NXT TakeOver Brooklyn II live results: Samoa Joe vs. Shinsuke Nakamura

Show Recap —

15,671 is the announced attendance.

Austin Aries defeated No Way Jose

Jose led a conga line of fans around the ring before the match. Ironically the very first person in line was wearing an Austin Aries t-shirt.

Aries won with the Last Chancery after a sunset flip power bomb out of the corner. The story of this match was Aries used his experience and knowledge to counteract the youthful exuberance of Jose. This was a fun match that the fans were into, cheering for both men at different times. Aries’ fans were louder, but Jose’s fans were consistently into the match. Jose used a Falcon Arrow and got out of the Last Chancery once before the finish.

A really good match to start the show.

After the match Aries attacked Jose and put him back in the Last Chancery, but Hideo Itami came down the ramp, which caused Aries to let go of Jose. Itami got in the ring and Aries attacked him, but Itami got the better of it. After two years of teasing it on TV (he did it once at the WrestleMania 31 house show), Itami laid out Aries with the Go To Sleep which made the fans go crazy.

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Ric Flair and his fiance Wendy were shown at ringside.

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Ember Moon defeated Billie Kay

Moon won her debut by jumping off the top rope, turning in mid-air and using a Stone Cold Stunner in what was otherwise a weak match. Ember gives off that look of being scary better than almost anyone. The fans did not care about Billie Kay for the most part, chanting “Let’s Go Ember” and mostly remaining silent for Kay’s offense. Kay used Gail Kim’s Eat Defeat, but then almost dropped Moon on a power bomb attempt. Moon used a cartwheel splash to set up the finish. Kay needs to work on her selling as Moon punched her in the face near the finish and Kay didn’t even sell it.

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Bobby Roode defeated Andrade “Cien” Almas

Roode picked up the win with a Pump Handle Slam called The Glorious Bomb.

Roode got a superstar reaction, with the fans singing his theme song and Roode himself was lowered from a platform above the video screen. When the theme song turned off they went back and forth chanting “Bobby Roode” and just “Roode” before chanting “This is glorious”.

These two worked very well together and this was the best TV match Almas has had since debuting. Almas worked so well that the fans began cheering for Almas after cheering exclusively for Roode. Almas used a middle rope springboard corkscrew plancha to the outside, which looked beautiful. Before the finish Almas got near falls with both a Straight Jacket German suplex and a small package out of a Fisherman Buster.

The only nitpick was when Tom Phillips said Bobby Roode took a helicopter from Manhattan to Brooklyn for this match only minutes after we saw Roode arrive in a limo.

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A video of rioting footage aired before showing the word “SANITY”

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Earlier today they showed the trophy for the winner of the Cruiserweight Classic, which was created by the guys at Orange County Choppers. Triple H thanked them for it and plugged the finals of the CWC on September 14.

Kota Ibushi, Cedric Alexander, Brian Kendrick and Noam Dar were shown ringside.

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NXT Tag Team Champions The Revival defeated Tommaso Ciampa & Johnny Gargano to retain their titles

Easily the best match on the show so far and also the best Revival match so far. Revival retained with a reverse figure four on Gargano. They did a false finish where Gargano & Ciampa won the belts with the running double kick, but Dash put Dawson’s foot on the ropes just as the referee counted three.

Gargano was the second most over wrestler on the show so far, with most of the crowd chanting “Johnny Wrestling”. If the Revival are one day remembered as a great team and not just the “NXT Tag Team Of The Year”, this will be their coming out match. These guys never have a bad match and they do the best job of any WWE team of being that old school 80’s heel team. Revival debuted a move that started off like the Snapshot, but turned into an Assisted Gordbuster.

Gargano nearly had Dawson pinned with his Spear through the ropes and Gargano kicked out of Dawson’s “Arn Anderson DDT” before the finish.

The fans gave Gargano & Ciampa a standing ovation after the match.

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Sasha Banks, Becky Lynch and Charlotte were at ringside. I was going to mention during the last match that there were two people with incredibly bright red hair off to the side and it turned out to be Sasha and Becky.

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NXT Women’s Champion Asuka defeated Bayley to retain her title

Remember when I said Gargano, Aries and Roode got great reactions? Well Bayley outdid them all.

Asuka got the pin with a spin kick to the head after an excellent series of strikes by both ladies. There will be debate over whether this match was at the same level as last year’s Brooklyn match. In some ways it was superior and in other ways it came short.

The story of this match was Bayley was constantly trying to get sudden victories, while Asuka was content to let the beating last a while. Bayley caught a knee to her nose in the first two minutes, which shockingly didn’t lead to a busted nose, but was a very real looking strike.

These two women used their bodies as weapons in a match that is closer to a real fight than anything you’ll normally see. This was a different Asuka in that she was completely over confident since everything had come so easy for her all year. On top of that this was a different Bayley in that she was forced to be much more aggressive than usual. Bayley got out of the Asuka Lock, but was visibly frustrated when Asuka kicked out of the Bayley to Belly.

After the match Asuka dragged Bayley to her feet for a big hug with Bayley openly crying and Asuka on the verge of it. After Asuka left the entire crowd chanted “Thank You Bayley” as she went around and hugged Sasha, Becky, Charlotte, her Mom and Izzy (the 8-year old girl who goes to all the Full Sail shows).

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They announced the Australia and New Zealand tours in December.

Mick & Noelle Foley and Finn Balor were shown at ringside for this one.

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Shinsuke Nakamura defeated NXT Samoa Joe to win the NXT Championship

A violinist played Nakamura’s theme song as a prelude to Nakamura’s entrance.

Nakamura kicked out of a Muscle Buster and won the championship after two Kinshasa’s. Nakamura becomes the 9th NXT Champion, following Seth Rollins, Big E. Langston, Bo Dallas, Adrian Neville, Sami Zayn, Kevin Owens, Finn Balor and Samoa Joe. Not too bad of a lineage, eh?

A very different match than the women’s match, but one every bit as good. Instead of relying predominately on striking, this match showed off Joe’s chain wrestling skill and the seamlessness that he can go from move to move and hold to hold while maintaining the guise of a competitive match.

Despite his blinding hatred during the build, Samoa Joe didn’t explode from the start, choosing instead to calmly wrestle Nakamura to the mat. Nakamura hurt his knee when going for a knee drop on the apron, Joe moved and allowed the challenger to crash on the mats.

Both men traded submission hold attempts, with Nakamura going for a rolling armbar to combat the choke.

Joe may have been injured as after the match the referee sent up the dreaded X with Joe pointing at his jaw. Joe had been selling his jaw quite a bit after the first Kinshasa.

The king is dead, long live the new King! Oh and good luck to SummerSlam trying to follow this show!