TV Review: WWE NXT #207 - TM-61 v The Revival

With Bobby Roode making his debut, Hideo Itami making his return and TM-61 facing the Revival in the main event, this week's NXT was going to be amazing, right? 

Before I get into talking about those two cheeky chappies above, let me begin this week's NXT review by talking about The Revival's victory over TM-61. As much as this was an anticipated main event match, this bout was all about Dash Wilder and Scott Dawson. The two looked dominant throughout and every inch of the Tag Team Champions that they've grown into since they first won the belts last October. Wilder and Dawson looked great when cutting off the ring for Shane Thorne, targeting his arm and bringing in a narrative, helped by Thorne's capable selling. However, it was in the match's conclusion where they looked at their strongest, as after whether the storm of a Nick Miller hot tag, as Wilder attacked Thorne, leading to Miller giving chase around the ring, only to be hit with a precise snap DDT from Dawson when entering the ring. It wasn't the high gear thriller that it potentially could have been but boy did it make The Revival look like world beaters.

The show would conclude with an entertaining talking segment as Johnny Gargano and Tomasso Ciampa interrupted the tag champs and issued a challenge. Both sides were on top form on the microphone and managed to create a good amount of friction were before there may not have been any, which will only act as an aid when they meet on 20th August. Both managed to hit the right notes with their promos and it was cool to see Gargano and Ciampa get to develop a unique style of talking to their opponents and the crowd. They seemed to be enjoying themselves as they joked about, riffing off the Revival's promo about who they'd beaten and getting a big pop for mentioning Pokemon Go! (which might be the most over thing in wrestling, right now). Gargano & Ciampa besting the Revival in the show-closing scrap, after such a strong performance from the champions, was a great way to go off the air, with both teams looking pretty even heading into Takeover: Brooklyn II. 

Bobby Roode finally made his NXT debut this week, just five months after his TNA departure. This was a simple way of introducing his character to the NXT audience as he takes on a new "Glorious" persona. Roode is fine talker and worked the crowd nicely, initially pandering to them, before ripping into them for wearing shitty clothes and not being either presidents or CEOs. My favourite part of the promo was him claiming to be the wrestler that will "expand the brand" as it will play off any anti-TNA sentiment that the audience holds and let's face it NXT have already done a much better job of making Roode look like a star than TNA managed in his 12 year run with the company. It was nothing ground breaking and didn't offer any idea to where Roode's first match would be or who he'd be feuding with, but it was a novel way of introducing a new character to an audience. 

In a curious twist to their previous rivalry, Women's Champion Asuka would call #1 Contender Bayley down to ringside from the commentary desk to watch as The Empress of Tomorrow destroyed Aliyah. It was a brutal display that saw Asuka hammer the rookie with a vicious kicks before collecting the submission victory with the Asuka Lock and having Bayley at ringside gave everything an extra depth and allowed their feud to pick up some much needed momentum heading towards Takeover: Brooklyn II. Credit to Aliyah for some strong selling that allowed Asuka to look even better than she already did. Considering this was only her second TV singles match it was solid performance were she did every that she was tasked with and did it well. 

Hideo Itami made his return to NXT, going over Florida indy worker and CWC participant Sean Maluta, in the opening match. Itami looked decent as he eased himself back into action, with a simple contest that essentially had to re-introduce him to the audience after over a year out of action. Maluta held himself well against the bigger name, but it was a swift and convincing victory for Itami, following a flurry of strikes and the Shotgun Kick. It was interesting that the crowd didn't seem all that bothered about Itami's return and he struggled to get much of reaction of the crowd, but after only an initial seven months on television, followed up by a 15 month absence, it's understand that the audience will take a little time to get back "into" Itami. 

Best of the Rest

• With Mojo Rawley about to get a win over Chris Atkins in seconds, NXT Champion Samoa Joe assaulted Rawley, choking him on the ramp with the Coquina Clutch.

Finally...

ATPW Scale Rating - 5.05/10

A solid hour of build towards Takeover: Brooklyn with only two more episodes to go until the special. The continued spotlight on the tag division is paying off with a solid main event and an even better interaction between The Revival and Ciampa & Gargano to end the show on a high note. Bobby Roode's debut and Hideo Itami's return inject some extra star power into the brand following a couple of high profile departures, but both appearance were more about setting the ground work, than wowing the audience. An average hour to watch, but an hour that will make other hours much more satisfying viewing, especially come 20th August!

TV Review: WWE NXT #206 - Shinsuke Nakamura v Wesley Blake

After three weeks of big matches and having it's roster heavily depleted by the recent WWE Draft, NXT looked to re-build and quickly with just four episodes until the next Takeover event. With a more low-key card, could NXT still provide the quality of action it's fans have come to expect? 

This week's main event came at the top of the show as Shinsuke Nakamura went 9-0 in NXT with a victory over Wesley Blake. A dominant performance from Nakamura here, in an entertaining extended squash, as Blake continues to find his feet as a singles competitor. The match was much more a set-up for General Manager William Regal to come out to ringside and announce that Nakamura would be facing Samoa Joe for the title at Takeover: Brooklyn II on 20th August (more on that in a moment), than it was an attempt to have a brilliant match, but of course, anytime Nakamura is in the ring it's difficult to take your eyes of the screen. Blake put in a decent performance in his role, mimicking "The King of Strong-Styles"' offence and blowing kisses at him, which made the moment he got hit in the face with the Kinshasa all the more satisfying.

Kota Ibushi made his NXT debut with a victory over Buddy Murphy, in a short contest that managed to pack a lot action into it's diminutive screen time. A much more balanced contest than the earlier Nakamura v Blake match (with the Blake and Murphy being former tag partners comparisons between the two are inevitable) and therefore it was much more exciting fight to watch. The tempo was rapid, especially as the matches headed to it's near fall rammed conclusion, with the momentum shifting one way and then another. I much prefer this type of debut for Ibushi, to say an out and out squash match, as it shows the fans of the brand, what kind of matches they can expect and offers something to look forward to, whilst also giving him a debut victory. I'd like to see what else Buddy Murphy is capable of on his own, as he gave a good showing of himself here.

Steve Cutler continued his thirteen match, 2 year losing streak on NXT TV, with a defeat to No Way Jose in less than two minutes. There was some dancing and then Jose won with a cobra clutch slam, a real treat. The real story here though was Jose cutting a killer promo on rival Austin Aries. He brought some genuine depth to his character, that it definitely need if Jose wants to progress any further on the brand. Jose built the promo well, as it grew and began to tell a story about his background, explaining his motivations for fighting and dancing and just what that means for Aries. The exclamation point left me wanting to see Jose and Aries have a fight, which I previously had been completely mild for. 

The show would end with NXT Champion Samoa Joe voice his displeasure with having Shinsuke Nakamura as his Number One contender. Joe was on fire with his promo, not coming across as a cowardly heel who doesn't want to fight Nakamura, but coming across as someone who didn't believe Nakamura was good enough to get a title shot. Of course, the fans want to see the match, so Joe trying to block that makes him look like real bastard. Also, Joe referencing his own road to the NXT Championship gave the promo an extra dimension, where the viewer could see where Joe was coming from but still disagree with his opinion. Of course, by the end of the show, William Regal had forced Joe's hand and made sure the contest would take place, but somehow NXT managed to raised the stakes with this simple and effective piece of storytelling for a match that many had already labelled as must-see.  

Billie Kay got her first win on TV with a victory over Stardom's Santana Garrett in a match. It was a fairly basic encounter, that without having being told a lot about Kay over her 13 month run on TV was hard to get to into. To be honest, I was more convinced by Garrett's bubbly babyface character than I was by whatever Kay was doing, that looked a bit unsure. Perhaps an interview with Kay beforehand or after would have been a better way of introducing her character fully. NXT is in real need of bulking up it's roster of women on TV, since Alexa Bliss, Carmella, Eva Marie and Nia Jax were all bought up to RAW and Smackdown Live a few weeks ago, so it makes sense to start using girls like Kay in more prominent positions but this was a flat first victory for her. 

In the only tag team action on the show, TM-61 (Nick Miller & Shane Thorne) got themselves another victory, as they destroyed Rob Ryzin and Adrian Nails. After six weeks off TV, this felt like a way to keep Miller and Thorne in the consciousness of the audience, without NXT having much of a plan for either at this stage. Their opponents on the other hand were some of the worst enhancement talent who I can remember NXT using. I feel that these guys were just wondering around Full Sail University and got roped into wrestling a match. Nails wrestled in jeans, which is cool if you're known to the audience, but looks like you've just forgotten your gear if you're not. Then he took a fucking awful spinebuster, that looked like he'd never bumped in his entire life. The best thing I can say about this was that TM-61 came away unscathed and hopefully Ryzin and Nails won't be booked again anytime soon. 

Result 

Singles Match: Shinsuke Nakamura def. Wesley Blake in 4 minutes, 28 seconds 

Singles Match: Billie Kay def. Santana Garrett in 3 minutes, 8 seconds.

Tag Team Match: TM-61 - Nick Miller & Shane Thorne def. Adrian Nails & Rob Ryzin in 3 minutes, 4 seconds.

Singles Match: No Way Jose def. Steve Cutler in 1 minute, 52 seconds. 

Singles Match: Kota Ibushi def. Buddy Murphy in 5 minutes, 19 seconds.

Finally...

ATPW Scale Rating - 4.04

Clearly, this episode was never going to be as strong as the last three weeks of television NXT has produced, but this was a watchable episode that developed a couple of storylines and attempted to introduce or re-introduce a couple of competitors. Samoa Joe's promo and interaction with William Regal was the strongest part of the show with Joe delivering some great lines and creating an extra level of intrigue for his upcoming bout with Shinsuke Nakamura. The debuting Kota Ibushi's match with Buddy Murphy was the strongest match of the show, turning what could have been a rather straight-forward bout into an exciting sprint. 

The rating is pulled down by the shorter segments, involving the women's and tag team divisions, which either struggled to hold my attention or were let down by sloppy enhancement talent. 

With the Takeover: Brooklyn II card beginning to come together, the next few week's should begin to pick up in terms of storylines and new talent development as there's big spaces on the card left by American Alpha, Finn Balor, Nia Jax and others. It's an interesting time for the brand, let's hope that that translates as interesting television! 

All content by James Marston. 

TV Review: WWE NXT #200 (James Marston)

After NXT Takeover: The End of the Beginning last week, it was back to normal this Wednesday (15/06/2016) with an hour long edition of the show airing on the WWE Network. 

Headline Segment

Shinsuke Nakamura confronts Finn Balor

How was the show, though? Let's take a look!

fast-forward...Three minute recap video of NXT Takeover: The End of the Beginning...The Authors of Pain (Gzim Selmani & Sunny Dhinsa) accompanied by Paul Ellering destroyed their opponents, CJ O'Doyle & Sean Swag, in the tag teams TV debut match...

The show really got going with another short bout, that saw Carmella pick up a submission victory over Tessa Blanchard. This was Blanchard's third match with WWE and she came out with a new attitude, suddenly becoming a heel. I've missed a few weeks of NXT some maybe I missed something, because the commentary team didn't mention it. I suppose it's because her previous matches had been against Nia Jaxx and Alexa Bliss, both heels, and I suppose most viewers wouldn't notice. However, considering that NXT is aimed at the savvy, wrestling fan it felt like a lack of attention to detail and continuity. For what it was I thought Carmella looked pretty good here, her offence looked decent and managed to get the crowd going in a fairly short space of time. She's still got a long way to go, but there's definitely signs of improvement from the Princess of Staten Island. 

fast-forward...Cathey Kelly interviewed Blake and Murphy ahead of their match with more tension being teased between the former NXT Tag Team Champions...

Blake & Murphy's losing streak continued as they fell to TM-61's Nick Miller & Shane Thorne, giving the newcomers their first win on WWE TV. For me, the match was slow to get going and having missed the last few weeks, I thought it was difficult to see which team were working as the babyfaces. The action was a bit stunted until Blake & Murphy took control of the match and from here on in things picked up. The continuation of the storyline that's seen Blake & Murphy unable to win a match since dropping the NXT Tag Team belts back in August played well into the match with some brilliantly worked heel miscommunication that would lead to Miller's hot tag. A quick finishing sequence saw TM-61 hit their impressive Thunder Valley double team for the win.

fast-forward...After a recap of Nia Jax defeating Bayley on NXT #197, an injured Bayley was interviewed revealing she'd possibly be cleared to compete by next week...

In a rematch from Takeover: The End of the Beginning, Andrade Almas picked up a fairly comfortable victory over Tye Dillinger in a technically sound encounter. Credit to Dillinger for bumping like a machine for Almas and allowing his opponent to look as good as he did, but I'm not sure that he's currently the best choice of personnel to put over debuting babyface talent. The fact is he's too over with the crowd, who enjoy the "Ten" count thing and therefore they sided with Dillinger over the new comer for most of the match, with this not being helped by Almas being almost completely dominant throughout. Either switch up Dillinger's character to make him more dislikable or find Almas a different opponent to allow him to build his own relationship with the crowd. Also, the sooner Almas drops the white feather hat and other get up he comes to ring in the better.

The main talking point from the show comes in the form of the superb in-ring segment between Finn Balor and Shinsuke Nakamura. Advertised as Balor addressing his future on the show, Balor's interaction with the crowd at the start of the promo was a strong piece of work as despite him not him having the world's best solo promo skills, he turned things into a conversation with the Full Sail Arena, taking advantage of it's fairly intimate settings. The lead-in to Nakamura's interruption was planted nicely with Balor repeatively saying "What's next for Finn Balor?" before the arena erupted at the sound of Nakamura's The Rising Sun theme music.  Shinsuke is just Shinsuke, isn't I? I mean, I could try to explain why the man's just completely fascinating to watch speak, but I feel that trying to pick apart the reason why, would take away part of the magic. Plus, at the end of the day we're getting Finn Balor vs. Shinsuke Nakamura on WWE television at some point, so who gives a fuck about anything else. 

Finally...

ATPW Scale rating - 4.5/10

Similar to this week's IMPACT Wrestling, the 200th edition of NXT was pretty much rescued by it's headline segment. Finn Balor and Shinsuke Nakamura brought the star power and the performances to match in front of Full Sail Arena and getting an electric response in between. The rest of the show however was a bit damp as NXT attempts to get a number of newer stars over, with mixed results. Problems with heel and face dynamics seemed to plague the show, with a lack of attention to detail from performers, as well as the booking staff. It's easy to get a crowd excited about Balor vs. Nakamura, but NXT needs to start developing some stars of it's own sooner rather than later.