WWE NXT house show report 5-16-15 Albany, NY: Kevin Owens vs. Finn Balor vs. Tyler Breeze (updated)
Submitted by Adam Shinder
– Greg Hamilton and Jojo welcomed the crowd, then William Regal came out to a huge ovation, kicking things off.
NXT Tag Team Champions Blake and Murphy beat Enzo and Cass (w/ Carmella)
Enzo and Cass’ act was massively over with the crowd, everybody singing along with their pre-match shtick. Fun tag team opener, champions won with a roll-up on Enzo with feet on the ropes.
Solomon Crowe beat Bull Dempsey
Nothing wrong with the match, just relatively heat-free. Crowe won with the stretch muffler.
Tye Dillinger beat Jason Jordan
Dillinger’s “Perfect 10” gimmick got over huge. Kept pulling “10” cards from his tights. Jordan stole one, they played tug-of-war with it for a bit. Couple impressive spots from Jordan, including a huge delayed vertical suplex where he walked around the ring four or five times. Dillinger won with a superkick out of the corner, followed by a sliding codebreaker with his kneepad removed.
NXT Women’s Championship match: Sasha Banks (c) beat Charlotte
Just the announcement of the women’s title match got a huge pop. Both women insanely popular, Charlotte may have gotten the biggest pop of the night when she did a Flair flop out of the corner. Lots of submission work from Sasha, some great counters and roll-throughs. Sasha wins with her crossface, bending Charlotte almost completely backwards. Big “That was awesome” chants afterward.
*** INTERMISSION ***
Baron Corbin beat Tommy Dreamer
Huge pop “ECW” chants for Dreamer. Corbin played the bully for most of the match, eventually won with the End of Days.
Bayley and Alexa Bliss beat Dana Brooke and Becky Lynch
Dana Brooke was hated, the other three were loved — especially Bayley, who got chants before her music hit. Fun bit at the beginning where Dana made fun of Alexa’s height, so Bayley put Alexa on her shoulders and Alexa hit a knee. All four looked good, some really impressive athletic spots from Alexa. Faces won when Bayley hit the Bayley-To-Belly on Dana Brooke and Alexa wiped out Becky with a crossbody off the top.
NXT Championship Triple Threat Match: Kevin Owens (c) beat Finn Balor and Tyler Breeze
Technical strangeness here. After Breeze came out, things just kind of froze. Not if it was the lights, the music or both, but things just paused for a bit. Breeze went with it, started asking the ref to raise his hand and give him the win by forfeit. Eventually, Finn came out on the ramp and did his entire entrance without the music, with the crowd popping for every one of his poses. Music finally hit when he posed on the top rope. Owens came out and immediately sat down on the outside.
Great comedy early with Owens and Breeze double-teaming Balor, including a great spot where Owens set up for a double suplex, but Breeze insisted on switching sides. Later, Owens started alternating between putting Balor and Breeze in chinlocks, then hooked them both for a chinlock at the same time and declared it “Chinlock City,” getting a huge chant from the crowd.
Action picked up with Balor hitting a flip dive to the outside on Owens and Balor. Owens and Balor brawled to the stage, Balor got out of a powerbomb attempt and hit a double stomp on the stage, then another from the stage to the floor. Nearfalls picked up back in the ring, including a great spot where Breeze hit a Supermodel Kick on Balor, who hit him with the Pele kick on the way down, then Owens came off the top with a senton bomb on Breeze.
Finish came when Balor had Owens set up for the Coup de Grace, but Breeze hit Balor with a Supermodel Kick while he was on the top rope. Breeze then turned into the pop-up powerbomb from Owens for the pin. Post-match, Balor hit Owens with the Coup de Grace, then grabbed a mic and told Owens he was coming for the title before thanking the crowd and posing in the ring.
– Without a doubt, the most fun I’ve had at a live wrestling show in a long time.
– Crowd was hot for pretty much everything, with the exception of the second match on the show. Couple audio glitches throughout the show (including a big one at the start of the main event).