This week's WWE NXT, was a bit of an
underwhelming edition of the show, for me. Whilst there wasn't
anything on the show, that I would call particularly bad, it was
distinctly average, with really only the women's match between Paige
and Sasha Banks fighting to stand out.
Xavier Woods
vs.
Leo Kruger
The main event of
this week's NXT, saw Xavier Woods taking on Leo Kruger, after Kruger
had attacked Woods last week in the parking lot. Personally, I was
surprised that WWE decided to hot shot this into a match, as imagined
they could have pulled out the angle a lot longer than one week and
really build up anticipation to a singles contest between the two.
I've noticed this a few times with NXT, that one week something will
happen between two wrestlers and then the week after they'll have a
match and that's the feud done with. Usually, it's when they have
main roster wrestlers appearing on the show and they don't have long
with that particular wrestler, but here there really is no excuse,
they had the time to build a nice feud and decided not to.
The match itself
was decent, it wasn't anything to shout about, but for the most part
the action was strong, even if for some reason the Full Sail Arena
wasn't having any of it, with what sounded like a small group of fans
trying to get themselves over. This might be NXT, be the action gave
off an old school vibe, with Kruger running around the ring to evade
Woods, until Woods got hold of Kruger's hair, which got a nice pop
from the crowd. Kruger spent the majority of the match in control,
although continuing with the old school theme was mainly made up of
rest holds, which never goes down well with a modern audience. There
were some nice near falls towards the end of the match, once Woods
started to edge his way into the contest, such as a nice High-Angle
Spinebuster from Kruger after catching Woods in his attempt to hit
Honor Roll.
The finish saw
Woods duck a Slice from Kruger, and counter with a headkick followed
with a version of former partner Jay Lethal's Lethal Injection for a
near fall, with Woods going on to hit Honor Roll and then a slightly
botched Lost in the Woods to pick up the pinfall victory. Personally,
I could have done with the near fall off of Woods ducking the slice,
and feel that Woods hitting Lost in the Woods straight off the duck,
would have been a much more satisfying ending, if it hadn't been
botched. I thought it was strange to see Woods go over Kruger here,
and automatically get his revenge on Kruger, who they seemed to have
a plan for at last. Kruger has suffered a series of losses in high
profile matches and it's becoming difficult to take his character
seriously, which is a shame because the character does have
potential.
Whilst this match
won't be making my list for Match of the Year, I do like both men
involved in the contest. We've seen good stuff from both Woods and
Kruger on NXT before, and both deserve decent programmes before
getting called up. With Woods currently travelling with the main
roster and appearing on a number of house shows recently, it would
have to assumed that Woods is close to being called up to the main
roster very soon. I do think he will fit in on Raw and Smackdown
well, being able to put on exciting matches, with a recognisable look
and move set, I'm pretty sure he will go down well with the quirky
mix of kids and adults that WWE attracts. Kruger on the over hand, I
still think still needs some time, he is in desperate need of a nice
long programme, that I think will really sell to me what Kruger has
to offer, which isn't something he hasn't been afforded on NXT. He
has potential, but it isn't being fully realised, just yet.
Best of the Rest (In The World)
NXT Champion Bo
Dallas also turned up this week to speak to the Full Sail Arena about
Sami Zayn. I'm beginning to realise why I was beginning to like Bo
Dallas in this segment, because the scripting is so strong. It
realised the feelings the fans in the Full Sail and elsewhere were
feeling against Dallas as a face and began to turn add it to his
character, over empathising the elements that were already gaining
the ire of wrestling fans all over the globe. Once again this another
very well written promo with Dallas claiming he was a mentor to Zayn,
reminiscent of the way The Miz gained heat in 2010 as Daniel Bryan's
“Pro” on the very first series of NXT. However, Dallas' actually
delivery does leave a lot to be desired. In front of a live crowd,
Dallas seems easily put off, often corpsing when the often
imaginative Full Sail Arena faithful chant at him, which definitely
affects the flow of his promos.
I am actually
quite excited to see the Dallas and Zayn feud play out on television,
as NXT has been consistently strong at creating feuds that are
watchable from start to finish and giving them enough time to breath,
which isn't always the case when it comes to regular WWE television.
However, this offering from Dallas, just simply wasn't up to scratch,
and he won't have the strong booking of NXT to protect him once he
heads to the main roster, but that probably says more about how WWE
operates than it does about Dallas himself. It could take a while for
Dallas to be ready to be able to step up to next level, but giving
him more opportunities like this can only help the Twenty Three year
old.
In the strongest
match of the night, NXT Women's Champion Paige took on Sasha Banks.
The action was fought at a good pace throughout, with both women
working together to put on an enjoyable bout. Whilst the match
might've rested a little too heavily on rest holds, especially
considering neither woman was heel at this point, there was a really
nice section that saw Paige attempting to hold Banks' arms to the
mat, with a good looking reversal into a roll up getting a near fall
for Banks. The finish saw Paige reverse a running Cross Body block
from Banks into a pinfall to pick up the victory. It was ending that
we've seen plenty of times before, but allowed Banks to continue to
look competitive, and sold the story of the bout well. After the
match was over, as had been hinted in the build up to this one, Banks
attacked Paige from behind to complete her heel turn, and was later
seen to be fully aligned with Summer Rae, in a pretty awful backstage
segment, which really showed up both girls lack of acting ability.
In a very
disappointing tag team contest, the Sylvester LeFort managed team of
Alexander Rusev and Scott Dawson took on Enzo Amore and Colin
Cassady. Amore looked great in his pre-match promo, unfortunately
that didn't translate to the ring. To be fair, the main body of the
contest, actually wasn't a complete failure, with both Rusev and
Dawson looking impressive whilst in control. However, it was the
ending of this contest that really let it down, after a awkward
looking version of the Hart Attack, featuring a Spinning Heel Kick
from Rusev, the referee ending up disqualifying the heels for being
in the ring for too long. It really was bizarre, with no one knowing
exactly what had happened and simply wandering around. It felt like
the DQ was shoot, as Harry Smith talked about in his interview with
Wrestle Talk TV, but if that was the case NXT is taped, why didn't
they just re-shoot the ending?
Something that did
work on the show was a Renee Young interview with CJ Parker. I've
been calling out for some interview time for Parker over the last few
weeks, as his character will only work if it is given time to speak
and get over with the people, other wise it is just another 2D
gimmick that will be hard to buy into. Luckily, Parker did a good job
here, with a quirky promo about beavers and phoenixes, to explain his
feud with Tyler Breeze. In a solid wrestling cliché, Breeze turned
up at the end of the interview to lay the boots into Parker, with the
nice added touch of a cheeky selfie whilst posing on top of Parker.
Finally...
My final thoughts on this week's WWE NXT.
1. Xavier Woods could easily slot into the main roster of WWE, Leo Kruger still feels like he needs a bit more time.
2. The scripting of the Bo Dallas character, is strong than it's delivery.
3. Sasha Banks might be able to wrestle, but she certainly can't act!
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