NXT San Jose, CA, live results: Rich Swann, Roderick Strong, Nakamura, more

From the San Jose State University Events Center

This was set up like a television taping. Some of this will air on NXT but it wasn’t clear how much will. The crowd was having a good time, and if they weren’t into a match, they had fun with chants. Any match that they weren’t into led to pretty loud “Delete” chants. It was kind of amazing how over the Matt Hardy character was at a WWE/NXT live event.

– Oney Lorcan beat Patrick Clark with a half crab

The crowd was into both men and were chanting “Purple Rain” at Clark.

– Shane Thorne def. Roderick Strong in a Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic tournament match

Aries was there but couldn’t wrestle due to the eye injury he suffered the night before. He made a joke saying he had a broken eye hole. he said they could postpone the match until he was ready and that would be better for them than being embarrassed by Strong beating both at the same time.

William Regal came out and said that Aries would be ready in one week, but that Dusty was about competition, so in the spirit of Dusty he was ordering Strong to face one of TM61 in a tournament match which turned out to be Shane Thorne.

They had the best match on the show. TM61 wasn’t over at all. Aries threw down Nick Miller outside the ring and in the confusion, Thorne pinned Strong with an inside cradle. Strong took most of the match and worked at a different pace from everyone else, but Thorne hung with him.

– Wesley “Body Beautiful” Blake beat Buddy Murphy

Murphy came out and did a heel promo with the idea that Blake is now a babyface. Murphy’s heel promo was that he was tired of all the fans chanting “Blake is better” except nobody chanted it. 

“Body Beautiful” is an attempt for Blake to be Jesse Ventura. This was nowhere near as good as their TV match. Blake just doesn’t work as a babyface, and Murphy is also the much better of the two. Fans chanted “Where’s Alexa”, “Let’s Go Jobbers”, “Fight Forever” and a lot of “Delete” chants until Blake did the Superman string and hit a frog splash for the pin.

– NXT Women’s Champion Asuka beat Daria Berenato to retain

The first few minutes saw them try to work it almost like a shoot which got over with “This is wrestling” chants.  Berenato is good given her level of experience. Asuka did a ton of comedy like shaking her butt which got a reaction but felt out of character, especially for the kind of match they were working.

Then they got serious in the last minute or two which was very good, trading submissions. Asuka won with a flying Asuka lock. When it was over, they hugged, the crowd gave them a big ovation and they left together.

– Authors of Pain beat No Way Jose & Rich Swann in a Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic tournament match

Not that this match was good, but it was the best AOP match ever, largely due to Swann. The finish saw AOP do their double team leg sweep clothesline combo on Jose. Paul Ellering was there and even interfered once. Given the level of their push, AOP wasn’t over, but Swann and Jose were.

– Ember Moon pinned Billie Kay

Peyton Royce was at ringside, and interfered some. This was an okay match with Moon’s stunner off the top looking great.

– NXT Champion Shinsuke Nakamura & Tye Dillinger beat Samoa Joe & Bobby Roode

All four were very over like babyfaces. The match served its purpose as they entertained the people, and everything looked good enough.  It lacked main event intensity but all the personalities kept the crowd into it. Nakamura pinned Roode with the Kinshasa. He was clearly the star of the show and after the show. People were singing his and Roode’s music when they came out, during the match, after the show, in the parking lot, and on the campus.