2 WWE back to back events that I actually enjoyed! Is the sky falling? Has the netherworld frozen over? Am I going soft?
All those may apply, but World’s Collide, the NXT/NXT UK competition which has been given an extra frisson, yes, frisson with the changes afoot for NXT UK, was blooming good.
I reckon quite a lot of the success of Clash At The Castle was from the delight of the Crowd At The Castle. They made such noise, that it carried the show through most quiet moments.
And the crowd did that here too, there were the requisite ‘this is awesome’ and ‘fight forever’ chants from the Performance Center but more than that.
The matches delivered too.
Open Strong
OK, Ricochet and Carmelo Hayes, that’s pretty strong. Well, yes that would do it. And if it was for the NXT North American Championship? Ooh!
As the Bleacher Report said;
‘NXT wasted little time setting the bar incredibly high for the rest of the wrestling world to try and eclipse Sunday with an opening contest pitting North American Champion Carmelo Hayes against Ricochet.’
I’m one of those people calling for more Ricochet opportunities and success. Would we be pleased after the match? *
What a great match, as you’d expect, they jockeyed, they avoided each other and Hayes bailed early. And he must have seen some writing on the wall when he pulled Ricochet down to the mat, only to see him kip up and hit a Superkick.
Hayes kept trying though, his Springboard Flying Clothesline was lovely. He couldn’t capitalise on it though.
Why? A high spot, that’s why. They both went to the springboard and collided in mir air. This was shaping up nicely.
Ricochet must have thought the belt was his when he hit a Superkick and Recoil, but Hayes returned with a Tilt A Whirl DDT.
Ricochet got the Superplex in. Hayes replied with a nasty Lungblower. Ricochet showed us a Poison ‘Rana with a nasty twist.
But when he went to end it with the Shooting Star, Hayes rolled through for the pin.
What a match, 2 wrestlers close to the height of their powers and probably the right result as NXT and the WWE have invested so much in Hayes.
But Ricochet…
*No.
Stop The Angles!
Quincy Elliott is coming. We don’t know him, apparently. That’ll be because he isn’t here yet. That’s the way it works.
And we have some footage from Twitter! No, we don’t. Why? That would be uploaded from a phone, wouldn’t it? This looks like it was done for a film, and what a film….
Roderick Strong was lying in the car park! Not relaxing or doing some extra crunches, he’d been attacked! And guess what else?
Blah and blah! Yep, the same as we’ve seen so often in wrestling. WWE. Then. Now. But mostly then…
What A Mess. A Hot Mess…
It was bound to be, what with Pretty Deadly v Gallus v Jensen & Briggs v The Creed Brothers. They filled the ring even before the bell, but wouldn’t stay there long as this match to unify the NXT tag belts was under Elimination rules.
The NXT UK tag Champs Jensen & Briggs were out first, but they didn’t stay that way…
I like what I’ve seen of Pretty Deadly, they remind me of a modern Beverley Brothers (as we’re currently nostalgic about Summerslam 1992) and their digging deep faces when they realised they had to fight Gallus were a picture – Mark Coffey’s high scissor kick was a thing of beauty.
The Creed Bros Doomsday Device but with their butt isn’t though, even if it eliminated Gallus. What was good was Julius Creed falling to a Pretty Deadly sleeper, powering back up, managing a Vertical Suplex, realising he couldn’t hold it because of the Sleeper, going down on one knee, then powering back up and hitting the Suplex. Great wrestling entertainment.
The ref suddenly did something not seen very often, he went to the outside of the ring to slap the canvas from the floor. Odd that.
Ah, that’s why. Jensen and Briggs (who had executed a lovely long-limbed dive off the apron earlier) came back in with security and as they battled…
REF BUMP ALERT!
Now, either one team will execute a pin for 1,2,3, even a 10 count or someone would turn nefarious.
Ah, there it was, Creed Bros mate Damon Kemp went rogue with a chair and Pretty Deadly were champs. But which one is Beau and which is Blake?
Match Of The Night Contender
Meiko Satomura, Blair Davenport and Mandy Rose turned in a fine Fatal Four Way for the unified NXT Women’s title.
It never let up; some high points were Satomura smiling at Rose’s pie facing antics, then tasting a sweet Spinebuster, Davenport rolling up Satomura after the Meiko tried a Crossface, Satomura trying to take the win with a Frog Splash after Rose deserved it with a Superplex.
But Rose made sure by hitting both opponents with a knee as they were pinning.
They went about their business. And business was good.
The Match That Didn’t Live Up
Sorry Doudrop and Nikki A.S.H, apologies Katana and Kayden. This wasn’t as good. But Still had some sterling moves. Like the Doudrop Slam into Nikki Snapmare.
But that Toxic Attraction appeared took the gloss off the match somewhat, particularly as the WWE did the distraction thing of Nikki dealing with them both whilst her partner fell to an admittedly smart Neckbreaker and Stomp combo.
Chance and Carter (sounds like a US cop drama) won the belts but this was short and not especially sweet.
The Main Event Was Though
I like Tyler Belt so much, I had a t-shirt, dammit and the Big Strong Boy deserves the big NXT UK title so much.
Bron Breakker? That double K tells me so much, WWE lineage in place, big bloke, lots of screaming, the usual. But here, he surprised me.
Of course, you don’t always get to work with a brilliance like Bate, but Bron did he bit, even smiling after Tyler had nullified all of his early moves and made him look less than championship material.
A loooong hold Vertical Suplex and Moonsault made Breakker look better, but it was Bate who shone, using his opponent’s momentum off the top to turn it into a Suplex, trying to roll him over whilst screaming in pain from an Armbar, even getting the big Bron onto his shoulders and hitting a wicked Helicopter Slam.
Bron did his bit too, that elbow from the top to the back of the head – ow! That muscled-up Powerbomb – wow.
Bate nearly won this, the Tyler Driver ’97 not doing the business, that was a shock. And so was him bouncing off the ropes into a Spear for the pin.
Match Of The Night. They hugged after and I reckon if the crowd could, they would have too. Beautifully grown, marvellously delivered, excellently ended.
Worlds Collide World Beating?
Of course not, but in a time when WWE aren’t really setting the world alight, this did more than just smoulder.
Burn, baby, burn.