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NXT Tampa
July 13, 2018
University Community Development Center
Attendance: 475 (with the count I made per seat it came to 450 and the rest comes from people standing)
Nick Miller defeated Montez Ford and Wesley Blake
The winner of this singles match determined which tag team would face UE for tag titles in main event.
This was a great opening match that had a strong element of drama in it due to the title opportunity provided to the winner and his tag partner. Ford looked great throughout the match and was the crowd favorite. Blake and Miller double teamed Ford for the first half of the match until eventually turning on each other. When Ford was about to win by pinning Blake, Cutler snuck out and hit the bottom rope making the ref believe Blake hit it with his hand or foot which stopped him from completing the three count. It was a fantastic heel move that garnered a lot of heat from the crowd, the most I have seen the Forgotten Sons receive on one of these recent Coconut Loop shows. Miller won after Ford hit frog splash on Blake only for Miller to grab Ford and throw him out of the ring to then get the pin on Blake. This result made the main event of the show The Mighty (no more 61, at least on this show) against the Undisputed Era for the NXT Tag Team Championship.
Jessie, Xia Li, and Candice Larae defeated Bianca Blair, Lacey Evans, and Vanessa Borne
This was a decent match with many of these female grapplers improving and looking better than what I have seen with them previously. Jessie looked good in this, she has improved her skills in the ring and has new ring attire that fits her persona. Before she would just come out in jean shorts with a white shirt with the face of a wolf on it and glasses. Tonight, she had a blue spandex top with really cool looking blue wrestling boots. She is a very good looking woman and this attire made her look beautiful while also making her look like a serious wrestler.
Candice was the best wrestler in this match followed closely by Lacey Evans, who really knows how to work her gimmick to get hear from the crowd. Li played the babyface in distress throughout the match but she eventually made the hot tag to Candice who came in to a loud pop from the crowd. Candice cleared the ring and then hit a fantastic jumping Tornado DDT on Lacey Evans. Candice then hit a beautiful high angle Lionsault on the fallen Evans for win.
Danny Burch defeated Tian Bing w/Rocky
Danny Burch received a good reaction from the crowd with many throwing up two fingers during his entrance. Danny looked great throughout the match and it seemed like he was almost coaching Tian Bing in the ring but nothing like calling shots, was obvious. I cannot put Danny Burch’s abilities over more, he was able to get a good match that had heat with an inexperienced wrestler who barely speaks English. Burch was the babyface and for the first time that I have seen, Tian Bing played the heel. This match was very hard hitting with Tian’s kicks looking brutal and making loud noises when they connected with no noticeable knee slapping tricks. Burch also hit many stiff European Uppercuts and two menacing looking headbutts on Tian Bing. While Burch controlled most of the match, Tian was able to get the upper hand through cheap tactics only for Burch to make the comeback in a vicious fashion which the crowd reacted strongly to. At one point during the middle of the match, Burch was doing some impressive chain wrestling when one fan decided to sarcastically yell, “Wrestling! Yeah!” multiple times. Burch then completed a nice reversal of an armbar that led to a snapmare which he transitioned to a chinlock and while he was in this hold, he yelled back at the fan, “Wrestling! Yeah!” which got a large reaction of laughter and cheers from the crowd. Burch eventually won after hitting a devastating springboard front dropkick on Bing and he then applied a crossface for the submission victory.
Marcel Barthel defeated Dan Matha
This was a really good match in my opinion that involved a fun and entertaining local Florida Loop angle. At NXT: Largo a couple of weeks ago, Matha ditched Barthel in a tag match against the War Raiders which caused Barthel to get destroyed by them. Barthel sought and gained his vengeance in this great match that surpassed my expectations. Marcel Barthel played the babyface during this match, which is the first time I have seen this since he has been such a great heel recently on the Loop and Matha played a fantastic heel. The match started with Matha coming out and cutting a decent promo explaining why he left Barthel to defend for himself. Basically, he said that he was dominating that tag match and that Barthel was dead weight that he had to get rid of which led to Barthel’s entrance. It was a solid wrestling match with a good story behind it. Barthel played a surprisingly good babyface but relyed a little to heavily on yelling ‘nein’ to try to elicit a chant from the crowd which worked several times. I just found that a little strange because the ‘nein!’ promos he cut at previous shows got a good amount of heat and I hope that this does not hurt the heat he got from this tactic when he is a heel again down the line. Matha controlled most of the match during which he was able to get heat from taunting the crowd. Barthel did a decent job of selling and eventually made his comeback to win with a pin after hitting a spinning European uppercut from the middle turnbuckle. I am not sure if the finish was botched because Matha kicked out right as the ref counted three which led to some confusion with the ref who then gave the victory to Barthel. This made the crowd confused momentarily at the end which hurt the reaction of Barthel’s victory. I am not sure if that was supposed to be the finish or not. Still a good match with a good story told by all involved.
EC3 defeated Kona Reeves
Another pretty good match with Kona receiving a decent negative reaction from the crowd during his entrance. Kona was also able to get heat from the crowd throughout the match with cheap tactics and by yelling “I am the Finest of NXT!” throughout the match. EC3 was really over with this crowd especially since they announced he was from Palm Springs, Florida (kayfabe, from Ohio) during his entrance. Both wrestlers communicated with the crowd well to garner heat and used good verbiage while doing so. EC3 was able to pump the crowd up during his comebacks by leading chants of EC3 and NX3, he was really over with the kids in attendance. Kona stated that Florida is trash compared to Hawaii and that it smelled like rotten oranges while never forgetting to state that he was the finest. Kona also utilized interesting and effective heel antics that generated heat throughout the match to cut EC3’s offensive momentum off. With the best heel antic coming from Kona being trapped between the middle and top rope with EC3 trying to grapple him. Kona then pulled backed the top ring rope which bounced around to hit EC3’s throat cutting him off once again. Eventually EC3 overpowered Kona during his final comeback and nailed his fireman’s carry cutter finisher, the One Percenter, to attain victory after he pinned Kona.
Intermission
Velveteen Dream defeated Brennan Williams
This was an average match and I expected more from Velveteen Dream because he has been putting on some great matches lately on the Loop. Brennan Williams came out with a new Goth look with black mascara thickly layered around his eyes and played the heel of this match.
Dream was incredibly over with the crowd and got a big pop during his entrance. Dream was the babyface and Williams surprisingly controlled most of the match that included a good amount of headlocks and other rest holds. Williams did hit a good looking springboard elbow drop. Dream made a quick comeback and won after hitting his trip DDT to score the pin.
NXT Women’s Championship
Shayna Baszler defeated Nikki Cross
This was a very good match that had heat with good reactions from the crowd. Nikki was over strongly with the crowd throughout this bout but there were some pockets of hardcore Shayna Baszler fans that made themselves be heard. This was a very good wrestling match for the Loop, Baszler gets better every time I see her and she looked improved once again tonight. Cross really played up her gimmick by acting crazy and unpredictable which led her to hit some good offensive maneuvers on Baszler. Baszler would then cut her off and hit her own really strong looking strikes along with effective limb targeting. Shayna Baszler went for her Kurfida Clutch but Nikki was able to get out of it by going to ropes to propel herself off of the top ring rope using her legs to spring off them causing her to land on Baszler to break her he hold (reminiscent of what Bret Hart did to Steve Austin or Roddy Piper, only with no pin). Nikki Cross then hit a nice looking crossbody from the top turnbuckle for a nearfall that got a big reaction from the crowd. Baszler then won after reversing a move by Cross into a wrist lock that she used to pull Cross into a vicious knee to her face.
Side Note: I left directly after the main event ended to beat the traffic and ran into Nikki packing up her car to leave and Robbie Brookside escorted her there. I told her great match and she told me thank you so much in a deeply Scottish accent. Brookside was staring a hole threw me and I told him, “Mr. Brookside, great job with these wrestlers and I admire your work!” He then had a big smile plastered on his face as he thanked me and I went on my way. I think he thought I was going to hound her for something as she was trying to leave but I did not want to be disrespectful plus my phone ran out of batteries so I couldn’t get a picture anyway. ;)
Main Event: NXT Tag Team Championship
The Undisputed Era (Kyle O’Reilly and Roderick Strong) defeated The Mighty
This was a good main event with the Mighty playing the heels and the Undisputed Era playing heelish babyfaces. The Undisputed Era controlled the majority of the first half of the match only for the Mighty to take control through cheap double team tactics. Both teams hit some entertaining maneuvers and sequences that were action packed. The Mighty looked better than I have ever seen them and this might had to do with them being brought up by their competition. The Mighty hit several strong double team moves like a spin-out powerbomb with a collaborating neckbreaker combination and several double team belly to back suplexes. The Undisputed Era would make a comeback with their own devastating double team maneuvers and eventually won after hitting a running knee to the face by Strong in coordination with a legsweep from O’Reilly on Shane Thorne for the pin and the win.
Overall: The card did not excite me which is probably why the building, while having every seat filled, did not have more people in the standing general admission sections like normal. Not having their top guys, especially Ricochet and Adam Cole, on the card contributed to this. While I thought the show would be average but the wrestler’s performances along with the local old school simple angles put into play tonight made it a pretty strong and very fun show.
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