Blog Archives
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.
Notes In Observance – WWE CWC 9/14/16: The Finale
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 9/14/16)
The Finale
– From its inception to the two-hour live finale, the Cruiserweight Classic was treated like the hand-crafted gift to the IWC it was meant to be. Where else on a WWE platform would you see the likes of Zack Sabre Jr., Cedric Alexander, Johnny Gargano, Rich Swann, Drew Gulak, Kota Ibushi and TJ Perkins among others do what they truly are known for? On top of it all was a credible commentary team of Mauro Ranallo and SmackDown Live General Manager Daniel Bryan. Through it all, we saw the rise of relatively unknown talent like Gran Metalik and Noam Dar to an American audience while indie mainstays like ZSJ, TJP and Alexander stepped their own games up to prove their worth. The opening video highlighted all the tourney’s happenings with a voiceover from Triple H as he talked about how far they’d come. From 32 men from 16 countries, it was now down to four men from four countries. We also heard separately from the final four, who were GM, ZSJ, TJP and Ibushi about how much the tourney meant to them.
Notes In Observance – WWE NXT 9/14/16: Glorious Actions
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 9/14/16)
Glorious Actions
– At their first-ever encounter at NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn II, Shinsuke Nakamura beat Samoa Joe to become the new NXT Champion. There had to be some intriguing way to set up a reason to want to see the guaranteed rematch. Boy, did it happen here. A lot of credit for the opening in-ring segment with Joe and Nakamura. Joe did his best to make like he had turned a new leaf and learnt from his mistakes as Champion while he dealt with hecklers and claimed their words were deserved. He called out Nakamura and told him he had respect for him, that he was a worthy Champion. It had ended with the news that as soon as Joe was medically cleared to compete, he wanted his rematch. He called for a handshake before he went to the back as Nakamura posed in the ring. The shocker came the moment Joe ambushed Nakamura on the ramp and let loose his true intentions all along – to sucker the Champ into a sick attack. Now, it wasn’t quite to the level that Mark Henry did in 2013 with his fake retirement speech, but the key was that Joe said and did enough for us to let our guard down, even if we slightly felt an attack coming. They alluded to an attitude change ever since the show after TakeOver and that made the attack all the more buyable. Joe culminated his attack with a Bookend onto the steel steps before medical trainers took over and put the Champ on a stretcher. A cool mini-swerve that came off even better as it was played up like a legitimate injury, as we saw the Referee throw up the “X” and even Corey Graves came down from the commentary booth to check on Nakamura as did NXT General Manager William Regal.
Notes In Observance – WWE NXT 8/31/16: The Era Of Strong Style Begins
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 8/31/16)
The Era Of Strong Style Begins
– With NXT back at home at Full Sail University, it was time to see some new feuds and stars develop as the next NXT TakeOver event looms in the coming months. We started off with a backstage segment with Samoa Joe, NXT General Manager William Regal and a medical trainer as Regal was told that due to numerous injuries caused to Joe at NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn II, he wouldn’t be cleared to compete any time soon. Joe, who was uncrowned of the NXT Championship at Brooklyn by NXT Champion Shinsuke Nakamura, was expectedly pissed and stormed away. Uh oh.
Notes In Observance – WWE NXT 8/17/16: Brooklyn Bound
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 8/17/16)
Brooklyn Bound
– With NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn II just within reach on the calendar, it was one show left and it promised a face-to-face encounter between NXT Champion Samoa Joe and Shinsuke Nakamura. How could you not get excited about that? On the surface though, we could tell it’d be one of those “special” episodes that served as a preview show to an extent.
Notes In Observance – WWE NXT 8/10/16: Psychological Warfare
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 8/10/16)
Psychological Warfare
– We liked how the show opened out of the usual realm, as Bobby Roode walked out of General Manager William Regal’s office with a smile on his face now that he knew of “something great.” He left it at that and walked away. Yummy, some light drama and anticipation.
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