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

NXT, 1/28

Wesley Blake and Buddy Murphy open NXT this week. Commentary puts them over and their win against the Vaudevillains and tonight they have an NXT Tag Team Title shot tonight against the Lucha Dragons.

Cara and Blake start first, with Cara taking the early advantage with a go behind hammerlock. Goes to an arm wringer and Blake shoots him into the ropes, Cara springboard and lucha arm drag. Blake backs Cara into his corner, slams him down and tags in Murphy.

They tie up Cara’s arms and lift him to slam him down but Cara leaps up, springboard off the ropes and takes them both over with the knucklelock. Cara sends Blake out with a dropkick and goes to springboard clothesline Murphy but gets caught with a dropkick in mid-air. He sends Cara to his corner, tags in Blake and they put the boots to him. Blake takes Cara to the center of the ring and locks in a chinlock to keep him grounded.

He puts a few elbows in the head of Cara but Cara works up to his feet, Blake stays on him though and sends him to the corner and kicks him in the midsection. Cara grabs an arm, rolls through and powerbombs Blake and they both crawl to their corners and tag in their partner.

Murphy rushes to the opposite corner but Kalisto springboards to the top and hits a diving cross body. Springboard corkscrew cross body off the ropes then flips into the ropes, rebounds and kicks Murphy in the head. Kalisto leaps on his back and takes him over with a Yoshi Tonic but Blake is there to break up the pin. Cara comes in and clotheslines Blake to the outside and goes to plancha but Blake avoids it and whips him into the apron.

In the ring, Kalisto sends Murphy to the ropes and Blake tags himself in as Kalisto rolls through and kicks Murphy in the head. Blake enters the ring as Kalisto isn’t looking. Kalisto hits the Selina Del Sol on Murphy, who isn’t legal, and Blake pulls him off, rolls him up and Blake and Murphy are the new tag team champions!

It wasn’t a very long match but the Lucha Dragons dropping the tag belts was a huge surprise. Blake and Murphy have a great chemistry and though they are great in the ring, need just a little bit more work on their characters. They haven’t really had much time to build their personas but their teamwork and their in-ring work should make them formidable champions.

Also, with the Dragons dropping the belts so suddenly (especially when there’s a live event coming up) it suggests to me that WWE is probably looking to bring Kalisto up soon. Sin Cara has been working singles matches more frequently lately and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Kalisto on the main roster soon.

Bayley is in the locker room getting ready and Charlotte comes in and confronts her about what she did last week, saying she’ll destroy Bayley. Bayley starts to say she’s sorry but then takes it back. She says maybe her problem is she’s been too nice and points out where Sami Zayn is at now that he’s taken a serious turn. Bayley says they need to work together tonight (they have a tag match against Sasha Banks and Becky Lynch) and Charlotte says she better not cross that line again because if she does, she won’t make it to the fatal fourway.

Tyler Breeze phone video says he’s going to be watching the #1 contender tournament very closely and doesn’t care that he lost one match. Commentary makes it seem like he’s going to continue feuding with Hideo Itami.

Adrian Neville out to take on Tyson Kidd in the tournament. What the what? During Tyson’s entrance, there was a weird interruption (that commentary doesn’t acknowledge) and it looks like Solomon Crowe’s hacker gimmick might be making an appearance soon!

They start off exchanging holds and neither can get an advantage. Neville seems to start taking the advantage in the exchange, but Tyson manages to escape the holds and taunts Neville. They go to lock up again but Tyson boots him in the stomach, gives him a few punches and smashes his face in the turnbuckle. Sends him to the opposite corner and chokes him on the turnbuckle. Shoots him off again and Neville flips out of it a few times and looks to be gaining some momentum, hits the rope and a rana. Tyson escapes the ring and Neville handspring into the ropes and rebounds off into a backflip and taunts Tyson.

Tyson taking his time getting back in the ring as Neville waits and lets him back in. Tyson gets in but jumps out again quickly and Neville gets tired of waiting and chases him out. Tyson slides in, Neville grabs his legs but Kidd kicks him off and into the guard rail. Kidd hits the ropes, slides out and head scissor Neville into the stairs. Tyson gets back in the ring and makes the ref count.

Referee Drake Younger gets to 9 and Neville just barely gets back in. Tyson cover him quick but Neville grabs the ropes and Tyson stomps him.

After a commercial for Immortals, Tyson is still in control of Neville. Keeps him on the mat with a rear chinlock. (Oh my god. Commentary is talking about the Corbin/Dempsey rematch and Riley calls Corbin “the big bad wolf.” What is it with WWE and fairytales these days??)

Neville finally gets some separation and clothesline Kidd over the top. Hits the ropes and huge flip over the top on Kidd. Throws Kidd back in and hits a series of kicks to Kidd’s midsection. Tom Phillips calls a standing Shooting Star a standing moonsault and Neville gets a 2. Phillips then calls a Kidd spinning fisherman buster a spinning neckbreaker. Man, he is Schiavonne bad.

Neville gets a 2 off a sit out powerbomb. Neville tries to get to the ropes but Kidd grabs his ankle. Neville kicks him off after a few shots and goes to the apron but Kidd springs up somehow and dropkicks Neville off into the guard rail. Kidd follows him out and soccer kick to the face of Neville. He throws him back in but only gets a 2.

Kidd tries to lock in the Sharpshooter but Neville powers out of it. Kidd rushes in and Neville throws him up and over and into the turnbuckle. After a big head kick that lays out Kidd, Neville hits the Red Arrow for the win.

That random interviewer, who still hasn’t said his name or had anyone identify him from last week, talks to Neville in the ring. Says Baron and Bull are big tough guys but this business is about getting knocked down and getting back up again. He’s the most dominant NXT Champion in the history of NXT and confident he’ll come out on top.

Sasha and Becky in the back. Sasha says she knows Becky will do the ring thing and help her win but after she walks away Becky says she’ll do the right thing and walk out NXT Women’s champion.

(Why do they call it “Divas tag team action” when they are in the Women’s division? If it’s not the Women’s division, why is it the Women’s Championship? Also found it odd that Bayley and Charlotte didn’t come out together but Sasha and Becky did enter together to Sasha’s music.)

Bayley and Sasha start the match. Bayley is botching all over the place. Didn’t spring up to the ropes fast enough and kinda fell off backwards into Sasha, who still sold it as an arm drag. Sasha in the corner and Bayley rushes in, eats an elbow but still falls forward awkwardly into Sasha. Sasha takes Bayley to her corner and tags in Becky who hammers on Bayley a few times and tags Sasha back in.

Bayley picks up Sasha and Charlotte tags herself in. She backs up Sasha to the corner who ducks a chop and tags in Becky. Charlotte arm drags her over and drops a couple knees, Hits the ropes to drop a knee and Bayley tags herself in. Bayley clotheslines her over the top and follows her out. Goes back in the ring and Sasha grabs Bayley and drops her neck on the ropes and Becky takes control, dropping a leg on Bayley.

Back her into the corner and Sasha tags in. Shoot her into the ropes and double back elbow. Sasha taunts Bayley’s whack waving inflatable arm flailing tube men and then gives her a knee-DT, targeting that injured knee.

Charlotte finally in against Sasha and taking her to school with chops and boots and a suplex into a spin through for a neckbreaker (long way to go for a neckbreaker). Puts Sasha in the Figure Four and bridges up but Becky breaks it up with a dropkick. Charlotte takes her down with a line and eats a knee from Sasha.

Sasha hits the straight jacket neckbreaker (which they call Bankrupt) but Bayley breaks it up. Bayley accidentally hit Charlotte who looks pissed when she gets up and shoves Bayley. Bayley gives a line and Charlotte chops her back. Charlotte in the mount and dropping bows as Becky and Sasha get in and start hammering both of them. The ref calls for the bell as Bayley and Charlotte clear the ring then turn their attention on each other again and a bunch of refs hit the ring to break them up.

Devin Taylor talks to Finn Balor about facing Hideo Itami next week (I really thought they were gonna build it toward the live event but I guess I was looking at the brackets wrong). Balor says he knew facing Itami would happen someday but didn’t know it’d be so soon. But when it’s for the NXT Championship, all friendships go out the window. Itami interrupts and says he brought Balor to NXT and if he has to, he’ll take him out of it.

Commercial for Wrestlemania 31 and there’s no numbers on the logo. This is making me irrationally angry that they’re dropping the numbering of the show. It doesn’t make it sound old - it makes it sound prestigious. It makes it sound consistent and strong, not over the hill and outdated.

Apparently Emma is coming back to NXT next week lol. Says things didn’t work out as she planned but it’s time for a fresh start and that begins with a rematch against Carmella.

Baron Corbin out to take on Bull Dempsey in the tournament. Corbin takes advantage early and every time Bull tries to get something going, Corbin stops it and takes the upper hand. Corbin wins the short match with the End of Days and faces Neville next week.

Devin talks to Baron Corbin. Next week he’s one step closer to being NXT Champ and Neville is one step closer to being erased. Bull shows up and says Corbin got lucky twice. Says he’s gonna knock his teeth down his throat but before he can finish, Corbin mushes him and walks away.

Contract signing up now. Sami Zayn out first and he stares down Kevin Owens the entire time he makes his way to the ring.

William Regal says he’s not gonna allow this contract signing to turn out like every other contract signing in the WWE and have people fighting. He says if they touch each other, he’ll cancel the match at NXT Takeover.

Sami signs first and Regal moves the contract to Owens. Owens hasn’t taken his eyes off Sami the whole time and doesn’t make a move to sign the contract.

Sami says, “Are you just gonna look at me or are you gonna tell me and all these people why - why you attacked me?” Owens just stares at Zayn and act like the last 12 years didn’t exist. Like they didn’t start in Montreal together and take it all over the world fighting with and against each other. Maybe he should’ve seen this coming but the truth is he didn’t. But they both know that whatever they did out there, it was all about ending up here (NXT/WWE).

Never thought on a night like R Evolution when he finally arrived, and Zayn finally arrived, that Owens would do what he did. But it’s moot now because at Takeover, he’s gonna beat the hell out of Owens.

Owens grabs the pen but puts it down and picks up the mic. Says the contract says non-title match. Regardless what Zayn thinks, what he did at Takeover wasn’t personal, it was business. He’ll fight anyone and everyone but he fights for a prize and Zayn is not the prize - the NXT Title is the prize. It means more money and a better life for himself and his family. And until the contract says NXT Championship match, he’s not doing it.

Zayn says Regal has to make it a championship match. He knows Owens and he won’t do it otherwise. It’s what he wants but it’s also what Zayn wants and what the people want.

Regal changes the contract and Zayn signs again. But again, Owens hesitates and hangs back on the ropes as Regal tells him to sign. He takes his time signing then throws the contract at Zayn nonchalantly and throws the pen at his head. Zayn steps to Owens but Regal stops him and Owens walks out as Zayn stares him down.

WWE put up a video on their YouTube page on Feb. 1, a compilation of super kicks, and called it “Superkick Party.” Just lulz all around. Young Bucks should sue for gimmick infringement.

Lucha Underground, 1/28

The show opens with a recap of Crenshaw Crew turning on Big Ryck and Prince Puma winning the title and being attacked by Cage.

Dario Cueto talks to Cage while he’s lifting. Tells him he likes a man who takes the bull by the horns and that Puma is here tonight and has been told he’s defending his title against Cage. But Cage says no - he loses his title tonight against Cage. Cause he’s a machine.

Opening match is Mil Muertes with Catrina. Never noticed that Mil is billed as from “Beyond the grave.” He takes on Fenix. Shouldn’t he be upset with Prince Puma and Johnny Mundo because they knocked out Mil from Aztec Warfare? Not to mention Mundo kicked Cartina in the face. Wonder why he hasn’t done anything about them yet.

Mil starts fast like he usually does, racing at Fenix, but Fenix moves out of the way and Mil hits the buckle and Fenix rolls him up and Mil kicks out quickly. Fenix hits Mil with a few big kicks and knees to the chest but Mil stays on his feet and looks more annoyed than anything. Fenix races in again and Mil levels him with a big right hand.

Fenix picks himself up and runs at Mil again and Mil belly to belly suplexes him over into the corner then spikes him with a DDT for 2. Fenix create space, handspring and tries to land on his shoulder but Mil catches him and plants him with a German suplex and a 2 count. Mil sends him into the corner, Fenix stops himself and tries a 619 through the corner but Mil catches his legs and slams him down, runs to the corner and spears Fenix but only gets a 2.

Mil hammers Fenix in the corner with heavy rights then sets him on the top rope. Mil takes him over with a superplex but as they hit the mat, Fenix shifts his weight and catches Mil’s leg for a quick, surprising 3 count. Mil looks furious and Catrina can’t believe it.

Video package about what fuels Cage. Says he has to work for every inch because no one gives him anything and a wasted day is a wasted opportunity. The video is two dudes attacking him in a parking lot and Cage no selling everything. One guy kicks him and Cage backhands him to the ground and the other breaks a bottle over his head and Cage just looks annoyed, turns around and slams him into a pickup truck. First dude hits him with a box and can’t believe it had no effect and Cage slams him down. Another dude tries to hit him with a bottle but Cage catches his arm and crushes the bottle in his hand, lifts the dude over his head and drops him in the bed of the pickup.

Next is a six man tag match, the first big, multi-man tag match they’ve had on LU, even though they’re a staple of AAA and CMLL. Argenis, Aerostar and Super Fly take on The Crenshaw Crew. Super Fly starting against Cortez. Super Fly starts strong, takes Cortez to the outside and knocks the other two Crew off the apron. He moonsaults from the top rope onto Cortez and Bael.

Bael tags in and Fly tags Argenis. Trade a few shots, Bael blocks a superkick and tags in Cisco. Sends Cisco off, takes him off his feet then hits a rana and tags in Auerostar. He springboard off the ropes and headscissor Cisco over. Bumps Cisco and leaps over the ropes in his corner. Argenis to the second rope and Cisco rushes in and eats a boot. Aerostar gets on his shoulders, Argeis stands up and Aero cross body off his shoulders onto Cisco but only gets a 2.

Aero hits the ropes and Cisco gets his boot up. Cisco slaps Super Fly and he comes in and he and Aero goes after Cisco. They send him to the corner and he punches Aero as he comes in and flips Super Fly over the rope to the outside. Cortez enziguri, Cisco facewash dropkick and Bael facewash on Aero in the corner who looks dead.

Cortez tags in and slams Aero and drops the knee but gets a 2. Tags in Bael who elbows Aero and kicks him in the face and suplex him over but didn’t cover but bites Aero in the face. Tags in Cortez who puts the boots to Aero and a double underhook suplex. Tags in Bael who puts on a rear chin lock. Aero reaches for his corner and elbows a few times to Bael. Aero Creates space, springs to the top buckle and back elbow off and crawls to his corner and Bael tags Cisco.

Argenis in, springboard rana Cisco over and Cortez jumps in and Argenis head scisor him over. Argenis sunset flip powerbomb (or a Yoshi Tonic) on Cisco but Cortez breaks it up.

Breaks down and lots of flips to the outside, mostly by Aerostar. He ranas Cisco from the top to the outside then hits the ropes and springboard moonsault to the floor. He rolls Cisco back in and sends him off the ropes but out of nowhere, Cortez is in, Cisco flapjacks Aero over and Cortez codebreaker, like a 3D codebreaker for the pin.

Next, Vampiro talks about his interview with Puma and Konnan about Puma’s title win and says “You could’ve cut the knife with the intensity.” These are pretaped, you couldn’t fix stuff like that?

Vamp shakes Puma’s hand and says congratulations. Asks him how he’s feeling but Konnan cuts him off and says “I’ll tell you exactly how he’s feeling” and Puma looks kinda annoyed but lets it go. Konnan says he’s pissed about having won the title and beaten Fenix only to be jumped by Cage.

Vamp says that Puma looks impressive but Cage is a monster and people are saying he’s not gonna be able to handle him. Konnan answers for Puma again, says he never asked for their opinion. Says that Cage lacks brains that he and Puma have.

Vamp says he’s getting sick of Konnan jumping in and shooting his mouth off. It’s supposed to be Puma’s moment but Konnan won’t let him speak. Konnan says Puma is gonna shred Cage like some Spanish word and says that Vamp might be next then says the interview in over, dumps his chair and gets in Vamp’s face who tells him “Anytime you wanna do this, brother.” And tells Puma to be careful

Main event up now. Puma in the ring first and as Cage enters, Puma leaps over the top rope and dives onto him. Hammers on Cage and rolls him in. Cage double leg lifts him up and slams in in the corner but Puma sets himself on top. Cage rushes in and Puma rana.

Puma ducks a few shots and springboard off the ropes for a line but Cage just barrels through him. Cage uses his size to power Puma to the corner with a few shoulders then whips him hard to the corner. Cage lifts him high in the air, gets a 2 and uses a lock to keep him on the mat.

Puma can’t maintain momentum, Cage using his size and pwoer to overwhelm Puma. Gets a two off a sitout Alabama Slam and hits a few lines in the corner. Cage lifts him up and Puma reverse into a swinging DDT. Puma starts using his speed and high impact moves to try and get something going but Cage tosses him across the ring by a double underhook suplex. Tossed to the apron and Cage moves in, Puma springboard and Knees of Meteora for a 2.

Cage countering a lot of Puma’s offense, catching him out of the air and slamming him down. Cage even hits a second rope moonsault for a 2.

Cage hits an F5 but only gets a 2. Puma lands a few big kicks, ducks a discus line and northern lights suplex Cage over, holds on a deadlift suplex him over for a 2.

Puma rolls cage to the corner and goes up top for the 630 but Cage gets up and pushes the ref into the rope to crotch Puma. Then Cage low blow kicks Puma blatantly and the ref calls for the bell. (Weird finish – why would Cage just blatantly get himself DQ’ed?)

Cage tries to hit Puma with the Weapon X but like always, it doesn’t work and just ends up a flatliner that took a long time to set up. The ref is still trying to get Cage to stop and he pushes him down. Konnan on the apron now and Cage turns his sights on him and lifts Puma up by his throat.

Konnan steps into the ring and breaks his cane over the back of Cage who drops Puma but Cage boots him in the stomach and punches him. Cage drops the straps and picks up the belt and hammer Konnan with it. Konnan blades and Cage rips the title belt in half and spits on it.

Cueto is watching from his office and smiles but suddenly that Asian chick who has been watching from the shadows for weeks grabs him and throws him backward into his chair. He asks who she is and she says she’s looking for a man, a man that owes her. She knows he’s in Cueto’s temple and he says he’ll help her, to feel free to question anyone on the roster.

She says she doesn’t know who it is but only has one word “Matanza” but Cueto says it means nothing to him. And she disappears out the door as quickly as she appeared.

Ring of Honor

Big matches set for Ring of Honor’s 13th Anniversary Show in Las Vegas on March 1.

ROH World Title

Jay Briscoe defends in four-way against Tommaso Ciampa, Hanson and Michael Elgin

ROH TV Title

Jay Lethal defends against Alberto El Patron

ROH World Tag Team titles

reDRagon defends against The Young Bucks

At an ROH show in Dayton, Ohio, Tadarius Thomas announced that he was retiring from pro wrestling to focus on MMA. Thomas was most recently involved with The Decade as a young boy and eventually left the group while Adam Page stayed.

New Japan Pro Wrestling

New Japan World hit 20,000 subscribers recently which surpassed their expectations. New Japan is really happy with that number, since only 15,000 bought Wrestle Kingdom 8 on PPV. This shows the brand is growing and I believe I read somewhere that they were surprised how many subscriptions they were getting from people outside of Japan.

Also, this week on New Japan’s AXS TV show, Prince Devitt will face Hiroshi Tanahashi and Kazuchika Okada will face Togi Makabe.

wXw 16 Carat Gold Tournament

wXw, a German wrestling company, announced the participants for the 2015 16 Carat Gold Tournament, taking place on March 6-8 in Turbinehalle, Oberhausen, Germany. The list features some of the biggest names on the American and European indy scene right now.

- Chris Sabin

- Absolute Andy

- Uhaa Nation

- Marty Scurll

- Axel "Axeman" Tischer

- Cedric Alexander

- Sasa Keel

- Mr. Sha Samuels

- Kim Ray

- Timothy Thatcher

- Daisuke Harada

- Tommy End

- Axel Dieter Jr.

- Andrew Everett

-Zack Sabre Jr.

- Ricochet

Also appearing will be the World's Cutest Tag Team

I would definitely want to check out this tournament once it’s available, but I checked out their shop page and it seems to be all in Euros…so, not really sure how I’d go about buying stuff from them.

National Pro Wrestling Day

National Pro Wrestling Day is Sunday, Feb. 8 at 1:30 p.m. at The Greater Norristown PAL Gym in Norristown, PA.

Announced matches are:

“Smooth Sailing” Ashley Remington vs Drew Gulak

N_R_G vs Flying Francis

Fire Ant vs Juan Francisco de Coronado

Blaster McMassive vs Mr. Touchdown

Two years ago when the first National Pro Wrestling Day was held at The National Guard Armory in Northeast Philadelphia, the event seemed like it was striving to be a showcase for all of independent pro wrestling. Lots of different companies attended, each adding a match to the card and selling merch. There were so many companies involved, NPWD hosted two shows in one day that first year.

But since that first year, NPWD has just been used as a Chikara hype show. Last year was used to announce the first “Chikara” show since the shutdown (and I put that in quotes because they had been doing Wrestling Is shows which were essentially Chikara shows) and this year’s NPWD just seems like another Chikara show.

Which is kinda disappointing to me. When the concept was first announced, I had hoped it would grow every year, attracting new and different companies and that soon, indy companies from all over the country would want to showcase their stuff at NPWD. But it’s almost gone the opposite way – using the attention from the first year and becoming more insular, only focusing on Chikara.

Which, you know, whatever – it was Quack and Chikara’s creation so they can do what they want with it, but I had hoped that NPWD would be more than the Chikara hype show that it has become.

Evolve/WWN

Evolve began announcing plans for their shows on Wrestlemania 31 weekend. PJ Black (formerly Justin Gabriel in WWE) will be making his debut for the company on 3/26 facing Evolve Champion Drew Galloway. The match is being billed as “no restrictions” with the idea being that WWE held both wrestlers back but now they can reach their full potential.

On 3/27, Gabriel will face Ricochet and on 3/28, Austin Aries and Roderick Strong team up for the first time since the early 2000s (when they were Generation Next in Ring of Honor) to face Ricochet and Uhaa Nation.