’ve seen him a little. Dragunov I know quite well. So that’s where we are there.

Apparently these two met at The Great American Bash two months ago! Good video package, I’m presuming, gives me the quick recap there. Dynasty and destiny! Those are important words.

(Requests open and tips always appreciated!)

Bayley vs Eva Marie (NXT, 11-25-2015)

NXT, Winter Park, FL

A request! I have vague memories of this match specifically and quasi-fond memories of this particular attempt to make Eva Marie “happen,” because it was all so weirdly meta and for once, at the start of it, kinda hard to tell just how much they were really trying, and just how much of the whole bit was, in fact, simply a bit, meant to drum up a little interest in someone they still had under contract and might as well use.

The pre-match interviews with both NXT champion Bayley and Eva make it pretty clear at this point, though, but not in a bad way. Where the questions come now are how much Eva is just being bad on the mic because she is bad, or if she’s exaggerating a little bit to ramp it up because fuck it.

(Requests open and tips always appreciated!)

Adam Cole vs Johnny Gargano (NXT, 8-10-2019)

NXT TakeOver: Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

A request! The request was for my “least favorite of the three Adam Cole vs Johnny Gargano TakeOver main events from 2019.” I’ll be honest with you: I can’t separate which of these was which any more than I can remember what happened in which of the last five or so Fast & Furious movies, other than I know the most recent one sucked shit and had Jason Momoa as Nicolas Cage, and in the one before that, that hillbilly shot Tyrese and Ludacris into outer space.

But I know it’s generally agreed this was the worst, the last of the batch. Meltzer gave the April match “five and one-half stars” and Cagematch has a 9.17 on it. The second match in June got “five and one-quarter stars” and Cagematch put a 9.07 on it. This one Dave was down to “four stars” and Cagematch dropped to 8.47.

(Requests open and tips always appreciated!)

Shayna Baszler, Bianca Belair, Io Shirai & Kay Lee Ray vs Rhea Ripley, Candice LeRae, Tegan Nox & Dakota Kai (NXT, 11-23-2019)

NXT TakeOver: WarGames, Rosemont, IL

This is a mother fucking WAAAAAAAARGAAAAAAAAMES match! I watched this live but haven’t since. Literally everyone in this match rules. This is the first-ever! women’s WarGames match.

This was requested via Ko-fi.

REVIEW: NXT Stand & Deliver (4-1-2023)

I could take this afternoon to do absolutely nothing ahead of Mania Sunday, but instead I am going into the black hole that is Shawn Michaels’ NXT. Let’s see if we emerge!