Monday, June 27, 2022

NXT In Your House (June 2022)

Original Airdate: June 4, 2022


From Orlando, Florida; Your Hosts are Vic Joseph and Wade Barrett


Opening Six-Man Tag Team Match: Santos Escobar, Joaquin Wilde, and Cruz Del Toro v Tony D'Angelo, Channing Lorenzo, and Troy Donovan: Losing team joins the winning team's stable here, which is certainly… a stipulation. I really don’t like the half-hearted take on the classic In Your House set for this thing. Why not go all in with it? And speaking of going all in with things, have we ever seen a mafia themed stable that wasn’t lame? The best ones are the ones that don’t have overt mafia themes, like the Horsemen. Finish comes after a collision in the corner results in a loopy Channing falling on top of Wilde for the pin at 12:45. *


NXT Women's Tag Team Title Match: Gigi Dolin and Jacy Jayne v Katana Chance and Kayden Carter: The champs attack before the bell,but the babyfaces fight them off with stereo dives to the outside. Inside to officially start the match, and Katana gets a corner dropkick on Jacy for two. Another dropkick as she passes to Carter, and the challengers dominate Jacy using quick tags. Gigi takes a cheap shot on Katana to turn the tide, however, and Toxic Attraction work Chance over. Carter gets a tag and runs wild on both heels, but eats a forearm from Jacy, and Dolin tags back in to turn the tide back in the favor of the champions. Katana gets a tag with a flying double stomp on Jacy for two, and man, does Jayne take all the covers for this team? Gigi runs in, but the challengers fight off the double team, and hit Jacy with a rana off the top for two. Chance goes to the top, but Jayne slams her off, and the heels hit her with a combo for two when Carter saves - Roseanne Barr the door! Katana’s standing shooting star press is really weird, and doesn’t even make sense in kayfabe. It doesn’t even connect! Dropping a feather would have more impact. Gigi gets Carter in a bridging German suplex at 9:01 (9:33 total) to retain. This was kind of all over the place, messy, and generally amateurish. Though, that’s certainly a lot more forgivable on a developmental brand. ¾*


NXT North American Title Match: Cameron Grimes v Carmelo Hayes: They do a bunch of reversal sequences to start, trading cradles and holds to stalemates. Grimes gets control, but loses a reversal sequence on the apron, and ends up on the outside. Hayes capitalizes with a dive, but Grimes boots him out of the air, and lands a flying bodypress for two on the way back inside. Grimes tries a slingshot, but Hayes blocks, and delivers a slingshot DDT on the apron that looked like it broke Grimes’ neck. I mean, wow, that looked absolutely brutal, and he’s lucky he’s still able to move. Inside, Hayes goes to work, with Trick Williams lending an assist whenever possible. Hayes with a headscissor facebuster for two, but Grimes catches him with a Spanish fly off the middle rope to buy time. Both guys stagger up for a slugfest, with the champion getting the better of it. Rana sends Hayes to the outside, and Grimes brings him back in with a front-powerslam for two. Reversal sequence ends in Grimes planting a superkick for two, but Hayes blocks an inverted rana, and uses a kneeling facebuster to get himself two. Hayes tries a dive, but misses, and a criss cross allows Grimes a powerslam for two. Inverted rana sends Hayes to the outside, and Grimes is on him with a somersault suiciada - taking Williams out along with his challenger. Trick still manages to distract him on the way back inside, however, and Hayes capitalizes with a flying rocker dropper at 15:30. This was fine. **


NXT Women's Title Match: Mandy Rose v Wendy Choo: According to the video package, this one was basically set up by Choo being a modern Doink the Clown. But the 1994 version. Slugfest to start, won by Rose with a fallaway slam. Mandy spears her in the corner, but Choo ducks a punch, and hooks a backslide for two. Dropkick follows, and a corner big boot finds the mark, but an elbowdrop misses. That allows Rose a dropkick of her own, and she unloads some mounted punches. then ropechokes her a bit for two. Mandy with a snap suplex, and he grounds her challenger in a bodyscissors. Mandy’s tan would make Hulk Hogan blush. I mean, I assume, who can tell, really? Mandy with another suplex, but Choo counters with a cradle for two, so Rose decks her for two. Choo hooks a schoolgirl for two, so Mandy hits her with an inverted gutwrench suplex for two, and works an abdominal stretch. Pinfall reversal sequence ends in a slugfest, and Choo wins both. Choo with a handspring backelbow to set up an elbowdrop, but Mandy wisely rolls out of the ring before the challenger can cover. Choo blasts her with a baseball slide out there, and she tries another handspring out there, but gets caught in a spinebuster on the ramp. Mandy leaves her for dead out there, but Choo beats the count, so Rose delivers another spinebuster as she rolls in - only getting two! Mandy with a running kneesmash in the corner, but Choo blocks… with a body pillow.. and hits Rose with a running dropkick. Choo with mounted punches, and a fireman’s carry slam connects. Choo with a cradle for two, and she goes for the kill with a chinlock/bodyscissors hold, but Rose rolls into the ropes. Undettered, Choo delivers a uranage, but a trip to the top ends badly when Rose slams her off. Rose adds a kneesmash, and that’s it for Wendy at 11:10. Hardly great, but both women were working hard, and the match told a nice story. ** ¼ 


NXT Tag Team Title Match: Elton Prince and Kit Wilson v Brutus Creed and Julius Creed: If the challengers lose, they are out of the Diamond Mine. The champs sucker Brutus right away, and Kit unloads on him in the corner. Brutus fights Wilson off with a pair of waistlock takedowns into a front-facelock, and he biels the champion a few times. Tags all around, and Julius suplexes both champions, then backdrops Elton. Another suplex on Prince, and Julius holds him in a waistlock, so Brutus tries coming in, but Brutus cuts him off, and the challengers deliver stereo German suplexes to clean house. Dust settles on Elton and Julius, and Julius continues to school him on the mat. The challengers dominate Prince with quick tags, but a distraction from Wilson allows Elton to dump Julius over the top. Dust settles on Kit and Brutus, and they slug it out. Brutus gets the better of that, and a clothesline finds the mark. Tag to Julius to pinball Wilson around a bit for two, but Brutus runs into a double team in the corner, and Elton elbowdrops him for two. Julius comes in, so Wilson tries a flying bodypress, but gets caught in a suplex. Meanwhile, Brutus slams Prince off the top, and the champs bail again. Julius chases, but gets sent into the post for his impatience, and the champs work together to drop him across the steps with a uranage. Inside, that gets two, and the tide has firmly turned in the favor of the champions. They cut the ring in half on Julius, but he slips out of a hold applied by the technically inferior Prince, and Brutus gets the hot tag - Roseanne Barr the door! Suplexes commence, and Julius hits Wilson with a flying shooting star press to snag the gold at 15:19. This was a good match, with a hot crowd, and didn’t overstay its welcome. I also dug how both teams felt like old school teams, not just two singles guys who happen to be a team. And that the gimmicks felt right out of In Your House era WWF is gravy. ***


Main Event: NXT Title Match: Bron Breakker v Joe Gacy: The title can change by DQ here. Bron is all fired up, and railroads him into the corner right away, but Gacy stays cool, and responds by slapping him across the face. Breakker takes the bait, allowing Joe a leg lariat, and he adds a backbreaker. Corner whip, but Bron stops short, and rebounds with a clothesline. Suplex follows, and a rotating spinebuster sends Gacy bailing. Bron follows, but gets distracted by Gacy’s hooded corner guys, and Joe is able to shove him into the post. Inside, Gacy delivers a neckbreaker for two, and he holds Breakker in a chinlock from there. Joe with a senton splash on the apron for two, and he goes for the kill with a crossface/bodyscissors hold, but Bron keeps fighting. Gacy responds with a uranage for two, and a clothesline is worth two. Back to the chinlock, and a side suplex when Breakker fights back to a vertical base. Slugfest goes Breakker’s way, however, and he starts making a comeback. Gacy bails following a rotating spinebuster, so Breakker dives after him with a somersault suiciada. It didn’t really find the mark, but let’s pretend. I mean, Gacy is, so why shouldn’t we? Inside, Bron goes for the kill, so Joe’s backup distracts him. That allows Gacy to pass the champion a chair, and Joe plays dead, pretending he got hit. The referee nearly falls for it, but another official runs in before the bell can be called for. It works, but I’ve always disliked the logic behind that spot, since an official isn’t supposed to call anything they don’t actually see. You could be on the mat with a bullet hole in you, and the other guy is holding a literal smoking gun, and it shouldn’t be a DQ if the referee didn’t see it being fired. Anyway, all this distraction allows Gacy a small package for two, but Breakker is good and mad now, and fights him off with a big clothesline. Spear knocks Gacy off of the apron and through the announce table (in a major bump), and Bron seems to have the countout, but he doesn’t want it that way. Whatever, fool. Breakker rolls him in for a 2nd rope bulldog, but it only gets two. Gacy passes him a chair and starts talking trash to lure him into a DQ, but Breakker doesn’t take the bait, so Gacy goes low for two. Now Breakker is really mad, and decides to take the chair, but hits Joe’s hooded crew instead. Spear on Gacy, and a press-powerslam retains at 15:50. For all the work the announcers did in getting the ‘Bron will lose the title if he can’t control his emotions’ story over, the actual in-ring storytelling didn’t really do much with it before the final few minutes, and the finish felt really weak. * ¾ 


BUExperience: A truly innocuous show. It wouldn’t kill you to watch it, it wouldn’t kill you to skip it.


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