Blog Archives
Notes In Observance – WWE NXT 9/28/16: The Glorious 10 Is Born
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.
(Aired 9/28/16)
The Glorious 10 Is Born
– It’s an incredible thing that the Dusty Rhodes Classic Tag Team Tournament was already back in its second edition. We began with a promo from NXT General Manager William Regal in an empty arena as he broke down the news that 16 teams would face off in single elimination rounds and it’d all start next week. Such a great way to enhance the TV episodes and is a smart move all around.
Notes In Observance – WWE NXT 7/6/16: Flips And Fists
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.
(Aired 7/6/16)
Flips And Fists
– Whenever NXT Tag Team Champions The Revival and American Alpha meet, magic happens. Plain and simple. They bring something new to the tag team wrestling table, with inventive spots to showcase their contrasts in styles. Revival are known to be old-school rule-bending heels with more emphasis on their strikes while AA pride themselves on being premier athletes with a repertoire of suplexes and submissions. Give these two teams 20 minutes and they’ll give you the world. AA eventually got to hold the gold, but quickly lost it at TakeOver: The End, which made Revival the first two-time Tag Champs. We knew a rematch would come for the former Champs and they made it even better as it was announced to be a 2 Out Of 3 Falls match. That was set to happen on this episode, as evidenced by the opening video. Safe to say expectations were mightily high.
Notes In Observance – WWE NXT 6/15/16: The Challenge
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.
(Aired 6/15/16)
The Challenge
– Just like NXT does on the show that follows every TakeOver, they did the fancy “slow-motion highlight” video package to start the show as they glossed over everything “The End” would be renowned for – Andrade “Cien” Almas’ debut as he defeated Tye Dillinger, the shocking turnabout of events as American Alpha lost the NXT Tag Team Championships in their first defense in a thriller to The Revival for them to become the first-ever two-time Tag Champs, a burly team led by Paul Ellering laid out AA in their first appearance, Shinsuke Nakamura outlasted Austin Aries in the night’s best match (a battle for global supremacy, if you will), NXT Women’s Champion Asuka put down Nia Jax and lastly, NXT Champion Samoa Joe decisively defeated Finn Balor in an intense steel cage match. Yup, t’was a night that signaled anything but “The End.”
Notes In Observance – WWE NXT 5/18/16: Not Like Most Girls
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.
(Aired 5/18/16)
Not Like Most Girls
– The opening video highlighted the Nia Jax-Bayley main event that was somewhat polished up to appear better than it actually is. With Bayley on the road to her rematch with NXT Women’s Champion Asuka, it’d be nice to see how she fared against Jax, who she boasted a winning record against thus far.
Notes In Observance – WWE NXT 5/11/16: The Day The Music Died
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.
(Aired 5/11/16)
The Day The Music Died
– This show had purpose from the first second, as the opening video hyped Finn Balor’s first appearance since he lost his NXT Championship to Champion Samoa Joe at a live event in Lowell, Massachusetts. Oh snap.
Notes In Observance – WWE NXT 4/27/16: The Kinshasa Swan Song
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.
(Aired 4/27/16)
The Kinshasa Swan Song
– We were warned about the NXT Women’s Champion Asuka-Eva Marie match from last week, so no surprises here. What should’ve been a quick, two-minute squash was instead dragged out to make Eva look “on par” with Asuka, which is completely unbelievable. An odd matchup to begin with, with little chemistry early on and the only thing that kept our interest was the crowd’s growing disdain for Eva and Corey Graves’ entertaining commentary that fanboyed all over Eva. It appeared that the bigger story was planting the seeds of an Asuka-Nia Jax feud by the way she stood by Eva’s side past the midway portion of the bout. This lasted longer than it had any business being, but seeing Eva get kicked out cold might’ve been a lukewarm consolation prize. The post-match interaction between Jax and Asuka was a bit woody, but established that Jax wouldn’t be scared of Asuka’s techniques.
Notes In Observance – WWE NXT 3/23/16: The Empress Strikes Back
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.
(Aired 3/23/16)
The Empress Strikes Back
– Nothing will kill a crowd like “The Drifter” Elias Samson, especially to open the show, albeit against Johnny Gargano. We were severely hoping that Gargano wouldn’t be the latest Samson squash victim. The action didn’t last long and we were actually shocked to see that Gargano would pull out a surprise roll-up pin to win, meaning that Samson’s unspectacular undefeated streak also ended. The post-match angle gave Samson some decent heat before Apollo Crews came to save the day. Who knew the one thing that we needed Samson to do was actually lose? Crews-Samson doesn’t exactly have us jumping out of our seats, but maybe Crews can pull out a good match from him.
Notes In Observance – WWE NXT 2/24/16: New Personas
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.
(Aired 2/24/16)
New Personas
– American Alpha continue their “onward and upwards” push, this time outlasting the former NXT Tag Team Champions in Blake/Murphy after 10 minutes. AA were their usual dose of suplex and amateur-esque finesse, while Blake/Murphy provided decent foils. The main story (like with most AA matches) was Chad Gable selling hard for the hot tag, having it pulled away from him numerous times before finally getting it, and then Jason Jordan takes over the final minutes, culminating in Grand Amplitude.
Notes In Observance – WWE NXT 2/17/16: Back To The Drawing Board
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.
(Aired 2/17/16)
Back To The Drawing Board
– The opening video did a cool recap of the big NXT Championship #1 Contender’s match between Sami Zayn and Samoa Joe, with each man having a different reason to want to be NXT Champion. For Joe, it was about the “inevitable” while Zayn was eager to get back what once was his and become the first two-time NXT Champion.
Notes In Observance – WWE NXT 2/10/16: A Friendly Battle
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.
(Aired 2/10/16)
A Friendly Battle
– NXT continues to make moves in 2016, this episode taking place in the CFE Arena in Orlando, Florida, a packed house ready to make themselves heard. The opening video did a good recap of hyping the NXT Women’s Championship match between Champion Bayley and #1 Contender Carmella. This was your “bestie relationship” being tested with a grand prize thrown in the middle.
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