NXT taped three weeks worth of television tapings last night, and out of those tapings comes an updated match card for NXT TakeOver: San Antonio, along with the seeds being planted for a number of other potential matches. The tapings included a contract signing for the NXT Championship match that will headline the show, as incumbent champion Shinsuke Nakamura will take on Mr Glorious himself, Bobby Roode.
Roode recently became the number one contender by outlasting Roderick Strong, Tye Dillinger and Andrade ‘Cien’ Almas in a fatal four-way match, and provides Nakamura’s first challenge since the youngest IWGP Heavyweight Champion in history regained his title from Samoa Joe.
The longest reigning NXT Women’s Champion in history will face a tough task too, as Asuka defends her title against not one but three challengers. The Empress of Tomorrow will take on Nikki Cross, Billie Kay and Peyton Royce in a four-way match with the title on the line, a match set up when Kay and Royce took out Asuka, only for the champion to find support from an extremely unlikely source.
Cross came out for the save, only to attack Asuka immediately afterwards. This led to the four-way, and for the first time in almost 300 days, Asuka’s title truly looks in jeopardy.
#DIY successfully defended their NXT Tag Team Championships against The Revival during the tapings, and as such will go on to face 2016 Dusty Classic winners, The Author of Pain, in San Antonio. The Paul Ellering-led Authors have been nigh on unstoppable so far in NXT, can Ciampa and Gargano find a way to escape San Antonio with their titles intact?
SAnitY has also been running roughshod over NXT recently, and their latest victim seems to be ‘The Perfect 10’ Tye Dillinger. Dillinger will get a match with SAnitY at San Antonio, although it is currently unclear whether that will be a singles match with Eric Young or Damo or a six-man tag that requires Tye to find two partners.
A number of matches were hinted at during the tapings, including Roderick Strong vs. Andrade ‘Cien’ Almas, Elias Sampson vs. No Way Jose and The Revival vs. TM61. Chris Hero also returned at the end of the tapings, using his NXT name Kassius Ohno. NXT TakeOver: San Antonio will air live on January 28, from the Freeman Coliseum, streamed live on the WWE Network.
Current NXT TakeOver: San Antonio card
NXT Championship: Shinsuke Nakamura [c] vs. Bobby Roode
NXT Women’s Championship: Asuka [c] vs. Nikki Cross vs. Peyton Royce vs. Billie Kay
NXT Tag Team Championship: #DIY [c] vs. The Authors of Pain
Tye Dillinger vs. SAnitY (either a singles vs. Eric Young or Damo or a six-man tag match)
