NXT 365

November 23, 2016 – Toronto, Ontario

Rich Swann nc. Kona Reeves
Ah, looks like Reeves has achieved his final form. Well, his final name at least. The match was going along just fine, and the crowd was very into Swann, when SAnitY came out to spoil the whole thing. Then they cut a generic heel promo. No Way Jose runs out and he’s not down with all this SAnitY business. He wants Eric Young in the ring. They fight, but there’s no referee, so there was nothing stopping the rest of SAnitY from attacking Jose. Nobody makes the save. **

Most of the show is just a recap of Takeover: Toronto

Ember Moon, Liv Morgan & Aliyah def. Billie Kay, Peyton Royce & Daria Berenato
This was actually pretty damn fun, and the first time that they found a way to set someone up for the Eclipse that made a lick of sense. Sadly, Berenato didn’t take it quite the right way. This feels very removed from the Women’s Championship, but at least they’ve kept Moon strong enough that she could reasonably challenge. ***

They end the show by saying that Samoa Joe will defend his newly won title against Shinsuke Nakamura when NXT goes to Osaka, Japan. Ads had already been playing on the show saying that the title match was happening with Nakamura defending against Joe. This flip actually makes more sense.

Because the Cruiserweight Championship is now an NXT title and I’m reviewing every title defense of the WWE/NXT Cruiserweight Championship and post them on the NXT TV reviews that preceded them, here’s the title defense from the inaugural episode of 205 Live.

November 29, 2016 – Columbia, South Carolina

Rich Swann def. Brian Kendrick {WWE Cruiserweight Championship Match}
Swann beat TJ Perkins and Noam Dar in a triple threat match to get this title shot. After a couple months of pedestrian action in this division, they finally recaptured a bit of the magic from the Cruiserweight Classic in this match. The crowd showed them some love, and in return Swann and Kendrick put together some really compelling action. Kendrick hit a super Shiranui here that the commentators called The Whole Loaf of Bread, which I like very much. Swann won the title with three roundhouse kicks at 15:12. ***½