After a terrible Fastlane pay-per-view, a decent episode of Raw and an underwhelming Smackdown, we arrive at NXT. Wednesday Nights have been our favourite part of the week for many months now and this week was really no different.
We noticed a change in the presentation of NXT...it just felt a little different than usual with more ‘sports entertainment’ segments, the infusion of more reality in one particular segment (as we will touch upon soon) as well as two non-matches in addition to the actual matches. Without spoiling anything for you, we present 5 Points to Note from NXT.
#5 Real life injury plays out
Billie Kay had suffered a legitimate injury during her match with Ember Moon, when the latter delivered the Eclipse (top-rope corkscrew stunner) to the Aussie. This feud began backstage with Kay and her partner Peyton Royce searching for a place to put up their NXT award.
In doing so, they got into an altercation with Ember Moon, who was training at the time. This was a great way to get a glimpse of what really goes on in the NXT Performance Center, and gain an all-access pass into the sacred home ground of NXT.
After a relatively short match (that William Regal was watching backstage, as was mentioned by the announce team) Moon delivered her finisher and left the ring victorious. However, much to our shock and dismay, Kay wasn’t moving at all.
We saw doctors and medical personnel come to the ringside and help her up. While one can never be sure what is a work and what is a legitimate injury in WWE and NXT, Kay went to Twitter and mentioned that she will be okay. She had just tweaked her neck.
#4 The Ealy Twins get taken out again
The last time we saw the Ealy Brothers, Samoa Joe was on a rampage and he took out his ire on these unfortunate twins. This week was no different, as they made their way down to the ring, to face The Revival.
They were blindsided by The Authors of Pain who completely dismantled them. The Revival then subsequently made a hasty retreat from the ring and soon after, we learned that The Ealy Twins had challenged the Authors of Pain next week. We see this match lasting for a shorter duration than Goldberg and Brock Lesnar at Survivor Series last year.
#3 The mind games continue
We mentioned that there were two non-matches that happened this week on NXT. The first was between The Revival and the Ealy Brothers like we’ve mentioned. The second was a contest that was more evenly matched, between Eric Young and Tye Dillinger.
Much to our surprise, Young sent the rest of SAnitY backstage before the match even began. Also, before the match could even get underway, we saw the rest of SAnitY return with an injured Roderick Strong.
This brought No Way Jose from backstage into the fray but as always the numbers caught up with the babyfaces. For a bunch of crazy heels, SAnitY do play mind games well, don’t they? Will we see a multi-man match in NXT Takeover: Orlando on Wrestlemania weekend?
#2 Return of the King
A man that is not unfamiliar to the Full Sail audience, Cruiserweight Classic Winner TJ Perkins, made his return to the site of his career’s most triumphant moment, and took on former NXT Champion Shinsuke Nakamura, in what was an entertaining match.
The announcers made much note of the fact that these men were friends and that their styles mirrored one another’s, in many ways. The match began with much showboating which built to a grand finale with both men trading submission moves.
There was always going to be only one winner in this match, but it was great to see that it wasn’t a squash match. Now Nakamura moves on to bigger things, as we'll detail on the very next page.
#1 William Regal made two massive announcements!
As we gear up for Wrestlemania weekend, we learned two things about NXT Takeover: Orlando that happened to be a direct consequence of the events in this week's episode. Ember Moon finally gets her much awaited match against The Empress of Tomorrow, NXT Women’s Champion Asuka.
We predict that Ember Moon becomes the first woman to end Asuka's dominant, undefeated streak.
Also, the winner of the Bobby Roode vs. Kassius Ohno match next week eventually gets to face Shinsuke Nakamura for the NXT Championship at NXT Takeover: Orlando. Things are heating up on NXT and we really love it!
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