10 Thoughts on NXT – Ember Moon, Tyler Bate, Recaps!

10 Thoughts, Reviews, Top Story

1. It’s NXT time and tonight we shall see the fallout from Takeover San Antonio including a bunch of new champions. We kick off with a nice video package recapping said event, concluding with Bobby Roode’s momentous victory over Shinsuke Nakamura for the NXT title.

2. Our first match of the night is Ember Moon taking on Aaliyah. Pretty much a squash with Aaliyah getting a few nice reversals and some token offense. Moon picks up the win with the Eclipse.

3. After a recap of the great Tye Dillinger vs EY match, Sanity cut a promo saying they are going to take him, whether he likes it or not. Better call Liam Neeson…

4. Now it’s time for a recap of Dillinger’s debut at the Royal Rumble, including genuinely humble interviews before and after. Class act.

5. Next up it’s a recap of Asuka winning the Fatal Four Way including the massive bump that crazy Scot Nikki Cross took off the announce table. That’s Scottish, not Irish, for any fuds not paying attention… When told that Ember Moon is after her title, Asuka laughs off the challenge.

6. WWE UK champion Tyler Bate is taking on Oney Lorkin next, and if you didn’t watch the U.K. Championship then you missed some fine British-style wrestling and a lot of pudgy bearded hipsters. Lorkin works Bate over with his usual hard-hitting offense, while Bate manages to get himself over with some Colt Cabana-esque comedy combined with British technical style. Bate wins with the Tyler Driver 97.

7. ‘Who is Roderick Strong’ interview (still not sure) followed by a recap of the Authors of Pain’s rise to dominance and fiery promo from Paul Ellering. Percy Watson is blown away, because evidently Percy Watson is easily impressed.

8. And now it’s time for our main event… recap of the main event at Takeover. If you haven’t watched this yet check it out, because it was a pretty damn good match. Post match video of HHH and Chris Hero consoling Nakamura and reinforcing the idea that his knee injury may have been legit. I love how Roode responds to a question the exact same way as Donald Trump, and I’m interested to see how far they take the parallel as his reign progresses.

9. To add insult to injury our actual main event is No Way Jose vs the Drifter Elias Sampson, and I’m struggling to stay awake even as I type this sentence. This follows an excellent video package of Corey Graves’ journey through NXT, and I must say that the former Sterling James Keenan has really grown into a great commentator.

10. No Way Jose picks up the win after a sloppy match, which seems like a nice encapsulation of this weeks NXT; sweet video packages, average wresting.

JT is a hot air balloonist, writer and tattoo aficionado. He writes about movies, science, music, video games, action figures and professional wrestling.