[2018-07-11-WWE-NXT] Roderick Strong & Kyle O'Reilly vs Trent Seven & Tyler Bate

[SmartMark15]

Wild. An absolute tag team classic. Trent Seven puts in a career performance as the Ricky Morton when Roddy gets the early advantage with the knee breaker on the steel steps. This leads into an extended heat segment, and probably the best heat segment the Era have ever put together. Their attacks on Seven's knee were convincingly brutal and Seven sold the agony extremely well. The hot tag to finally get Bate in was nuclear hot and the story of Bate not wanting to tag Seven in was conveyed brilliantly. Loved that he had to get dropped into the corner before Seven could actually tag himself in. From there, it's a matter of the Era piling on the offensive until that fantastic finish. You really felt for both of the babyfaces and it's a brilliant story to move forward with. Probably the best tag team match I've seen all year.

****3/4

[ShittyLittleBoots]

Right from the get go the dueling roars of "MOUSTACHE MOUNTAIN!" & "UNDISPUTED!" were really cool, really fit into the beginning of the match with them going at it right away, brawling all over the place. Then the big moment of the match happens; Roddy drops Seven knee first onto the steel steps. Kyle & Roddy torture the crap out of him, working over that knee in BRUTAL fashion; in particular Kyle was absolutely amazing during the heat segment. The heat segment overall is up there with the absolute greatest of 'em; incredibly compelling stuff. Tyler's eventual hot tag was goddamn superb, too - they milked it just enough & once he got the tag, and started busting out his signature big moves, I was marking out big time. He ran wild on Roddy & Kyle for a while - loved Roddy's brief cut-off's during that, especially that backbreaker one. Trent's one final stand was brilliant, with him swinging lariats & chops, as well as he could with a destroyed knee, but the Undisputed lads got the control by going after that knee once again, very quickly. Tyler coming in one last time to break Roddy's murderous looking knee submission, only for the ref to tell him to stop doing that or he's gonna get his team DQ'd was excellently executed, I thought. After that's it's all bum-knee-getting-destroyed-to-shits -drama, and incredibly compelling at that w/ Kyle torturing Trent with that Heel Hook. Brilliant drama, brilliant psychology, brilliant structure & brilliant performances from all involved. A tag team classic. As of now it's my pick for the tag team & WWE MOTY. ****3/4

[Tenese Sarwieh]

What and blast this was. Everyone was on point but this was the Trent Seven show. He played his role as fip perfectly and his selling was glorious. What more can be said that's already haven't been said with this one? Instant classic.

[Maciej]

So I don't disagree that this is a really good match, but can we talk about this ending?  I know you're a babyface but just go in and kick O'Reilly in the face, right? Since when is this a thing that a babyface would rather throw in the towel than break up a finish? That part didn't really work for me.

[nivvad]

A rematch of the great match both teams had in the UK. This sequal is just as good, but in an entirely different way. The leg work that Kyle and Roddy did on Trent's leg was great, and by god did Trent sell that leg to the bitter end. Bate did very well too as the FIP with his amazing signature offense. Very dramatic finish with Bate needing to throw in the towel to save his partner and give UE the win and titles back, ****1/4.

[MikeCampbell]

I don't know if I'd call it NXT MOTY, I'll have to watch Almas/Gargano again, but I'd easily put this over both of the Gargano/Ciampa matches. Just from Strong and O'Reilly's entrance, you can tell that they mean business tonight, and they show that they'll have no qualms about crippling Seven if necesarry. Bate was the perfect hot tag, and dishes out some wicked shots to Kyle and Roddy. I wish they hadn't switched the titles here though. They could have gotten away with a DQ with Seven getting a rope break and one of the heels not letting go of the hold (they just did something similar on RAW with the Revival), or even had Bate get a fluke win with his rebound lariat. If the heat here was any indication, they can keep this feud hot for another month and then blow it off at Takeover (which I'm guessing is the plan anyway).

 

There's one thing I have a problem with though. "The Strong Clutch" WTF? It looks like shit, especially compared to the real thing from Kondo and even Cabana's Billy Goat's Curse, and his old ROH "Stronghold" finisher has both a better name and also looks a lot better.

 

Also, when the Undisputed Era were celebratng, Bobby Fish walked out, so he does't need the crutches anymore. Looks like we'll be seeing him back soon. Which begs a question. The recent tags and trios matches have gotten some high praise. If Fish was invovled instead of Strong, would they have been as good?

[MikeCampbell]

20 hours ago, Maciej said:

So I don't disagree that this is a really good match, but can we talk about this ending?  I know you're a babyface but just go in and kick O'Reilly in the face, right? Since when is this a thing that a babyface would rather throw in the towel than break up a finish? That part didn't really work for me.

 

Bate did that before. I guess we're supposed to infer that Drake told him that he'd disqualify them if he did it again.

[ShittyLittleBoots]

18 hours ago, Maciej said:

So I don't disagree that this is a really good match, but can we talk about this ending?  I know you're a babyface but just go in and kick O'Reilly in the face, right? Since when is this a thing that a babyface would rather throw in the towel than break up a finish? That part didn't really work for me.

Just before the finish, Bate went in & broke Roddy's knee submission, which lead to the ref telling him to not do that very aggressively. I thought the finish seemed very silly on paper, but I also thought it worked in the context.

EDIT: didn't notice Mike pointing out the exact same thing above me, shouldn't scroll rasslin forums when tired as hell

[klhare]

Trent Seven is not a guy that I normally like, I find him boring and very much the third wheel in the trio, but my lord was he great here. It is tough to keep a lengthy submission sequence engaging at the end of a match, but he did it perfectly here. This was a rare match that shot me with adrenaline while watching. I was so entrenched in the action that I was almost nervous about what was next. Just really great stuff. Best tag match of the year so far. 

[Boss Rock]

Really great tag match with with some excellent fundamental tag work. The heel team cuts off the ring and works over the face in peril's leg before the hot tag. And hoo boy what a hot tag this was. Trent's selling here was absolutely phenomenal and Tyler laying out Roddy and Kyle was great. Tyler not breaking up the submission because he wanted to follow the rules seemed like an odd choice, but I guess they're just that good of sportsmen. And I felt like the final submission went on way too long to the point of being unbelievable that Trent could still hang on. But still, this was easily one of the best tag matches of the year.

****1/4.

[SPS]

Well after hearing all the hype and seeing it get ***** I went and checked this out and man am I mixed.

Overall a great match with Trent Seven doing such a great job selling the knee and holding on in agony refusing to give in before the finish but man did some holes in this bring this down for me.

My main gripe was the Undisputed Era throughout the match blatantly ignores the rules and runs in and out as they please without any real reprimand from the referee, notably during one point where U.E. is camping out in the ring double team attacking Bate and the ref counts 1 for the 5 count to get the illegal man out of the ring then just gives up and lets them keep on. WTF?

The when Bate makes 1 save the referee warns him that if he does it again M.M. will be presumably DQ'd. So Bate stands on the apron like a goof while Seven sells his ass off struggling to escape the inverted heel hook when if there was any kind of consistency in the officiating he should've just ran in and booted Kyle in the face to break it up since the ref gave 0 fucks about the U.E. doing it all match.

It would've made the story that much more clear cut and heated if the referee had been on top this nonsense and been more of an authority from the start constantly warning and threatening disqualification on U.E. for their disregard for the rules gaining them the upper hand in an otherwise match up of two evenly matched pairings.

That gives some sympathy for M.M. as not only are they having one member risk serious knee injury due to U.E. bending the rules to get the chance to inflict such damage to Seven but also that U.E. are that much more hateable because they are seemingly talented enough to beat down M.M. but due to their cowardice and greed to regain the titles by any means necessary they resort to underhanded tactics to assure not just regaining the titles but also possibly eliminating a rivals career. That gives the referee more logical justification when Bate makes that one save to say 'alright that's the only one I'm gonna allow in retaliation, if you do it again I'll have to DQ you, I have to enforce the rules for both teams'.

That way Bate wouldn't look so foolish standing on the apron helpless after all the shit U.E. pulled and the referee doesn't look so incompetent or biased when seemingly brining the hammer down on the faces for a single offense after letting the heels run amok earlier on.

Aside from that my other nitpicks were Bate's selling was weak as his facials were him either being just dead or when he'd get stuck with a kick or likewise just would have have a worried look on his face and would rub his head? like a toddler or pet had popped him with a blow rather than a pro athlete in a combat situation.

And my only minor criticism on Trent was his kicks while in the heel hook looked weak as hell and Kyle oversold them by acting rocked by them when they looked more like grazing swatting kicks rather than hammering blows.

Other than that overall it was still a great match and the crowd was super hot so that helped give it an extra gear but I'd go **** due to the structure of the whole thing suffering due to the shit refereeing not allowing the heels to be shown as cheating bastards in turn leaving the faces looking like nervous to retaliate goofs rather than good guys who took all they could until they could take no more.

[cactus]

This features a career performance for Severn. He's by far the least impressive worker overall, but he brought his best here. He sells his injury convincingly and actually tries to fight back as his leg is getting worked over by Strong & O'Reilly. Speaking of the Undisputed Era, they were are smooth as ever cutting the ring in half and making constant hot tags. The finish with the towel is great, although I think they milked it a bit too much. My other gripe is how the Undisputed Era would constantly do double-team moves in front of the referee and not get penalized. Even with my minor gripes, this is one of the best standard tag matches that WWE has ever put out. ★★★★½