This weeks edition of NXT was heavily based around NXT’s
current and future championships with The Wyatt Family defending the NXT Tag
Team Championship against the makeshift team of Corey Graves and Kassius Ohno,
the contract signing for next weeks NXT Championship Match between Big E
Langston and Bo Dallas, and the start of the NXT Women’s Championship
tournament with Tamina Snuka taking on Paige.
NXT Tag Team Championship Match: The Wyatt Familly (Luke Harper & Erik Rowan) © w/Bray Wyatt Vs. Kassius Ohno & Corey Graves
There’s a lot of interest in the Wyatt Family at the moment,
with the creepy vignettes on Raw proclaiming there arrival on the main roster
of WWE drawing the attention of a mass audience. Therefore it was a good opportunity
to see how the tag team were advancing in what can be expected to be one of
only a handful of appearances they have left on NXT. WWE has stumbled upon a
fantastic gimmick for Bray Wyatt and at times it’s difficult to believe that
this is the same Husky Harris that was part of Nexus just over two years ago,
what a difference a good gimmick can make to a career and how well all three of
The Wyatt Family play that gimmick!
Before the match there was a duo of backstage interviews
conducted by Renee Young. Firstly with
Corey Graves as he built up the main event as well as possible tensions between
he and Kassius Ohno. It was a competent promo from Graves as he looked
comfortable on mic, with tons of charisma and a unique look, Graves could go
far in WWE and along with a number of guys in NXT at the moment, WWE would
benefit from having him on the main roster. One of those is guys is Kassius
Ohno, who also got an interview with Young, Kassius continued to build the main
event, whilst saying that this match was bigger than any differences he had with
Graves. Ohno continues to impress with mic abilities although for a guy who
spent a long time as a big star on the indy circuit this is to be expected.
Ohno brings an impressive intensity to this good, yet short, promo, which draws
the audience in, it really is difficult to think about anything else when
Kassius is on the microphone.
The match was a good contest, although maybe a little basic,
not really veering to far from the blueprint of a tag team match. With the heel
team having the upperhand over Corey Graves for most of the contest, keeping
him distanced from his corner and tag team partner. Any time Graves would seem
to gather any momentum the Wyatts would use some underhanded tactic to keep him
from making the tag. After a nice series of quick pin attempts from Graves, he
was able to escape and make for the hot tag. Kassius Ohno preceded to clean
house with the Wyatts leading to near fall after a superb senton. The finish
came when Bray Wyatt made his presence felt with a clubbing blow to the back of
Ohno, Graves retaliated by flying over the top onto Wyatt, only for Harper to
hit a Discus Lariat for the victory. It was nice, pacey ending and felt like
this wasn’t the last we’ve seen between these teams.
Luke Harper would look the most promising member of this tag
team, both in terms of in ring ability, which is impressive for his size, and
charisma, with the lovely series of quick pin covers with Graves and his
strange mutterings of “Yeah” throughout the match, however Rowan is also
capable in the ring, with a nice over the shoulder backbreaker which due to
Rowan’s size looks incredibly painful, he just needs a little more work on his
character and presence in the ring.
Best of the Rest
Earlier this week in the Raw review, I mentioned my dislike
for contract signings. They seem pretty pointless in terms of storyline and
merely act as a way of filling gaps in the schedule for the majority of the
time and for some reason only take place for certain matches. However, there
was a lot to be learned from this signing for the NXT Championship Match next
week on NXT.
Firstly, Bo Dallas struggles when given a microphone. He
lacks charisma and looks awkward when talking, especially in this new
supposedly heel role opposite Langston, and he was incredibly easily thrown by
the crowds chants as he began laughing at various points throughout his promo
which made it difficult to take his new role seriously. Big E Langston on the
other hand oozes charisma, looks incredibly comfortable talking to the crowd
and surprisingly so works very well as a face. It will be interesting to see if
he gets to test this out on Raw or Smackdown anytime soon. I look forward to
the NXT Title match next week, as although I don’t rate Bo on the mic, he is a competent
in ring competitor and should have a good match with Big E.
Two of WWE’s most talented Divas locked up in a First Round
match in the NXT Women’s Title tournament as Tamina Snuka faced Norwich’s
Paige. The match was short, but well worked, with only one major error when
Paige went for a roll up and Tamina simply fell over, this was however
rectified by the end of the contest. It looked to be over after Tamina hit a
vicious superkick, dragging Paige by the hair to the corner as she looked for a
Superfly splash, however Paige got her knees up and rolled Tamina up for the
victory. It’d have to be expected that Paige is heading for the NXT Women’s
Championship after this win, with no other Diva being as over with the crowd in
Florida it’s hard to look past Paige capturing the gold.
In another backstage interview with Renee Young, we were
treated to a confrontation between Sami Zayn and Antonio Cesaro. Now, anyone
who’s been keeping an eye on Ring of Honor or any part of the Indy scene over
the last few years will know there’s history between these two guys, which has
already been lengthend a few weeks ago when Zayn picked up a victory over
Cesaro in only his second WWE match. Therefore when a rematch was mentioned it
had me almost salivating. It’s sure to be another fantastic contest. Although,
it’s a shame Zayn isn’t still under the El Generico gimmick, he’s taken to his
new role extremely well, he somehow manages to be funny without being cheesy,
Sheamus and John Cena take note.
Elsewhere we also got a pair of pretty much job matches.
Firstly, we saw Conor O’Brian taking on former Miz protégé Alex Riley. O’Brian
dominated for a long period, before eventually locking in his new finishing
submission hold, The Stockade, which looked genuinely painful for Riley. I’m
still not quite sure about The Ascension gimmick, it feels a little outdated,
and has been surpassed by the Wyatt Family gimmick in the darkness stakes. It
could definitely do with some tweaking if O’Brian were to move up to the Main
Roster.
Cardiff’s Mason Ryan was also in action against Colin
Cassady. This match did little for either man, it was quick and didn’t do much
to show off Mason Ryan’s in ring ability which isn’t going to help him disprove
my assumptions that he is merely a “body guy”. Ryan has a new finishing move which
involves a torture rack spun into a neckbreaker. It looks pretty dangerous and
I wouldn’t be surprised if someone get’s injured from it pretty soon.
Finally…
What have we learnt from this weeks NXT?
Announced for Next Wednesday's NXT:
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