WWE NXT 25th September 2013 Review

This week's NXT was fairly strong throughout with a lot of interesting action, whilst nothing particularly stood out, it felt like much more of a storyline building week with the seeds planted for future parts of story, with Sami Zayn and Bo Dallas's feud really getting into gear, alongside a new number one contender to Graves & Neville's NXT Tag Team Championships.

NXT Tag Team Championship Number One Contenders Tag Team Turmoil Match:

 Enzo Amore & Colin Cassady 

vs. 

CJ Parker & Tyler Breeze 

vs. 

The Legionnaires

 with Sylvester LeFort 

vs. 

The Ascension

Now NXT doesn't have a lot of real tag teams so the tag team turmoil idea seemed like a bit of a stretch, for me. The Ascension are the only team that'd really consider a conventional tag team, with Amore & Cassady possibly at a stretch. The Legionnaires are moving towards that way, with them both being managed by Sylvester LeFort, but I'd still see them both as singles wrestlers rather than a tag team. So for this Tag Team Turmoil to be viable, they had to create a make shift team of rivals Tyler Breeze and CJ Parker, it's been done before and it'll be done again most probably. The team was made by Raw General Manager Brad Maddox, after both Breeze and Parker came to see Maddox (who was apparently on charge off tonight's show) about being part of the match, it was a fairly contrived situation, but played well by all three involved.

The story that this match attempted to tell, needed longer than it was given to make it really worthwhile. The first match saw Amore & Cassady taking on CJ Parker & Tyler Breeze in a brief encounter that didn't really do anything for me. Parker dominated Amore until Parker refused to tag in Breeze allowing Amore to get the tag to Cassady who hit a Spinning Sitout Sideslam to pick up the victory. I understand that they were trying to push the dislike between Parker and Breeze, but Parker is supposed to be a face, and refusing to tag in Breeze seemed like a heel tactic to me. Up next for Amore & Cassady was Sylvester LeFort's team of Scott Dawson & Alexander Rusev now know as The Legionnaires. The Legionnaires worked over Amore for a couple of minutes looking good in control and working quick tags. After Dawson hit an Arn Anderson style Spinebuster he went to pick up Amore, only for Amore to trap him in a small package to pick up the victory and to advance to the final match of the Tag Team Turmoil. It was a decent finish, but we just had seen enough of The Legionnaires in control of the match to make it mean as much as it should.

Personally, I would have prefered to see Amore & Cassady take much more of a beating in the first two matches, yes, they did take most of the offence from the other two teams but it was only for a couple of minutes. By the time The Ascension were revealed as the final team, Amore and Cassady should have been exhausted, building up two teams at the same time, The Ascension as the evil heels coming in to pick the bones and the valiant Amore & Cassady who pulled off two upset wins after tough fights, however it didn't quite feel like that. The final match was a decent encounter if not a little basic, with Conor O'Brian and Rick Victor working over Cassady for a lot of the match, before Cassady managed to make a short comeback, including a nice near fall, with Cassady making the tag to Amore, only for Amore to come up short after O'Brian outpowered the smaller man. The finish saw The Ascension hit their double team finish with the leg sweep/heel kick combination to pick up the victory and become Number One Contenders for Graves & Neville's NXT Tag Team Championships.

The Ascension make perfect sense as the challengers for the NXT Tag Team Championships, seeing as they have been feuding with both Graves and Neville over the last few weeks. They probably could have just been given a title shot anyway and I'm sure no one would have had any complaints about that, but doing it this way just gives them a little bit more behind their claim to the gold and makes them look a much more credible tag team. Can they beat Graves & Neville for the NXT Tag Team Championships, I'm interested to find out. Personally, I think it's time to put the titles on The Ascension, as Graves & Neville have only ever felt like transitional champions, whilst they have performed well with the belts, it's clear that they are not a proper tag team and really this is just a set up to lead into a singles feud between Corey Graves and Adrian Neville, before both are ready to make the step up to the main roster.

Best of the Rest (In The World)

Also in action this week, was fan favourite Sami Zayn who took on El Local (Ricardo Rodriguez under a mask) in singles action. It was a decent short encounter, with the action fought a pretty high pace throughout. Zayn dominated most of the match, which was essentially an enhancement match, Local was there to make Zayn look great and he did a pretty good job (not like it takes much to make Zayn look awesome in the ring). The finish saw Zayn fight back from a momentary spell of control for Local, hitting a series of moves, including a back body drop, before finishing off Local with a Yakuza kick to pick up the pinfall victory. Obviously, this match doesn't stand up to Zayn's classic bouts with Antonio Cesaro and Jack Swagger on NXT, but it simply wasn't designed to do that. For what is was, this bout was entertaining and a nice set up for what was about to come.

After the match, NXT Champion Bo Dallas came out on to the ramp, with a few words to say to Zayn. I thought this promo was probably the strongest we've seen out of Dallas on NXT, as he didn't seem to be effected by the crowd, in his usual way which is to simply start laughing mid-promo, he simply said what he had to say and got it over with. Dallas continued to claim he was a mentor to Zayn, which of course is hilarious in itself, before announcing that he would be holding the Bo Dallas Invitational starting next week, where any wrestler could challenge him to a match and if they win they will get a title shot. Zayn, of course, was the first to throw his name into the hat, only to be turned down by Dallas for being unsafe in the ring. I thought this was really nice set up for things to come in their rivalry, as we know The Bo Dallas Invitational isn't going to go down without incident, and therefore should be tuning in next week to find out!

WWE COO Triple H was also in attendance at NXT this week, coming down to the ring to continue a storyline that has been a prominent part of Raw recently, that being the McMahon family feud with The Rhodes family. After putting over a number of NXT talents, Triple H went onto remove Dusty Rhodes as the General Manager of NXT, and replace him with John “Bradshaw” Layfield. It was a little confusing, seeing as we had seen Brad Maddox working as an authority figure throughout the episode, and certainly didn't get the heat that it deserved because people were just happy to see JBL. It was an interesting idea to attempt to carry over the storyline to NXT and made sense to do so, but I'm not surely it really payed off in the way they were hoping here. JBL could be an interesting General Manager and I'm wondering if we'll see a shift on the show, now that it is run by a heel.

In women's action, Sasha Banks accompanied by Summer Rae took on Bayley, in strong women's bout. Both women looked competent in the ring, with Banks really growing into her new heel role, looking vicious throughout with some nice ad lib really helping to get that character across to the audience. The finish saw Bayley climbing to the top rope, only to be tripped by Banks, who sent Bayley into the top rope again before picking up a pinfall victory following a Double Handcuff Neckbreaker. After the match, Summer Rae got on the mic, and in a surprinsgly good promo announced that Fandango would be on NXT next week, as well as putting over her partnership with Banks. Just when it looked like the pair were finished, Emma ran down the ramp sending them running. The pop that Emma got was fantastic and shows that women can get over in today's WWE, and with Rae later challenging Emma to a mixed tag team match next week things are beginning to heat up in their feud.

Aiden English was also in action this week, in a squash match against Bull Dempsey. English's singing actor gimmick is a little too similar to Damien Sandow's gimmick for me, but that doesn't mean it's any less entertaining. English picked up a quick victory with Take A Bow, after an entertaining encounter. English looks capable in the ring, at least in this kind of environment, I'd like to see how his character translates to a singles feud in the near future, as well as see him in much longer matches with some of NXT's finest.

After a three month absense, Kassius Ohno returned to WWE television to confront Brad Maddox about why he hadn't been on the show. They played around with the management holding Ohno down angle, with Maddox describing Ohno as a D+ player, a reference to Daniel Bryan being called a B+ player on Raw. With Ohno being granted a return match next week, I am very happy to see him back on the show as he was one of the most entertaining aspects of NXT a few months ago and is more than capable in the ring. Hopefully, his problem's with WWE management have ceased and we'll be seeing a lot of Kassius Ohno in the near future.  

Finally....

My final thoughts on this week's NXT.

1. The Tag Team Turmoil match needed more time and precision booking.

2. Sami Zayn is still the best thing about NXT.

3. I would happily listen to William Regal on commentary for hours on end, he's magnificent. 

WWE NXT 11th September 2013 Review

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!

WWE NXT 21st August 2013 Review

Well, where do I start with this weeks NXT? I could talk about the appearances of Dolph Ziggler and Diva's Champion AJ Lee, I could talk about the re-debut of CJ Parker, but no there's only one thing that I can start this blog with...Sami Zayn vs. Antonio Cesaro, Two out of Three Falls.

Two out of Three Falls Match: 

Sami Zayn

 vs. 

Antonio Cesaro

So after months of build up between Sami Zayn and Antonio Cesaro, here we were the rubber match. Now this rivalry has been so incredibly well booked since late May this year, with the two featuring in various match ups also involving NXT Champion Bo Dallas and Leo Kruger, where their rivalry was always made clear during the bouts. Not many WWE rivalries last three months before having their big blow off, but this one certainly did. With the wrestling being so good in their original two contests, expectations were high here and Zayn and Cesaro really had to perform. My intrigue to this one was increased even more when it was made a Two out of Three Falls bout, because of some of the fantastic bouts of this style that we've seen in the past, which usually favour the more technical, scientific wrestler like Zayn and Cesaro. The stipulation present and interesting structure on which to build the story of the match, with the placing of the falls being vital in building the flow correctly.

I didn't for a second doubt that this would be a superb match, and seconds in and we were already into the action with Zayn hitting a front flip plancha onto Cesaro as he headed to the ring, after this Zayn quickly got a pinfall via a school boy roll to go one up on Cesaro. It was an interesting way to start the match and really set a different dynamic going forward. We are used to seeing a quick fall in two out of three falls bouts, but usually it's the second fall to quickly even the score. The bout continued with Cesaro quickly gaining control, and despite Zayn attempting to fight back, he would often get caught in one Cesaro's impressive power moves, including a powerbomb after Cesaro had blocked a kick from Zayn. The theme of the second fall would see Cesaro repeatedly attempt to lock in a Chinlock, with Zayn escaping on occasion for a roll up varation for a near fall. With Cesaro eventually hooking the Chinlock in deep, swinging Zayn around, with Zayn unable to break the hold and on the verge of passing out, he just about managed to tap out, giving Cesaro the second fall and evening the match at one fall a piece. Another interesting move in the bout, which would not usually see a submission until the third fall, if at all. Having Zayn tap out to what is usually seen as a rest hold, only worked here because Cesaro locked it in so convincingly and Zayn sold it so well, don't expect to start seeing this in Great Khali matches anytime soon.

So we headed into the final and ultimately strongest fall, with even more power moves from Antonio Cesaro and even more heart shown by Sami Zayn. Cesaro used the spot we've seen him use before when he superplex's an opponent from the apron into the ring, before an attempt to suplex Zayn out of small package attempt was thwarted by Zayn who slipped out of the suplex in a school boy roll up for another near fall. The great thing about this match was that it remembered what had happened before and built upon it, it was essentially variations on a theme in wrestling. Throw in some great set pieces like Zayn flying threw the turnbuckles to hit a tornado DDT onto the floor and you had the perfect recipe for an outstanding wrestling match. The ending once again remembered what had happened else where in the match, with Zayn looking for another tornado DDT, this time using the ropes to springboard into the move, only for Cesaro to show an outstanding feat of strength halting Zayn mid DDT, throwing him onto his shoulder, then up into the air for an awesome European Uppercut, before lifting Zayn up into the Neutralizer to pick up the pinfall victory and his second fall to win the match. After the match had built so well, the ending had to deliver and it did in so many ways, the impressive nature allowed Zayn to come out of the battle still looking strong, whilst keeping Cesaro looking like an absolute beast.

Now, the way Cesaro has been booked on NXT, makes his current situation on the main roster even more upsetting. This week alone we've seen Cesaro lose on Raw in tag team action against The Prime Time Players, before managing Jack Swagger to a loss against The Great Khali on Main Event, and he certainly deserves a lot more. We've seen failed gimmick after failed gimmick head Cesaro's way, from American flag waving Anti-American to Swiss Yodeller to boyfriend of Aksana and Teddy Long love rival, and at the start of The Real American gimmick with Zeb Colter I felt that the tide could be turning for Cesaro, however he now seems to be being punished for Jack Swagger's extra curricular activity and stuck going nowhere once again. He's taken to all his gimmick as well as he could, but they were just never going to get over, if you see a man yodelling you don't do say “I hope this man get's his arse handed to him” you say “I'll probably watch something else for a bit”. This match with Zayn, along with his match against Daniel Bryan a few weeks back on Raw, could be put up against anything WWE has done in the last year and still look great, hopefully WWE realise the talent they have sooner or later. As for Zayn, he was only helped by this series with Cesaro in the eyes of WWE fans, and title bout with Bo Dallas would seem the logical move for the former Generic Luchador.

Best of the Rest (In The World)

Now I can't imagine that when Dolph Ziggler was advertised as appearing on NXT this week, that the first person everyone thought of as an opponent for the former two time World Heavyweight Champion, was Alexander Rusev. We haven't really seen a lot of Rusev since Florida Championship Wrestling morphed into NXT, and he didn't make his television debut until a battle royal at the end of May. Rusev character feels like a bit of a throwback to me, in his unique attire, he does stand out, aided by his size which intrigued me from the outset, how would Ziggler mold with Rusev's style and what kind of story would they have to tell.

I was actually very impressed with Rusev, he works the big foreign heel role very well, with some creative offense, including holding onto the ropes to allow him to deliver some vicious knee strikes to Ziggler's midrift. Continually speak what I imagine is Bulgarian constantly throughout the match, gave him an exotic feel really drawing me into the character, with Ziggler being a great opponent because his selling is so good. Ziggler's speed and precision offense, including a beautiful dropkick, afforded him a way back into the match, eventually allowing him to pick up the victory after Rusev had missed a splash from the top rope, and Ziggler had hit a Zig Zag. It will be interesting to see how Rusev does against someone with less experience and talent as Dolph Ziggler, and if he still looks as impressive as he did here.

The Diva's Championship was also on the line this week in a short but fun bout between Champion AJ Lee and challenger Bayley. Bayley's unique character was a good fit opposite Lee and it was clear that the two had a lot of fun putting on this bout, and that transferred to the viewer. Whilst Bayley has her character nailed on, she still needs work on her in ring work, with a pinfall attempt whilst Lee was under the ropes standing out for me. Following a diving Corkscrew Elbow from Bayley, Lee feigned injury suckering the naïve Bayley in, before hitting a Spin Kick to the gut, and finishing the challenger of with a Shining Wizard for the pinfall victory. The bout was what I expected it to be, telling a good story with the characters meshing together well, although there wasn't a whole lot of wrestling on display, it was still entertaining to see.

CJ Parker continued to appear backstage, photo bombing Tyler Breeze as he got a fan to take a photo of him, it wasn't particularly funny but set up the idea well enough. Parker went onto have his re-debut in NXT later on, against Baron Corbin. Parker has been given a new hippy style gimmick, which is reminscent of Spanky's run as The Brian Kendrick in WWE between 2008 and 2009 in characterisation. The bout ended quickly with Parker picking up the victory with a unique variation of a DDT. The bout was quick and was only really there to serve as a way of showcasing Parker's new gimmick, which looks promising. After the bout, Breeze interupted an interview between Parker and Renee Young, to confront him about the photobomb. It was a bit goofy, but worked for these characters, with Parker eventually going to punch Breeze only for Breeze to quickly escape. I expect more from these two in the coming weeks on NXT.

The Ascension continue to plough through numerous enhancement talent on NXT and this week Conor O'Brian and Rick Victor were in action against Ron Hicks and Michael Zaki. This bout was pretty similar to the contest The Ascension had on 24^th July, as they destroyed Hicks and Zaki with a number of tag team moves used in that bout, including finishing off Hicks with their version of a High Low to allow Victor to get the pinfall victory. It would seem that The Ascension will be getting an NXT Tag Team title shot against Corey Graves & Adrian Neville soon, mainly because they are the only real heel tag team that we've seen on NXT, since The Wyatt Family have left.

Finally...

What did I learn from this weeks NXT?

1. Cesaro and Zayn are two of the best wrestlers in WWE.

2. Alexander Rusev has potential in the Bulgarian Big Man role, if he can perform against opponent not as good as Dolph Ziggler.

3. Alex Riley would be a good commentator, if he didn't constantly keep referring to his storyline with The Miz (It was two years ago Alex)