With Sami Zayn out with an injury, the announcement that Kevin Owens will take on Finn Balor in Japan for the NXT Title was the coolest news of this show. While the return of the Vaudevillians will bolster the tag team division as well, this show was essentially one that sets the scene for later events and not one that’ll be remembered forever.
But wait, Eva Marie cried during this week’s show? There’s no crying in wrestling. Being heckled by fans during her promo, Eva was clearly shaken. In order for her to be a success, she’s got to rise above the baby stuff.
Matches:
Tyler Breeze vs. Adam Rose: A longer match than you might have expected as both competitors traded blows for a solid 10 minutes. Rose looked especially good following a Running Yakuza Kick, a Spinebuster, Boston Crab and a nasty Clothesline in the corner. He even added in the Mick Foley outside Elbow, but a Beauty Shot out of nowhere gave Breeze the win.
Alexa Bliss w/NXT Tag Team Champions Blake and Murphy vs. Carmella w/Enzo Amore and Colin Cassady: Carmella was in control for most of the match, but Bliss won with a Rollup and some help from the ropes.
Aiden English and Simon Gotch vs. Jason Jordan and Marcus Louis: Jordan and Louis dominated early until Gotch hit the ring and nailed Louis a few times with European Uppercuts and took out Jordan. With Jordan out, Gotch hit another European Uppercut and tagged in English, who hit the Neckbreaker for the win.
Finn Balor vs. Rhyno: Balor took a beating and puzzled Rhyno with fortitude at times. After the turnbuckle Dropkick, Balor missed the Double Stomp, but was smart enough to get the win with a Rollup. After the match, Rhyno Gored Balor on the entrance ramp.
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports.
Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders.
His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023.
Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief.
Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale.
Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.
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