NXT TakeOver: San Antonio (January 2017)

Original Airdate: January 28, 2017

From San Antonio, Texas; Your Hosts are Tom Phillips, Corey Graves, and Percy Watson

Opening Match: Tye Dillinger v Eric Young: Young gives him a chance to avoid his fate by joining his crew, but Dillinger rebukes him in violent fashion, and Eric bails. Back in for a ten-punch count, but Young goes to the eyes, and dumps him over the top for Killian Dane to abuse. That allows Eric a nice flying elbowdrop on the way back in, but Dillinger rolls to the floor to avoid getting covered. Young works him over on the way back in again, and a neckbreaker is worth two. Turnbuckle smash leads to a dive off the top rope, but Dillinger knocks him out of the air with a dropkick, and we get a slugfest that ends in Tye grabbing him by the hair on his chinny chin chin to setup a headbutt. Dillinger mounts a comeback, and an overhead superplex is worth two. Tye Breaker, but Young's buddies come in to prevent him from hitting it. He fights them off and manager to deliver it, but Young is in the ropes at two, and his crew pull him out to avoid more punishment. Dillinger dives after all three of them with a plancha, but a flying bodypress is reversed for two, and Young hits the Youngblood for the pin at 10:55. This one came off as amateurish at points, and it took a while to get going, but it built into a decent little match by the end of it. * ¼

Andrade Almas v Roderick Strong: Feeling out process to start, and Strong gets the better of an exchange with a leg lariat for two, then adds a backbreaker. Almas bails, but manages to snap Strong's throat across the ropes as he tries following, and he beats him down in the corner. Vertical suplex, but Strong blocks, so Almas goes with an armbreaker while hanging on the ropes instead. Snapmare and a seated dropkick get two, and Almas goes back at the arm with a fujiwara armbar, then a hammerlock-slam to setup a springboard moonsault, but Strong dodges, and delivers a side suplex. The arm slows him down on the follow-up, but he still manages a hangman's clothesline, and a gourdbuster. Dropkick and a nasty backbreaker get two, but a follow-up is countered into a bridging straightjacket suplex for two. Another slugfest goes Almas' way with a big boot, and he grounds Strong in a submission, but Roderick gets the ropes. Almas keeps coming, but gets crotched on the top as he goes up, and Strong delivers a neat sidewalk slam across the top turnbuckle for two! Almas comes back with the hammerlock-DDT, but Strong blocks, so Almas hiptosses him into the turnbuckles instead, then takes his head off with a clothesline. That's enough to setup the cross corner knees, but Strong blocks the hammerlock-DDT again, and hits the Sick Kick for the pin at 11:43. Quite a good match here, with both guys working hard, and building a nice tempo. *** ½

NXT Tag Team Title Match: DIY v The Authors of Pain: Tommaso Ciampa starts with Rezar, and tries to stick and move, but keeps getting clobbered before he can build momentum. Tag to Johnny Gargano, and he gets more of the same - getting pounded by Rezar. That brings Ciampa in without a tag to help clean house, and both champs take dives to the outside on the Authors. The dust settles on Gargano trying a slingshot DDT on Rezar on the way back in, but he gets tossed into the guardrail to block, and Akam stomps him down out there. Back in, the challengers cut the ring in half on Gargano, but he manages to speed away from a double team, and get the tag. Ciampa comes in hot on both men, but a German suplex and a running kneesmash on Akam only gets two. He keeps pounding, but Akam no-sells him, and sends him back flipping to the mat with a clothesline for two. That brings Gargano back for a tandem slingshot shoulderblock for two, but Rezar dodges a second double team, and they hit Ciampa with a powerbomb/neckbreaker combo for two. Last Chapter looks to finish, but Johnny saves with a superkick, and they get both challengers in submission holds - only for Rezar to power out, and help Akam escape. All four men slug it out, and DIY try the Meeting in the Middle (that's a really stupid finisher name), but both end up getting powerbombed, and Ciampa takes the Last Chapter at 14:28. Kind of long for what it was, but decent action, totally carried by Ciampa and Gargano. ** ½

NXT Women's Title Fatal Four-Way Match: Asuka v Billie Kay v Peyton Royce v Nikki Cross: First fall wins it. Billie and Peyton hold hands as the bell sounds, then decide to take their lezzie adventure to the floor and let Nikki deal with Asuka. They square off, when suddenly Kay and Royce slide back in, and start attacking them both. They manage to get Nikki in a tree of woe, but even two-on-one, they can't build any momentum on Asuka, and both get sent to the outside in short order. They keep coming, so Asuka German suplexes them both at once, but that allows Nikki to pop in with a Thesz-press. Asuka ignores it and delivers a bridging German suplex for two, then hip attacks both Royce and Kay off the apron! Cross is able to use that to hit a neckbreaker on the champion, and follows up with an inverted DDT for two, but misses a charge, and goes crashing out of the ring. Asuka follows, but ends up getting hit with a neat elevated whiplash neckbreaker on the floor as she does, and Nikki follows up with a flying bodypress onto the gal pals out there. They double team to build some momentum on Nikki for a brawl over to the entrance area, and manage to put her through a table with a tandem vertical suplex. They head back to the ring to finish off Asuka, and don't even fight over who gets to make the pin - Kay gladly helping Royce with a cover, but Asuka still kicking out at two. They are so right though, women are much more mature than men. Unfortunately for them, love does not trump Asuka, and Royce gets pinned at 9:51. This match answers the age old question 'can Asuka carry three people to a decent match?' * ¾

Main Event: NXT Title Match: Shinsuke Nakamura v Bobby Roode: Roode brings a ho-train with him for his entrance, while Nakamura rides out on one of the carts they'd use to get fatties down to the ring for the Rumble the following night. An extended feeling out process to start, with Bobby frustrating the champion by hiding in the ropes all along the way. Nakamura finally gets tired of him and starts throwing kicks, but a trip to the top rope backfires when Bobby knocks him all the way out to the floor! Roode follows out to send Nakamura into the steps a couple of times before bringing things back inside with a cross corner clothesline and a 2^nd rope flying axehandle for two. Roode grounds him with a headvice, but Nakamura doesn’t want to play along, so Bobby gives him a pair of kneedrops for two instead. Nakamura fires back with some knees of his own and an enzuigiri leads to a bootchoke in the corner, but Roode dodges a charge, and snaps the champs throat across the top rope. Bobby with another 2^nd rope flying axehandle, but Nakamura moves, and tries for the inverted exploder, but Bobby blocks. Nakamura comes with more knees to successfully setup the inverted exploder suplex, but Bobby wisely stays down to avoid the follow-up - schoolboying a frustrated Nakamura for two. That was a nice bit of psychology there. Roode adds a lungblower for two, and a rotating spinebuster is worth two. Superplex, but Nakamura blocks with a gourdbuster, and a 2^nd rope flying kick follows - only for Roode to block Kinshasa, and hook a leveraged pin for two! Nakamura tries for the cross-armbreaker, but Roode blocks, and ends up in a triangle choke. He tries to power out of that, but Nakamura dropkicks him for two, so Bobby again distances himself to avoid the kill shot. That forces Nakamura to go out of his comfort zone with a dive, and he bangs his knee on the floor in the process. That slows him down on the way back in, and though he hits Kinshasa, he can't cover! They really sell it by bringing an official out to check on him and everything, but he wants to continue, so Roode drives him with lifting DDT for two. Hey, he consented. Nakamura is still battered, but Bobby shows no mercy with a half-crab. Nakamura manages to counter to a triangle, but eats another lifting DDT to crown a new champion at 27:07. This was kind of tedious and overlong, with the feeling out process taking up about a third of it, and never really getting to that next level that a half hour main event match needs to be. Great psychology throughout, though. ** ¾

BUExperience: Easily the worst of the NXT super cards thus far, with a gutted roster looking amateurish at times, and nothing worth going out of your way to see. Very disappointing.

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