NXT, Lucha Underground and Indy Wrestling Minute - Your Weekly Source for Independent Wrestling News

With the shenanigan-fest that was the 2015 Royal Rumble (which I will post a write up for soon), let’s focus on something positive – NXT, Lucha Underground and Indy Wrestling Minute! NXT is hotter than ever and with new talent showing up on Lucha Underground all the time, these shows are getting better every week. Not to mention the tons of independent wrestling that you can indulge in if you take the time to seek it out – or just read Delco Elbow Drop to stay on top of everything!

NXT, 1/21

Starts with a replay of Kevin Owens attacking Sami Zayn after R Evolution. Shows highlights of the Adrian Neville/Zayn rematch last week ending with Owens’ attack after the match.

William Regal announces that the next NXT special is on Feb. 11. Also announces a tournament to determine a #1 contender for the NXT title. And because of the tag match last week, Sasha Banks gets a shot at Charlotte’s NXT Women’s title.

Sami Zayn out to the ring to open the show. He immediately attacks Tye Dillinger who is already in the ring. Lays him out and throws Dillinger over the ropes. Zayn gets on the mic and demands that Kevin Owens come out to the ring. But William Regal comes to the ring instead and asks him what the bloody hell do you think you’re doing. This isn’t the Zayn he knows and he can’t act like this. Zayn says he isn’t wrestling one more match unless it’s against Kevin Owens.

Regal says he won’t allow people to jump the chain of command and attack people to get championship matches. Owens may get a title shot one day but he hasn’t earned a title match and he’s not gonna get one. Zayn says he’ll do anything Regal wants but he needs to get his hands on Kevin Owens. And on Feb 11, Zayn will face Kevin Owens in a nontitle match.

Next week on NXT, there’s gonna be a contract signing for the nontitle match so you know there’s not going to be any shenanigans or anything involved.

Curtis Axel up to take on Finn Balor in the number one contender’s tournament. Axel starts jaw jacking with the crowd and trash talking Finn but Balor takes him out of the ring with a drop kick and follows it with a tope con hilo over the top rope. Axel back in the ring and Balor with a gamanguri and Axel in the ropes and kicks out Balor’s knee as he moves in.

Balor ducks a clothesline but Axel hits him in the back with one. Stomps on him and chokes him out in the corner. Axel follows it up with a dropkick of his own and the crowd boos. Axel drops a few elbows on his head and keeps him on the mat with a chinlock. Balor fights to his feet but Axel takes him down with a knee lift and gets a 2.

Axel from the second rope drops and elbow but misses. Balor hits two quick forearms followed by a Pele kick and a Tanahashi sling blade. He hits a stiff dropkick on Axel in the corner who crumples to the mat and Balor drops a double foot stomp from the top to get the win and advance.

8 men in the #1 contender’s tournament. Neville/Kidd will face Balor. Then winner of Hideo Itami vs Tyler Breeze and Bull Dempsey vs Baron Corbin face off.

Sasha Banks tells Devin Taylor that Charlotte isn’t going to have anyone to help her tonight and she will become the NXT Women’s champion. She asks if Devin has any more questions but whips her hair in Devin’s face and says “Don’t care” as she leaves. (So Bayley is coming back tonight, right?)

Sasha vs Charlotte now. They lock up and start throwing each other around in the collar tie. Graves talks about how they don’t get along and won’t be in the same room as each other in the Performance Center. Tie up again and keep pushing each other around and they tumble through the ropes and land hard on the floor and Charlotte up first, pounding on Sasha. Becky tries to get involved but Charlotte takes her down with a line.

Back in the ring, Charlotte bodyslam Sasha and gets a 2 off a knee drop. Sasha reverses a whip into a Thesz press. Charlotte reverses into one of her own. Becky gets in the ring and pulls Charlotte off Sasha and Euro uppercut Charlotte a few times. The ref calls for the bell and Sasha pushes Becky but then they both start putting the boots to Charlotte until Bayley makes the save!

Bayley takes the NXT Women’s title from the ref and gets an eye full of it before Charlotte takes it from her. Bayley gets a crazy look in her eye and turns Charlotte around and drops her with a Hugplex!

Regal comes out and says on Feb 11, Charlotte defends the title against Bayley, Becky and Sasha in a fatal four way.

Totally makes sense to advertise for a WWE video called “True Giants” about the biggest guys ever in WWF/WWE on a show where the most popular stars are Sami Zayn, Finn Balor and Hideo Itami. I’m sure it’s just Vince subtly taking a shot at the NXT guys by running this ad during NXT.

In the locker room, Kevin Owens is on his phone and some dude I’ve never seen comes up to him and asks his he can have a moment of his time. Owens looks at him and goes “Do you work here?” Owens says that whatever he has to say to Zayn, he’ll say it at the signing next week.

The Vaudevillains out to take on Wesley Blake and Buddy Murphy. Murphy starts with English and takes him down with a leg lariat. But English backs him into his own corner and puts the boots to him. Gotch tags in and they take control of Murphy. They use quick tags to keep Murphy on the mat until Murphy can leap over English to tag in Blake.

Blake takes down English with elbows and forearms, hits a springboard forearm and kips up and the crowd seems behind them. Blake powerslam English but Gotch breaks up the count. Murphy tries to throw Gotch out but gets tossed himself. Blake whips english who reverses but Blake pulls him down a Murphy hits him with a big kick from the floor and Blake gets the pin!

On a phone video, Tyler Breeze says it’s only a matter of time until he’s NXT Champion and once he is, he’s separating the world into super good looking people, and uggo people.

Murphy and Blake apparently get a shot at the Lucha Dragons NXT Tag Team Titles next week. I guess because there’s like, no tag teams in NXT.

Tyler Breeze to take on Hideo Itami now. Looks like Marcus Louis is stalking Breeze, he was watching him from behind the stage during his entrance. Then I thought I saw a dude decked out all in black coming down the ramp behind Breeze but it could’ve just been a stage hand.

Breeze and Itami tie up and Breeze ducks a few head kicks just barely. Breeze goads Itami in as the ref is between them and kicks him in the gut. Itami off the whip and kitchen sinks Breeze which seats him on the mat and Itami follows it with a kick to his chest. Itami cover and kick out at 1.

Back and forth match. Itami trying to use his strikes but Breeze keeps him off balance and grounded with a chin lock. Breeze spins Itami around with a neckbreaker and gets a 2. Itami gets to his feet and drops Breeze with 3 lines, catches a kick and sweeps the leg. Itami running knee to the corner and tiltawhirl drops the neck of Breeze on the top rope and gets a 2.

Breeze sets up for a power bomb and Itami kicks him in the face on the way up and gets a 2 off a Fisherman suplex. Breeze gets a 2 off a Super Model Kick.

Breeze sets Itami on the top rope but Itami fires back with punches. Itami goes for a big kick but Breeze catches it, boot to the stomach then takes him over with a crucifix bomb but gets a 2.

Breeze picks him up and yells in his face “You are not better than me! You don’t get to win!” and lays in punches. But Itami gets fired up and feels that fighting spirit and hits a huge combo of punches and kicks, hits a basement dropkick in the corner, takes Breeze to the center and hits a Sick Kick off the ropes and gets the pin. He’ll face the winner of Baron Corbin/Bull Dempsey next week.

Obviously, this is setting up for Balor vs Itami in the finals.

The NXT event scheduled for March in Columbus, Ohio sold out almost immediately, I’ve heard. The venue wasn’t very large but almost as soon as the tickets went on sale, they were all gone.

Lucha Underground, 1/21

Matt Striker and Vampiro opens LU by saying that King Cuerno and Drago will have a “Last Luchadore Standing” match tonight.

In the ring, Cortez Castro and Mr. Cisco are in the ring with weapons (with Bael). They take on Pimpinela Escarlata and Mascarita Sagrada.

See, this is why Lucha Underground (and lucha libre in general) gets about pro wrestling. Putting guys in the ring who are obviously at opposite ends of the personality/gimmick spectrum against each other to really get the crowd behind the faces and booing the heels. There isn’t much middle ground - you know who’s the good guy and who’s the bad guy from first glance.

Pimpy starts first against Cisco. He’s spinning around, enjoying the adulation of the crowd until Cisco attacks him. Cisco ties him up with a full nelson and Castro comes in to lay in punches but Pimpy wriggles free and ties up Castro with a knuckle lock. He jumps over Cisco and takes Castro to the corner, walking the ropes, leaps off and takes Cisco down with a head scissor and Castro down with an arm drag.

As Big Ryck makes his way down to the ring, Pimpy jumps into the arms of Cisco and tries to kiss him, but he pushes him off and rolls out of the ring. Pimpy turns his attention to referee Rick Knox and backs him up into the corner and wants to kiss him and Cisco runs at him from behind and just gets out of the way in time. Pimpy whips him into the opposite corner and Cisco gets out of the way and as he does, Cortez enziguri Pimpy, Cisco basement dropkick and Bael basement dropkick behind Knox’s back and The Crenshaw Crew is in firm control.

Cortez tags in and lays in punches followed by a gutwrench. Cisco back in and curb stomp and senton to Pimpy. Pimpy in their corner and trying to fight back but getting overwhelmed by all three Crenshaw Crew members.

Pimpy into the corner and Cortez follows but Pimpy sticks out his butt and Cortez runs into it and gets stunned. Pimpy uses the opening to tag in Sagrada who rana Cisco and a big tiltawhirl DDT but only a 2. Cortez tries to drop the elbow on him but hits Cisco. Cisco Mafia kick on Sagrada and they taunt the crowd. Picks up Sagrada and whips him off the ropes but he ducks them and tope con hilo through the ropes onto Bael.

In the ring, Pimpy knuckle lock on both guys, step up to the top, drop down spring board off the ropes and arm drag both over. He kisses Cisco who rolls out of the ring and Pimpy heads up top to splash all three Crenshaw Crew on the outside.

As he celebrates on the outside, Cisco sends Sagrada off the ropes and flapjacks him backward onto the knees of Cortez. Bael holds Pimpy’s legs so he can’t get in the ring before Sagrada is pinned.

Big Ryck in the ring with the Crenshaw Crew after the match. Vampiro says he’s smoking in a no smoking zone so you know he’s definitely a bad guy.

Ryck gives his cigar to Cisco to hold and he looks annoyed about it. Ryck takes the mic and says he wants to let everyone know (and turns to make it known he means the CrenshawCrew too) that he’s coming after the gold and whoever is holding it. But then, Cortez chop blocks Ryck and the Crew starts attacking him! They beat him down with punches and kicks and Cortez whacks him with a kendo stick. Bael and Cortez hold his arms down and Cisco burns Ryck’s face with the cigar! Striker says it was in his eye so I guess we’ll have to see if he’s wearing an eye patch next week. The Crew leaves the ring and heads into Dario Cueto’s office.

Cueto pays off the Crew and says “It was hard to Ryck to see how valuable we could be to one another. Now it will be hard for him to see anything!” They watch Cueto’s back and he’ll dig deeper.

Vampiro interviewing Cage. Says he doesn’t care that no one in the locker room likes him. He took out the champ because he’s not gonna wait in line because he’s better than everyone else.

Next, Super Fly in the ring to take on Pentagon Jr. Pentagon starts the match with a big super kick but after that, they kinda seem off, not on the same page. Pentagon pretty much has control of the match, hits a big chop and sends Super Fly to the floor and drops him on the mat with a big fireman carry.

That Asian chick is watching the match as Pentagon and Super Fly hit each other with clotheslines. Super Fly starts getting some momentum going, sending Pentagon to the floor and hitting a handspring moonsault over the ropes. He sends him back in and off the ropes looks to hit another moonsault but Pentagona hits him with a dropkick in mid-air. Pentagon wins with a Package Piledriver.

Pentagon on the mic. He thought Chavo was a legend. He thought Chavo could help him but he says Chavo is a fraud. He says there’s someone out there who can help him to the next level but doesn’t say who.

Sexy Star taking on Mariachi Loco. Striker says Loco used to work in a restaurant two blocks from the LU Temple and until one day he put on the mask and started training (No one cared who I was until I put on the mask…). Striker also says he goes around the ring after matches and asks for tips.

Loco tries to kiss her but Star fights him off. He gets a waist lock and she fights out of it and reverses it but Loco starts gyrating his hips and she pushes him into the ropes. She hits a big tiltawhirl headscissor off the ropes and takes Loco out of the ring. As he gets back in, she hits a big bicycle kick and stomps him. But Loco takes her down and smashes her face into the mat. He backs her into the corner and hits a big chop.

He sends her off the ropes but she catches herself and blows him a kiss to bait him in. He runs to her, she low bridges him out of the ring. She gets to the top and big cross body off the top. Sexy Star wins with a small package.

Main event time. Drago sidesteps a dropkick at the bell and takes Cuerno off his feet then hits a big running drop kick which sends Cuerno outside. Drago hits the ropes and a big tope con hilo and the ref starts the count but gets to his feet by an 8 count. Back in the ring, Drago drops Cuerno with a drapeing DDT. Up to his feet at 7 and rolls out of the ring. Drago follows him and runs off the apron at him for a rana but Cuerno catches him and drops him on the mat outside with a running sit out power bomb. As Drago tries to get to his feet, Cuerno kicks him hard in the midsection which drops him again.

Cuerno rolls him back in the ring and drops Drago on his head with two German suplexes and rolls through for another but lands a brainbuster instead.

Drago hits a blockbuster off the ropes followed by nuermouskicks to the midsection. He hits the ropes but Cuerno pulls the ref down in front of him to stop Drago. Drago hits the ropes against and as the ref gets up, he springboards off him to hit a leg lariat. Cuerno on the apron, Drago hits the ropes, leaps over and rana Cuerno to the floor. Drago pulls himself back in the ring and Cuerno makes his feet at 9. Cuerno back in the ring and hits a big head kick followed by a leg drop.

Cuerno sends Drago to the floor with a stiff missile dropkick. He follows it with a tope off the ropes then goes under the ring for a table. Cuerno picks him up and nails him head on the ring post several times before laying him on the table. Cuero looked to leap off the ropes but Drago tipped him up. On the apron, Drago lands several forearms. Looks for a Spanish Fly and Cuerno hooks the ropes. He elbows Drago in the head and drops Drago through the table with a Thrill of the hunt. But Drago starts getting up around 8 and Cuerno looks furious. Runs at him with a knee and throws him in the ring.

Stomps on him a few times and sends him to the corner with a dropkick. He runs from the opposite corner and lands a baement dropkick on a motionless Drago. Cuerno puls out some rope from under the ring and yells at the ref “No disqualification!” and starts to tie Drago to the bottom turnbuckle. Wraps it around his arms and neck and posts up on the ring post to choke out Drago and the ref is counting out Drago! King Cuerno wins and Drago is choked out in the corner and Cuerno puts his deer head dress on Drago’s head as refs try to untie him.

Chuck Taylor made a documentary. I haven’t watched much of it yet, but from what I can tell it’s about him and Trent? being best friends in China. And also just the tour in general that DG USA/Evolve did in China recently.

#RAWlternative numbers

The organizers of #RAWlternative were very happy with the turnout for the show, which had over 12,000 unique views and as many as 1,600 people watching at once. #RAWlternative was replayed last night and several indy companies (Smash Wrestling, FWE, and Chikara) also streamed shows on Monday with Raw being cancelled.

Justin Gabriel reportedly quit WWE, unhappy with his position in the company and being replaced in the Royal Rumble this year.

It was recently announced that Gabriel will make his first appearance on the indies at PWS’ “Frozen Fallout” on Jan. 31 in Rahway, New Jersey as part of a six-man match, taking the place of the injured AR Fox.

Gabriel will also now go by the name “Darewolf” PJ Black.

Upcoming shows

Beyond Wrestling “Hit and Run” – Saturday, Jan. 31

Chris Hero & JT Dunn vs. Biff Busick & Drew Gulak

“M-Dogg 20” Matt Cross vs. Anthony Stone
Team Pazuzu (Jaka, Pinkie Sanchez, Mike Draztik, Angel Ortiz) vs. Franky The Mobster, Buxx Belmar, Thomas Dubois, Mathieu St-Jacques

“Speedball” Mike Bailey vs. Silver Ant

Shynron vs. Fire Ant

Kimber Lee vs. David Starr

The Hooligans (Devin Cutter & Mason Cutter) vs. Da Hoodz (Davey Cash & Kris Pyro)

Matt Tremont vs. Rickey Shane Page

Dave Cole vs. Davey Vega

Also scheduled:
-Chuck Taylor
-John Silver
-Orange Cassidy
-Ryan “Rush” Galeone
-Swamp Monster

FWE returns to action on Feb. 7, debuting at the World Resort Casino in Queens, NY. I’ve read it’s a big facility that has shuttle buses running to and from the venue too so it should be easy for fans to get to.

The card is stacked:

FWE Tri-Borough Champion Paul London takes on Matt Sydal in their first ever meeting

Drew Galloway vs Matt Hardy

Tommy Dreamer vs Joey Ryan

The Addiction vs Adrenaline Express

FWE Ladies Champion Candice LeRae vs Veda Scott

Juicy Product vs Trent? and Bandido Jr.

Katarina Leigh (Katie Lea/Winter) vs Taeler Hendrix

Johnny Gargano vs Brian Myers (Curt Hawkins)

Robbie E vs Orange Cassidy

CZW 16^th Anniversary and WSU Anniversary Show doubleheader, Feb. 21 at the 2300 Arena (formerly the ECW Arena) in South Philadelphia. (From what I’m to understand, this show at The Arena is a one-time thing as CZW usually runs out of the Flyers Skate Zone in Voorhees, New Jersey.)

WSU Anniversary

WSU World Championship

LuFisto (c) vs. Shanna

WSU Tag Team Championships

Juicy Product (c) vs. Chicks Using Nasty Tactics (Annie Social and Kimber Lee)

WSU Spirit Championship

Niya Barela (c) vs. Nevaeh

Tables, Ladders and Chairs

Hania vs. Athena

Sassy Stephanie vs. Tessa Blanchard

Cherry Bomb vs. Leva Bates

Brittany Blake vs. Jenny Rose

Micki Knuckles vs. Solo Darling

CZW 16^th Anniversary Show

CZW World Championship

BLK Jeez vs. Chris Dickinson

CZW Tag Team Championships

OI4K vs. The Young Bucks

Ultraviolent Rules match

Matt Tremont vs. Stockade

Best of the Best qualifier

Sozio vs. Joey Janela

Best of the Best qualifier

Team Tremendous and Dick Justice vs. The Beaver Boys and Rex “Lawless” Silver

The next PWG show is scheduled for Feb. 27. No name announced yet.

Matt Sydal vs Ricochet

Best Friends vs Beaver Boys

Young Bucks vs Monster Mafia

Cedric (the) Alexander vs Tommaso Ciampa

Drew Gulak vs Chris Hero

“Speedball” Mike Bailey vs Biff Busick

Roderick Strong defends PWG World title against Trevor Lee

(Brian Cage and Uhaa Nation vs Young Bucks was announced but Uhaa can’t make it)

(Also, heard that World’s Cutest Tag Team and Johnny Gargano are in England that weekend)

Also, PWG Sells Out Volume 2 is back on sale. I have Volume 3 and it’s great so pick this up while you can.

Features matches like:

Frankie Kazarian, CM Punk and Joey Ryan vs Colt Cabana, Adam Pearce and Super Dragon (Pimpin’ in High Places, 2003)

Bryan Danielson vs AJ Styles (2005 BOLA)

Necro Butcher vs Super Dragon (2006 BOLA, No DQ match)

Alex Shelley vs Matt Sydal (2007 BOLA)

Roderick Strong vs Matt Sydal (ASW3 2006)

Kevin Steen and El Generico vs Davey Richards and Super Dragon (European Vacation 2, 2007)

Bryan Danielson vs Low Ki (ASW6 2008)

Low Ki vs El Generico (Pearl Habra, 2008)

El Generico, Kevin Steen and Susumu Yokosuka vs The Young Bucks and PAC (ASW 7 2008)