WWE NXT Review - September 7, 2016

Andrade Almas submits to Last Chancery.

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

​TM-61 def. Tony Nese and Arya Daivari

From last week's video package on them to this matchup, it looks like they're beginning to build up TM-61 as a threat in the tag team division, which is great considering we still have heel tag team champions. That said, it begs the question why they fed them to The Authors of Pain two weeks ago. Nevertheless, this was a very well-wrestled match with a fun pace to it. Nese and Daivari didn't have any obvious chemistry as partners, but it's always cool to see the Cruiserweight Classic competitors get shown some love and I hope this isn't the last we've seen of them in NXT.


Tom Phillips Interviewed NXT Women's Champion Asuka

Similar to Shinsuke Nakamura and especially Hideo Itami, Asuka's English has improved immensely over the last year. She still isn't perfect, but I can understand her significantly better than I could at this time one year ago. This was a solid sit-down interview with her and she came across very well. There's a huge drop-off in the division after Asuka, so I hope they continue to build credible challengers for her.

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Shinsuke Nakamura scores another victory.

Ember Moon def. Leah Von

Despite this being Moon's televised debut at Full Sail University, the crowd didn't give her as warm of a reception as I thought they would. Then again, they weren't all that hot for anyone on this show. Are the faithful at Full Sail University finally becoming jaded? At any rate, this was another effective enhancement match for Moon that allowed her to showcase her skills. She has that same "star" aura about her that Asuka does. That's obviously the money match for the women in NXT right now, but I'd be surprised if they rushed into that as soon as the next TakeOver.


Austin Aries def. Andrade "Cien" Almas

I actually saw this same match at an NXT live event back in April (the show where Samoa Joe won the NXT Championship from Finn Balor), long before Almas debuted on NXT TV, and I'd go so far as to say they had the match of the night. This was no exception as they produced a highly entertaining matchup with both men coming out of it looking good, although Aries scored the victory. That was important considering he has a feud lined up with Itami, but where does Almas go from here? A heel turn at some point might do him some justice, but as long as it's before it's too late.


NXT Champion Shinsuke Nakamura def. Steve Cutler (Non-title)

So, I suppose Cutler merely won that match against Kenneth Crawford last week so he could be fed to Nakamura this week? I guess I can't complain because he came off to me as generic anyway, so I might have preferred the approach they took. This didn't last long at all, but it was a relatively simple squash with the highlight being Samoa Joe on commentary. In storyline, he won't be cleared to compete any time soon, but it will be interesting if he gets his title rematch at TakeOver in November or if they wait longer than that. I hope it's the former simply because he should be main roster bound by now.


Overall Show

Last week's show was an absolute bore, but they bounced back very nicely with this enjoyable episode. Nakamura and Moon can wrestle against no-namers forever and I'd never get tired of it, and the other two matches were a treat. Furthermore, Asuka received some overdue character development with her interview and No Way Jose vs. Bobby Roode was announced for next week, so all in all, this was an easy hour of wrestling to digest.

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