4/22 WWE in Kingston, R.I. – Third detailed report on tag main event of Balor & Nakamura vs. Joe & Drifter, A. Alpha, Aries, Asuka, Bayley, Ciampa

WWE NXT Live Results
April 22, 2016
Kingston, R.I.
Report by Nathan Smith, PWTorch reader

It was a great night of action in Kingston, Rhode Island for the NXT brand.  After the NXT Title change in Lowell, Massachusetts the night before, the crowd was ready for the fall-out and Tom Phillips started the show by mentioning over 3,000 fans had sold out the University of Rhode Island’s Thomas Ryan Center.

(1) Chris Girard beat Mojo Rawley. The opening match had local star and newer NXT recruit Chris Gerard (Biff Busick) battling Mojo Rawley.  Girard was the fan favorite in the match and Mojo played against type, antagonizing the crowd for the duration.  Mojo took most of the offensive end of the match, but Gerard pulled out a victory in the end with a neck breaker variation. Overall, a good opener, with a lot of playing to the crowd.

(2) Bayley & Carmella beat Dana Brooke & Alexa Bliss. Out first were Dana Brooke and Alexa Bliss and both had the crowd ready to boo them. By contrast, the crowd was really excited for their opponents. Carmella did her part of the Enzo and Cass entrance and also played up being a former University of Rhode Island student. She came off very charismatic and seemed to really relish the role of hometown favorite. Her partner Bailey had one of the bigger reactions of the night as well. It was a pretty simple tag match with some back and forth and a few comedy spots thrown in. It ended in a nice sequence with Carmela and Bailey trading moves (a nice superkick from Carmella) on Alexa and then a Bailey-to-belly on Dana for the win.

(3) Manny Andrade beat Riddick Moss. The crowd was mostly unfamiliar with them, but Manny Andrade pulled of some impressive high-flying moves and got the crowd into it by the end.  Manny Andrade won with a running double knee smash in the corner.

(4) NXT Tag champions American Alpha (Jason Jordan & Chad Gable) beat The Revival (Scott Dawson & Dash Wilder). These guys worked really hard and had a match on par with their one at the last NXT: Takeover special.  The crowd was hot throughout. A false finish with Scott Dawson as the illegal man pinning Jason Jordan got a strong reaction.  American Alpha retained with the assisted backdrop suplex.

[Intermission]

(5) Austin Aries beat Tomasso Ciampa. Both of these guys worked well together and the crowd was split throughout.  There was some pretty hard hits, including a knee from Ciampa that looked fierce. Aries picked up the win with an impressive 450 splash.

(6) NXT Women’s champion Asuka beat Peyton Royce. Royce came out to a crowd ready to boo her and she did a good job egging them on.  Asuka’s entrance was met with a big reaction and the crowd seemed excited to see her live. The two women had a simple, but strongly told match.  There was a lot of back and forth, with Peyton taking some of the match and then falling to Asuka’s kicks.  It ended with Asuka making Peyton Royce tap to the cross-face chicken wing.

Tom Phillips was out next to start the main event.  The Drifter, Elias Sampson, arrived with his guitar in tow.   He got halfway through singing a song when Shinsuke Nakamura’s music played.  To say he got a huge reaction is an understatement.  His charisma is really something in-person.  Finn Balor came out next to another huge reaction.  He had a spider wrap on his left shoulder, but seemed to wrestle fine. New NXT champion Samoa Joe was the final entrant, complete with his newly won NXT Championship.

(7) Finn Balor & Shinsuke Nakamura beat new NXT champion Samoa Joe & “The Drifter” Elias Sampson. The match started with Balor and Joe squaring off, until Joe tagged in Samson.  Elias took a beating for a bit from Finn until both men tagged out.  The crowd was set to see Joe and Nakamura go at it, but Joe tagged out again to upset the crowd. Shinsuke had some fun with Samson, complete with a Nakamura air guitar sequence before tagging out and they settled into Balor and Samson wrestling.  Samson tagged out, Samoa Joe came in, and got some good offense on Finn. It all led to a hot tag to Shinsuke Nakamura, who took out Samson and finally got a hold of Joe. The crowd loved all of it. The match ended with Balor hitting his dropkick in the corner and elevated DDT to Samson for the win.  It was a fun match, but they kept it somewhat short.

Afterward, Finn grabbed the microphone and talked about losing the belt the night before and waking up that morning unsure.  He went into talking about how the fans let him know he was still Finn Balor.  Shinsuke then got the microphone to say “We are NXT!” to another huge pop. They finished by giving each other the Wolfpac/Bullet Club “Too Sweet” to end a fantastic show.