411’s Live NXT in Los Angeles Report: Bobby Roode vs. Roderick Strong Headlines Event

Wednesday’s live NXT house show was held at the Novo Theater in Los Angeles. The venue featured a different setup than usual for live NXT shows, since the event was being held in a theater-type venue and not one with an arena layout. The Superstars entered in from the side of the stage since there was no entrance way or ramp set up. The show featured all the NXT titles on the line, including Bobby Roode putting his title up against Roderick strong.

Johnny Gargano vs. Cien Almas

Solid opening match with about 10-11 minutes to breathe. Johnny Wrestling wins at the end after locking in the GargaNO Escape, and Almas taps out.

Sarah Logan and Ruby Riot vs. Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville

Logan and Riot were working as the faces for the tag team contest, but the crowd seemed to be really into Tough Enough 2015 runner-up Mandy Rose the most. Credit to Mandy Rose because she definitely seems like she’s taking to the in-ring game rather well and looks like she’s showing she can keep up with the other workers in the ring. I wouldn’t call her an in-ring general, but everything she does looks crisp and on-point, unlike say Eva Marie or Cameron, who were generally terrible in the ring. Riot scores the pinfall for her team after her Windup Pele Kick on Mandy Rose. The match was about 10 minutes.

* There was a backstage video where Kassius Ohno cuts a promo on Hideo Itami, saying that they will have a match tonight, and he’s going to make Itami eat his golden elbow.

Oney Lorcan vs. Lars Sullivan

This basically turned out to be a squash match. At one point, Lorcan got thrown outside and was clearly bleeding with a cut on his face as the referee and ringside medical officials came to clean him up before match could resume. Lorcan was eventually allowed back in, but then he was subsequently hit by Sullivan with his finisher, the side-spinebuster, for the finish. Not sure if the cut caused the match to be cut short or in fact made it run a little longer due to the break to clean up Lorcan’s face.

Kassius Ohno vs. Hideo Itami

Ohno and Itami got a solid 14 minutes or so to work a pretty decent match. I’m a big fan of Ohno, and I’m not trying to be that guy, but it looks like if he worked off about 20-30 pounds of that heft he’d be doing a lot better right now. They did have a good match, and Ohno even hit Itami with a solid Shining Wizard. Itami got the finish after hitting Ohno with the Go To Sleep.

Tino Sabbatelli and Riddick Moss vs. Aleister Black and Drew McIntyre

That’s quite the physique Drew McIntyre has these days. I hear he and Jinder Mahal have the same trainer. Aleister Black definitely has a very unique charisma about him, and he appears like he could be a top star coming up; in NXT at least. He was definitely the standout performer during the match. McIntyre did a bit of a tribute to his 3MB days during the match, and the crowd definitely enjoyed that. Sabbatelli and Moss played the heel tag team very well. At one point, Sabbatelli was in a basic waistlock and yelled, “I can’t get out of it!” Another point, Moss told the crowd, “This is what real athletes look like.” McIntyre gets the win for his team after hitting the Claymore Kick.

* Backstage video showed Asuka warming up for her title defense tonight.

* William Regal made a special appearance after the intermission. Regal thanked the fans and said they were the ones who built the NXT brand, noting how NXT started with shows in front of 50 people and has become what it is now.

NXT Women’s Championship: Asuka (c) vs. Nikki Cross vs. Ember Moon

These three women had a fairly decent Triple Threat match for the NXT women’s title. The match went about 10 minutes. Finish came after Ember Moon hit Cross with the Eclipse (the top-rope Stunner). Asuka broke up the pin and then hit the Shinning Wizard to get the pin and retain her title.

NXT Tag Team Championship: Authors of Pain (c) vs. SAnitY

The Authors of Pain faced the SAnitY team of Eric Young and Alexander Wolfe. Paul Ellering was not in attendance to manage AOP tonight. Young and Wolfe played the faces for the entire match for the most part. Killian Dain interfered after the AOP nearly scored the pin by pulling out the referee. The bell was then called for disqualification.

Main Event for the NXT World Championship: Bobby Roode(c) vs. Roderick Strong

Roderick Strong and Bobby Roode got a solid 19-20 minutes or so to work here and had a very good match. Strong was in top form and was reminiscent of Strong of old, using a lot more of the backbreakers he used to be so famous for, and of course his knife edge chops. Roode was unable to put Strong away after one Glorious DDT. The finish came after Roode managed to distract the ref and hit Strong with a low-blow. Roode then hit Strong with two rolling Glorious DDTs to score the pin. Roode was doing a lot of projectile spitting while selling Strong’s offense. At one point later in the match, his globs of spit landed right onto the ring announcer who was sitting ringside. Wrestlers should be careful when they do that projectile spitting visual in the middle of the match.

* After the match was over, Drew McIntyre came out and had a staredown with Bobby Roode. They got head to head, but no punches were thrown, and Roode made his way out. McIntyre got on the microphone and derided Roode for cheating to beat Strong. He said that in 10 days, a Scottish fire-breathing dragon was coming for Bobby Roode at TakeOver and would be taking his world title to close the show. Overall, it was a very good show, and I would say about on par with my last NXT live experience in Los Angeles.