After the recent debut video for
the Wyatt family I wanted to check out some of his work in NXT, this has lead
me to watch pretty much the last 3 months of the show just because each show
had something I wanted to watch. I decided that I’d do a weekly review of the
show as it can be hard to track down and watch, plus it really deserves some
love in my view. So let’s review this week’s NXT which aired on the 5th
July.
Shows starts with good old JR
heading to the ring and all I can think is “they brought JR here for this?”
this is a contract signing for Bo Dallas and Big E Langston for next week’s NXT
title match. JR talks about how the title has led to success, only 2 men have
held it and both are on WWE so I guess he’s right. Bo comes out and is booed,
he looks like a kid whose parents dressed him for an interview. Bo won an 18
man battle royal the week before to get this title shot, Langston was on
commentary for that and was worse than Brad Maddox who was also there, tells
you how bad that was. Langston comes out looking like Monty Brown and the fans
chant 5 which has got over even if it is stupid for a babyface. At this point
I’d like to add that the NXT title looks stupid, WWE have some terrible belt
designs. Anyway Langston signs and before Bo signs he grabs the mic and
“talks”, he’s so awkward and comes off as a little kid who can’t stop smiling
while trying to be serious. He talks about how Langston is working with Dolph
Ziggler and he was on Wrestlemania, he wants that. He forgets to mention that
he was in the Royal Rumble and would have worked with Wade Barrett at Mania if
he wasn’t dreadful, hell Miz replaced him so that proves how bad he is.
Langston picks up the mic and begins to talk as well, he comes off a bit better
than Bo but still not great. He says Bo so many times it’s like repeating a
word to make it sound weird but it was already weird, he tries some John Cena
level jokes and talks about Bo smiling for everything. Bo signs and leaves and
that’s that. Not a good segment as both are not good talkers at all.
We head backstage with Renee
Young who is with Corey Graves aka Sterling James Keenan. He’s teaming with
Kassius Ohno to challenge the Wyatt family for the NXT tag titles in the main
event. He talks about how he wants to take out the family all by himself, he
doesn’t care about teaming with Ohno but he wants the titles more than not
wanting to team with him. He ends the promo by showing his “stay down” tattoo
on his fingers which is his pose, a good promo especially after those 2 that
opened it.
Tamina
Snuka vs. Paige-NXT Women’s title tournament 1st round: Tamina comes
out in a blue one piece that covers her body but has cuts in it, sounds weird
and looks disgusting Tamina really needs to work on her look. A great contrast
is Paige who looks great and so does her gear. Tie up to begin and Tamina
shoves her off Paige then goes for a headbutt but Tamina no sells it as
Samoan’s can’t feel pain in their heads we know this to be fact since the 70’s
in WWE. Tamina gets the advantage pretty much from the start. Paige attempts a
school girl which goes to hell after Tamina falls on her ass. She quickly grabs
a chin lock and cuts off Paige after she fights out of it. Drops a knee for a 1
and grabs a chinlock again. Brad Maddox, who’s on commentary, picks the winner
of this to be the favourite and we are than all reminded that Alicia Fox was
Divas champion, there have been some horrible Divas champions. A body slam by
Tamina for a 2 who somehow thought that could be a 3. Tamina struggles for an
overhead wrist lock. Paige is constantly getting cut off after fighting back,
Tamina hits a big superkick on her which looked good and goes for her iffy
looking superfly splash, Paige gets the knees up and a roll up for the 3. Paige
really comes off as barely surviving here to keep Tamina strong but man does
Tamina need some work, her look and that splash. I feel they gave her that
splash and she just doesn’t want to do it. Winner:
Paige
Renee is now with Ohno who is in
a Mitsuharu Misawa shirt which is pure awesome. He talks about attacking the
family head on and taking the titles. Very slow and serious talking here which
I like. He says tonight is not a match it’s a war. Good promo from Ohno aka
Chris Hero. I’m going to be doing a lot of aka’s I think.
Colin
Cassady vs. Mason Ryan: Colin is already in the ring telling you how this
will go, he also has a song that sounds like they mixed Jeff Jarrett’s old WWE
theme with the Smoking Guns one. Ryan, who was in WWE for a bit, has long hair
now and is as jacked as ever! He poses and screams a lot. Tie up to start and
Ryan hits knees in the corner. Cassady gets a back elbow and hits some great
punches but Ryan no sells a club to the back and then hits a big boot. Lots of
strikes from Ryan, feel like he can’t do much else here. Fans don’t care one
bit and I don’t blame them. Ryan puts on the torture rack and spins into a
neckbreaker. I know WWE loves guys like him but he’s got nothing and no one
cares. Winner: Mason Ryan
Renee is now with Sami Zane aka
El Generico without a mask. They talk about his debut night where he beat Curt
Hawkins and then Antonio Cesaro aka Claudio Castagnoli. He gets interrupted by
Cesaro who says it was a fluke, after speaking French. The 2 do a back and
forth which ends with Sami making fun of Cesaro’s bag leading to a slap and the
2 attacking each other. It’s weird for me to listen to Sami talk mainly because
I thought he only spoke Spanish (of course that’s a joke) but even so I think
he’s got to get used to this as he’s never really done much in terms of promos.
Alex
Riley vs. Conor O’Brian: Oh hey it’s Alex Riley. The commentator (Tom
Phillips) talks about how Alex has high prospects in WWE, yeah maybe back in
2011. Conor freezes in a set off to run position and stays like that until Alex
runs at him where he gets a headlock, they mess up a shoulder block spot not a
great start. Conor does a headlock take down but brings him up and over 3 times
while staying hooked which is different. Alex floats over a slam attempt hits a
back elbow and a top rope clothesline for a 1. Alex goes for something but is
sent off, attempts a float over but is hung up on the top rope. Conor hits a
flapjack and locks a version of the Octopus Stretch for the submission. Outside
the first botch this was fine my main problem is that Conor really shouldn’t be
so scientific in his style, he’s being pushed as a monster yet is wrestling
like a pure wrestler. Winner: Conor
O’Brian
Kassius
Ohno & Corey Graves vs. the Wyatt Family (Luke Harper & Eric Rowen) w/
Bray Wyatt for the NXT Tag titles: We see the Wyatt’s attack on Ohno after
he apologised to William Regal and this was followed up by Ohno coming to make
the save after a match where Bray beat Corey leading to this tag match. Bray
comes out with a mic, he says he isn’t afraid of anything but he’s scared of
himself. He re-introduces himself to Corey & Ohno as an leader of worlds and
sends down his boys. Wyatt sits in a rocking chair during the champs matches.
I’ll add here I love this gimmick so much. Before this match my video cuts to
an advert for hair loss which is funny as Harper aka Brodie Lee is seriously
losing his hair which is sad as his look is awesome right now. Ohno and Rowen
to start. Harper does this thing where he says “YEAH” during everything he
does, a little thing like that can go a long way. Ohno gets a headlock and then
a kravate once that is broken. Rowen knocks him down with a shoulder block but
Ohno moves quickly and tags in Graves, this leads to Harper getting the tag.
Harper grabs Graves after a crossbody attempt, Graves floats over a body slam
and does an impressive looking rollup following by him flipping through a hip
toss attempt and straight into an armdrag which looked beautiful. He tags to
Ohno, so much for I’ll do this alone, Harper gets a shot to the gut and tags
out this leads to them getting the heat. We get a vignette for Paige about how
she’ll destroy everyone which would be fine if she didn’t just barely survive
her match earlier that night, also on this past week’s Wyatt family vignette
many noticed a girl in the video and have assumed it’s Paige who will be added
to the family which I think could work as she’s the anti-diva after all. We
come back with Rowen striking Ohno and tagging out, Harper hits some nice
European uppercuts and tags out. Ohno escapes a bodyslam and hits a weird
reverse jawbreaker to get the tag. Graves comes in with some nice punches and
goes for Rowen’s legs, Graves gets sent to the apron where Harper hits a nice
looking big boot to get the advantage back. Harper back in with a knee drop
looking crazed after a 2 count. Harper whips Graves into Rowen’s kitchen sink
knee, Rowen does it again and then a pumphandle back breaker for a 2. A
Canadian back breaker to Graves, a rarely seen move. Graves slides out but gets
clubbed and is than headlocked into the corner. Graves reserves a suplex into a
small package, what I really liked after this was Harper (who got tagged in)
moves from behind Graves to in front of Ohno making Graves go for a crucifix
instead of getting the tag. it’s a little thing like that I find adds to a
match and Harper knows this as everything he does has a little thing to it that
adds a lot. Harper attempts a powerbomb but is back body dropped and this leads
to a tag. Ohno hits a great looking flying clothesline and a jumping elbow into
the corner leading to a drop down boot and a senton, a great series of moves.
Bray jumps onto the apron, Ohno hits a rolling headbutt which looked weird to
be honest, I know they probably changed it because Barrett is using an elbow
finisher now but Ohno’s was so much better. Rowen breaks up the pin leading to
Graves coming in to clothesline him out, the ref is distracted leading to Bray
punching Ohno in the back of the head and Graves does a twisting plancha to
take Bray out but back in the ring Harper hits a discuss clothesline for the
win. The show closes with the family leaving with the belts. I really liked
this match I think everything flowed well and it built up great especially the
ending. I don’t know where you go from here maybe add someone for a 6 man or
continue doing the reluctant tag team going for the family either way you have
a winning program in my view with these guys. An added note is all those
rotations reminded me of John Zandig who would do 2 or 3 spins before hitting a
clothesline, he looked ridiculous and childlike when doing it.
Thought this was a good show
overall, outside the opening being pretty awful and Mason Ryan getting time for
some reason I think everything had a purpose and moved things along storyline
wise. Next week see’s Bo Dallas vs. Big E Langston for the NXT title and will
be the first time I’ve seen Langston wrestle a longer match as a babyface, my
hopes aren’t high especially since he’s working who to be fair is a better
wrestler than talker.
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