October 19, 2016 – Winter Park, Florida
Rich Swann & No Way Jose def. Tony Nese & Drew Gulak {First Round Match}
That was fun. It’s nice to see a tournament match that was more about putting on a good show than it was about moving forward an unrelated storyline point. ***
Hideo Itami is injured again, so the match between him and Austin Aries in the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic isn’t going to happen. But Aries is still in it, and he has a great partner of his own.
Bobby Roode def. Sean Maluta
William Regal has given Tye Dillinger a match against Roode at Takeover: Toronto so that he can get revenge after Roode abandoned him last week. I don’t review squashes. Dillinger rushes Roode after the match and gets the better of him. N/A
Peyton Royce and Billie Kay attack Liv Morgan backstage and drag her to the ramp, where Royce knocks her out with a kick. Then they cut a really cringey promo.
Austin Aries & Roderick Strong def. Otis Dozovic & Tucker Knight {First Round Match}
I would have loved it if NXT had said that Dozovic got a contract to make up for Nakamura beating him up when he was a security guard last week. The fact that they didn’t makes this some bush league biz… but who cares, Roderick Strong is in NXT! The future Heavy Machinery go to look good here, and the former Generation Next got to kick a little ass. ***
Danielle Kamela def. Nikki Cross
They’re playing this down but it’s pretty cool that every member of SAnitY is from a different country. Cross wins in under two minutes, during which time she self-mutilated more than I’m comfortable with. She keeps beating on Kamela after the match so the decision is reversed. N/A
Shinsuke Nakamura comes out to close the show by accepting Samoa Joe’s title challenge at Takeover: Toronto. Patrick Clark interrupts and wants to fight Nakamura. He calls himself the Velveteen Dream for the first time. Nakamura casually kicks him unconscious. Joe runs out and thinks about attacking, but Nakamura catches him and Joe backs off. Nakamura kicks Clark again to make an example.