Mitchell’s WWE NXT Report (11/15/17) – McIntyre & Almas Confrontation!

OFFICIAL RESULTS

• The Street Profits VS Tino Sabbatelli & Riddick Moss; Street Profits win.
• Lars Sullivan VS Raul Mendoza; Sullivan wins.
• Ember Moon VS Mercedes Martinez; Ember wins.

PLAY BY PLAY

The Street Profits VS Tino Sabbatelli & Riddick Moss!

What’s in a name? Everything.

“Is there a difference between the dark and the light?” Aleister Black, Embodiment of the End, has turned the lights out on many opponents, but the Velveteen Dream wishes to shine. As such, the Patrick Clark Experience has worked to take the spotlight away from Aleister, but Aleister will not “acknowledge a child who throws a tantrum to get attention.” Since a tantrum didn’t work, Velveteen got in Aleister’s face. Velveteen Dream wants Aleister Black to #SayMyName, but will he instead #FadetoBlack? Find out at TakeOver: WarGames.

Lars Sullivan VS Raul Mendoza!

The Cruiserweight Classic competitor looks to make his mark, but perhaps he was too ambitious in thinking he could make an impact on The Leviathan before the Knockout Artist, Kassius Ohno, can. The bell rings, Raul dodges Lars, then kicks and kicks and kicks. He tries to whip, Lars reverses, Raul slips out and kicks Lars away. Raul springboards but Lars literally uses his head to stop him in midair.

Raul crashes down, Lars runs in corner to corner to crush Raul against buckles. Lars backs up and does it again! Then, with Raul as a rag doll, Lars hits a spinning powerslam!

But Lars isn’t done making an example of Raul just yet. He stands over Raul, drags him up, and clobbers him with crossface punches. Then, a deadlift into that Mile High Slam!

Lars wins! Ohno has guts for wanting to face him, but will Ohno even have a chance of winning?

Lars looms over Raul again, his thirst for destruction is not satisfied. So Ohno to the rescue!

The Hero of NXT won’t let Lars bully anyone else, and he’s not backing down. Lars just laughs at Ohno for thinking he can do a thing to him. The Leviathan takes his leave, will he be laughing all the way through WarGames?

NXT General Manager, William Regal, is visited in his office by Johnny Gargano.

Johnny Wrestling knows he’s been on a losing streak, but he knows he still belongs. Regal knows that, he has all the faith in Gargano. Which is why Regal is coming to Gargano with this opportunity. WWE United Kingdom Champion, Pete Dunne, has issued an open challenge to NXT for the title. Regal is pretty confident in Gargano’s ability, Gargano is, too. Challenge accepted, for next week’s NXT. Can Johnny Wrestling be the first American to win the UK Championship when it’s the Bruiserweight he has to beat?

NXT WarGames’ three teams speak on entering such an infamous match.

“The Undisputed Era lives by a saying, ‘Do not start a war that you cannot finish.’” When they went right after the NXT Tag Team Champions, SAnitY, the NXT Champion, Drew McIntyre, and WWE UK Champion, Pete Dunne, they knew what they were doing. They also thought they knew what they were doing when trying to recruit Roderick Strong, someone they were familiar with. Strong was a man who came so close but was still so far from the NXT Championship. And at first, it looked like Strong had accepted their offer. However, Adam Cole, Kyle O’Reilly and Bobby Fish were reminded of the trouble they had started.

SAnitY is the “group that wrote the book on making their mark.” But then, to everyone’s surprise, the group that wrote the book on dominance returned, as the Authors of Pain decimated SAnitY, too!

And perhaps the most shocking of all, Strong revealed he was not joining the Undisputed Era, but resisting them!

That was the night that TakeOver: Houston was rewritten into TakeOver: WarGames! Paul Ellering was there as part of the original WarGames, and he remembers it as “Survival of the Fittest!” At WarGames, “when the dust settles”, only one team will survive to #ShocktheSystem.

Ember Moon VS Mercedes Martinez!

The Prophecy of Flames was called out by Mean Ms. Martinez for being a choke artist, so this match is to either prove her right or prove her wrong, just days before the NXT Women’s Championship Fatal 4 Way. The bell rings, the two circle, tie up, Ember backs Mercedes up but then Mercedes gets a waistlock. Ember gets an arm wrench but Mercedes clubs her into a headlock. Ember power out but Mercedes uses hair to reel back into the hold. Ember powers out again, Mercedes runs her over. Mercedes runs, but that was to fake Ember out, she stomps Ember down then headlock takeover. Ember endures a deep wrench, fans rally, Ember gets up and powers out, but wristlock reels Ember into a kick and a stuff uppercut. Mercedes whips, Ember lands on her feet out of the hip toss to arm-drag and dropkick Mercedes down. Ember sweeps Mercedes’ legs, runs to dropkick Mercedes down again, cover, TWO. Ember drags Mercedes up, arm wrench, whip and clothesline. Corner to corner reversed, stiff forearm from Mercedes. ember stays up to give a European Uppercut, runs but into a spinebuster!

Ember down hard, cover, TWO. Mercedes is getting annoyed with Ember, who rolls away as we go to break.

We return, Ember rolls up Mercedes, TWO. Mercedes swings, misses, Ember kicks and knees, enziguri misses but Mercedes’ stiff chop sends Ember rolling and writhing. Mercedes stalks Ember, a sadistic grin on her face. She lifts Ember up, snap suplex and roll through, another snap suplex, then the Third Amiga is a standing suplex. Cover, TWO, Mercedes is shocked. She gets Ember up again, Fisherman blocked, Ember fights back but Mercedes uses body shots, too. Ember gets out, kicks low, enziguri rocks Mercedes. Ember gets space, hops up and huricanrana sends Mercedes out. Fans rally as Ember fires up and builds speed, and DIVES!

Direct hit and Mercedes goes down! The fans are loving it as Ember drags Mercedes up and in, Ember climbs up top and takes aim. Mercedes boots her, then hits her with a SUPER CUTTER!

Cover, TWO, and Mercedes is shocked all over again. Another cover, TWO, Mercedes is getting mad. She drags Ember up, another try at the Fisherman, small package counter, TWO! Mercedes runs but her boot misses, Ember hangs her up for a draping springboard stomp. Mercedes down as Ember climbs up again, aims and jumps, ECLIPSE!

Ember wins! Ember gets one more chance at the NXT Women’s Championship, is third time truly the charm?

However, Crazy Nikki Cross appears from the crowd, as usual.

But then the Iconic Duo’s Peyton Royce appears on stage.

And not to be left out, the Pirate Princess, Kairi Sane, appears!

Only one woman gets to leave Houston as the next NXT Women’s Champion, who will lead NXT’s Women’s Revolution into the next phase?

It’s time for the promised final face-to-face!

First out to the ring, the NXT Champion and undefeated Celtic Colossus, Drew McIntyre!

The champ says “it’s great when a plan comes together.” So congrats, Andrade Almas, your little plan worked. Or rather, Zelina Vega’s plan worked. But either way, El Idolo has his title match set for TakeOver: WarGames. It’s one thing to ask for an opportunity, but when you actually get it, reality sets in and you realize what kind of man you really are. It’s clear what kind of man McIntyre is, but when pressure’s on, Almas won’t be able to say the same. As for the “lovely, fiery, feisty” Zelina Vega, she rambles on about climbing mountains. News flash: Almas is gonna find out “real quick” that McIntyre IS “the bloody mountain!” He stands here and now to ask Cien to face him like a man. Don’t do it to prove something to McIntyre or Zelina, but to prove something to yourself. For once, be a man. Unless, Zelina won’t let you off your leash. Speaking of Zelina, she is the one who comes out first.

And then El Idolo, who breaks off his “leash” to go right at McIntyre!

A brawl before TakeOver, McIntyre gets the edge with heavy hands, but then Zelina flies in! To be caught!

McIntyre sets her down, but then Almas chop blocks and unleashes forearms and knees. One stiff kick, and then Hammerlock DDT!

Zelina is all smiles as her client stands over the champion. Zelina takes that title belt and says it’ll be Almas’ soon enough. Will that be true after TakeOver?

My Thoughts:

Solid go-home start to finish for such a big WWE Weekend. Street Profits VS Blue Chip Boys was basically filler but still fun, wouldn’t mind a rematch that goes longer since this didn’t end with a finisher. Raul Mendoza was definitely not winning against Lars Sullivan, and Lars laughing at Ohno was good for character build, Lars is powerful and he knows it, so why waste energy beating Ohno up now? It’d ruin the fun of Lars getting to do that at TakeOver. But at the same time, Ohno can earn some major points by making Lars look mortal, even if he ends up losing in the end. And assuming Ohno loses here, maybe he’ll finally get to go to the main roster, perhaps SmackDown to challenge for the US Championship.

Good to see WWE was going to televise that Gargano-Dunne match after all, everyone was upset when it seemed as if it was exclusive to Houston. Another amazing video package for the WarGames match itself, seeing Strong stand with Ellering and the Authors is really cool even if this is some short-term alliance to take on common enemies. Ember VS Mercedes was really good, both women are definitely going to be staples of NXT’s Women’s Division going forward, but all four challengers for the title gathering in the arena seems redundant when we saw all four of them just a couple weeks ago. Either way, Ember still feels like the underdog when you also have the Mae Young Classic winner in Kairi Sane, the Iconic Duo there to help each other out, and the momentum Nikki Cross has been gathering as of late, but this really could be her time after waiting for so long. Great promo from McIntyre, and should’ve known the face-to-face would be a fight by the end. Almas gets the upper hand now but 50–50 booking math says that means McIntyre comes back to win and stay undefeated.

My Score: 8.5/10