12/15 WWE NXT in Cardiff, Wales – Second detailed report from next-to-last tour stop

WWE NXT Live Results
December 15, 2015
Cardiff, Wales
Report by Steve Thomas, PWTorch correspondent

Capacity is 4,900 and approximately 95 percent sold.

Greg Hamilton, the announcer for the night, came out to hype up the show.

(1) Enzo Amore & Colin Cassady beat Blake & Murphy. A good, solid tag match to start off with the crowd very much into Enzo and Big Cass. The crowd was very vocal for all the catchphrases (would be the same all night). Enzo & Cass won with an assisted splash off the top rope.

(2) Asuka beat Alexa Bliss. The crowd was very much still into this with loud chants of “Asuka’s gonna kill you.” Not much offence from Asuka, though, as she picked up the win by submission with the Asuka Lock.

(3) Bull Dempsey beat Tye Dillinger. The crowd was well into the “Perfect 10” gimmick to start. However, they came ’round with chants of “Bullfit.” This was a fun match full of comedy with Bull picking up the pinfall.

(4) Nia Jax beat Carmella. The fans really died for this one. Very little pop when Carmella entered. Decent enough match but nothing stood out. Jax won by leg drop.

(5) Apollo Crews beat Baron Corbin. A good match which the fans got back into. Chants of “Let’s Go Corbin, Corbin sucks” rang out, but solid match with Crews picking up the victory by standing moonsault.

There was a brief intermission before the title matches for the evening.

(6) NXT tag champions Dash Wilder & Scott Dawson beat Jason Jordan & Chad Gable to retain the NXT Tag Titles. Jordan and Gable were major over. Soccer style chants were heard all over the arena for the face team. An excellent old school tag team match with Gable standing out as the VIP. The champs won via cheating (holding the leg outside the ring) for the pinfall. However, the challengers ate up the standing ovation after the match.

(7) NXT Women’s champion Bayley beat Emma (w/Dana Brooke) to retain the Women’s Title. Bayley had a crazy pop and surely is weeks away from a main roster call-up. The match didn’t start for 10 minutes as the crowd were loudly singing “Hey Bayley” (in the style of ‘Hey Baby’) and “I Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” (with the lyrics ‘I Love you Bayley’). Bayley ate this up whilst Emma wasn’t happy. A fine match which ended with Brooke being sent away by the referee and then Bayley getting the pinfall after a ‘Bayley to Belly’ Suplex.

(8) NXT champion Finn Balor beat Sami Zayn and Samoa Joe in a three-way match to retain the NXT Title. Joe was out first followed by Balor and finally Zayn. Full ring introductions for the main event. A very decent main event with Balor and Zayn respectfully trying to wrestle, but with Joe interrupting with beatdowns. There was a strange comedy spot mid-match where Zayn put on Balor’s leather jacket and Balor put on Zayn’s jacket and hat and proceeded to mock each other. The finish came when Joe applied the Coquina Clutch on Zayn and Balor did the double heel stomp off the top rope on both opponents and covered Zayn for the win. Balor and Joe did a stare down afterwards to set up tomorrow’s match at Takeover and then Joe left. Balor and Zayn celebrated with the crowd to end the show.

Overall, a great show – a massive breath of fresh air from the current main roster shows. I would definitely come back to see NXT at the Motorpoint Arena.

Biggest Pops

– Jordan and Gable
– Finn Balor/Sami Zayn (tie)
– Bayley
– Enzo & Cass

Biggest Heat

– Dash & Dawson
– Dana Brooke