On Continental Grounds – NXT Recap – June 28, 2017

Another prerecorded episode of NXT comes to you (not)live from the Full Sail Arena in Orlando, Florida.  It marks the return of Mauro Renallo on commentary, and you have to know how much I missed him.  He slots in quite well with Nigel McGuinness.

Tonight’s card is a decent one, headlined by a Last Woman Standing match between Asuka and Nikki Cross, but let’s check in with the general manager.

In the second segment of this week’s NXT, William Regal sits at his desk, flanked on both sides by Heavy Machinery and Authors of Pain.  As they were going back and forth trading barbs, Regal channeled his inner Ian McShane and reminded all four competitors that they were in his office, and in his office there would be no altercations.

Maybe it’s because I’ve just recently watched both John Wick films, but I pretty much just heard “there will be no business conducted on Continental grounds.”  And in a lot of ways, William Regal performs his duties as GM of NXT much like Winston operates the New York territory.  He’s always quietly around, ready to impart both wisdom and judgment as necessary, and with absolute authority in his realm.

Anyway, I was watching NXT at 4 in the morning, so maybe I’m just in a weird head space.  Let’s talk about the rasslin’.

Last Woman Standing

As you’ve undoubtedly been reminded throughout the week by every possible representative of the WWE organization, women headlined the card of Raw, Smackdown and NXT all in the same week.  This match was the absolute best of the three.  Not only was it essentially a hardcore match, Asuka ate a suplex onto a pile of chairs and the entrance ramp and Nikki Cross was suplexed off the top of a ladder through the announcers table.  It didn’t matter who won this match by the end, because holy shit.  That match was absolute fire.  Asuka wins via KO on Cross following a Suplex through the announcer’s table from the top of a ladder.

The Rest of the Evening:

• Hideo Itami def. Oney Lorcan: This one was weird.  Lorcan came out firing, landing a diving elbow into the corner as the bell was ringing, which appeared to break Itami’s nose.  The referee called the match and Itami went to the back.  Randomly, after a lengthy reminder that Strong and Roode will have a match because Roode is an ass and Strong has been pushing boulders uphill since birth, the two came back to the ring and finished the match, and Itami landed the GTS to finish the job (not 3 like the last time).
• Following the match, Itami called Kassius Ohno to the ring.  As the two looked at each other, they were attacked by Sanity (sans Eric Young).  This was a really weird way to set up to a match between the four of them, which will happen next week, and it’s weird to me that they keep considering maybe having Ohno be the new Dillinger to Sanity, but they can’t really settle on it so they just keep dipping a toe in the water but not diving all the way in.  It’s just weird.  Anyway, Ohno and Itami vs the other two Sanity guys will be next week.
• In two weeks, while we’re announcing matches, Heavy Machinery will get their tag team title opportunity against The Authors of Pain.
• “The Velveteen Dream” Patrick Clark def. Hoho Lun: If the goal is to build Prince 2.0 as a bad ass in the ring, setting his 220+ pound person in the ring with a 150 pound cruiserweight isn’t necessarily the best way to go about it.  Lun gets a few strikes in, but this one was all Clark as he landed the Purple Rainmaker Elbow Drop, which is a thing of beauty.  Velveteen Dream gets the win via pinfall.

That’s NXT for this week.  Catch you next week as we’ve got a full week of things to cover, with John Cena’s return on July 4th, a new women’s number one contender on Raw, the fallout from Carmella remaining Ms. MitB, and of course, Great Balls of Fire PPV next Sunday night.  We’ll cover it all, and we’re updating the website and hopefully bringing some new content types in the coming few weeks.  Really exciting times at The Dark Match.  Be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter and share us with your friends.  Doesn’t matter if they like wrestling, maybe they will enjoy reading my rants while I’m fighting bouts of insomnia and still somehow cohesively recapping Smackdown on Tuesday nights.

Join us again, same Dark Match time, same Dark Match channel.