Earlier this week, we spent three hours and change talking about Bobby Roode. Along the way, our resident Contrarian mentioned this match. I’d heard about it before, I think, but had no idea that it’d received the Hidden Gems treatment. For those unaware, Hidden Gems was/is a section of the WWE Network that the true losers adored. Anything without a natural home, from the weird to the momentous, would land there.
Unfortunately, it would not make the leap to Peacock and so as Netflix nears, I’d imagine that it only has another six months or so left to live. With that in mind, I’ll be tackling some of these Hidden Gems over the coming months, with this being a natural starting point. As many of you know, I am slightly obsessed with this era of NXT. It’s my personal favourite time period, unknowingly shaping much of my fandom.
More specifically, I’ve always been fascinated by the brand’s house shows, as they appeared to have such a different vibe. I love house shows in general, often representing this nonsense in its purest form, but those NXT loops seemed joyous. They’d usually run quirky buildings and due to the talent’s enthusiasm, appeared to be much more alive than their RAW and SmackDown counterparts. I attended an NXT house show in summer 2017, which is a memory that I very much cherish.
I’d probably kill a man for an “NXT – On the Road” set of some sort, though that’s even less likely with the death of WWE Home Video. It’ll never happen, obviously, as this is an increasingly forgotten block of time. I think in some ways, that’s reflective of Triple H’s main roster success, actually. He’s doing the real thing now and while it’s far less to my taste, due to sheer circumstance, it also makes this a less significant piece of history.
By contrast, if Triple H was still watching on as Vince McMahon produced the worst wrestling in promotional history, these NXT glory days would go down as a “what if?” I’d imagine. Either way, this first-time matchup took place on October 30th, LIVE from the Palladium Theater in Los Angeles, California. According to cagematch, this is not a venue that’s frequently treated to professional wrestling action. In fact, this may be a one-time only occasion, my research is unclear on that front.
Regardless, Ibushi vs. Roode is an actual one-time deal, never sharing the ring before or since. 2016 WWE was so weird man, an insane combination of puzzle pieces. For wrestling’s sake, it’s good that their plans for world domination were slowed, but I absolutely buy the theory that there was interest in a boom back then. It felt like a new day, and McMahon had yet to prove otherwise to the degree that he would in the coming months and years.
This show opened with an early Roderick Strong outing, working No Way Jose mere weeks after his Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic arrival. The main event would be Shinsuke Nakamura making a title defence over Eric Young and Samoa Joe, which may also be on the Network, actually. If so, that’ll be another review for another day, but the co-main event is our focus: Kota Ibushi’s only house show appearance for WWE.
It’d be his final WWE outing too, taping his Dusty Cup elimination just over two weeks prior. He’d come in as part of the Cruiserweight Classic, famously being oblivious as to Vince McMahon’s identity. Meanwhile, Roode had arrived in April, showing up at TakeOver: Dallas before making his televised in-ring debut at Brooklyn. We are two months removed from that here and already, the Glorious entrance is a smash hit. That happened immediately, in truth.
As you’d expect, this has a substantial atmosphere at the bell, with “this is awesome” chants emerging while Roode disrobes. I should note that there is no commentary for this, which adds a real charm, almost like you’ve snuck in. With that being said, Lord Alfred Hayes could’ve made some magic here I feel, but I guess we’ll never know. Once the bell rings, it is mostly a house show match, or at least initially.
They soak up that atmosphere, including an onslaught of “Beer Money” chants, taking their time with the opening grapples. They quickly highlight the obvious stylistic clash, with Roode being the technician by default in contrast to Ibushi’s acrobatics and strikes. Roode very much sets the pace, sprinkling in lots of crowd work and making for a fascinating science project. Somehow, Ibushi’s work converts to Roode’s rhythm seamlessly, ensuring that each blow is worth the wait.
At times, the crowd can be a little too cute but whatever, it’s a house show. This is the era in which they’d yell “ten” for every count, which was definitely very funny and innovative. I’m sorry, this has been far too triumphant anyway, I’m still British. Anyway, Roode leads a steady control segment along the way, taking it easy while Ibushi bumps violently for his clothesline. That aforementioned pace gives Ibushi’s eventual comeback an almost staggered cadence, which actually works a treat.
The match almost transforms from there, going through the gears and suddenly colouring outside of that house show outline. They exchange signature offence, including an especially pretty AA Spinebuster from Roode. Ibushi’s thunderous powerbomb packs a punch too, giving the match its strongest near fall. In response, LA chants “fight forever,” which I had internally placed at a later time in the memory. Chasing the kill shot, Ibushi then heads up top for the Phoenix Splash.
Roode moves however, closing the show via Glorious DDT. This is lovely. It’s a real match that at sixteen minutes, has time to come alive, but it’s also proper house show pro wrestling. There’s that distinct flavour, a sense of fluidity that’s a virtual exclusive to this setting on the national stage. The lads are just wrestling, playing around with a weird video game matchup and following the obvious route to a rewarding destination.
These slightly strange matchups were a theme of Roode’s NXT run, wrestling a bunch of his generation’s best in bouts that you’d never considered beforehand. On that list, this feels like the 1-seed, a unique one-time pairing for this Los Angeles house show. Simply put, it was a different time, one that I seemingly refuse to let go of, for that matter.
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