2/7 NXT TV Report: Big segment with Gargano and Almas, Undisputed Era vs. Sanity, Heavy Machinery vs. Moss & Sabbatelli

NXT TV REPORT
FEBRUARY 7,  2018
TAPED IN PHILADELPHIA, PA. AT WELLS FARGO CENTER
AIRED ON WWE NETWORK
REPORT BY JUSTIN JAMES, PWTORCH CONTRIBUTOR

Commentary: Mauro Ranallo, Percy Watson

[Q1] Johnny Gargano is scheduled to address his Takeover loss tonight. Nigel McGuinness is back in the booth. Will be interesting to see if the announcing dynamics change at all after Percy Watson stepped up and did a good job at Takeover when McGuinness was out. Undisputed Era’s music interrupts the announcers. Sanity jumps UE as they pose in the ring. No Nikki Cross, sadly. Young gets a beating from O’Reilly and Fish as Dain and Wolfe double team Cole, but Dain and Wolfe save Young. Security and refs come out to break it up. Dain starts taking out the black shirts, but is courteous enough to keep his hands off the refs. Undisputed Era pounds sand. William Regal comes out shouting and angry, and demands it will all end tonight. He rebooks the matches to be a six-man tornado tag team match. Undisputed Era is angry, Sanity is thrilled.

Heavy Machinery comes out to put a smile on my face. They are facing Riddick Moss and Tono Sabbatelli. Video reminds us that Moss and Sabbatelli picked up a tainted win over Heavy Machinery last month.

(1) HEAVY MACHINERY (TUCKER KNIGHT & OTIS DOZOVIC) vs. RIDDICK MOSS & TINO SABBATELLI

Dozovic and Moss start. Moss runs into a beefy shoulder, Dozovic tags Knight, they do a stereo three point stance, charge. Knight has a cover for two. Moss with a forearm to the back of the head then manages to drive Knight into the corner, which looked fairly impressive. Sabbatelli tags in. The crowd completedly dumps on Sabbatelli. Sweet dropkick with some hangtime drives Knight back to the corner. There seems to be some static between Moss and Sabbatelli, Moss tags in. Moss with a hard tag to Sabbatelli. Sabbatelli continues to beat on Knight. Knight reverses a whip and Sabbatelli sells back pain. Knight tags Dozovic, Moss tries to help but he gets taken out. Corner splash knocks Sabbatelli silly. Dozovoc calls for the Caterpillar into an elbow drop, cover, Moss breaks it up. Moss ditches Knight, Dozovic takes him out, Sabbatelli capitalizes, cover, gets legs on the ropes but the ref sees it. Knight takes a tag, cannonball splash off the apron to Moss, then the team assisted powerslam crushes Sabbatelli for the win.

WINNERS: Heavy Machiner in 3:57. Fun, fun match, and I liked the callback to their previous match. I don’t know what the beef was between Moss and Sabbatelli though.

Post-match, Sabbatelli is gasping for air on the outside. Moss walks up to him but refuses to help him stand up and walks away. The crowd cheers Moss. “He’s going to have to drive that Masseratti home on his own tonight,” from McGuinness, great line.

[Q2] Johnny Gargano comes out in street clothes to a thunderous reaction. Gargano says he went to Takeover at the top of his game and expected to win, but it sucks that he didn’t win. But the reaction he gets from the crowd… and gets interrupted by another chant. He earned the crowd’s respect and that means more than the championship, he had the match of the lifetime, and at his lowest point, the crowd picked him up and he knows that he is Johnny Gargano, he is Johnny Freakin’ Wrestling. He will never forget Takeover: Philadelphia, but there is something else he will never forget: a crutch shot to the back. He’s been holding his words since Chicago. Gargano fires up and says he’s coming from Ciampa, face-to-face, man-to-man… and Andrade Almas’s music hits. Almas and Zelina Vega come out.

Vega says that Almas should have been out getting confetti instead of hearing how Gargano lost. Gargano didn’t prove anything except that he is a loser, and Ciampa had nothing to do with Almas winning. Almas has beaten Gargano over and over. He should be called “Johnny Loser.” The crowd calls for Candace LaRae. Gargano says that his favorite part of Takeover was getting the crowd’s respect, his second favorite was his wife beating up Vega. Vega gets in Gargano’s face and starts shoving him. LaRae comes out to push her over and out of the ring, then Gargano hits Almas. Almas and LaRae go to the ramp. Vega wants to know what it will take to get rid of Gargano, Ciampa got sick of him, what will it take? Gargano wants another title match. Vega says they will grant another shot, but if Gargano loses he will leave NXT. Gargano agrees. LaRae seems a bit unhappy about it. She says “what are you doing?” off camera.

[ J.J.’s Reax: Hot, hot, hot, HOT segment. Ha.]

Backstage with Shayna Baszler “earlier today”. She says in one month she has become the most feared woman in NXT. Ask Dakota Kai, as Ember Moon. Her opponents can tap, nap, or snap. There won’t be a rematch because Moon is scared. Baszler already ripped her arm out and the win was a fluke.

Bianca Belair is listed to be in action next. Nice to see they are promoting her. Next week, Pete Dunne defends the UK Championship against Roderick Strong.

Backstage with Tyler Bate to ask about losing to Strong. It is hard to not be upset, but he congratulates Strong and says that he isn’t out of the race. He seems to indicate that we will see more of him on NXT.

(2) BIANCA BELAIR vs. JESSICS HILL

[Q3] Bianca looks incredulous at Hill’s pre-match handshake offer. Belair takes it, then doesn’t let go. Belair’s smile turns to evil, she grabs Hill, pulls her in for a backbreaker rack, does squats, then casually hits an Attitude Adjustment. Fallaway Powerbomb (Ranallo calls it the Alleyoop) ends it.

WINNER: Bianca Belair in 1:10. Wow, Belair just HAS IT. She combines the sheer personality and evil swagger that took Sasha Banks years to develop with the power and in-ring presence of Beth Phoenix.

Quick package on Kairi Sane.

Aleister Black is billed for a match next week. A tweet from Moon is shown offering a title match to Baszler any time, any place. It seems that the match may be next week as well.

[ J.J.’s Reax: one has to assume that another loss to Moon by Baszler will be unacceptable in terms of her credibility. ]

So, is the tornado tag team match still for the Tag Team Championships? Because Sanity originally was going to have their rematch tonight.

(3) NXT Tag Team Champions UNDISPUTED ERA (BOBBY FISH & KYLE O’REILLY) & ADAM COLE vs. SANITY (ERIC YOUNG & KILLIAN DAIN & ALEXANDER WOLFE) – Tornado Tag Team Match

Sanity jumps Undisputed Era pre-match, so the ref rings the bell anyways. Sanity clears the ring, then takes it to the outside. This is just a brawl, not a match. Wolfe takes a chair to Fish and Young preps a table on the outside. Cole avoids a suplex through the table. Wolfe gets the other end of things. O’Reilly sits Wolfe in the chair and hits him with knee strikes then lands a running knee from the apron. Very memorable. Dainis crushing Fish in the corner. Cole and O’Reilly drag Young to the basement. Fish has a superkick to stun Dan then a moonsault almost ends the match. Wolfe, Young, Cole, and O’Reilly and fighting in the basement/backstage of the arena. Fish gets a kendo stick, Dain catches it and smashes it out of Fish’s hands. Fish hightails it out of the ring and onto the ramp. Fish seems to beg off, then hits Dain with a forearm, Dain does it back and Fish is down. Dain throws Fish off the stage and onto everyone else at next to the stage. [c]

Dain has Cole alone in the ring while everyone else is knocked out next to the ring. Enziguri knocks Dain out.

[Q4] Wolfe comes in, ducks an enziguri, nails a jumping sit out powerbomb but O’Reilly breaks up the pin. Fish and O’Reill demolish Wolfe in the corner, exploder suplex from Fish, cover, running senton from Dain breaks up the cover. Dain with a Minchonoku Drive on O’Reilly onto Fish, cover, Cole breaks it up. Big elbow off the top from Young breaks up the cover. Young avoids a superkick from Cole, hits one of his own, ace kick from O’Reilly, Wolfe with a German Suplex, Fish comes in, Dain stops Fish then kicks Cole off the apron. Cole slumps against the table. Dain wants a rolling senton but Cole ducks and Dain crushes the table instead. Action continues to go around and around, until it is just Wolfe. Superkick from Cole, Chasing the Dragon, but a kendo stuck from Young saves the match. Superkick from Cole stops Young’s rally. Shoulderbraker from Cole, kickout from Young. Undisputed Era can’t understand why they aren’t winning. Dain is slowly recovering and bringing himself into the ring. Dain invites them to attack him, they swarm and he shakes them off. Wasteland to Cole, dropkick plus senton to Cole and Fish, crossbody to O’Reilly. Ulster Plantation on Fish ends it.

WINNERS: Sanity in 14:28. Really fun match here. Sanity is still owed a title match. Dain was just amazing here. Cole proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that his moveset is extraordinarily limited. He hit countless superkicks and enziguris, and nothing else beyond basic wrestling school 101 moves and his shoulder breaker. Undisputed Era may have the worst records of any champions in NXT history while holding the titles. I will ask Harley Pageot to confirm this on tonight’s PWT Talks NXT episode.

FINAL REAX: Good episode, particularly the Gargano/LaRae – Almas/Vega segment, and the main event.

NOW CHECK OUT LAST WEEK’S REPORT: 1/31 NXT TV Report: Takeover aftermath, Strong vs. Bate for #1 contender to UK Championship, Cross vs. Evans, TM61 in-ring return