NXT Riverside, CA, live results: Injured Samoa Joe scrapped from main event

Submitted by readers Guillermo Monti & Randy H.

Place was sold out and a great venue for wrestling as the old Hollywood theater vibe of the Riverside Municipal Auditorium (built in 1927) and intimate seating arrangement made for a great setting for the night.

– No Way Jose def. Riddick Moss

Big pop for Jose and lots of chants. Moss got a lot of heat with his point at his name on his vest gimmick and got chants of “We Don’t Know You”. Good action and great choice of opener with Jose getting the win.

– Liv Morgan def. Aliyah in an ok match

Not a lot of reaction to this one as the crowd wasn’t very familiar with either girl and they didn’t really draw them in. Got a good pop for doing a couple of rolling pin spots early on but the crowd died a little after that.Some slow spots and rough spots but Aaliyah got some applause after some athletic moves. Big reaction for Aaliyah using Lance Storm’s rolling Maple Leaf single-leg crab near the finish. Morgan got the pin and the girls hugged in the ring afterwards.

– Patrick Clark def. Tino Sabbatelli via superkick. Chants included “Delete”, “Purple rain” and “Obsolete”.

Sabatelli has the look Vince loves and got great heat before the match so if his work can catch up he could be a big star. Clark wasn’t over much in the beginning as the crowd didn’t know what to make of him but he won them over. Super athletic moves from Clark and Sabatelli got a ton of boos doing the old Scott Steiner pushup gimmick a couple of times during the match. Clark picked up the win with a superkick and as his music played out came Wesley Blake.

Blake cut a promo calling Riverside garbage and then called out individual fans calling them either trash or garbage. Tons of heat with the crowd chanting “Murphy’s Better”, We Want Murphy” and more until settling on a very, very long “Blake Is Garbage” chant. He did his gimmick with the streamers coming out of his jacket and challenged Clark, leading to…

– Patrick Clark def. Wesley Blake in a short match.

– NXT Women’s Champion Asuka def. Ember Moon via submission in a very good match.

Asuka got the first “big star” pop for the night and the biggest reaction since No Way Jose in the opener. Great back and forth match with Moon winning the crowd over after a fairly quiet entrance. Lots of stand-off spots early and then lots of Moon holding the advantage with Asuka selling. Asuka got the pin after about ten minutes and they also hugged after the match, as if Moon won Asuka’s respect desite losing. Post-match Asuka celebrated with the belt as we headed into intermission.

Intermission

– NXT Tag Team Champions DIY def. The Revival via double submission.

Great, great match. Revival out first to a pretty big “appreciation” pop before the crowd got into booing them. Huge pop for DIY, including some PWG chants. All the usual tremendous spots with Revival getting heat on Ciampa with their old-school heel tactics before the hot tag to Gargano. Tons of dueling “Johnny Wrestling”/ “Psycho Killer” chants through this part of the match.

Great dives from Gargano and a flying knee off the apron by Ciampa to Dash near the end. Lots of heat on all of the near-falls and the crowd was buying into them big time towards the end. Finish had Gargano lock on the Garga-no Escape on Dash for the tap while Ciampa prevented Dawson from making the save. Fantastic match. Post-match had DIY celebrating in the ring before The Revival slid back in and feigned an attack. They offered a handshake (very loud “NO” chants) before pretending to walk away and trying to attack DIY. Stereo superkicks send Dash and Dawson to the floor and more celebrating from DIY.

– Elias Sampson def. Oney Lorcan with his feet on the ropes.

Massive, massive heat for The Drifter. No one in my section could hear him singing because the booing was too loud. Lorcan cut a short promo before the match and beat up Drifter for most of it. Great spot where Drifter took the advantage partway through the match and then rolled out to sit on the apron and play guitar. He called over the ring announcer to hold the mic and sang again and the crowd just lost it. Loud, LOUD boos for that one until Lorcan cut him off. Lorcan then took Drifter’s guitar into the ring and threatened him with the El Kabong, but threw it into the air and rolled up Drifter for a great near-fall as Drifter tried to catch it. Drifter got the pin with his feet on the ropes for even more boos.

– Samoa Joe came out and got a babyface reaction with “Welcome back” chants. He talked about being from SoCal to get the crowd on his side and then trashed Riverside so they turned on him. He says the GM of NXT did not clear him to wrestle, so he will watch the main event match from ringside.

– NXT Champion Nakamura & Tye Dillinger def. Andrade Almas & Bobby Roode

Basic back and forth match with heat on Dillinger for a few minutes and heat on Nakamura for a few minutes. Joe tripped Dillinger from his seat at ringside early in the match and then dragged Nakamura off the apron and beat him up to break up a hot tag. Referee threw Joe out of the ringside area and they went another couple of minutes before a hot finish with Nakamura running wild on Almas and hitting the running knee for pin.

Crowd celebrated with 10 chants and singing Nakamura’s theme and Dillinger did the “we’re not worthy” bow to Nakamura and presented him with his belt before they celebrated a little more and the show ended.