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Top 20 Of 2016
Graphic by Salwinder Singh.
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
“It.” “Delete.” “Obsolete.” “The List.” “10.” “The Champ That Runs The Camp.” “Stupid Idiot.” “Glorious.” “Too Sweet.”
The list above describes a fiesta of phrases commonly found in pro wrestling jargon that made 2016 possibly its best year ever.
The one below describes select moments that help seal that argument and make us forget about things like The Titus Brand, The Cruiserweight Division, Raw’s Third Hour, WWE’s overloaded Pay-Per-View schedule, TNA’s X-Division and Matanza Cueto.
If you want to remember that bad stuff, check this out.
Notes In Observance – WWE NXT 11/23/16: The Cool Kids Get Eclipsed
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 11/23/16)
The Cool Kids Get Eclipsed
– The opening video reviewed the glitz of TakeOver: Toronto, when NXT visited the Great White North. Upon the highlights were Paul Ellering in a shark cage, Shane Thorne’s impressive senton off the structure onto The Authors Of Pain, Bobby Roode’s defeat of Tye Dillinger, #DIY’s impeccable win over The Revival to become new NXT Tag Team Champions, Asuka’s successful defense of the NXT Women’s Championship over Mickie James and finally, Samoa Joe’s regain of the NXT Championship over Shinsuke Nakamura.
WWE NXT TakeOver: Toronto Reaction
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
NXT found its way “North Of The Border,” but didn’t lose any luster.
Like we’ve come to expect from the TakeOver specials, we had a solid card with some spectacles ready to deliver, which also included Mickie James’ return and a couple of hot rematches for the NXT Tag Team Championship and NXT Championship.
By night’s end, we wouldn’t call it a “Perfect 10,” but it was close.
Notes In Observance – WWE NXT 11/16/16: A Shot At Vengeance
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 11/16/16)
A Shot At Vengeance
– The Liv Morgan-Peyton Royce match was the latest installment in the chronicles of the NXT undercard, which you can gladly call its Women’s Division. Forever a “work in progress,” there has been an attempt to build things with the “Aussie Mean Girls” pair of Billie Kay/Royce, coupled with Liv Morgan – a blonde tomboy Jersey Girl – and Ember Moon – a Mortal Kombat-esque athlete who racks up wins. While Moon has been built on her own, we’ve seen Morgan entangled in a feud lately with the AMG. Where we last left off, we saw Morgan cost Kay a match, as Aliyah upset her. The aggressive start made sense given the feud’s context. Royce delivered a nice tarantula-like submission in the ropes, even though we were entirely distracted with her ring attire that screamed “The Riddler.” The memories stopped there until the finish, when we saw Kay physically assault Morgan before she could make Royce submit. The crowd chanted for Aliyah, who came out and it looked like the heels would enjoy another beatdown. This set the stage for Moon to come down and make the ultimate difference, as she single-handedly took down the AMG before her and Morgan hit stereo dropkicks. We like the idea of Moon to physically get her hands dirty with the rest of the division, but we had enjoyed her solo push and wished they kept her separate from this storyline.
Notes In Observance – WWE NXT 11/9/16: Mighty Penmanship
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 11/9/16)
Mighty Penmanship
– The Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic Tournament Semifinal match between #DIY and The Authors Of Pain already had a different feel since it came from the Palladium Arena in California. The live event environments certainly help the matches feel more special. That said, this was easily AOP’s best effort to date thanks to the energetic fight brought by #DIY. It wasn’t all the faces though, as there was a cool spot where AOP caught Johnny Gargano on a suicide dive attempt and then bombarded him at Tommaso Ciampa when he tried to do the same. We also saw Paul Ellering get physically involved again as he bashed Gargano’s head into the apron. Another highlight was where Gargano countered a powerslam into a DDT, which led to the hot tag to Ciampa. Easily the best moment was Ciampa’s German Suplex on Razar, a feat in of itself. Razar battled back with a double fallaway slam for a near-fall. The faces had one of their own as they countered the double powerbomb into huracanranas. The finish was key and made sense, since we saw #DIY have the match won only to deal with Ellering on the apron and also set up NXT Tag Team Champions The Revival’s interference to cost them the match directly. AOP kept their undefeated strike alive and advance to the finals.
Notes In Observance – WWE NXT 11/2/16: Bruised And Scarred
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 11/2/16)
Bruised And Scarred
– To our delight (on the surface), this episode completely revolved around the Quarterfinal Round of the Second Annual Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic Tournament. For a nice touch, three of these four matches came from a live San Jose event for a unique experience. The Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic Tournament Quarterfinal match between Austin Aries/Roderick Strong and TM61 took a sucky situation with Aries’ broken eye bone injury (as he revealed in a promo where he took off sunglasses to reveal it while in street clothes and managed to get heat on himself as he unconvincingly tried to get over how bad he wanted to compete) and with NXT General Manager William Regal’s help, turned it into a Strong-Shane Thorne match to determine which team would advance. There was a good dynamic between the two, as Strong used speed and strength to dominate early on. Sick spot where he dropped Thorne in the corner from the top rope, a la WWE Raw Women’s Champion Charlotte and Sasha Banks at SummerSlam. Back and forth stuff, as Thorne hit a double foot stomp in the corner like Alberto Del Rio, which spawned “Si!” chants. Strong laid into Thorne with a swift array of maneuvers, but it only led to a near-fall. Strong also kicked out of the Falcon Arrow. The finish was well-done, as we saw Aries’ attempt to distract the Referee fail to get Strong the win, as Strong got rolled up in a quick pin shortly after to eliminate him/Aries from the tourney. This decision made sense, since we got to see Strong do his thing in the ring (will always be the best thing to do with him, still haven’t even gotten a promo yet) and TM61 has more to gain out of the Dusty Classic than Aries/Strong at this point.
Notes In Observance – WWE NXT 10/26/16: On The Up And Up
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 10/26/16)
On The Up And Up
– The Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic Tournament First Round match between #DIY (Johnny Gargano/Tommaso Ciampa) and Tian Bing/Hoho Lin was a smart way to have #DIY advance while at the same time serve Bing’s in-ring NXT debut. He was the guy who was the first signed superstar from China, so he had a chance to impress and was in the ring with the right guys for it. Lun still is on the lower half of the Cruiserweight Classic talent spectrum, but he wasn’t a prime focus thankfully. Him and Bing worked well enough together to give #DIY a tease at an upset, but when commentary revealed that the winners here would take on NXT Tag Team Champions The Revival in the second round, they might as well have given away the result right there. With #DIY-Revival as past foes, they’d be dumb not to set up another excuse for an encounter and if they beat The Revival there, it could even set up the Tag Title match at NXT TakeOver: Toronto. Maybe we’re thinking too ahead, but they got the first part of the puzzle right, as we saw #DIY win their running knee strike/superkick combo on Lun, which also protected Bing, whom they can build down the road.
Notes In Observance – WWE NXT 10/19/16: Champion’s Address
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 10/19/16)
Champion’s Address
– The opening video reminded us of the huge brawl to end last week’s show when NXT Champion Shinsuke Nakamura returned to cast vengeance upon Samoa Joe, who purposely sidelined him in an attempt to get back the NXT Championship. To the point where he annihilated various talent in demand of either Nakamura or the Title from NXT General Manager William Regal, Joe had this coming to him. A smart way to drag out television time.
