*Bayley & Alexa Bliss defeated Dana Brooke & Becky Lynch. The crowd went nuts when they announced this was a Divas tag with lots of women screaming. Bayley got her complete entrance and a huge standing ovation in her hometown. Huge chant for her when she entered the ring. Dana Brooke is freaking impressive looking in person. Bliss and Lynch had some great exchanges, Bliss nailed a backflip into a double knee drop that was brutal. She was the perfect underdog babyface against the larger Brooke. Lynch played a great heel. Some good solid tag wrestling here. Bliss was worked over for a long time so Bayley couldn’t get the hot tag. Just as she was about to get that hot tag, Lynch pulled Bayley off the apron. When Bayley finally got the tag and hit her offense, the crowd was primed for it. She hit a nice slam into a Superplex, the ascended the ropes. Brooke kicked her legs out from under her. lynch tried to take advantage but Bayley kept kicking up. She finally nailed the Bayley to belly suplex for the pin. Perfect for this night, market and match. Big reaction for Bayley after.
Bayley was interviewed after. She said it was the coolest night of her freaking life and thanked everyone for supporting NXT.
*Solomon Crowe forced Kalisto to tap. I am pretty sure this is literally a DGUSA rematch from a previous Mania weekend. Lots of mat work early and it was really good. Crowe nailed a nice springboard clothesline to send Kalisto to the floor. Kalisto started whipping out all these sick Lucha moves and a nasty spike DDT. Crowe was pretty aggressive in the ring and has corey red hair now. It suits him well. Kalisto hit a springboard 450 splash into the ring for a two count. Fun stuff. Kalisto came off the top for a move but was caught in the air and turned into the Stretch Muffler for the submission. Damn good.
*Baron Corbin pinned Rhyno. Huge reaction for Rhyno, who was a surprise. Tons of ECW chants. This was the back and forth bruiser match with lots of big physical spots. Rhyno teased the Gore and was drilled with a kick. There was a dueling “You can’t wrestle…yes he can” chant at Corbin. Corbin worked over Rhyno. Corbin sent Rhyno into the buckles hard. They clunked heads and both went down. They battled back and forth until Rhyno nailed Corbin. Corbin came back with a sitdown powerbomb for a two count. The crowd was really cold on Corbin early but got more into the bout as it went on. Rhyno was the fave for sure though. Rhyno went for the Gore but Corbin caught him with his finisher for he pin. Solid. You can see Corbin is still a project in progress. Rhyno Gored him after to a huge pop.
After intermission, Corey Graves came to the ring and said he brought a surprise to the ring. Out came HHH. He got a huge reaction. HHH said he gets to do some cool stuff but this is badass. The crowd chanted “Thank you Hunter” and he said thank you and that this isn’t you or me, it’s us. He said it was the hottest ticket in town and half the roster is back there including Shawn Michaels, Seth Rollins, Cesaro, Stephanie McMahon, X-PAC and even Vince McMahon are all here. Vince got half booed. HHH put over that Jim Ross was in the front row and the place exploded. HHH said the best thing is that none of the fans care about any of this because they are here for the future and the future is now. He led an NXT chant.
*WWE NXT Tag Team champs Murphy and Blake defeated The Vaudevillains and Enzo Amore and Colin Cassady. Huge reaction for Enzo and Colin. They had the last entrance and did all their lines, Carmella was with them. The crowd did all of the lines along with them. They were super over. The Vaudevillians got a big pop and the crowd clapped along as they came out. The Tag champs got a mixed reaction. Enzo’s charisma live is off the charts, even better than I remember it being when I went to Full Sail Live for a TV a taping. The challengers each had turns keeping the champs on the defensive early. OK match once the tag champs gained control and slowed down the pace. Crowd really wanted to chant and cheer on Colin and Enzo. Colin finally got tagged in and cleaned house on everyone. He drilled Murphy with a big boot. It was the Vaudevillains were first eliminated. The crowd booed and gave them a really nice round of applause on he way out. Carmella got on the apron to distract Murphy. Colin sent him into the ropes to roll him up and Carmellla was knocked off to the floor. Colon gave up going for the pin to check on her and was nailed from behind and pinned. The crowd gave Colin and Enzo a big ovation for the way out. Solid.
Nick was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, and lived there until the age of 18, when he decided to pack his flack jacket and move to New York City.
