The One Where Asuka Surrenders the Belt – NXT Recap and Reaction – 9/6/2017

Another episode of NXT from the Full Sail Arena.  As per usual, this was prerecorded so there were spoilers out there, but what’s the fun in that?

The Empress of Tomorrow may have successfully defended the belt against Ember Moon again at NXT Takeover Brooklyn III, but she broke a collarbone in the process.  What I expected to be the announcement that she was surrendering the title because of the injury requiring a longer recovery time than the 30 days she’s allowed (because she’s not Brock Lesnar) was actually William Regal announcing that she’s headed to either Raw or Smackdown Live as they’ve opened negotiations with both General Managers.

The entire locker room came out to the stage to give her the curtain call she definitely deserved.   Ember Moon went all the way to the ring to give her a hug, which was a cool moment.  And the man himself, Triple H, even made his way out with his trademark bouquet of flowers to raise the champ’s hand and trade her the flowers for the title.

The Rest of the Show

• Andrade Cien Almas def. Cezar Bononi via pinfall- Vega was on commentary talking him up, and Almas was significantly more aggressive than typical.  I like this character development.  Vega is a good mouth piece to pair with Almas’s in ring prowess.
• Regal puts the foot down, telling Fish, O’Reilly and Cole to take care of their business in the ring, not attacking people from behind or in parking lots.
• Lars Sullivan def. Three Jobbers in a Handicapped Match – Sullivan is a monster, and this was a pretty good “Braun Strowman build” move to have him just thrash these three guys.  He continued the beating once the match was over and No Way Jose came to the rescue, only to take a beating himself.  Sullivan is never going to be much of a promo guy, so I doubt very seriously if he’ll ever rise beyond the low-to-mid card level, but it’s nice to have talent there too.
• Johnny Gargano footage from performance center interview.  Apparently they’re going to let him run a feud with Tino Sabatelli or Riddick Moss.  I forgot they even still worked there.
• Promo package for Sonya Deville.  It wasn’t one of their best, but it looks like she’s poised to finally get a push.
• A Sanity video promo about Fish, O’Reilly and Cole’s attack on them.  The content of the promo was good, and having Nikki Cross laughing in the background was a nice touch.  Whomever thought it was a good idea to film it the way they did was wrong in that decision.
• Sonya Deville def. Zeda via submission- A little odd to do the Sanity video between the promo for Deville and this match.  I just assumed she wasn’t wrestling tonight.  She won pretty quickly, locking in the Triangle Armbar.  I don’t know what the plan for the Title is, but she figures to be a prominent figure in the women’s title picture.
• More footage from the Performance Center, this time you see William Regal watching Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch working on tag team maneuvers, which could be cool if they go that route.  Ruby Riot asks for a Handicapped Match against the Iconic Duo, but Regal can’t in good conscience make that match happen, but gives her a tag match and tells her to find a partner.
• Kassius Ohno def. Hideo Itami in a No DQ Match via pinfall – Not sure if it’s a work or not, but Ohno was working an elbow injury throughout, so we’ll keep an eye on that.  It would suck for Chris Hero to go down already, but then again they don’t seem to have much direction for him anyway.  Itami kept yelling at the crowd to show him respect, so inevitably his failure to capitalize cost him in the end.  He also took a wicked low blow and sold it like a champ.

Reactions:

Percy appears to be getting more and more confident each week, and is finally starting to hold his own on the desk with Mauro and Nigel.  I don’t know how long Nigel will be on the NXT broadcasts now that he’s handling 205 Live and Main Event, but we’ll see.  He works well with Mauro.

This episode was packed, with four matches, all the promos and the lengthy Asuka segment.  Almas is a fantastic talent, so I’m glad they’re capitalizing on it and running a story line for him with Vega.  Solid NXT episode.

I’m curious to see what the plan is for crowning a new women’s champion, mostly because a rumor has been swirling that the winner of the Mae Young Classic will be named the new NXT Women’s Champ, which sort of seems like leapfrogging the women already in the division who have been putting in the work while Asuka has held down the crown.