WWE NXT 26th June 2013 Review

This week’s episode of NXT wasn’t quite as good as we’ve come to expect since it’s revamp, it was still enjoyable but rested too heavily on enhancement matches, which gave the show an unimportant feel for most of the hour.

NXT Tag Team Championship Number One Contenders Match: Corey Graves & Kassius Ohno vs. Scott Dawson & Garrett Dylan with Sylvester LeFort

This match was set up last week by Commissioner Dusty Rhodes, and was really the only match they could have put together in terms of a number one contenders match. These are currently the only two teams (and I use the term loosely for Graves & Ohno) on NXT, bar the champions themselves The Wyatt Family, and it is probably the weakest area of the show. Dawson and Dylan have impressed me over recent weeks, with some old school style tag team wrestling, but they haven’t yet been involved in a match against with anyone of the calibre of Graves and Ohno so I was interested to see how they would deal with this type of match up.

The match for them most part told the basic tag team story that we’ve all seen time and time again, with Dawson and Dylan, working over Graves building towards a hot tag. This section was extremely slow at time, and whilst it’s sometimes good for a match like this to slow the pace right down, it felt like it lasted a little too long. There was a surprising turn shortly after the hot tag with Dawson and Dylan managing to hit their Southern Pride double team finisher, it was a shame then to see Graves break up the pinfall before the referee had even managed to start a count, as this would have been a nice false finish.

The match picked up from here with Ohno doing a good job of fighting from underneath with some nice defence as offense including turning a back body drop into a sunset flip attempt. With Ohno making the second hot tag to Graves, who looked a lot more comfortable in the position of aggressor with tying Dylan up in the corner with a figure four around the rope being the highlight of this section. With Ohno taking out Dawson, Graves worked Dylan’s leg again before getting the submission victory with Lucky 13. The match certainly got better as it went on, but didn’t quite live up to the sum of its parts, at times feeling a little disjointed.

After the match, The Wyatt Family stormed the ring and took down the number one contenders. Adrian Neville attempted to even the numbers, before Dawson and Dylan recovered to foil at 450 splash attempt. With the heels beating down on Ohno, Graves and Neville, it was left to commentator William Regal to try and make the save, only to get taking down by The Wyatt Family and Dawson and Dylan. After a while Dawson and Dylan looked a little awkward in the ring with The Wyatt’s, especially manager Sylvester LeFort who did very little for his team all night. After Dawson and Dylan left, allowing The Wyatt Family to celebrate before putting some final boots to Regal. The ending was probably the best part of the show as it really left things open to where this will go in the next few weeks.

Best of the Rest (in the World)

New NXT Champion Bo Dallas had his first match since winning the championship against the newly christened Mickey Keegan (formally Axel Keegan) with Leo Kruger sitting in the corner of the arena after his match with Dante Dash (more on that later). The match wasn’t anything special from the NXT Champion who certainly isn’t liked by the NXT Arena, who even started a short chant for Keegan. This was estentially an enhancement match with Dallas getting in pretty much all of the offence, which at times looked a little awkward as Dallas seemed a little disorientated in the ring. Dallas picked up the victory with an odd looking belly to belly suplex which definitely didn’t look anywhere near like a finishing move, the match would have been better off ending with Dallas’ version of the Dudley Dog.

With Kruger still at ringside, it didn’t take long for the South African to enter the ring. Surprisingly, he decided to take out Keegan with a nice arm trap suplex and finished him off with a Slice lariat. Kruger and Dallas had a stare down, with Kruger attempting to touch the NXT title, before saying something “Tata” repeatedly and leaving the ring. I have to say I like Kruger’s strange nature and he is certainly something different to WWE programming, whether Bo Dallas will be a good opponent for him in terms of a rivalry, I’m yet to be convinced.

The Women’s Championship tournament continued this week with the last quarter final, pitting Emma against Aksana. Emma did a nice comedic backstage interview with Renee Young pre-match, that really got over the character well, with the comedy suiting the situation and allowing Emma’s character to feel genuinely likeable. She’s certainly over well with the crowd inside the audience the NXT Arena, with plenty joining in with Emma dance on her entrance. The match itself, was probably one of the best Aksana matches I’ve seen as she worked hard in her heel role, controlling most of the match. The finish could have been worked a little quicker with both Aksana and Emma looking a little awkward, although once Emma’s submission finisher DilEmma was in place it certainly looked an impressive hold. I’m certainly interested in the Semi Final contests, and hopefully Paige vs. Alicia Fox and Emma vs. Summer Rae will live up to my expectations.

I mentioned Leo Kruger’s involvement with Bo Dallas earlier in the review, but Kruger was also in action himself against Dante Dash. Another enhancement match here with Kruger dominating Dash throughout the match. Kruger worked over Dash’s arm for most of the match, including the arm trap suplex he later used on Mickey Keegan. Kruger eventually got the win via submission with the GC3, a moved of course focussed on Dash’s arm. Kruger certainly brings a certain presence to the ring which draws you in when he’s competing. I’d like to see how he functions in a feud soon and certainly would like to see him in longer more competitive matches than this.

Big E Langston also had his first appearance on NXT since losing the NXT Championship to Bo Dallas two weeks ago. Langston faced Aiden English in what was less enhancement match, more squash match, with Langston completely bulldozing English. Langston picked up the win with the Big Ending, before the crowd called for “Five!” so Langston hit his finish again for a five count. I’m not quite sure where this will go, with Langston’s days on NXT surely numbered as he continues to impress on the main roster, possibly a rematch against Bo Dallas for the title with Dallas finally making the heel turn to finish Langston’s time off in NXT. 

Finally...

What have we learned from this week's NXT?

1. The NXT Tag Team Division is needs to bolster it's ranks with some new pairings.

2. Bo Dallas needs to step up his game to be considered in the same bracket as former NXT Champions Seth Rollins and Big E Langston.

3. William Regal is a great commentator on NXT, but I'd much rather see him lock it with some of NXT's young talent.

WWE NXT 12th June 2013 Review

This week’s edition of NXT continued it’s tradition of being arguably the best hour of WWE Television every week. I think this is mainly down to being able to take a breather from the regular somewhat heavy handed promotion WWE has for it’s storylines, making NXT feel fresh each week, as well as also the talents appearing to have a lot more free reign within their matches and being given more time than they would regularly get on either Raw or Smackdown.

NXT Championship Match: Big E Langston © vs. Bo Dallas

I have to say I haven’t been particularly impressed with Bo Dallas over his spell on NXT, his in-ring work can be good, but it’s nothing special and his performance on microphone last week was truly abysmal. It would seem that the crowd in attendance at the Full Sail Arena feels much the same as they chanted “No More Bo” for a lot of the contest. Whilst a lot of talent in NXT would seem ready for a call up to the main roster, I would say Bo would need at least another year and half in the developmental promotion before being anywhere near capable of taking the step, which made him a strange choice for this NXT Championship Match.

Someone who has made the step up to the Main Roster, and has done so convincingly in his role as Dolph Ziggler’s heavy, is Big E Langston who went into this contest as NXT Champion. Langston has been impressive in his contests on both Raw and Smackdown over the last four or five months and this match was no different. It was well thought out, with Big E controlling a lot of the early going, the highlight being a huge splash that looked like it might get E the victory. Dallas played the underdog well, after avoiding another Big E Splash, Dallas built up to a nice Dudley Dog, to further the underdog theme. The only problem with the underdog role is that the crowd was having none of it, continuing to cheer for Big E throughout the contest.

It didn’t take long though until Big E was back in control, bulldozing over Dallas. With Langston going for the Big Ending, Dallas managed to grab the top rope and partially remove the turnbuckle cover, before sending E head first into the turnbuckle twice. Unfortunately, Bo didn’t quite remove the turnbuckle cover, which meant the final spot didn’t quite come off as intended, which was a shame as it would have been a nice ending, with Dallas getting a roll up for the victory and the NXT Championship.

Dallas continued to show his weakness during an interview with Renee Young at the top of the entrance ramp. Dallas again looked awkward when faced with a microphone and the crowd was having none of it. Hopefully, Dallas’ run as NXT Champion will help build him as a competitor as well as giving him some more time to practice his promo skills. It would seem that Bo will be getting a turn as a heel, which would seem the right idea instead of fighting against the Full Sail audience, it will be interesting who steps up to challenge Bo over the upcoming weeks.

Best of the Rest

The storyline between Antonio Cesaro and Sami Zayn continued this week, with the two having a rematch from three weeks ago. With Cesaro controlling the early going with an ultra-aggressive style that we’ve rarely got to see from him in his time in WWE due to a lack of anything resembling a feud, with Zayn’s main offense coming in the form of creative reversals, such as turning a Cesaro uppercut in to a backslide for a near fall.

The match was well put together with Zayn’s selling ability and the fact that every time Zayn looked to get going he was cut down by Cesaro, really helped to get Zayn even further over with the audience. In terms of an underdog, he Zayn plays the role a lot better than Dallas, is a hell of a lot more likeable. With Zayn’s best chance of victory coming from a fantastic sunset flip, which bared a passing resemblance to a Canadian Destroyer, the crowd thought Zayn had pulled out another unlikely victory. Unfortunately, this was not the case with Cesaro picking up the win with a Neutralizer which was probably the only sloppy part of the match, where Zayn almost slipped out of the move and had to hold himself in place for the finish. Hopefully we’ll get to see another match between these two in the next couple of weeks, as it feels like they have a lot more to give.

There was also another match in the first round of the NXT’s Women’s Championship tournament, pitting Alicia Fox against Bayley. Both competitors played their roles well, with Fox making a good heel with some vicious attacks, and Bayley’s innocent character making it easy to get behind her throughout the contest. It’s nice to see Diva’s with actual characters in NXT, which makes them feel a little less interchangeable as has been the case in WWE over the last couple of years. Fox is perhaps one of the more underrated competitors on the roster, with a nice Bridging Northern Lights Suplex being a highlight. Although Bayley’s character is strong, she still needs to work on her in-ring work after an awkward looking exploder suplex slowed the match down a little. Fox picked up the win with her Scissors Kick finisher and I can see her possibly getting to the Final of the tournament.

There was also another outing for the NXT newest tag team, Scott Dawson and Garrett Dylan, joined by their manager Sylvester LeFort. LeFort got a little mic time before the match, which went a little way into explaining his odd partnership with the tag team, but I’m still not convinced, seems like two worlds colliding and not quite working. Dawson and Dylan took on Travis Tyler and Baron Corbin, in what was essentially a job match. With Dawson and Dylan dominating Corbin for the majority of the match, before Tyler’s hot tag was cut short with a huge Spine buster from Dawson and a sitout axe handle from Dylan, now named Southern Pride, gave Dawson and Dylan the victory. I like this new tag team and feel they offer something new to the WWE Tag Team Division, I also like their manager Sylvester, but don’t think the two together is a great combination, although it could grow on me over the next couple of months.

Finally…

What have we learned from this week’s WWE NXT? 

1. Bo Dallas isn't ready to step up to the main roster yet, but hopefully he will learn from a heel turn and run as NXT Champion.

2. Sami Zayn proves you don't always need to get the win, to get over with the crowd.

3. William Regal being back on commentary certainly helped the talent in the ring to tell their story, hopefully he sticks around for a long time.