The NXT Thread

[Ace]

BFF (Boss Sash and Charlotte) vs. Emma and ... Well it's Paige but they blew the reveal in commercial which is DUMB.  

 

They had to, due to the Womens'/Diva's title situation. She would've been on camera carrying a belt she gave up in the pre-tape.

[truename]

After watching this week, I feel sure that I dislike Corey Graves, Charlotte, Sasha Banks, and Tyler Breeze for all the right reasons - they all seem like total dicks of the kind that you want to fight in an alleyway (or in the case of Charlotte and Sasha, that you want to see another girl kick their asses).

 

Tyler Breeze wrestled a terrible squash match, though. 

 

I haven't seen enough of Corey Graves to judge anything, but that kind of look and attitude of Punk.2 will get over in no time. I like how he was a legitimate chicken heel, basically avoiding confrontation at every cost. I think a lot of heels are over today because of confronting their opponents as equals, I remember The Miz had some good moments as a heel precisely because he kept winning when you thought he didn't have a chance 5 minutes alone with Cena.

 

And being the life of the party here: Adam Rose hasn't debuted on Raw and I'm already sick of him. Everything seems so forced, the party already has the chants creative wants to get over, "Be a lemon", the rhythm of the song, etc. They're trying to emulate a post-crowd Mania reaction everywhere inspired by the Fandango thing and as we know, forcing the crowd something will not exactly get the best reaction. I love the idea of a Russell Brand inspired gimmick, but I'm not sure Rose has the talent or charisma for that. I can't wait to be wrong, though. He will be over for a while.

[Raziel]

 

BFF (Boss Sash and Charlotte) vs. Emma and ... Well it's Paige but they blew the reveal in commercial which is DUMB.  

 

They had to, due to the Womens'/Diva's title situation. She would've been on camera carrying a belt she gave up in the pre-tape.

 

While also lacking a belt she kept pre-tape.l

[Jamal]

This is definitely the best Charlotte has looked ring-wise.She seems much more confident and has really taken to playing the heel. 

[scraylo187]

This is definitely the best Charlotte has looked ring-wise.She seems much more confident and has really taken to playing the heel. 

 

Agreed, she provided a few really surprising "OH SHIT!" moments.

 

Also, dat girl is working body parts in the ring. Damn.

[Go2Sleep]

I totally cringed when Charlotte did the Flair flop, though. I would understand relying on all the Nature Boy spots if she had no talent whatsoever, but she looks like a good athlete and has some presence about her. Don't know why she can't just be herself.

[scraylo187]

I totally cringed when Charlotte did the Flair flop, though. I would understand relying on all the Nature Boy spots if she had no talent whatsoever, but she looks like a good athlete and has some presence about her. Don't know why she can't just be herself.

 

She'll get there. Takes some time to figure out how to do that.

[eikerir]

I totally cringed when Charlotte did the Flair flop, though. I would understand relying on all the Nature Boy spots if she had no talent whatsoever, but she looks like a good athlete and has some presence about her. Don't know why she can't just be herself.

 

 

 

I laughed when she was applying a headscissor and one of the announcers was implying that it was similar to the Figure Four and Albert was like: "Ehh.."

[Just Dave]

NESTEA~!

 

JBL does a good job taking the NXT Women's Title from Paige without being a mammoth jerk which was an interesting turn for him as NXT General Manager.  It wasn't a bad way of taking the belt off her and made logical sense.

 

Alexander Rusev vs. Travis Tyler Rusev is working this flat affect angle thing going on to make the comparisons to Ivan Drago even more obvious.  Tyler goes for an opening match dropkick which is not a ad way to give him something to build on as he develops.  Rusev squashes TT with his usual and then speaks some Bulgerese.  The replay of the barge in the corner was a good one and Riley's Rule to Live By #3 is not a bad little gimmick for Alexander either. This was quick and nothing new.

 

Adam Rose having an interview with all the Party People hanging out is an interesting bit.

 

BFF (Boss Sash and Charlotte) vs. Emma and ... Well it's Paige but they blew the reveal in commercial which is DUMB.  This really feels like Charlotte's chance to work Paige and she does a decenct job being antagonistic.  Sasha comes in to fight like a high school girl in the cafeteria and it really works despite being so weird.  Charlotte slaps a leg scissors in and does a great job working it by flipping Emma over in a great spot and also does a good head bounce series.  Boy does Charlotte throw a crappy missed elbow drop.  Paige goes for the cross lock on Sasha but Charlotte dropkicks her in the knee in devastating fashion to get the open to hit the thing... with the flip.  Good booking decision to pass the torch to Charlotte with a tag team win without having to have Paige drop a singles match while still Diva's Champion.  Makes sense to me.  I hereby name flippy thing... Gutter Shark!

 

I kid. 

 

Naughty by Nature?

 

Tyson Kidd is next!

 

And he's facing Mason Ryan I think it says something that they didn't push this as anything.  I think it says that Mason is going to be unemployed once his contract is up.  This is has no heat and is dull.  I go back to working on naming the flippy thing.

 

Nature Call.

 

Whoo be gone.

 

Tyson Kid wins with the blockbuster.  No one cares.  Renee Young catches him on the ramp way and he says nothing interesting.  I feel Tyson has been 'coming back' for 3 months or something. 

 

Tyler Breeze is NeXT.

 

He is taking on Percy Wa... wait no... Angelo Dawkins.  Angelo was a look going for sure but it fades before the match starts and it fades a bit.  He takes Tyler down for a it but Tyler comes back with a bunch of strikes.  He locks in a chinlock and makes sure to yell at Angelo to stay off his hair.  He is so good at little character stuff.  He puts Dawkins away with a Beauty Shot.  Tyler isn't really made to beat dudes up at this point.  He's made to stooge it up so I'm wary of the new direction.

 

North Carolina Cutter

 

The LOL (Last One Left)

 

Did you know Brodus Clay attack Adrian Neville last week.  And... Neville lost his front TEETH!?!  I have serious teeth phobia so Blargaglegagle!  No wonder he wears a mouth guard.  Seriously, this is either a case of taking something that happened and rolling with it in the best carnie way possible or a waste of Neville wearing dentures this whole time.

 

Sami Zayn, J. Uso and J. Uso vs. Corey Graves (Ass) & The Ascension I am looking forward to this to get a sense of how Ascension handles non squashes.  The Usos don't get the reaction that I would have expected but whatchagonnado?  Corey exhales douche because he is a stink weasel.  Viktor bounces around for the faces for quite a while and the Usos do a variation of the old SST doule noggin knocker no sell.  Sami's new tights look they have a kitty on the butt :3  Konnor gets J. Uso in a bit of trouble as we go to break.

 

Corey Graves gets in back from break and rocks J. Uso with a gourd buster for two.  The announce staff gets the differences between a 6 and a regular tag match over pretty well.  The Ascension are doing a great job of looking completely generic and dull.  I really thought they were over that but they just aren't ready and they never will be if this match was any indication.  J. Uso gets a tag and batters The Ascension up.   Corey gets in and business picks up immediately.  Sami and J. combine for a dragon whip - cross body and it was a totally believable finish but Corey got out.  Sami hits Blue Thundah but The Ascension save.  Sami and J. take out the Ascension on the outside while J. hits the top rope splash on Graves.  I really think the flying body press would have been a better finish but whatever.  I don't think this really did anything for anyone.  The Ascension looked as bad as ever doing nothing to look like they belonged with The Usos.  Corey came off like more of a star but barely got to do anything until a well executed finishing stretch.  I don't think I ever wanted more Corey Graves before but here we are.

 

Not a good show really.

I named it "the Queen City Crush."

[mco543]

Probably the first NXT show I can say I was disappointed in and the new taping spoilers don't exactly fill me with excitement either.

[Goodear]

Honestly the show has been treading water for a few weeks and has fallen into some major ruts.  While I applaud NXT's emphasis on character, they need to start working on plot.  People need things to actually do with their characters and right now, they are just stuck in orbit.  The WWE guys they have cycled down like Gabriel, Kidd and Clay aren't really adding anything to the show to make it more interesting.  They feel like filler and when you add that to the repetitive match making and squashes a plenty, its stagnating the show.

[Newb82]

The main event saved the show this week.

 

Rich Brennan needs to go back where he came from. He was terrible, and dragged the rest of the announce team down with him.

 

They should just stick with Regal & Rene, and cycle back-and-forth between Albert & Riley.

[Ace]

I'd dump Riley too. Albert is perfectly fine. Go with Albert/Saxton with guest spots by Renee/Regal.

[Tromatagon]

I could go without ever hearing Alex Riley on commentary, but at least he doesn't call a flying elbow a splash.

[Greggulator]

I really liked Paige's beginning segment. I mean, it makes sense why they should take her title -- the commitments to defend the Divas title should outweigh that of NXT, but NXT is important in of itself. Paige's feisty attitude against losing the belt makes sense, too. But she also realizes it's time. Great stuff that puts over Paige and the importance of the title.

LANA's NXT haircut is way better than her Raw haircut. Her outfit attire is also a tad more HR compliant -- her top is fairly revealing but the hem of her dress is somewhat at a responsible length. I try not to be a creep and talk about the attractiveness of the Divas but real talk -- I think she's the most attractive woman in WWE history. I'm not saying that with hyperbole. It's purely subjective. But she is awesome. This is another Rusev squash. I loved how he applied The Accolade this time -- he paused before applying the chinlock portion and it looked super arrogant and hilarious. Oh, nevermind about Lana's workplace look -- it was ridiculous when she raised Rusev's hands.

ADAM ROSE comes out crowd surfing with his party posse! This is such a fun character.  I love it so much.

Out comes CHARLOTTE with SASHA BANKS. Sasha's the most underrated person on the NXT roster. The entire woman's division is at least solid. But she's the glue since she turned heel. I love her look and work. I hope she gets called up. There's still some flotsam in the WWE Diva's division -- hey, Aksana! And I know we're stuck with Eva Marie and the Funkadactyls for good. But an actual division is so much better than the bathroom break crap. Sorry to keep harping on that but I'm nothing if not forward thinking.

EMMA comes out to announce her secret tag partner. Then they go to break. And then they reveal it's Paige. What, no dramatic entrance to a conquering hero's return? They should have done that! And The BFFs should have done something akin to Arn and Zbysco's "HE'S JUST A MAN!" reaction when Ricky Steamboat revealed himself as Dustin's partner at that one Clash. I need to rewatch that match ASAP, too, because my memory of that match says it's one of the best tag matches of all-time. Points, though, for Emma introducing Paige -- after Paige beat Emma at Arrival, they both said their rivalry was behind them and they were friends. Tenuous friends, but one based on respect as competitors. That's some good face work.

 

Charlotte was the best she's ever been in this. She did such a great dickish rope kick. Her figure four headscissors work was awesome. I loved her roll/slam with it. Super athletic and nasty looking. Emma did a fun bridge counter. Emma works for the hot tag. Charlotte misses a pretty bad looking elbow. Paige's hot tag is awesome. She looks so nasty with her chops. Charlotte wins me back by dropkcking Charlotte with her nasty dropkick to Paige's knee when she was setting up the Scorpion Crosslock or whatever they call it. She also NAILED her flipping DDT thing. I love she's more than a novelty act as Flair's daughter. She's a great athlete. I also love her "Make the belt" gesture.

TYSON KIDD comes out. This guy is the difference between the old training system and NXT. Kidd's really good in the ring. But his "intangibles" are non-existant. Same with Mason Ryan -- great look but just dumb. This is a pretty good cruiser vs. giant match. A lot of strikes and power moves. But the crowd could care less. The NXT crowd, which pops for anything. These guys have no idea how to work the crowd at all. This same match could be great in the hands of other people.

Tyson Kidd talking about his "rebirth" and the like is eh. I'll give him points for trying and putting NXT over but man that guy is a total tool.

We now have a backpack rap gimmick with ANGELO DAWKINS! I sorta love him. But here comes THE PRINCE OF PRETTY TYLER BREEZE! They're putting over his aggressiveness and his no-longer being concerned about getting hit in his face. That's great and what was holding him back. I loved him as a stooge but hopefully he can get over as a legitimate wrestler. If Alex Riley is working a thing about him being confused about his sexuality -- latent frat boy -- he's my new favorite character. Breeze hits his Beauty Shot and continues his tear.

GREAT backstage thing with Brodus laying out the champ, now missing teeth, without us actually seeing it. I love that stuff. It looks nasty but they don't have to do any real work.

COREY GRAVES comes out first, hopefully continuing his trend of great work. He's one of the best prick heels in a long time. THE ASCENSION joins him. And here comes Sami Zayn with his babyface fire. And The USOS do their awesome entrance on the NXT stage. This is a pretty perfect six-man pairing on the face side. I love Graves' tagging out rather than get into it with Sami, especially to CONNOR, hoping the big man can hurt him before he gets his just deserts. But Sami starts clobbering him before Graves flees, to tag in VIKTOR. I love the textbook "Samoan headbutts don't work" thing while Sami puts it over in the corner. This is fun psychology, since The Ascension have just torn through dudes but really can't hang with the big champs -- they still have a lot to learn. Viktor's clothesline counter was fun, and then he tags in the bludgeon to take advantage for the heel team.

The announcers also put over The Ascension not using Corey. But they also remind us that Corey was one-half of the tag champs -- and actually lost them to The Ascension. Jay Uso works a face-in-peril really well, as the heels just work him over. They don't do anything fancy but that's not needed, because they're getting over as ring engineers holding their own against the best in the world. I love Tensai saying "GO TO THE NOISE" explaining why babyface apron work makes sense psychologically. I loved how the hot tag came together. Jimmy's superkick looked completely crazy. Graves cheapshotting Jimmy to try and get his finisher was great, as was the revenge tag to Sami.

Man, the end sequence to this was friggin' great and a perfect example of what has made the WWE's past two years so spectacular, with super fun six-man stuff.  You could really do that match on Raw the same way and it'd get a big pop. Another one for the Best Of The Year list. Not that it's the best match of the year, obviously, but it's a really good match with great storytelling and psychology. I loved the end with Sami busting out his pop-n-locks.
 

[BillThompson]

Man, that main event did nothing for me. I don't buy the Ascension at all, and everything they did felt way too lumbering and slow. It wasn't just them though, from everyone involved the timing felt really off and the result was  fairly mediocre match.

[SirSmUgly]

I always wish I was watching Demolition when I watch The Ascension. They need to be better clubberers. I also wasn't a fan of their bumping last week. I really don't enjoy them at all even though they seem like one of those tag teams right up my wheelhouse - comes out to ear-splitting heavy metal, lots of beatdowns in the corner, etc. 

 

I wish they had a more impactful finisher, too. I have said this before, but the smaller one should do the chop block and the bigger one should throw a lariat that just kills the dude on the other end. 

[The Man Known as Dan]

I'm enjoying this weeks NXT, but man watching Grey/Rawley, and realizing Mojo is the one getting cut bums me out.

[Casey]

Mojo will be a star one day, just not anytime soon. Really shouldn't be on NXT, either.

WHERE IS SOLOMON CROWE?!

[Greggulator]

The BO DALLAS/TYSON KIDD match was decent enough. Bo's new entrance video is so ridiculous in the best way possible. I'd write more but I did earlier and then I did something dumb and lost what I wrote. Trust me when I tell you it was scintillating.

SASHA BANKS vs. BAYLEY is really, really good. Wow. There's not one wasted moment in this. The agents or whoever told these girls "You have eight minutes so GO" and that's what they did. Bayley controls most of the match with her really fun offense, some of which is based around hugs. She eventually hits the Belly-To-Bayley suplex, but Sasha sneaks out of the ring and necksnaps Bayley across the top rope. She hits BANKRUPT (some neckbreaker thing) for what's the finish... only Bayley kicks out!!! Sasha then wins with a dope backstabber that she rolls into a crossface-type thing for the tap out. Great finish.

Huge props to Steven Regal for saying sarcastically calling one of the other announcers "Oscar Wilde" during the Rose/Danny Birch match. This is an Adam Rose squash and it's fun. He has a new finisher which is a cutter-type thing called The Party Foul. SO great. His coterie comes out to party and CAMACHO jumps the dude dressed as a luchador, prompting the bunny to look on in both dismay and concern. This is an A+++ gif, for those interested.

Nattie's promo for the woman's title is awful. Ugh. Layla's is a bit better but the face she makes at the end is so hysterically weird. I mostly just watched the GSW/Clips game during this.

ADRIAN NEVILLE talks up his match against BRODUS. I really like what he's done since winning the title. He's showing some good babyface spitfire. Short, sweet and to the point.

OLIVER GREY is taking on MOJO RAWLEY. Here's the thing about Mojo and the backlash against him and a conundrum with NXT. Mojo's really green. I mean, ridiculously green. He's had less than 20 TV matches, probably. Maybe even closer to 10. And how many house show matches has he had? He's straight up a guy who they grabbed from football and are trying to turn into a wrestler. Everyone else has had years of experience in their craft. Aiden English wrestled in Chicago indies and the like, for instance. Adam Rose has been around for years as Kruger. Bo Dallas, too. The WWE is going to have more and more of these types of guys come up through their system. Guys who come up from the indies don't know how to work a TV match but they at least know how to pace and structure a match. But Mojo? He's learning this right now. As we watch. It's pretty fascinating to see it develop. And he has the important part, the unteachable part, down -- he gets reactions. I do wish he'd get past his ass-based offense, though.

AIDEN ENGLISH comes out! "I am done suffering fools!" He demands Mojo leave his "canvas" for a real auteur. He then blindsides Rawley, who sends him out of the ring. This could end up as a fun little feud. Mojo's first, I believe.

ADRIAN NEVILLE vs. BRODUS was a blast. It follows the small babyface vs. big heel storyline perfectly. Neville starts off with kicks and a flurry and a crazy plancha to the floor. Clay gets control and looks like a beast in doing so. Clay thinks he has the win after following a really stiff powerbomb with a splash from the second rope. Neville BARELY kicks out. Clay goes to the floor and grabs the NXT title -- it's NO DQ -- and goes to crown Neville with it. Neville instead Superkicks the belt into Clay's face, sending him to the mat. Neville then hits The Red Arrow from the top, onto the title, for the win. Nice touch using the title belt there as the weapon of choice.

Good show!

[Go2Sleep]

Bayley/Sasha was really fun with an inspired finishing stretch. Sasha's improvement in just the last 3 months has been pretty striking. Both of these ladies have a bright future.

 

The main event was probably Brodus' best match, which isn't a terribly high bar, but it was legit good. I liked how they played on the No DQ stip by working a straight match and ending right at the normal "this is where it gets extreme" spot. Neville came out looking really good. Both guys had nice, short pre-match promos as well.

[SirSmUgly]

Bayley/Sasha was my favorite match of the night. I bit on the false finish on Sasha's first finisher. Looking forward to the BFFs exploding once Sasha and Charlotte inevitably meet in the finals. 

 

I liked Neville/Brodus being centered around Neville having to keep moving to win the match or end up getting squashed. I like matches built around two wrestlers of different sizes where they are both trying to control the pace because that will directly lead to a win. 

 

Bo Dallas is interesting to me. He is on my list of WWE/NXT guys whom I just can't get excited for their work in the ring at all. I think he plays that deluded heel that thinks he's a face character really well, but then the bell rings and I lose interest. 

 

Speaking of guys whose character work I think is solid, but the ring work turns me off, Adam Rose is probably number one on my list. I want to like this clever little gimmick, but he gets in the ring, and I'm totally disinterested. 

[CSC]

 

 

Speaking of guys whose character work I think is solid, but the ring work turns me off, Adam Rose is probably number one on my list. I want to like this clever little gimmick, but he gets in the ring, and I'm totally disinterested. 

 

I wish they'd let Rose refine his in-ring character in NXT as opposed to bringing him up so quickly.  He seems like he's trying a ton of stuff out and once he figures out what works and what doesn't it's going to be really good.  The new finisher is so much better,  seemingly gotten rid of that weird ring rope-a-dope that was cool once and then kind of lame, as well as channeling Leo Krueger when he gets pissed.

 

Watching Natalya/Layla after the awesomeness that was Sasha/Bayley was just painful.  

[Big Rob]

Fantastic episode of NXT this week, probably the best since the first special. The only thing I wasn't a fan of was Natalya vs Layla, and even then it was short. They crammed so many promos and segments in to build up matches, had a couple of fun squashes (including Mojo's best yet) and also put on three genuinely good matches in Kidd/Dallas, Bayley/Banks and Clay/Neville. They've done a great job with Brodus in a limited amount of time, and he worked hard in his match. He still isn't great by any stretch, but he deserves an A for effort in the least, and I really dug his promo as well. He could be something on Raw or Smackdown, but I'd be happy to have him floating around NXT for the time being.

[Ace]

I haven't seen this week's ep yet, but Sasha Banks seems to be the MVP lately of the shows. Her ring work's been perfectly adequate as of late, and her character work has been really on point.