Samoa Joe beats Finn Balor to win the NXT Title
Samoa Joe pinned Finn Balor with a muscle buster to win the NXT title in the main event at today’s house show in Lowell, MA at the Memorial Auditorium.
It was the first night of a three-show Northeastern tour.
Not much more in the way of details are available but it was a rare house show title change. Balor was selling an ankle injury after the match. It’s unclear if this was storyline or not, as he was down for a long time and unlaced his boot in the ring. Unlacing his boot would tend to mean its storyline. One way or another, it wasn’t an impromptu title change as talk of the impending switch had gone around all afternoon.
Josh Nason is traveling back from Lowell and will have a live report up shortly.
Balor had been champion since July 4, 2015, when he defeated Kevin Owens at Sumo Hall in Tokyo, and his 292 days as champion broke the record of 287 set by Adrian Neville’s 2014 run.
The rest of the show results were:
- Mojo Rawley pinned Riddick Moss
- Bayley & Carmella beat Peyton Royce & Dana Brooke – This would be Brooke’s return after a long injury absence
- Chris Girard pinned Tommaso Ciampa – This match tore down the house.
- Austin Aries pinned Manny Andrade
- Shinsuke Nakamura pinned Elias Samson
- Chad Gable & Jason Jordan beat Dash Wilder & Scott Dawson to retain the NXT tag titles
- Asuka beat Alexa Bliss to retain the Women’s title