NXT 294

August 26, 2015 – Brooklyn, New York

These are all the Takeover: Brooklyn pre-show matches, and the show is extended to 84 minutes to accommodate them.

Enzo Amore, Colin Cassady, Mojo Rawley, & Zack Ryder def. Shane Dawson, Dash WIlder, Jason Jordan, & Chad Gable
They gave this a nice chunk of time and it kind of lost me before the hit-em-up finish. Call it boring match meat sandwiched between two slices of fun match bread. **¾

William Regal announces that the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic begins tomorrow. Neville pops up and asks to be a part of it out of respect to Dusty. Neato.

Eva Marie def. Carmella
This was shockingly not bad. I have to hand it to them they both put in a ton of effort here. Neither of them are good, but they had a fully competent match that actually had a couple of entertaining spots in it. **½

Baron Corbin wants to be in the tag tournament. Regal teams him with Rhyno and books him against the Ascension. So many people I hate in one match!

Bull Dempsey def. Elias Samson
All of a sudden, Samson has a drifter musician gimmick. Eh, getting slapped with a sudden gimmick worked for Tyler Breeze. This was pretty boring. *¾

They play the first Nia Jax promo, but she won’t debut for over a month.

Emma def. Dana Brooke, Charlotte, & Becky Lynch {Fatal Four Way Match}
Apparently Lynch and Charlotte have been in a group called PCB with Paige on the main roster. That’s somehow a less creative name than the BFFs. This is their last match in NXT. They try to keep the mean girls out of the ring so they can just have a match with each other, but that only lasts so long. Then the mean girls keep Charlotte on the floor, and Brooke proves that she can’t even break up a pinfall and make it look good. Once the gaga ended and Brooke didn’t have to drive any of the action, this picked up in a big way. The finish was super weird, as the Emma Sandwich, which has always been a transition move, got her the win over Lynch. The camera angle that caught it did make it look kind of nasty, but still it’s like losing to an armdrag. Charlotte and Lynch beat up the mean girls after the match. ***