WWE NXT results and observations (12/7/16): Shinsuke Nakamura is champion again
For the second time in less than a month, NXT crowned a new champion, as Shinsuke Nakamura defeated Samoa Joe to become a two-time champion in his home country of Japan.
The match took place during an NXT live event at the Edion Arena in Osaka, Japan back on Dec. 3 and it aired in its entirety this Wednesday night.
The match itself would not knock anyone's socks off, but I can cut NXT some slack being as though that this match took place on a live event and not a WWE Network special.
Nakamura will not have much to celebrate winning the title for the second time, as he will defend NXT championship against Joe inside a steel cage during a live event in Melbourne, Australia. The event will take place today, but the match will air on next week's episode of NXT.
While that took place at the end of this week's episode, the show began with Tommaso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano, collectively known as #DIY, celebrating their NXT Tag Team championship victory amongst the fans at Full Sail University.
Ciampa and Gargano attempted to speak to the fans, but the Authors of Pain interrupted them before they could get a word out.
The Authors' manager Paul Ellering took the microphone and said that their celebration was a bit premature. Before Ellering could go any further, The Revival came out and cut him short.
The Revival made sure to avoid any confrontation with the Authors of Pain and said that they deserved to be the No. 1 contenders for the titles. The Authors of Pain took offense to what Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder were saying and decided to forcefully move them out of the way.
The Revival scurried away, as Ellering said that the Authors of Pain would become the next NXT Tag Team champions.
Later in the show, NXT general manager William Regal announced that #DIY will defend their NXT Tag Team titles against The Revival on the Jan. 11 edition of NXT. The winners of that match will defend the titles against the Authors of Pain at NXT Takeover: San Antonio on Jan. 29.
After Regal's announcement, Tye Dillinger paid him a visit and was ready to go through with his stipulation from last week of leaving NXT if he lost to Joe.
Regal cut him off by saying that he was going to set up a tournament whereby the winner would become the No. 1 contender for the NXT championship and would like to give Dillinger a spot because he believed in him.
Dillinger accepted Regal's invitation and left. In a nod to his in-ring days, Regal then picked up a pair of brass knuckles and breathed a sigh of enjoyment.
Later in the show, the tournament matches were revealed. Dillinger will face Eric Young, Elias Samson will go against Roderick Strong, Oney Lorcan will face Bobby Roode and Andrade "Cien" Almas will dance with No Way Jose.
The winners of those four matches will then face each other in a fatal four-way with the winner of that match being named the No. 1 contender to the NXT championship.
Speaking of Young and Jose, they took part in a tag team match Wednesday night. Jose teamed with his usual partner Rich Swann while Young teamed with Sanity cohort Alexander Wolfe. Conspicuous by his absence was Sawyer Fulton.
Before the match, Young tossed down the jacket Fulton typically wears to the ring and eventually threw it out of the ring.
According to reports, Fulton had recently suffered an injury that will keep out of action for several months. A man by the name of Big Damo will seemingly replace Fulton in the group after he shoved Jose into the ring post during the match.
Young took advantage of the assist to pin Jose and win a very entertaining match.
Sanity seemed confused by Big Damo, who also slammed down Fulton's jacket before leaving.
An interviewer attempted to get a word with Sanity backstage later in the show, but they walked away in silence. However, Nikki Cross stumbled upon the NXT Women's championship sitting around without its owner, Asuka.
Cross stopped to stare at it (and breathe rather heavily at it) before Asuka entered the frame and picked it up. The two stared at each other before Cross chuckled and walked away.
In other news, Percy Watson returned to NXT and joined Tom Phillips and Corey Graves on the announce team to form yet another three-man booth on WWE television.
Also, independent wrestling star Kimber Lee made her NXT debut in a loss against Ember Moon. I have had the opportunity to interview Lee on two occasions in the past.
You can read those stories here and here.
With that said, here are the full match results:
- Sanity (Eric Young & Alexander Wolfe) def. No Way Jose & Rich Swann
- Ember Moon def. Kimber Lee
- NXT championship – Shinsuke Nakamura def. Samoa Joe