Every title on the line at NXT Takeover 2 on the WWE Network

 

NXT, the increasingly popular developmental system of WWE, is hosting another big live event, NXT Takeover 2, on Thursday, September 11 on the WWE Network (which you can order for just $9.99!). Despite being NXT being up-and-coming talents in WWE, their product is growing in popularity and I’ve seen many people online saying they are more excited for NXT Takeover than they are for WWE’s Night of Champions or whatever is happening on Raw or Smackdown.

One of the main reasons fans are so eagerly awaiting Takeover is because NXT stars and feuds have been built up so well leading into this two-hour live event. Each match on Takeover will be the culmination of several weeks-worth of feuds and confrontations built up. The card will be as follows:

Grudge match

Mojo Rawley vs Bull Dempsey

Hair vs Hair

Enzo Amore vs Sylvester LaFort

NXT Women’s Championship

Charlotte (c) vs Bayley

NXT Tag Team Championship

The Ascension (c) vs Sin Cara and Kalisto

NXT Championship

Adrian Neville (c) vs Sami Zayn vs Tyler Breeze vs Tyson Kidd

Aside from the NXT Championship and NXT Women’s championship match, many of these matches grew out of conflicts that happened in or around the recent tournament to decide a number one contender to the NXT tag team championships.

Also, the most recent episode of NXT touted that NXT Takeover 2 will see the debut of Japanese wrestling star Kenta! Whether this means he will be in a match or just appearing on the show, remains to be seen.

Mojo Rawley and Bull Dempsey teamed up in the first round of the NXT tag team tournament but after suffering a loss to the Vaudevillains, Bull turned on Mojo and attacked him, seeing Mojo’s desire to stay in the match rather than tag out to Bull as the reason for their loss to Aiden English and Simon Gotch. Bull has been on the warpath in NXT lately, destroying every opponent he’s matched up against. But Mojo Rawley, despite his upbeat demeanor, is a massive individual himself and this match should be very physical. Mojo may be NXT’s ‘hype man’ but I’m picking Bull Dempsey in this contest.

Enzo Amore and Colin Cassady are two of the most popular and charismatic stars in NXT and were a part of the NXT tag team tournament, though they were eliminated in the semifinals by the Vaudevillains. After the match, Enzo was attacked by the Legionnaires – Sylvester LaFort and Marcus Louis – who shaved off part of Enzo’s beard. Apparently, LaFort and Louis took offense to the likes of Enzo and Big Cass being in the tournament while the Legionnaires were not. After the attack, Enzo challenged LaFort to a classic ‘hair vs hair’ match. It’d be a shame to see Enzo’s expertly trimmed hair get buzzed off so I’m picking him for the win and LaFort losing his hair.

The NXT Tag Team Champions The Ascension have been running roughshod over their opponents in NXT, though recently their opponents are generally guys no one has ever heard of before. To remedy the lack of quality tag teams in NXT, a tournament was started to determine a number one contender to the tag team titles. From this tournament, several top teams have emerged though only one team will face The Ascension – and that team will be the high-flying duo of Kalisto and Sin Cara. The luchadores will face the tag champs at NXT Takeover and though they give up a lot of size to the reigning champions, they make up for it with amazing speed and incredible maneuvers that only the likes of Kalisto and Sin Cara can pull off. Despite the mismatch in size, I feel like Kalisto and Sin Cara could definitely pull off the victory. (I feel like The Ascension are ready for the main roster and dropping the belts is a good indication that they are moving up. Also – what would be the point of holding an entire tournament to build up a new contender to the titles and not put them over?)

To many, the NXT Women’s Division is a much more complete division than the WWE Divas roster. The NXT women’s wrestlers routinely have more exciting matches and their work on the mic actually makes them seem like competent, credible athletes (as opposed to the Divas whose promos lately consist of “I hate you because you stole my boyfriends and you’re a bitch” or the Paige/AJ “frenemy” shtick, which has gotten better lately but is still kinda lame). NXT Women’s champion Charlotte, daughter of the legend Ric Flair, has been dominant in her time as champion, defeating Becky Lynch and her former friend Sasha Banks with ease. But the ever-positive, hard-working Bayley has been chasing the championship for months now and this match up should be every bit as good as Charlotte vs Natalya for the NXT Women’s championship. While Bayley has been impressive lately, I wouldn’t be surprised if Charlotte manages to hold onto her title in this contest.

Finally, the NXT Championship scene has seen more contenders to the title than ever before. NXT Champion Adrian Neville has taken on all comers in his time as the champ and with Tyson Kidd, Tyler Breeze and Sami Zayn all vying for the title, he hasn’t backed down from the challenge but rather given them ALL a shot at the NXT Championship. Tyson Kidd believes he’s the best athlete in NXT and should be next in line to hold the belt while Tyler Breeze thinks that his “uggo” competitors aren’t nearly gorgeous enough to be the face of NXT. Both Kidd and Breeze have proven they’re willing to go to any length to win the title while Sami Zayn is quite the opposite. Zayn has been winning the crowd over as effortlessly as he dives over the top rope and despite losing an impressive series to WWE Superstar Cesaro, Zayn has looked impressive in every bout in NXT and proven that he would be a fighting champion. This match is too hard to call but personally, I hope that Sami Zayn comes out the winner in what will surely be a main event to remember.

NXT Takeover will be airing live on the WWE Network (for just $9.99!) on Thursday, September 11.

Indy Minute - Weekly independent wrestling new round up

  Welcome back to the Delco Elbow Drop for the extended Indy Minute – all the great indy wrestling news you heard on the Ring Rust Radio podcast and a whole lot more.

  The signing of KENTA is helping to build the NXT brand in Japan. Reports are that NXT will soon start airing on J Sports, a satellite company in Japan, and it's believed that KENTA will debut in NXT in September.  WWE also just signed a deal to bring NXT, Raw, Smackdown, Main Event, and all PPVs to OSN which serves North Africa and the Middle East.

  Kevin Steen has wrestled his final dates for Ring of Honor. Steen defeated Tomasso Ciampa in Minneapolis, lost to Silas Young in a no DQ match in Cincinnati, and defeated Steve Corino in Dearborn in his final match.

  Several matches have been announced for Ring of Honor’s return to The Armory in Philadelphia on August 9. In addition to the Young Bucks versus Bad Influence (Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian) and Michael Elgin taking on Cedric Alexander for the ROH World title, recently announced matches are:

            Jay Lethal vs ACH for the ROH TV title

            Silas Young vs Brian Kendrick

            Tomasso Ciampa vs Rocky Romero

            War Machine (Hanson and Rowe) vs The Briscoe Brothers

  ROH is teaming up with Preston City Wrestling in England for a 2-day, 3-show event on November 28, 29 entitled “UK Supershow of Honor.” Hit this link for more info.

  Evolve, a promotion closely associated with Dragon Gate USA, is rebooting its product starting with its upcoming events, Evolve 31, 32 and 33 on August 8-10 in Florida. With the reboot, Evolve is returning to its roots and putting more emphasis on win/loss records with regards to how matches are booked and who gets title shots and should be a great jumping off point for fans not familiar with the company.

  Word is that AR Fox suffered a wrist injury and will need surgery and be out for several months. No word on who his replacement in the PWG 2014 Battle of Los Angeles will be, though.

  Rumors that a former UFC star has been training at the WWE Performance Center. Speculation is that it's Rashad Evans, though the former light heavyweight champ has stated he wouldn't consider wrasslin’ until after he's done fighting, which he's put at another 4-5 years.

  To me, the most likely person is Chael Sonnen. Word is the person is "older than a usual WWE potential developmental wrestler" but has all the attributes of a WWE wrestler. Chael has proven to be a master on the mic and with that and his athletic prowess, he would easily be able to make the transition to WWE.

  Shannon Moore announced his retirement from pro wrestling last week. His final appearance will be at WrestleCade in North Carolina on November 29 where he will be reuniting with 3-Count partners Evan Karagias and Shane "Hurricane" Helms. Moore has wrestled for WCW, TNA and WWE in his nearly 20 year career.

 

  FWE in Brooklyn, New York will be hosting events on October 3 and 4. Announced for Night 1 is Young Bucks vs Bad Influence and Drew Galloway vs Trent? and Night 2 will see Tommy Dreamer vs Drew Galloway.

  Steven O'Neill, of Extreme Rising, sent out an odd press release last weekend claiming that Luke Hawx nor the Extreme Rising title would be at the Maryland Championship Wrestling Shamrock Cup show on Saturday July 19 - which was news to everyone involved as O'Neill hadn't contacted anyone mentioned regarding this issue. MCW president Dan McDevitt also issued a statement saying the card would run as advertised and if Hawx wanted to bring the Extreme Rising belt, he was welcome to.
  It was an odd move by O'Neill as this was his first public comments from him since numerous Extreme Rising events were cancelled out of the blue with no refunds issued to fans who had already purchased tickets. Definitely not a the way to build good will if they are planning on ever running another Rising show.

  The MCW show went on as planned and Matt Hardy is still the MCW champion and new Extreme Rising champ after defeating Luke Hawx in a crazy TLC match. Hawx also brought the Extreme Rising belt and claimed its now the "Big F'n Arms" championship since Rising is dead. Afterwards Hardy put over Hawx on the mic and said he deserved to keep the Rising belt forever and gave it back to him, since he took a risk being sued and chased by attorneys for bringing and defending it.
  Also, DROLIX is the Shamrock Cup winner, outlasting Papadon, Shane Strickland, Bolt Brady, Bo Nekoda, and Bu Ku Dao in an elimination match for the Cup. 3 time winner Christian York was there to award the winner.
 

  Apparently IWA-Mid South is promoting shows again. According to the IWA-Mid South Facebook page, they will be hosting the Ted Petty Invitational tournament on September 13 and 14 in New Albany, Indiana.

  The line up so far includes Michael Elgin, Chris Hero, Tomasso Ciampa, BJ Whitmer and two names I don’t recognize – Hy Zaya and Shane Mercer. Keep an eye on their Facebook page for more participants.

  I wasn’t aware that IWA-MS had hosted a TPI in many years – or that IWA-MS was even still an active company. According to a Wikipedia page for the event, they hosted a TPI in 2013 though I don’t remember hearing about it. But before that, the last one they hosted was in 2008, as tournaments for 2009 and 2010 were announced but cancelled.

Rumors that WWE have signed Japanese stars Prince Devitt and KENTA

Word has been making the rounds online that the WWE has signed two huge Japanese wrestling stars – New Japan Pro Wrestling’s Prince Devitt and Pro Wrestling NOAH’s KENTA. Numerous outlets have reported that Devitt has signed a contract with WWE though there has been less substantiation to the news that KENTA will be joining WWE. While no outlets have reported for certain that KENTA will join WWE, Pro Wrestling NOAH wrestler Takashi Sugiura confirmed to Tokyo Sports that KENTA will debut in NXT this summer.

Prince Devitt is an Irish wrestler with renown in both Europe and Japan. Devitt is a former IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion and former leader of the Bullet Club – a villainous group of gaijin wrestlers that also features “Machine Gun” Karl Anderson, Luke Gallows, The Young Bucks and most recently, AJ Styles. Devitt held the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight title for well over a year, defeating Low Ki in Nov. 2012 before recently losing the belt to Kota Ibushi at Wrestle Kingdom 8 in January. Rumors of WWE’s interest in Devitt have been circulating online for some time now and those rumors were recently given credence when he posted this image on his official Instagram account:

Devitt, keeping the IWC guessing

What further seemed to indicate that Devitt would be joining the WWE before too long was his loss to Ryusuke Taguchi at the “Invasion Attack 2014” iPPV where NJPW announced that if Devitt lost, he must leave the promotion.

The Devitt signing is interesting because he brings a lot of talent and athleticism to the table. Similar to Daniel Bryan in stature, Devitt is well versed in numerous styles and should have no problem finding a spot in WWE. It’s said that interest in Devitt rose greatly after William Regal gave a tape of Devitt wrestling current NXT Champion Adrian Neville (formerly Pac) to Triple H, which was what led to the WWE signing Neville initially.

Devitt is a young guy with a lot left in the tank and he could easily shake things up in the WWE just as much as the other rumored new WWE signee, KENTA.

KENTA, who formerly worked under his given name Kenta Kobayashi, is well-known to Japanese wrestling fans for his hard-hitting, relentless style. Fans of American independent wrestling should also be familiar with his work with Ring of Honor where he’s battled Bryan Danielson (Daniel Bryan), Nigel McGuinness, Tyler Black (Seth Rollins), and Austin Aries.

And while WWE fans may not be immediately familiar with KENTA, they know his work even if they don’t realize it. KENTA is known for using the Busaiku Knee Kick, the same running knee that Daniel Bryan uses as a finisher and also created the Go2Sleep that CM Punk used as a finisher (you know, back when he wrestled). I’ve also read that it is the great respect that Bryan and KENTA have for one another that led to Bryan using the running knee and KENTA using the LeBell Lock.

Though the rumors of KENTA joining WWE are still largely rumors right now, he does have a connection to the company (beyond his former work with Daniel Bryan). In January of 2014, he attended a training session at the WWE Performance Center with the blessing of Pro Wrestling NOAH. When it occurred, he claimed that he was not after a WWE contract but was fulfilling a dream of taking part in a WWE tryout. Sources are stating that KENTA will work his last Pro Wrestling NOAH show on May 17 at Korakuen Hall as he announced at an April 30 press conference that he would be leaving the company.

With such huge stars seemingly bound for the WWE, we could be seeing major changes in the landscape of the company. If true, both stars will report to NXT this summer and my guess is that it wouldn’t be too long before we see them on the main roster. I could easily see KENTA being paired with Daniel Bryan to immediately get him over – thanks to both Bryan’s popularity and their familiarity with one another from ROH. As for Devitt, we’re seeing lots of European stars coming to prominence in the WWE right now (US Champ Sheamus, Divas Champ Paige, IC Champ Bad News Barrett and Cesaro in the hunt for gold) so I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Devitt marshals that European starpower to take over WWE.

Sources:

WrestlingNews Depot

WrestlingInc.

Best of the Tubes – Puroresu Edition

I’ve been doing research for another article I’m writing for this blog and have been watching a lot of Japanese wrestling from the 80s and early 90s and I thought it would be cool to showcase some of the matches I’ve come across as I’ve been researching. I’m not as knowledgeable about Japanese wrestling as I am about WWE or the American indies but that’s what’s amazing about pro wrestling – it’s basically a universal language and you can appreciate a great match whether you can understand the commentators or not.

KENTA tries to kick through Mitsuhara Misawa

The term “puroresu” comes from the Japanese pronunciation of “pro wrestling” and there are several fundamental differences between puro and American pro wrestling. For example, Japanese wrestling is known for being much harder hitting than American professional wrestling. The competitors are committed to putting on intense performances and the stiffer strikes and moves performed in Japanese wrestling is often referred to as “strong style.”

In puro, there is less emphasis on storyline driving confrontations between wrestlers, rather the stories told in the matches themselves are the focus. “Shoot” fights are also more common in puro, as Japanese wrestlers like to blur the lines between “professional wrestling” and “real fight.” You’ll also hear the term “fighting spirit” a lot when talking about Japanese wrestling, which is the idea the a fighter can continue to battle on sheer strength of will, even if his body is bruised and battered. 

And with that – on to the wrestling!

(Extra bonus – Andre the Giant commentates some of these matches in Japanese)

Mitsuhara Misawa vs. Jumbo Tsuruta

All Japan Pro Wrestling, 8/6/1990

Stan Hansen vs. Kenta Kobashi

All Japan Pro Wrestling, 8/15/1993

Riki Choshu vs. Big Van Vader

IWGP Heavyweight Championship

New Japan Pro Wrestling, 8/19/1990

I just noticed each of these matches took place in August. That’s a bit odd.

I’m going to showcase one more match – a bit older than the above puro matches but I found it buried among my bookmarks to other matches so I thought I’d throw it in.

Mil Mascaras vs. Dory Funk Jr.

Not sure of the date or promotion (Guess late 70s in AJPW)

Mil Mascaras is the uncle of WWE Superstar Alberto Del Rio while Funk is the older brother of Terry Funk. This match is a little slower paced than the others above with an emphasis on technical, chain wrestling but just as in the other matches above, this battle features the same hard-hitting style that Japanese wrestling became known for later.