Although the action in the ring this week was solid as Cruiserweight Classic performer Drew Gulak and Bobby Roode were on the card, the drama between Samoa Joe and Shinsuke Nakamura, which ended with “The King of Strong Style†being stretchered out the ring, was the straw that stirred the episode’s drink.
Add in some Bobby Roode and this week’s NXT simply got “it†done.
Just don’t tell Chris Jericho we said that.
Matches:
Liv Morgan vs. Rachel Fazio: A weak encounter that was lacking chemistry. Fazio was sharp with strikes, but Morgan is still mega green. Morgan won via submission with a seated Front-Face Lock.
Drew Gulak vs. Hideo Itami: Best match of the night as two technical and striking magicians beat each other up. After exchanging slaps in the face, Itami was pissed and turned it up with Running Knees and Kicks to the back to chest. Gulak eventually fought back and hit a Drop Kick and a Scoop Slam against the ropes. Gulak then worked on Itami’s legs and locked on a few other submissions before he hit a nice High Angle Belly to Back Suplex. After more strikes from Gulak, Itami fought back with Kicks and strikes of his own. He then finished off Gulak with the Dropkick in the corner and GTS.
The Authors of Pain: Akom and Razar w/Paul Ellering vs.Doug Sessa and Chris Payne: A plain old squash as the Authors of Pain decimated both competitors with a Powerbomb and their Clothesline/Russian Leg Sweep combination.
No Way Jose vs. Bobby Roode: Jose was solid with a nice TKO variation and plenty of strikes, but Roode got the win with a new finisher, a modified Impaler DDT.
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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