Blog Archives
Notes In Observance – WWE NXT 1/18/17: The Glorious Shiba Inu
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 1/18/17)
The Glorious Shiba Inu
– The opening video hyped the contact signing segment between NXT Champion Shinsuke Nakamura and Bobby Roode. It pretty much wrote itself. Hopefully they’d so something to make this feud personal.
Notes In Observance – WWE United Kingdom Championship Tournament – Part 2
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.
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 1/15/17)
WWE United Kingdom Championship Tournament – Part 2
– The opening video replayed Night One’s spectacular happenings, as we went from Triple H’s epic intro to a brief run-through of the current competitors and how they came to be. To this point, we had Trent Seven, Joseph Conners, Mark Andrews, Wolfgang, Jordan Devlin, Pete Dunne, Sam Gradwell and Tyler Bates. It finished with Dunne’s sinister attack on Gradwell to end the show, as he rushed across the stage to deliver a forearm and hit the Bitter End on the ramp. Everything about this was great and the attention to detail to further establish Dunne as a renegade heel went over well. These final eight are about right too, with some great personalities here.
Notes In Observance – WWE United Kingdom Championship Tournament – Part 1
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.
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 1/14/17)
WWE United Kingdom Championship Tournament – Part 1
– The opening video showcased WWE’s longtime relationship with England that brought us classic moments such as Bret Hart-British Bulldog from Wembley Stadium at SummerSlam 1992 among others. In recent years, WWE NXT “took over” London and that turned out well. Pushed with mid-tempo hype in the last couple of weeks, we learned how it all went down when it was announced that there’d be an official WWE United Kingdom Championship and subsequent tournament to crown the inaugural Champion. With 16 competitors announced, this would essentially be a British version of the Cruiserweight Classic. Safe to say, we were curious what the end result would be.
Notes In Observance – WWE NXT 1/11/17: Chaos And Pain
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 1/11/17)
Chaos And Pain
– The opening video hyped the big NXT Tag Team Championship rematch between Champions #DIY and The Revival. If their TakeOver: Brooklyn II or TakeOver: Toronto bouts were any indications, this should be close to flawless. Tag wrestling about as good as it gets. No complaints.
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 12/7/16: Nakamura Comes Home
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 12/7/16)
Nakamura Comes Home
– The opening video hyped the huge rematch in Osaka, Japan for the NXT Championship between Champion Samoa Joe and Shinsuke Nakamura. It promised to be a “hard-hitting affair” and why wouldn’t it be?
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 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 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 9/21/16: Bringing The Fight
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
“Notes In Observance” features random thought and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.
(Aired 9/21/16)
Bringing The Fight
– The opening video took us back to last week when Samoa Joe swerved everybody as he played the “nice guy” to get NXT Champion Shinsuke Nakamura to agree to a rematch for the belt before he brutalized him without remorse with help from the steel steps. With some ample time before NXT’s next TakeOver special, this was a smart way to prolong things in a way that kept the focus on Joe’s aggression.
