WWE NXT Episode 107 Review (Kidd vs Zayn)

This week's NXT review see's the return of the "Match of the Day" style reviews, that I used when writing at this time last year. For those unfamiliar with this style of review, it begins with the biggest storyline of the show, with everything involved in that storyline being reviewed in a block, before moving onto the next. I feel this has a better feel to it than the play by play style reviews and also makes it easier to find what you are looking for within the review. So without further a do, let's begin. 

Sami Zayn vs Tyson Kidd 

 

This week's main event was a first time TV encounter between the Canadian duo of Sami Zayn and Tyson Kidd. To build to the match, both men where interviewed by Devin Taylor. This was a nice touch that made the main event feel like something worth sticking around for, with both men outlining the problems they had with each other nicely. As expected Zayn put in a much better showing, talking about how he's seen the real Tyson Kidd over recent weeks. Zayn nailed his closing statement, saying he wanted to embarrass kid, making this feel especially personal and showing a different side to Sami Zayn.

Their main event match was a good encounter, with a number of exciting reversals and near falls. The crowd was really into every Zayn did in the ring, they've certainly built a connection with the former Generic Luchador. Kidd's new character is also developing rather nicely stalling early on the match, before teasing a highflying dive to the outside, only to deliver a vicious suplex on the ramp. As the match headed to a conclusion there were some superb sequences, including a number of rear wastelock switches before Kidd delivered a lovely German Suplex for a near fall, as well as one that saw Kidd reverse a Monkey flip into a Sharpshooter with Zayn scrambling to reach the ropes. After a handful of near falls for both men, it was Kidd who picked up the victory, catching Kidd coming off the top rope with an Reverse STO transitioned into the Koji Clutch for the submission victory.

I wish this match had been given more than ten minutes, as it felt like Zayn and Kidd were only scraping the surface of what they could produce together in the ring. Everything that was shown hear looked super crisp and clean and the characters worked very well together, I do think it was a shame then that they went for such a clear cut finish. I would have been up for a series of matches between these two, but I'm not sure how they could have Kidd get a rematch after losing so convincingly. 

Match Rating - ** 3/4

Colin Cassady & Enzo Amore vs The Vaudevillains 

 

 

The opening match of the show was a spot of tag team action, as the entertaining duo of Enzo Amore and Colin Cassady tackled the recently teamed Aidan English and Simon Gotch, The Vaudevillains. Both gimmicks are fun to watch, therefore it was a shame to see this match only go less than three minutes, where it never really got out of second gear. The only really point of note, in the main body of the match, was Enzo escaping a suplex attempt from English to get a warm tag to Cassady. It was however clear that this match was being used to set up or continue rivalries with other teams, as The Legionairres caused the distraction that cost Cassady the victory, allowing English to use a school boy roll up with the added touch of holding onto the tights to ensure the victory. 

Later on in the night, Vaudevillains, interupted a Devin Taylor interview with Kalisto to ask where his partner (El Local) was. It was revealed Kalisto and El Local had parted ways as a duo, with Kalisto saying he'd have a partner to face the English and Gotch next week. I haven't seen a lot of Kalisto on the mic before, and I actually rather enjoyed this. His delivery was quirky enough that it fitted the gimmick without ruining away any of the mystery that the mask affords a worker. I'd be surprised if that partner isn't Sin Cara. 

Match Rating - 1/2*

CJ Parker vs Xavier Woods

 

Honestly, this match was awful. I wasn't convinced that either man particularly disliked each other, which apparently they do, according to the commentary team. I've enjoyed Xavier Woods work in the past, but CJ Parker simply isn't good enough in the ring. Almost everything he did looked dodgy, from a nasty looking head scissors takedown, an awkward spot where Woods caught his throat on the bottom rope, to a terrible O'Connor roll finish where Parker was supposed to be holding onto the ropes but was nowhere near to them. Why NXT has continued to perservere with Parker who clearly isn't up to the standard required I don't know.

Match Rating - DUD

Adam Rose vs Jason Jordan

 

 Adam Rose's return to NXT, facing off against Jason Jordan in a fun few minutes of action. Mainly a comedy bout with Rose rubbing Jordan's chest a la Goldust and repeatedly sending Jordan's head into his arse using the turnbuckle, the highlight of this one for me was a well-excuted Northern Light's Suplex by Jordan. That was Jordan's only real offence in the match, as he eventually succumbed to the Party Foul. This was a lot more enjoyable than the majority of what Rose has done since coming up to the main roster. 

Match Rating - *

Alexa Bliss vs Sasha Banks

 

In Women's action this week, Sasha Banks faced off against Alexa Bliss, which for less than three minutes was a good outing for the pair. Telling a nice story with Bliss attempting to get the win with a number of pinfall combinations (including a much better O'Connor roll than we'd seen from Parker and Woods previously), whilst Banks attacked her relentlessly, with a series of vicious attacks. Banks looked fantastic in this one, with a terrific double knee attack with Bliss caught in the rope and her beautiful finishing move, The Bo$$ Lock (a Double Knee Backbreaker into a Crossface) that getting her the submission win. Sasha is a real talent. 

Match Rating - * 1/4

Tyler Breeze Interview

 

Tyler Breeze appeared this week, speaking to Devin Taylor, and isn't he just wonderful? And absolute delight to listen to? There isn't anyone in WWE at the moment that is delivering promos the way that Breeze is delivering promos, really thinking about every single syllable, instead of just reading words of a page. This fresh feel should serve him well in WWE, and with him revealing that his lawyer is making up a contract for his much anticipated NXT title match with Adrian Neville, it seems there are big things on the horizon for Prince Pretty.

Ascension Promo 

 

Current NXT Tag Team Champions Konnor and Viktor also turned up this week to cut a backstage promo talking about how they've destroyed all their competition on NXT. It would seem that they are earmarked to make the jump to the main roster here, and I know many out there are fairly high on this team, but on the strength of this promo they need some more time to polish up these skills, or maybe even a manager. 

Finally...

 

 So, that was the 107th episode of NXT! A mostly enjoyable outing for WWE's developmental league with Sami Zayn and Tyson Kidd taking the match of the night for me, putting in a solid main event. There's clearly a lot of talent knocking around these parts, with Sasha Banks and Tyler Breeze particularly impressing me this week. Take away the piss poor CJ Parker bout and this could have been an even better show. 

See you next week when Summer Rae challenges Charlotte for the NXT Women's Championship!

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 10th July 2013 Review

NXT has definitely found it’s feet again, and this might have been the best episode of the show to date. Every match gave you a reason to watch, the seeds were planted for future rivalries and we not only got to see NXT Commissioner Dusty Rhodes, but the Nature Boy himself Ric Flair.

Six Man Tag Team Match:

William Regal, Adrian Neville & Corey Graves vs. The Wyatt Family

For me, this match felt similar in build to a number of The Shield’s high profile tag team matches on Raw and various pay-per-views in the last six months. With somewhat of an NXT dream team being built to combat them, even recruiting a wily veteran in the form of William Regal. The build up to the match featured a good backstage interview from Renee Young with William Regal, Adrian Neville and Corey Graves. Each man got there turn, with Neville going first. He seems to have taken my advice from last week, as he spoke a lot slower in this promo and therefore it was a lot easier to understand. In fact when delivered like this the Geordie accent actually helped to deliver a certain intensity to what Neville had to say about the Wyatt Family. Graves also did a good job with what he had to say, letting people know he’d do his talking in the ring. But it was Regal who stole the show for me, masterfully switching between an impression of Adrian Neville and a delivering a serious message to The Wyatt Family, so times the old ones are still the best.

As The Wyatt Family headed to the ring, Bray Wyatt delivered a signature, chilling promo about how this match would be a mistake for Regal, Neville and Graves. Wyatt seems to have a hypnotising quality to his voice, that coupled with the creep music, makes sure that when Wyatt is talking your listening closesly. The match started with the face team getting the upperhand, with Regal using his old dirty tactics, distracting the referee whilst Neville kicked Eric Rowan in the face, which was well worked and lapped up by the NXT Arena. We soon settled into a regular pattern with Adrian Neville being the focus of The Wyatt’s attack. What worked so well here for me, was the amount of time Neville was trying to reach for the tag, with Regal and Graves doing a good job of making it feel even more important. Each time Neville made it closer to his tag team partners you wanted him to make the tag even more, with his selling ability whilst fighting underneath really help push the match along.

With Neville eventually reaching Regal for the hot tag, we saw a frenzy of offense from the Staffordshire born veteran, taking down Luke Harper with a knee trembler for a near fall, only thwarted by Eric Rowan making the save. Straight after we saw the breakdown of the match, with Graves and Rowan battling out of the ring, and Neville hitting a beautiful corkscrew plancha taking out both me. With Regal left in a two on one situation, Bray Wyatt got the tag and hit Sister Abigail for the pinfall victory. The ending worked well for me with pace really lifting as we headed towards and ending and having Regal take the pin keeps Graves and Neville looking strong heading into their Tag Team Title contest with Harper and Rowan.

With The Wyatt Family debuting on Raw last Monday, it would have to be suggested that it is very likely they will be dropping the NXT Tag Team Titles in the near future, whether to Corey Graves and Adrian Neville or another pairing. How many appearance will the Family have left in the NXT Arena? Probably only a handful, we still see a number of main roster superstars on a regular basis, but with The Wyatt Family surely heading into a big summer angle, they might not have the time to return to Full Sail. Another question for me here is, Was this William Regal’s last match? Personally I wouldn’t think and I’m sure Regal will find another opponent he wants to face and teach in the future, I’m also pretty sure we will see at least on more match between he and Kassius Ohno.

 

Best of the Rest

In another big match on NXT this week, Sami Zayn faced off against Leo Kruger. This stemed from the end of las weeks show where Zayn made the save for NXT Champion Bo Dallas against Kruger and Antonio Cesaro. I have to say I haven’t been too impressed with Leo Kruger during his recent run, but I think that’s mainly due to the fact he hadn’t faced an opponent the calibre of Zayn and simply phoned the match in. This one started slowly and didn’t look to be heading anywehere for sometime, but I stuck with it and Kruger and Zayn produced one of the best singles matches in NXT. With near fall after near and some good in ring psycology this match really built into some what of an epic.

Kruger spent a lot of the match focusing on Zayn’s arm, supposedly in an attempt to soften it up for the GC3 submission hold he’s been using lately. Zayn’s speed and quickness was worked into the match with this giving his best opporutnities of winning for most of the match. There was a clever spot where Zayn couldn’t lift Kruger first time, but eventually lifted him up for a spin out powerbomb for a near fall. The match was littered with near falls for Kruger, which really allowed the crowd to get behind Zayn willing him on as he fought against the adversity. After a superplex from Kruger however, followed by sending Zayn into the ring post arm first, Kruger locked on the GC3 for an impressive submission victory. As announced later in the show by Dusty Rhodes, these two will be joined next week by Antonio Cesaro, with the winner getting a shot at Bo Dallas’ NXT Championship.

The Semi-Finals of NXT Women’s Championship Tournament concluded on this episode as Emma faced Summer Rae. In the quarter finals, Emma had put away Aksana, whilst Summer Rae defeated Sasha Banks. This was another solid outing for both Rae and Emma who continue to impress me every time they step into the ring. Emma’s gimmick is extremely over in the NXT arena, and it will be interesting to  see if it can migrate to a larger scale at some point. Rae used her long legs to keep Emma in an arm bar for some time, with Brad Maddox doing a good job of letting us know the dynamic of the match on commentary. With Emma fighting back, we got a nice roll up sequence where it seemed like either Diva could pick up the win, with Emma eventually coming out on top for the upset victory. With Summer attacking Emma after the match, other tournament finalist and long time Summer Rae rival Paige came out to make the save. I had been hoping we’d see one last match between Paige and Summer Rae for the final, however I’m intrigued by how the dynamic of Emma and Paige will work out when they face each other in the final.

Mason Ryan was also in action, this time in a Handicap Match, agains Enzo Amore and Colin Cassady. Amore is very interesting to listen to on the microphone and certainly has that mad cap ability that just draws you into what he is saying, as he set up the match due to Ryan’s “cheap shot” on him in the previous episode. As handicap matches go this was actually pretty well worked, with Ryan able to show of his power by dominating two men for a period, whilst the cunning Amore laying wait to trip Ryan as he went for a powerslam on Big Cass to give his team the victory. Obviously, there’s going to be repercussions from this is the coming weeks and it will be interesting to see who eventually comes out on top.

Also, we got the return of Ric Flair to WWE television! With Dusty Rhodes talking to Bayley about her match in the NXT Women’s Championship Tournament a few weeks ago, Flair turned up with his daughter Charlotte. With Charlotte supposed to debuting next week, Bayley offered herself forward to face her, before asking Flair to do the “Woo” he eventually obliged. I actually really like Bayley’s character, the only way I can describe it is like a female Eugene, but more cute and naïve than mentally challenge. It’s a character that could really connect certain sections of the “WWE Universe” and I can see her becoming quite popular if she continues to work hard in NXT.

Finally...

 

What have I learned from this week's NXT?

1. William Regal is still one of the bes in the business.

2. Leo Kruger can go in the ring, when challenged properly.

3. Brad Maddox is a damn good commentator but he ain't no Man's Man.