[2017-05-03-WWE-NXT] Hideo Itami vs Kona Reeves

[ShittyLittleBoots]

This was a great return match for Hideo. It was pretty much perfectly laid out - Kona jumps Hideo right away to get the advantage & does some quite impressive work over him. He laid those strikes in & his work over Hideo overall was really damn good. Reeves impressed me in this one. Hideo makes a badass comeback & starts destroying Kona with those killer strikes of his. This was perfectly laid out for Hideo's first match back. Very much enjoyed it. ***1/2

[GOTNW]

Maybe use the taping date since that's what's always done for these threads for NXT TV matches in the future?

 

This was certainly a fun little match. I was surprised by how good Reeves' cut-off punch and back elbow looked, the back elbow specifically is something commonly done as a rope run counter, here he just caugh Itami moments after irish whipping it and it looked both nasty and unique. He still lacks the presence of a genuine heel or a wrestler really, and just went through the generic CAW heel mannerisms that are beaten into people at the performance center. Itami's big slap made for a wonderful transition, and his comeback went as expected. Still it is nice to see a match with a straightforward narrative and a structure on WWE/NXT TV instead of the forced 50/50 quasi squaches they usually do. **3/4

[ShittyLittleBoots]

Thought about putting the taping date, but then I checked the last NXT match thread (McIntyre vs. Lorcan) so I went with what that thread went too; the airing date.

[Cap]

I'd say taping date. I think that jives best with most other archive, review, track systems that I know and use.

 

This was fun. It got the job done. I agree that Reeves still lacks that presence, but this was the firs time that I took real note of him to be honest. It gave me the impression that he could get there if put in the right spot and can hone the right persona, he might really excel.