WWE NXT House Show Live Report From Los Angeles: Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Samoa Joe vs. Eric Young

NXT concluded it’s live event tour of California over the weekend with Sunday’s house show in Los Angeles, California, which I had the pleasure of attending. The event was held at the Hollywood Palladium Theatre on Sunset Boulevard. The Palladium isn’t a large venue, but the NXT faithful filled it up for a pretty packed house for the evening. Here are the main highlights and breakdown for the event. Just a quick note before you read on: the event did feature two matches taped for the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic tournament. So you might want to forego reading any results if you are trying to avoid those.

Mike Rome kicked things off, and then a pre-recorded video message of Triple H was shown, asking the fans, “Are you ready?!”

Roderick Strong vs. No Way Jose

Roderick Strong and No Way Jose kicked things off with the opening match of the night. Strong utilized a lot off stiff-looking strikes for his offense. However, he’s eliminated a lot of his famous back-breaker variations for his offense in the WWE. He did still use his patented double-knee gutbuster on No Way Jose, followed by a Sick Kick to pull out the win. Match went about six minutes, and No Way Joe’s gimmick was pretty over with the fans in attendance.

TM-61 vs. Sanity w/ Eric Young & Nikki Cross

This was taped for the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic Tournament. Solid if a little unspectacular tag team match. There was actually a pretty scary moment when one of the TM-61 members lifted up Sawyer Fulton of Sanity up for a vertical suplex, but ended up dropping Fulton right on his head. It looked like messed the spot up and had trouble keeping up Fulton, who is a pretty big guy, up finishing the suplex. Fulton was able to get up and finish the match, but it looked like a pretty nasty bump. Hopefully, Fulton will be OK. TM-61 got the win after about eight minutes to advance in the touranment.

Mandy Rose vs. Daria Berenato

Inoffensive for the amount of time it lasted. Mandy Rose definitely seems to be learning and adapting in the ring quite well for the most part. Berenato’s basically working a gimmick of an MMA type fighter. It seemed to work well for her with this match at least. Rose played the snooty heel type and would tell Daria not to hit her in the face. Of course, Daria ignored those pleas. Daria wins with a spinebuster variation after about five minutes of action.

Tye Dillinger vs. Buddy Murphy

The Perfect 10 Tye Dillinger arrives at NXT in LA. #WWE #nxt #tyedillinger

A photo posted by 411MANIA (@411mania) on Oct 30, 2016 at 11:28pm PDT

Tye Dillinger’s “Perfect 10” gimmick was incredibly over, and Buddy Murphy played the perfect heel foil for their match. He really worked hard to make Dillinger look like a million bucks. There were quite a few fun spots here, with Dillinger wanting Murphy to flash the 10 fingers. Since Murphy refused, Dillinger decided to stomp on Murphy’s finger, so he basically had to open and close his hands and flashing the 10 fingers as a result. Whenever they took the action outside of the ring, the crowd would simply chant “10” along with the referee’s count instead of the accurate number, which became an ongoing theme for the rest of the evening. Match went about 12 minutes, and Dillinger wins with the Tye Breaker.

Asuka and Ember Moon vs. Billie Kaye and Peyton Royce

Asuka arrives for tag team action at NXT In LA. #asuka #nxt #wwe

A photo posted by 411MANIA (@411mania) on Oct 30, 2016 at 11:31pm PDT

Billie Kaye and Peyton Royce asked Mike Rome to announce them as the most iconic duo of all time(?) before the match. Royce and Kaye played a comedy heel duo very well. Asuka’s in-ring character is impeccable and she was on fire all night. The best moment for sure is when Asuka did her variation of the Stinkface on Kaye. After about 10 minutes, Asuka submitted Kaye with the Asuka Lock.

Brief intermission after the women’s tag team match.

DIY vs. The Authors of Pain w/ Paul Ellering

This was the second match taped for the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic tournament for the evening. The Authors of Pain did look pretty green, but they acquitted themselves well and definitely look like they have some potential. There was one impressive spot where Tommaso Ciampa attempted a dive to the outside only for the Authors of Pain to catch them and throw Ciampa into Johnny “Wrestling” Gargano, who was in the ropes. Another nice spot is where Akam of Authors of Pain lifted one of DIY on his shoulders in a fireman’s carry, and then he caught another one, and then he pulled off a simultaneous Samoan drop and fallaway slam, which was quite impressive. The finish came after Paul Ellering distracted the referee, and The Revival came out from under the ring and planted Gargano with a DDT. Authors of Pain then finished Ciampa with the Russian clothesline after about 10-11 minutes.

Kota Ibushi vs. Bobby Roode

This was a pretty excellent choice for a co-main event. Roode and Ibushi both got a nice amount of time to work here, close to 19 minutes. Roode honestly looks tremendous and ready for primetime with the “Glorious” gimmick and character, which he’s polished up nicely. Ibushi nailed the Golden Triangle on Roode outside the ring. Later, back in the ring, Ibushi managed to lift up Roode for the Golden Star Powerbomb, but Roode kicked out. The finish saw Ibushi attempt the Phoenix Splash, but Roode managed to get out of the way. Roode then nails Ibushi with a Glorious DDT for the win. That works much better as a finisher for him then the “Glorious Bomb.” Here’s a clip of Ibushi attempting and missing the Phoenix Splash:

A clip of Kota Ibushi attempting a high risk move in the co-main event at NXT in LA. #nxt #wwe #glorious #kotaibushi

A video posted by 411MANIA (@411mania) on Oct 30, 2016 at 11:41pm PDT

A video was shown of Samoa Joe warming up in the back for the triple threat main event.

NXT World Title Triple Threat Match: Shinsuke Nakamura (c) vs. Samoa Joe vs. Eric Young

As mentioned earlier, Austin Aries was originally scheduled for the main event and was even listed on the official event poster. Unfortunately, his recent eye injury forced him off the card. Instead, Young got the opportunity to perform in the main event instead. Credit to Eric Young, as he acquitted himself very well in the match. This was a pretty basic Triple Threat match, but it worked for what it was. The match went close to 20 minutes. Shinsuke Nakamura was able to avoid eating the Muscle Buster, but Joe managed sink in a standing variation of the Coquina Clutch. Nakamura was able to turn it into a bridging pin combination, but Joe kicked out. Eventually, Nakamura was able to knock Joe out of the ring and hit Young with the Kinshasa for the pin. Nakamura then cut a short promo and thanked the fans for being a great audience and then shouted, “Yeah, yeah, yeah, YEAAAOH!”

Overall, an exciting event and a fantastic co-main and main event to close out the show. This was a very positive experience for my first time attending NXT live.