OZ Academy 12/30/2020 - The End Of The Year

OZ Academy 12/30/2020 - The End Of The Year

I'm just doing selected matches here. Long time viewers of this site know my feelings on Oz Academy.

 

Aja Kong vs. Rina Shingaki

Rina slaps Aja early and gets put down with one single Aja slap. Aja slaps her around a little more and drops her with a headbutt. Rina mounts her and pounds on her. Aja rolls out of an armbar attempt and then kicks her in the head to stop that.

Aja hits a hard backdrop on her and misses a slow elbow drop from the 2nd rope, which gets turned into a Rina armbar/triangle. Aja slips out of it and wins with something like a grounded stretch muffler in an unusual finish. This did nothing for Rina.

Itsuki Aoki, Kaori Yoneyama & Tsubasa Kuragaki vs. Momoka Hanazono & Ozaki-gun (Maya Yukihi & Yumi Ohka)

We join this one in progress with Aoki pounding on Hanazono. Hanazono does a hurricanrana off the 2nd rope and then crossbodies her off the top. Maya picks up Kaori and forces her to hurricanrana her partner Aoki. Then Maya mocks Aoki and ducks so Aoki nails Kaori with a shot.

Ohka is supposed to throw Maya a whip, but she drops it then Ohka gets in and does a doot to the face and an axe kick on Tsubasa. Ohka starts whipping Tsubasa and chokes her with the whip. Tsubasa powers out of it and flips her over. Ohka and Maya are not on the same page at all here and Ohka hits Maya with a piece of the whip when she is nailing Tsubasa with the whip. Tsubasa comes back with a splash from the top on Ohka for 2, then crabs her. Maya gets thrown on Ohka and Ohka kicks her off.

Ohka ends up whipping Maya in the butt while she is up top and Tsubasa torture racks both of them. Yoneyama and Ohka try to trade face kicks but Kaori is too small and her kicks won't reach her. Ohka kicks Maya out of the way, then she takes a variety of attacks from the 2nd and 3rd ropes with a Tsubasa moonsault being one of them.

Maya and Ohka almost nail each other again then Maya accidentally kicks Ohka on a roll-up. Maya superkicks Ohka on accident then Ohka gives her a facekick for it. Maya dropkicks Ohka and Kaori pins her. This was all about the Ohka/Maya in-fighting here

Sareee vs. Saori Anou

Anou sits down and dares Sareee to do something, then blocks her kick. They throw each other by the hair and Sareee stretches her with a crab and a camel clutch. Sareee double stomps her in the gut and dropkicks her from the top rope for 2. Anou grabs a whip and starts nailing Sareee with it and throws her off the top. They trade forearms to the chest. Anou kicks her in the face multiple times then Sareee dropkicks her face on the bottom rope.

Anou hurricanrana's her off the top then fisherman suplexes her for 2. Sareee bounces her off the top and hits a great german suplex. Anou gets robbed IMO on a slow count on a bridge then hits a great german of her own. Sareee comes back up and spin kicks her to the face then hits an unique tiger suplex-esque hold before winning with an exploder suplex. This went 11:58 and was a good match from start to finish with Anou really being a nice counterpart to Sareee. It's a shame this is probably the last match they will have because these two might be able to have a classic with enough time.

OZ Academy Tag Team Title Match - MISSION K4 (AKINO & Sonoko Kato) (c) vs. MISSION K4 (Kaho Kobayashi & Kakeru Sekiguchi)

Kato's team takes dropkicks to start. Kaho tope's both opponents and when they go back in, Akino does a double team hold on both opponents. Kato hits Kakeru with Kawada kicks and Kaho dropkicks one opponent into the other.

Kakeru hits a bunch of forearms on Kato and gets kicked down by Kato. She tries more and takes a big high kick. Kato tried a flip from the top but got nothing then was armbarred. Kato gets some help and then legdrops Kakeru from the 2nd rope. AKINO missile dropkicks Kakeru from the top three times.  Kakeru STO's Akino then Akino no sells Kaho's top rope missile dropkick. They trade a little but Akino doesn't sell much here then Kaho is superplexed off the top rope.

Akino kick combos Kaho for 2 at 15 minutes, then kick combo's her again with a buzzsaw kick for 2. Kato and Akino high kick Kaho then Akino spinning powerbombs her for 2. Kaho tries to comeback with forearms but is nailed down with just one. Akino goes up top and Kakeru shakes the ropes on her then Kaho top rope hurricanrana's her. Kaho then does a twisting dive onto her which is broken up at 2. Kato release german suplexes Kakeru and Akino does two Saito suplexes on Kaho.

Akino also gets the win on a roll up at 20 minutes then gets a hurricanrana roll-up reversed for 2. Kato high kicks both opponents and Akino ends up high kicking Kato. Kaho then gets a surprise roll-up on Akino and wins it at 20:47. This went too long, the vets didn't sell enough and and youngsters didn't really get to show enough to appear to be any sort of threat. This was long and boring to me.

OZ Academy Openweight Title Three Way Match - Mayumi Ozaki (w/Maya Yukihi, Police, Saori Anou & Yumi Ohka) (c) vs. Hiroyo Matsumoto (w/Aja Kong & Kaori Yoneyama) vs. Yoshiko

Everybody jumps in to start, even the seconds. Oz ducks one shot just to take another and gets 2v1'd with Yoshiko doing a butt drop on her. Hiroyo and Yoshiko pull at each other's hair and shoulderblock battle. Police openly interferes and enters the ring as does Yuhiki and Oz tosses chairs at Hiroyo's head. Everyone from Oz's crew throws chairs at Hiroyo and Hiroyo gets chained up and pulled. Two Oz cronies kick her over when she is in a chair and Oz hits her over the head with a chain.

Hiroyo and Oz tug of war over a chain, then Yoshiko helps out Hiroyo and Oz lets go, and they fall back. Oz's crew jumps in again for more interference and Yoshiko is handcuffed to the rope. More blatant interference and Yoshiko gets out of the handcuffs to help clothesline out Oz's crew. Oz gets bridged on the middle turnbuckle and Yoshiko is suplexed into her. Yoshiko springboards into a senton on Oz while also doing a codebreaker to Hiroyo. Yoshiko facewashes/headwashes oz and boots her to finish it. Everyone inside and outside the ring fights and Oz and Police are handcuffed to the rails.

Yoshiko and Hiroyo fight inside, dueling lariats. Hiroyo gets double stomped, senton'd and Vader bombed by Yoshiko, but Oz comes in to break it up. They do a tower of doom spot where Oz gets powerbomed. Oz uraken's and backfists Hiroyo for 2. Oz tries to pin Hiroyo but gets a senton from the top by Yoshiko. Yoshiko sentons a table from the top after Oz moves then Yoshiko is backdropped for 2 as Police comes in and kicks everyone. Oz accidentally hits Police wiht a chain then Aja hits them both with her trash can. Hiroyo hits a liger bomb for 2. Ozaki sprays black mists, and misses it. Then Oz ducks Yoshiko's mist, which ends up in Hiroyo's eyes then Oz red mists Yoshiko.

Hiroyo is half and half suplexed for 2. Hiroyo hits a big lariat on Oz. She then goes for something over her shoulder but Oz rolls her up and wins it at 19:22. It wasn't bad if you discount the blatant rule breaking and interference along with all of the logic questions that come with that.

Oz and Yoshiko choke each other after.

Overall thoughts: It's Oz Academy. It's rarely ever great or inspiring and the rules always being completely broken undermine so much of what they do.

WWE NXT UK 1/28/2021

WWE NXT UK 1/28/2021

I reviewed last week's episode with pics and gifs here: https://prowresblog.blogspot.com/2021/01/wwe-nxt-uk-1212021.html 

 

Jordan Devlin comes out to start the show. He said it's not enough that he's the longest reigning NXT UK Cruiserweight champ, but he wants to have the most defenses and be known as the best cruiserweight champ ever.

Trent Seven then comes out. He agrees with him and says maybe he and the cruiserweight division needs. Trent said maybe he needs the challenge too. Trent said he will get down to 205 and said he wants a title shot once he gets there. Jordan agreed and made some weight comments, then Trent nailed him for it. Trent then stepped on his title when Jordan tried to take it with him and said he will take the title.

We see The Hunt getting ready in the back with Eddie Dennis.

They do a quick package on Kay Lee Ray then a package on Meiko Satomura. She said she is one of the best in the world and has won a lot of titles. in Japan. She said to be prepared because she is here in NXT UK.

Pretty Deadly is warming up in the back.

Ben Carter vs Sam Gradwell

 

Sam comes out with a mic and says he is making a speech. He told Ben well done on making it to NXT and made fun of his hometown. He said he's here to be a thunderstorm, not a pretty fireworks display and said he would send him back across the English Channel.

Sam works the arm and Carter comes back with two dropkicks. Ben dropkicks him off the 2nd rope then Sam comes back and starts roughing him up, hitting a hard forearm. Nigel said that Sam told him he found a stranger in his house once and brogue kicked him through the wall. Ben tries to make a comeback but takes a hard back elbow.

Ben hits a nice release butterfly suplex on him for 2 and sits on his shoulders for a pin but can't finish it. Ben knocks Gradwell out of the ring and then dives on him then does a flip dive where he mostly missed him. Ben went for a springboard and got caught and was thrown, then STO'd.

Ben did an asai moonsault off the 2nd rope into a sling blade, then hit a frogsplash off the top to win. This was good for the time it was given and both guys look like they have a lot of potential.

Mark Andrews and Flash Morgan Webster warmed up in the back. 

Noam Dar and Sha Samurels were seen talking in the back.

Josh Morrell vs Sha Samuels

Morrell did a flip out of a wristlock and was slammed down soon after. Josh did a nice go over in the corner into an armdrag and took a hard lariat.

Josh kind of botched a back body drop but the landing looked cool. Sha pounded on him more and Josh hit a nice running leg lariat. Josh back cartwheeled out of a shove then hit a backflip dropkick. Josh ran up the ropes and did a corkscrew and landed on his feet to come back down. Then he got lariated soon after.

Sha then hit a nice spinebuster and did a cobra clutch camel clutch for the win in a decent match. Josh is a little sloppy but he will be fine if he can fix that.

Ilja Dragunov was interviewed in the back. He said he didn't know what happened in his match with Jack Starz as it pertains to how violent he was. Sam Gradwell interrupted with something.

Rampage Brown ran into Galius in the back. Brown told Joe Coffey it looked like he needed a challenge.

#1 Contenders to the WWE NXT UK Tag Titles - Elimination Match - Mark Andrews and Flash Morgan Webster vs Pretty Deadly vs The Hunt vs Ashton Smith and Oliver Carter

Eddie Dennis is barred from ringside and can't help The Hunt.

#1 Contenders to the WWE NXT UK Tag Titles - Mark Andrews and Flash Morgan Webster vs Pretty Deadly vs The Hunt vs Ashton Smith and Oliver Carter

Smith is sunset flipped then dropkicked early. Andrews jumps off of Websters back and huricanrana's Carter. Gallus is seen watching with popcorn in the stands. Carter and Smith do a silly spring rebound into a splash. Pretty Deadly holds onto each other to avoid a german, then Howley and Stoker both get german suplexed. Everyone goes at it.

Hunt nails Smith with a double headbutt. Boar takes a nasty back body drop from Smith. Webster does a springboard dropkick then an asai moonsault onto Howley. Andrews saves his partner from a suplex, then they double dropkick their opponents then do a double flip dive. They do a tower of doom spot.

Carter jumps off of Howley's back then does a moonsault to the outside. Primate dives on Carter into a superkick and Webster does a big flip sell on a Primate clothesline. Carter and Smith do a springboard cutter on Primate and take out the The Hunt with a Primate pin.

Smith comes in and hits some big clothesline son PD then does a wild gutwrench suplex onto Sam. Smith backdrops his partner Carter into a 450. Andrews' team did a reverse hurricanrana and a pumping knee combo to eliminate Carter and Smith.

Andrews slid under a PD clothesline then did double backflip kicks onto them. Andrews did a springboard hurricanrana on Howley for 2. Stoker did a cool spinning backbreaker into a giant swing into a single leg crab on Andrews, who just had his knee injury activated. Sam then did a figure four on Andrews but Webster broke it up. Andrews turned a suplex into a stunner.

Webster did a top rope swanton onto Stoker's back and Andrews slingshot hurricarana'd Howley on the outside. Stoker was back body dropped over the top onto his partner then Webster swanton dived both opponents on the outside. Andrews ran the ropes and Eddie Dennis appeared out of nowhere with a chair to his knee. PD then held up Andrews while Howley neckbreakered him to win.

Pretty good match action wise. Story wise, they could have capitalized on Andrews' injured knee more but this was hard not to like. All action from start to finish.

PD then stared down with Gallus to end the show.

Overall thoughts: Another pretty good episode of NXT UK as usual with a main event a lot of people are going to love.