WWE NXT Results From Gold Coast (12/11): Nakamura And The Revival In Main Event, Akira Tozawa
Thanks to Wrestling Inc. readers Josh Baker, Anthony Phung and Ru Hall for sending in these reports from today's NXT live event in Gold Coast, Australia:
From Josh:
* Akira Tozawa defeated Andre Cien Almas
* Peyton Royce & Billie Kay defeated Aliyah & Lov Morgan
* Oney Larcon defeated Patrick Clark
* Buddy Murphy defeated Elias Sampson
* DIY defeated Tino Sabetelli & Riddick Moss to retain The NXT Tag Team Championship.
* Bobby Roode defeated Tye Dillinger after The Revival interfered.
* Asuka defeated Ember Moon to retain The NXT Women's Championship.
* Shinsuke Nakamura, TM61 & Tye Dillinger defeated Samoa Joe, The Revival & Bobby Roode in an 8 Man Tag Main Event.
From Ru:
Andrade Cian Almas vs. Akira Tozawa
Opener for the show, Akira was clearly fan favourite, both played off the crowd really well, a lot of the usual tv spots were performed but got to see a side from both performers. Ended with a German duplex pin.
Winner – Akira Tozawa
Patrick Clark vs. Oney Lorcan
Physical matchup between both competitors, with the crowd responding to Patrick's taints with "Your A Wanker!" Chants.
Winner by Pinfall: Oney Lorcan
Liv Morgan & Aliyah vs. Peyton Royce & Billie Kay
Liv & Aliyah just couldn't seem to get over from Peyton and Billie's home crowd. Both teams worked a classic tag matchup with all the usual spots executed quite well.
Winners by Pinfall: Peyton Royce & Billie Kay
Buddy Murphy vs. "The Drifter" Alias Sampson
Alias came out to a resounding applause of boo's. He even played a song to the crowd. Buddy came out to a massive pop. Although buddy was dominated for nearly the entirety of the matc, he came back strong.
Winner by Pinfall: Buddy Murphy
NXT Tag Team Championship Match:
DIY (Johnny Gorgano & Tomasso Ciampa) vs. Tino Sabbatelli & Riddick Moss
DIY were clearly the fan favourites here, both worked the crowd well, all the usual tv spots were performed as well as a lot of interaction with the crowd with the crowd chanting "Go Back To Football!" To Tino.
Winners by Pinfall – DIY
Bobby Roode vs. Tye Dillinger
Probably the biggest pops of the night were for these two (apart from Nakamura). Both executed a perfect back and forth match, interacting with the crowd really well. The crowd were definitely unsure of their favourite in this one as large reactions for both as they executed their arsenal were equally received. My favourite match of the evening. The Revival cam down to interfere with with the match attacking Tye Dillnger and assisting Bobby Roode with his Pinfall from the second rope.
Winner by Pinfall – Bobby Roode
NXT Women's Championship Match: Asuka vs. Ember Moon
Don't want to say too much about this, but it looks like Asuka May have finally found some real competition. I look forward as u should all to seeing a feud for the title play out between these two. Ember Moon definitely continues to impress
Winner by Submission – Asuka
Main Event: Shinsuke Nakamurra, TM61 & Tye Dillinger vs. Samoa Joe, The Revival & Bobby Roode
Originally slated as a 6 man tag. Segment kicked off with Joe and the Revival brawling even before Nakamura had made his entrance. The unfair numbers advantage plus the interference from the earlier match sparked Tye Dillinger to come to the aid of TM61, this led to Bobby Roode coming to assist and then the arrival of Nakamura to the biggest pop of the night. This led Team Nakamura to challenge team Joe to a 8 man Tag Match. Amazing physical match with a lot of big bumps saw the crowd go home happy as Team Nakamura won by way of Pinfall with Nakamura pinning Bobby Roode in the middle of the ring.
Unsure of exact attendance. In comparison to the arena, the very top rows were empty as well as aprroximately 8 ring side seats empty too. Pretty good turn out and crowd was very into it.
Big celebrations closed the show out. Great show, performances and atmosphere was great. 10 out of 10 for me.
From Anthony:
Akira Tozawa v Andrade Cien Almas
I did not expect people to know who Akira Tozawa was, but he received a good pop upon entrance. A good paced match, not a lot of high flying, but a lot more technical than expected. Both of these guys are wonderful and the natural charisma that oozes from the both of them could be seen.
Tozawa ended up getting the pin on Almas.
Liv Morgan & Aliyah v Billie Kay & Peyton Royce
Before the start of the match, Billie announced that they wanted to be billed from Orlando, Florida from now on and that they certainly didn't want to be billed from the Gold Coast. That instantly turned the cheers they received into boos.
A decent enough match. You can see that both Liv and Aliyah are still trying to get their timing right. Billie was good, but Peyton probably carried the workload a bit more tonight and stood out. The Aussie pair picked up the win with a pin on Aliyah.
Will be interesting if they try and heel it up in Sydney, which is of course, their home town.
Oney Lorcan v Patrick Clark
Oh god. The crowd just absolutely loved hating on Clark tonight, and he did a fantastic job as bringing the jeers, boos and hate. If he can continue his improvement in the ring, then he's got all the tools to be a good heel in future. There are some things that he still does that make it a bit too obvious what he's trying to do, so learning a bit of subtlety will help him a lot.
Good, physical match. Lorcan with the win. His physicality really was a sight to behold, but Clark was the standout here.
Elias Samson v Buddy Murphy
Love Elias Samson. Started with a song, but couldn't get past the first two lines before the crowd broke out in their own song, which stopped him. After ragging on us, he continued before Murphy interrupted.
Murphy got a really good pop, as expected, and showed his athleticism. Won with a roll-up. Going forward, I think there may be an upside with Murphy as a face. Those familiar with his work pre-NXT will know he's got some moves that are very baby-face like.
DIY v Riddick Moss & Tino Sabbatelli for the NXT Tag Titles
God, the crowd loved DIY. Lapped it up. Ciampa carried most of the workload here, with Gargano getting the hot tag. Finished with their combo for the win.
Moss is good and he's got a bright future, whilst Sabbatelli obviously has the look and is improving. Both showed some character tonight, interacting with the crowd throughout the match.
Intermission
Tye Dillinger v Bobby Roode.
Decent match, but both took it very easy. The set up to this match was that Tye and The Revival had a face off backstage. The end of the match saw the Revival interfere. Tye was able to fight them off, but Roode caught Tye, then used the ropes as leverage (with one of the Revival holding Roode's feet down onto the ropes for assistance) for the win.
Ember Moon v Asuka
Crowd loved Asuka, and they were unsure about Ember. For a crowd that seemed like they were smarks, they didn't seem to know much about Ember.
So this was an insight into the potential future feud between these two, and can I say that the match was fantastic. Probably close to match of the night. Both pulled out big moves, and brought the crowd in and made them become invested. Asuka makes Ember tap out to the Asuka Lock, before they both hug on the outside.
During the first part of the match there was a guy who yelled out something quite disrespectful to Asuka. He tried it again soon after and the crowd just shot him down in flames. Then someone tried to start an Ellsworth chant and that got shut down by the rest of the crowd as well.
A small group then started a 'Women's Wrestling" chant which got a bit of support, but as the match came on the chants started becoming more relevant and respectful to these two. I'm pretty sure that this match was the only one that got a "This is Awesome" chant happening, which was nice.
This match was a good example of how to get an uninterested crowd invested, and credit must go to both Asuka and Ember for doing that.
Main Event:
The main event was advertised to be Nakamura & DIY v Samoa Joe & The Revival, but that was changed on the night to Nakamura & TM61 v Samoa Joe & The Revival.
Before Nakamura could make his entrance, the heels beat down on TM61. Tye then came out to help, which brought out Roode. The heels stood tall, then Nakamura's music hit.
Tye challenged the heel to an 8-man tag, which was eventually accepted after some coaxing by Nick Miller.
The Revival are great. Honestly. You don't get to appreciate their true greatness until you see them live. Dawson in particular just gets it. They, along with TM61 worked the majority of the match, with some involvement between Roode and Tye, and not a lot by Joe.
Nakamura finished the match with Kinsasha to Roode, after Roode accidentally hits Joe.
Overall it was an extremely enjoyable event.
Biggest Pops:
1. Nakamura
2. Asuka
3. DIY
4. Joe (the fans love him when they first saw him)
5. Roode (his theme song is lovable) & Tye
Most heat:
1. Joe
2. The Revival
3. Almas
4. Samson
5. Clark