JehutyRunner
Banned
Coming to you live from the Freeman Colosseum in San Antonio, Texas, the road to NXT Takeover: Orlando - Homecoming (a name I've just made up) begins – NXT Takeover: San Antonio.
Watch on the WWE Network: Watch from tonight, Saturday, January 28, from 8pm EST/5pm PST/1am UK GMT/2am CET (look it up elsewhere if you're outside either of those timezones). If you're not a sub already, you can watch your first month on the Network - including Takeover and Royal Rumble - for free! Plus, if you're a lapsed sub who's been gone for a while, check your emails: you may have an offer where if you resub, you can get three months free. That includes Elimination Chamber (Smackdown), FastLane (Raw), the 2017 WWE Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony, NXT Takeover Orlando and Wrestlemania 33! All for the mighty low price of...
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Last NXT Takeover - NXT Takeover: Toronto
Bobby Roode def Tye Dillinger
Authors of Pain (Rezar and Akam, w Paul Ellering) def TM61 (Shane Thorne and Nick Miller) to win the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic Tournament
#DIY (Johnny Gargano and Tomasso Ciampa) def The Revival (Dash Wilder and Scott Dawson) in a Two Out of Three Falls match to become NXT Tag Team Champions
Asuka def Mickie James to retain the NXT Women's Championship
Samoa Joe def Shinsuke Nakamura to become NXT Champion (and first 2x NXT champ)
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With that recap, here's what's on tap for San Antonio
Andrade ‘Cien' Almas vs Roderick Strong
After making up half of the Fatal 4 Way that determined the number one contender for the NXT Championship at Takeover at the end of last year, Almas and Strong will face off against one another after Almas challenged Strong. Then Almas attacked Strong on this week's NXT. And that's kinda been the build.
Tye Dillinger vs Eric Young
The Perfect 10 has been on somewhat of a massive slump. Losing in his homecoming at NXT Takeover Toronto to Bobby Roode and then again at a NXT taping to Samoa Joe soon after, capped off by coming up short in the Fatal 4 Way number one contender's match last year. Sanity leader Eric Young offered him a way into the group, saying he'd get everything he want with the group. Dillinger turned them down and after being attacked by the group, including its newest member Killain Dain (fka as Big Damo/Nikki Cross's NXT new best frieeeeeend), Young and Dillinger will face off in what could well be Dillinger's last chance to prove himself in NXT and to prove he belongs there. If not, what next for the Perfect 10?
There's a very good chance Dillinger's going to be in the Royal Rumble tomorrow. Take a guess which number
#DIY (Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa) vs the Authors of Pain (Rezar and Akam, w Paul Ellering) for the NXT Tag Team Championship
#DIY had three of the best matches of last year: one between each other in the Cruiserweight Classic last Summer and two actual Match of the Year candidates at two consecutive Takeovers against The Revival, the latter at NXT Takeover Toronto, a Two Out of Three Falls match, actually chosen by WWE.com as its 2016 MOTY. And it was through that match the pair finally became NXT Tag Team Champions.
However, a serious obstacle stands in their way: the Authors of Pain. Since debuting at NXT Takeover: The End last June, under Paul Ellering's wings, the group has laid a path of destruction across the NXT Tag Division, their biggest success to date being the second-ever winners of the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic Tournament at NXT Takeover Toronto against TM61.
Now, AoP looks to complete its journey to the top of NXT's tag summit by defeating #DIY and claim the Tag Titles at Takeover.
Asuka vs Nikki Cross vs Billie Kay vs Peyton Royce in a Fatal 4 Way for the NXT Women's Championship
Since debuting in late 2015, Asuka has remained undefeated. She has overcome – and at times, destroyed – those who've faced her: Dana Brooke, Emma, Bayley (twice), Nia Jax, Mickie James. NXT Takeover Dallas was where she was crowned NXT Women's Champion, defeating Bayley for it and then again four months later at NXT Takeover Brooklyn at the rematch, inbetween a Nia Jax match at Takeover: The End. Since then, she's had an iron grip on the belt and taking down everyone in the women's division. Seemingly, there was no stopping her.
That might change.
Asuka's arrogance and her ego in asking for a Fatal 4 Way, which came after Billie Kay and Peyton Royce, and then subsequently by Nikki Cross, attacked her, may be her eventual downfall. She has a 25 percent chance of retaining her title and a 75 percent chance of losing, doubly when you consider the Australian Fatales of Kay and Royce. But the money match down the line would surely be Asuka and Cross one-on-one. Don't be too shocked if Cross gains the title here, but Asuka isn't the one pinned so they can set up a match for NXT Takeover Orlando in April.
Either way, this should be a pretty darn amazing match and is, in this OP's opinion, the most anticipated match of the night.
Shinsuke Nakamura vs Bobby Roode for the NXT Championship
The King of Strong Style regained the NXT Championship from Samoa Joe at an NXT house show in Osaka, Japan that was filmed for NXT TV. The subsequent rematch, and the feud burner, saw Nakamura retain against Joe in Melbourne, Australia in a cage match, again filmed for NXT TV.
Now that Samoa Joe is in the rear-view, and is (hopefully) gonna enter the Royal Rumble tomorrow, all eyes now turn to the Glorious One. When Nakamura debuted at NXT Takeover Dallas after a five-star match against Sami Zayn, sitting at ringside was the man he'd face nine months later in San Antonio for the NXT Championship – something Roode was keen to point out to Nakamura after he was presented with his ticket stub for Dallas.
WWE is billing it as a big money fight and the biggest match in NXT. While that is supremely hyperbole at this point, this should still be nothing short of fantastic. Dare I say... glorious?
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Pre show:
Hour-long pre-show across every platform you think of and on the WWE Network – Presented by Charley Caruso, with Corey Graves and Nigel McGuinness (!!!). Starts at 7pm EST/4pm PST/12am UK GMT/1am CET.
And that's your pre-Royal Rumble appitizer! See you back here later!
