WWE NXT 4th September 2013 Review

WWE NXT continues to be in the shadows of Antonio Cesaro and Sami Zayn's epic Two out of Three Falls contest, and it's a bit like the week after Christmas Day when everything is getting back to normal. Luckily, Sami Zayn was back in action this week against Jack Swagger, so things were not all lost. 

Sami Zayn 

vs. 

Jack Swagger with Zeb Colter

This match stemmed from a Jack Swagger attack on Sami Zayn last week, after Zeb Colter had caused the distraction. Essentially this story was in place to allow Zayn's NXT Championship match with Bo Dallas to build up a bit longer, but it was still a nice jaunt non-the-less. It's been a while since Swagger has looked like a genuine threat to any on WWE, after falling out of favour due to his extra curricular activities earlier in the year. Personally, I think it was a real shame, obviously it was all Swagger's fault, but it did feel like at that time he had something to offer WWE and I actually did enjoy Swagger's run opposite Alberto Del Rio, with Colter working as a great mouthpiece during the feud. 

The match was a very enjoyable bout, with both men looking very good throughout. Something that we haven't really seen WWE play up very often with Swagger is his size and power. So it was good to see the come into play here, with Swagger who is close to 290 lbs, really looking dominate against Zayn with some good looking power moves and some well executed submission moves. The story that would run throughout the match was Zayn attempting to get going against the bigger Swagger, Zayn did a great job of this role and it's certainly a role that he seems to relish in the ring, with some believable selling of Swagger's offence.  Zayn would get in some offence, in fits and bursts, including a beautiful dive over the top rope to the outside, but Swagger would quickly gain control.

The finish saw Zayn beginning to get a role together, with a Yakuza Kick followed up with by a number of blows to keep Swagger down and it was clear that the Full Sail Arena absolutely adores Zayn, as he got a huge pop from just pointing to the top rope! With Zayn getting a near fall off of a Sunset Flip Powerbomb out of the corner, NXT Champion Bo Dallas headed down to ring side and caused enough of a distraction to allow Swagger to lock in the Patriot Lock for the second time in the match and pick up the submission victory. The interference only added to the match for me, as the short Swagger and Zayn story, simply flowed into a continuation of the feud between Zayn and Dallas. It's certainly built my anticipation for seeing Zayn finally get his opportunity with Dallas, eve more and a competitive loss to another main roster wrestler will do no harm for Zayn.

So, how long can WWE go before having Zayn get his shot at Dallas? They can only realistically keep it going for a few more weeks, as it has been boiling underneath the Zayn and Cesaro rivalry for a good few months. Zayn is also red hot after coming off the series with Cesaro, so it would be wise for the show to capitalise on his popularity by putting the strap on him pretty soon. At the same time, whilst Dallas has improved a lot over the last few months as champion, especially since switching over to a heel, but he certainly has never really felt strong enough to carry the belt around, after strong reigns from Seth Rollins and Big E Langston, and would still seem to have some time in the developmental territory before he's ready to make the step. 

Best of the Rest (In The World)

Elsewhere on NXT, NXT Tag Team Champion Corey Graves was in action against The Ascension's Rick Victor, with both beign accompanied by Adrian Neville and Conor O'Brian respectively. The story behind this match was that Graves had suffered injured ribs after an attack from The Ascension last week. In the early part of the match, the rib injury was not played up as much of it should have been and it took a fair while for the match to really get going. They had a perfect moment to bring to the ribs into the match, with Graves going to lock in Lucky Thirteen, but instead of using the ribs to get out of the hold quickly, Victor just punched him in the face instead. Luckily, in the later stages of the match, they did begin to work the ribs and actually did a great job of it, with Graves putting in a solid performance selling the ribs and his difficulty breathing, this really brought the match to life for me.

The finish of the bout saw O'Brian looking to get involved to aid his partner, with Neville making the save, entering the ring and hitting a springboard crossbody to the outside, taking out O'Brian. With Graves momentarily distracted Victor attempted to go for a Gutbuster, only for Graves to reverse into a Small Package and pick up the pinfall victory. I liked the finish to this one, it worked well on the idea of Graves battling throughout the match and finally being able to pull out the victory, as well as including their partner's building towards a future title match for The Ascension. Whilst Neville and Graves both have singles victories over member of The Ascension, it would seem likely that The Ascension would be next in line for a title shot, mainly down to the fact they're the only other tag team on NXT! 

WWE also continued to build towards a match on next week's show, between NXT Women's Champion Paige and Sascha Banks. Firstly, with Summer Rae once again talking to Banks about showing a nasty side, with Banks looking reluctant. Rae looked really awkward throughout the entire segment, and her performance put me in mind of a GCSE drama performance. Paige later showed her how it was done, with a solid promo during an interview with Renee Young, where Paige put over Banks well, before reminding the audience of the meaning of Anti-Diva. It was a good performance from Paige on the microphone, it's an area she definitely needs to have more time working on to help build her character on television to match what we see in the ring, but she at least has a sound foundation to build upon. 

There was also an intriguing segment which saw Leo Kruger standing over Xavier Woods in the parking lot, laughing in his signature maniacal fashion. With no follow up on the show, and such as a short segment, I was left wanting to know more about what happened and see more of Kruger. I thought it was really effective way of building Kruger's character back up after his recent NXT Championship loss to Bo Dallas. I wouldn't mind seeing them build to a Woods vs. Kruger feud, with the feud allowing us to see a more serious side of Woods, as well as the potential for some interesting match ups between the two. Either way, as long as Woods isn't about to disappear from television like Kassius Ohno, I'll be happy with this.

Alexander Rusev was back in action this week against Mason Ryan. I had expected them to take a little long to build for this match, with Enzo Amore and Colin Cassasdy being involved, therefore this felt a little bit rushed. I've been quite open about not being a fan of Mason Ryan, and this match didn't change my mind, whilst he looks good when in control, the guy can't sell the save his life, so the decision to have him work as a face just befuddles me. The finish saw interference from both Scott Dawson and Sylvester LeFort, before Rusev hit Ryan with a charging attack in the corner, before locking in the Camel Clutch to pick up the submission victory. What I've seen of Rusev, I like, he's looked impressive in his match with Dolph Ziggler and came across fairly well here, as well, but I have no clue why they've given him a Camel Clutch as finisher. Does anyone from Eatern Europe or Asia automatically have to have that move as a finisher? Is written into the rule book? It would seem so.

The opening contest saw woman's tag team action with Bayley & Charlotte teaming up to take on Alicia Fox and Aksana. By far the best section of the match came between Alicia Fox and Bayley who put on some decent wrestler, with Alica Fox's Northern Lights Suplex into a bridge being the highlight for me. Charlotte didn't spend much time in the ring and the less said about Aksana the better. The finish was poorly worked, with Bayley supposedly meant to move out of the way of a boot in the corner from Fox, so that Fox hit Aksana. But Bayley didn't really move, Aksana still bumped and Bayley rolled up Fox for the pinfall victory. Some positives here, but not many. 

Finally...

My final thoughts on this week's WWE NXT.

1. Sami Zayn is the hottest property on NXT at moment.

2. NXT still needs more tag teams!

3. Paige needs more time on the mic to developed, but she's still better than most women in WWE. 

WWE NXT 28th August 2013 Review

This week's NXT was always going to struggle to live up to last week's episode, after Sami Zayn and Antonio Cesaro put together a classic two out of three falls match, and it was no surprise when it didn't. By no means was this bad show, with a lot to like, including the newly heel NXT Champion Bo Dallas and a decent enough main event between Conor O'Brian and Adrian Neville, but it's going to be a while before a match on NXT even comes close to Zayn vs. Cesaro.

NXT Tag Team Champion

 Adrian Neville 

vs. 

Conor O'Brian

with Rick Victor

The main event of the show pitted NXT Tag Team Champion Adrian Neville against The Ascension's Conor O'Brian. The match was put together following the pre-titles sequence of the show that featured Neville's partner and fellow NXT Tag Team Champion Corey Graves speaking to Renee Young only to be interupted by The Ascension's Rick Victor. Victor cut an average and cliched promo about how the time of The Ascension was now, I guess he means in terms of the NXT Tag Team Championship but that was specifically stated. With Graves' showing his trademark attitude he was ambushed by O'Brian with a punch to the back of the head. O'Brian then proceded to hit Graves in the chest with a metal girder that was part of the NXT interview room set. This didn't really work for me, as whilst the attack looked brutal and the girder looked genuinely painful, it didn't really fit with the Ascension's dark gimmick, with O'Brian spurting the words “Stay down, Graves” in a ridiculously over the top voice removing any ounces of darkness from The Ascension in this opening segment.

The bout took on a simple dynamic, with Neville using his speed early on to take control of the match, but once Victor had caused the distraction, O'Brian dominated from that point. O'Brian looks very good when in control, he has a great look and works the gimmick well when in the ring. He feels like a bit of a diamond in the rough for me, I think if WWE protect the character and allow him to develop and improve as a wrestler, which he will if he continues to go up against the likes of Adrian Neville, then he could work very well for the company, however if they follow the trend of how they've been using most bigger built wrestler over the last few years, he'll be a comedy face dancing around the ring in lingerie before you can say Giant Bernard.

The bout was pretty short only about five minutes of the television time, which isn't really enough for a main event match on television, but they did manage to fit in a nice faux comeback for Neville and a near fall for each man before they went to the finish. After Neville had moved out of the way of a charging O'Brian sending the bigger man into the turnbuckle, Neville hit a back suplex for a two count, with the footage looking badly cut together for some reason. Neville then went to the top rope and hit Red Arrow for the pinfall victory. It was a very strange ending and felt very sudden, I'm really not quite sure what happened, but obviously there was a botch somewhere down the line that caused them to cut the match, but at the same time Neville still went straight from a near fall to his finisher which isn't something you see a lot of in WWE. Personally, I would have like to see this bout go another five minutes or so, which I think both men are capable off, and certainly needed a more satisfying finish.

After the bout, Victor came back in the ring and The Ascension began to double team Neville. Graves tried to make the save, now complete with bandaged ribs, before The Ascension destroyed him too, finishing him off with their Spinning Elbow/Sweep Kick combination finisher. With The Ascension finishing the show standing tall in the ring, it looks like they have to be next in line for an NXT Tag Team Championship match, which can surely be only a few weeks away. NXT is pretty low on tag teams at the moment, since The Wyatt Family were moved to the main roster and they split Scott Dawson & Garrett Dylan up, they could really do with creating a couple of new pairing to make the division look competitive. It can also only be a matter of time before they split Neville and Graves up and have them feud, seeing as their team was born more out of neccesity than anything else and they seem to protect each other out of obligation rather than an actual like for each other.

Best of the Rest (In The World)

Elsewhere on NXT, Renee Young conducted an in ring interview with Sami Zayn. After last week's epic Two out of Three Falls encounter with Antonio Cesaro I was interested to see what Zayn had to say and where WWE would be moving with him from here. Zayn did a good job with his promo, getting himself over as a humble and extremely likeable guy, I think it is literally impossible not too like Sami Zayn, his character at times feels like it has been plucked straight from a Rom-Com, with his interaction with Young typifying that feel. Zayn mentioned the possibility of receiving a NXT Championship shot, something which I've talked about a few times in my NXT reviews with Zayn seeming like the logical option for the next NXT Champion after his impressive run of matches with Cesaro, as well as bringing a lot of attention to the show with the feud.

Of course, current NXT Champion Bo Dallas had something to say about this and headed on down to the ring himself. I know it's fashionable amongst wrestling fans to be negative about Bo Dallas for a number of reasons, but his heel promos actually quite good. Yes, he probably get's under a lot of peoples skins, but he is supposed to, he is a heel. When he's coming out saying people don't care about Zayn because he lost and they want to watch a winner like him, you can just feel the internet getting ready to reach for it's collective pen of rage and that's great. WWE is really learning how to play the internet correctly, which is something they've struggled to do for years with Daniel Bryan's feud with The McMahon Family on Raw being the most obvious example of that. With Dallas stealing from The Simpsons (Are you saying Boo, or Boo-urns?), the pair were interrupted by Zeb Colter. After some nice back and forth between Colter and Zayn, Colter's Real American stablemate Jack Swagger attack Zayn from behind, before hitting a Gutwrench Powerbomb. I'd expect a short feud between Swagger and Zayn, just to allow a little extra time for the Dallas and Zayn feud to truly build to a satisfying conclusion.

After Emma had given a decent interview to Renee Young, she went on to face rival Summer Rae. After both women had had great matches with Paige on NXT in the past, I expected at least a decent match here. Unfortunately, that wasn't what we got and the match felt like your average women's match you might see on Raw or Smackdown. Whilst both played their roles well, the bout was pretty sloppy, with a number of notable botches, including a strange moment with Rae trying to set Emma up in the ropes, only for Emma to fall off them. Emma went on to pick up the victory via submission with the Emma-Lock. It wasn't a terrible finish, but it would have been better to see the submission brought into the match earlier on to really build to that finish. After the match, Rae attacked Emma once again from behind, before throwing “bubble solution” in her eyes, signalling that this feud might not be over yet. However, backstage in a conversation with Sascha Banks, Rae signalled that she was done with NXT, whilst also sowing the seeds for a Sascha Banks heel turn in a nice little scene.

After a backstage disagreement, a match was made between Sylvester LeFort's protege Scott Dawson and the charismatic Enzo Amore, who would now appear to be working as a face. Both LeFort and Amore, who was accompanied by Colin Cassady, both cut good promos building up the match nicely. Whilst the match didn't exactly set the world alight, it was a nice foundation, especially considering Amore's limited wrestling experience, with Dawson working him over nicely for most of the match playing a good heel role, until Amore made a comeback with an impressive head scissors takedown. It was here that Alexander Rusev, who we saw last week against Dolph Ziggler, attack Cassady, causing the distraction for Amore, and allowing Dawson to hit what looked like a version of the Angle Slam to pick up the pinfall victory. It would seem that Rusev will be joining LeFort's faction, and I think he will be a nice addition to the group that was screaming out for more members. I can only speculate that they will begin a build toward a feud between Rusev and Mason Ryan.

CJ Parker and Tyler Breeze finally locked it up in the ring, in what was a disapointing contest. Parker's character is in desperate need of some more mic time to help bring some flesh to the characters bones, and Breeze isn't in a much better situation. There's potential in both characters but without the extra dimension it's hard to get behind or against either character. The match was focused almost entirely on Breeze's phone, with the phone playing a big part in the finish. Breeze used the positioning of the referee to hit Parker with the phone and pick up the pinfall victory. The ending took too long to set up, with the referee taking sometime to get into position. I guess we'll be getting more from this feud in the future, but unless we start seeing some dimension in the characters and more wrestling it's going to be difficult to start feeling engaged by either Breeze or Parker.  

Finally...

My final thoughts on this week's NXT.

1. NXT still needs more tag teams.

2. Sami Zayn vs. Bo Dallas should be a red hot feud for NXT.

3. The only thing that would have made Zayn vs. Cesaro better last week? William Regal on commentary.

WWE NXT 14th August 2013 Review

This week's edition of NXT was another strong outing for WWE's developmental facility, with a number of top WWE stars appearing on the show each week seemingly becoming a regular occurrence, the opportunity to face off against wrestlers with main roster experience can surely only be a good thing for the NXT wrestlers.

Six Man Tag Team Match:

NXT Tag Team Champions

 Corey Graves & Adrian Neville & Xavier Woods

vs.

The Shield

After last week's disappointing United States Championship match between Dean Ambrose and Adrian Neville, where Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns saved Ambrose's United States Championship reign, before Corey Graves and Xavier Woods made the save for Neville, this bout was set for this week's main event. I felt like after last week's Neville vs. Ambrose bout, this match really had to deliver in a number of areas, whilst the technical skills of Neville and Ambrose is certainly not in doubt the pacing of last week's contest didn't feel right to me at all, so that was the main thing for me heading into this one, we've seen The Shield can have fantastic six man tag team matches on Raw, Smackdown and Main Event against the likes of WWE Champion John Cena, Daniel Bryan, WWE Championship Money in the Bank Winner Randy Orton, Mark Henry and The Usos, but how would that translate to NXT?

Luckily, it translated very well, with the six men putting on some very strong six man tag team, that was captivating from the kick off. Corey Graves spent most of the bout being dominated by Ambrose, Rollins and Reigns, as we built to the hot tag. Graves is beginning to grow into his new face role on NXT, with his selling of his Shield beatdown really drawing me into the match, in a section that needs good selling to keep the attention of the viewer. The interesting thing for this match was the dynamic that it presented, we're used to seeing on hot tag during a Shield six man tag, which Daniel Bryan made an artform a couple of months ago, but here we had two wrestler capable of playing that role in the shape of Adrian Neville and Xavier Woods. So whilst Neville did get the first hot tag, it didn't take long for The Shield to get the upperhand and build for another hot tag to Woods, which worked very well.

After a near fall for Woods on Rollins was broken up by Reigns, the match headed for conclusion. Unfortunately, two awkward looking spots took a way some of the shine of the bout, with Neville and Reigns suffering from some miscomunication, before Ambrose botched the suplex to the outside on Neville, that should have seen both men fall to the floor, but didn't. Luckily, some nice work from Rollins and Woods kept the match going, with The Shield eventually picking up the victory, with a Buckle Bomb/Spear combination that saw Roman Reigns pick up the victory for his team. It was disappointing to see some of the spots not quite pay off, as that closing sequence could have been even more exciting, but the ideas were good, and the finish was creative, which is good to see from The Shield after months of teaming together.

It's been great to see The Shield on NXT over the last three weeks, after they've sort of been put on the back burner in main WWE storylines, as of late. They've certainly done a lot to help the fledgling team of Neville and Graves who are beginning to look like a solid tag team unit, even if they are a bit of an odd couple. However, I think the person who has gained the most of their presence is Xavier Woods. Whilst Woods has been impressive in numerous contests on NXT over the last few months, they've been few and far between and he hasn't really had a story to get involved in. Therefore, placing him here, not only shows that NXT sees him as a top name talent, but gave him the oppurtunity to show what he can do when there is a true purpose to his matches. He looked very good throughout the match, going toe to toe with Seth Rollins, and hopefully Woods will continue to show NXT why he deserves to be in this kind of position in the future.

Best of the Rest (In The World)

Elsewhere this week on NXT, Paul Heyman made his first appearance on the show, with a strong promo putting over the NXT locker room, as he was apparently scouting talent to be the next Paul Heyman guy. Having someone of the calibre of Heyman, not only put over the NXT talent so strongly, but essentially break character to do so, it elevates the entire NXT roster instantly and was a classy move by Heyman. With Heyman bringing out Intercontinental Champion Curtis Axel, Heyman went on to say that no one in Florida would be man enough to challenge Axel for his Intercontinental Championship on the show. With former NXT Champion Big E Langston's music hitting the NXT Arena jumped to it's feet, with Langston cutting a solid promo challenging Axel. Langston's delivery is different to most in WWE, he seems to take his time and really think about what it is he is actually saying, but most of all he's entertaining whilst doing so.

The bout between Axel and Langston was an entertaining contest, that saw Langston dominate for the most part. Axel did get some offence in but only manage to gain the upperhand for a short period after some sneaky tactics. The face role certainly suits Big E better than his current heel role on regular WWE television, as he looks far more comfortable playing to the crowd, and seeing him lay into some like the undesirable Axel is gives the WWE fans something to get behind, it would great to see this translated to Raw and Smackdown soon. The end saw Langston steamrolling Axel, and we all know that when a wrestler takes the straps of singlet down it's all over, and so did Paul Heyman as he entered the ring for the interference and to give Langston a disqualification victory, meaning Axel retained the title. Langston delivered a post-match beat down on Axel, finishing him off with the Big Ending, before the return of the crowd please five count. WWE don't have a lot of talent that is better suited to being face rather than heel, but in Big E Langston they might have just that.

The Intercontinental Championship wasn't the only title on the line this week, as Paige defended her NXT Women's Championship against long time rival Summer Rae. It was a little disappointing that after rivalry that had built up so well over the last few months, that this bout only went for about four minutes. Whilst Paige's victory over Emma was a fantastic match, I'm not sure if WWE should have gone for Paige vs. Rae and given the match the same amount of time. Summer Rae works well as a heel, working the crowd well and looked pretty good in the ring in this one. The bout ended with Paige dominating and hitting the Paige Turner to pick up a pinfall victory and retain her NXT Women's Championship. What happened in the ring was sound and a good watch, but the rivalry desreved more. With Emma attacking Summer Rae post-match, it would seem that Paige vs. Summer Rae is over for now, who will step up to face Paige for the title next?

The Sami Zayn and Antonio Cesaro feud contiued this week with both men being interviewed backstage by Renee Young. Firsty, Zayn spoke to Young, putting over the competitive rivalry well, before challenging Cesaro to a two out of three falls match for next week's main event. Despite years working under the El Generico gimmick, Zayn has taken to this role well, his relaxed promo style is a refreshing change to the often shouty world of WWE. With Cesaro accepting Zayn's challenge with a slightly cartoonish promo which closed the show, Zayn took the momentum by attacking Cesaro, having to be pulled away by officials. The Two out of three falls match next week, could quite possibly be the most anticipated match on NXT, the rivalry has benefited by some simple old-school style booking, and I'm for one am certainly very excited for next week.

Mason Ryan was also in action this week, with the former New Nexus member taking on Sylvester LeFort's protege Scott Dawson. With Ryan working over Dawson for the majority of the match, Ryan's rivals Enzo Amore and Colin Cassady came down to ringside to try and cause a distraction. It didn't work particularly well with Ryan sending Dawson crashing onto Amore and Cassady with a gorilla press. Unfortunately, it didn't look great, with Dawson landing awkwardly due to Ryan not getting enough on the throw. Ryan went on to pick up the victory after a Cobra Clutch Slam. I'm still not convinced with Ryan and this match didn't really change that, he seems to be more style than substance, with the other four men involved in the match being a lot more entertaining to watch.

Divas Champion AJ Lee was also on the show, as she was interviewed by Renee Young about her Divas Championship defence on the show next week. With AJ saying she hadn't chosen her opponent yet, she ended up in a tight embrace with Bayley. With Bayley talking about it being her dream to challenge for the Divas Championship. AJ was clearly uneased by the situation, she agreed to give Bayley a shot at the title next week. There was a clear chemistry between AJ and Bayley and it made for an entertaining segment, hopefully their match next week will be as entertaining.

Finally...

What did I learn from this week's NXT?

1.   Xavier Woods got the most out The Shield's return to NXT.

2. Big E Langston needs to be turned face!

3. Paige and Summer Rae had an exciting rivalry for months, but the pay off was dissapointing. I doubt the same will be true of Sami Zayn and Antonio Cesaro next week!

WWE NXT 31st July 2013 Review

This week’s NXT was another mixed bag from WWE’s developmental show. There was relatively little match time compared to previous week’s episodes, and the emphasis on dancing was a little too strong, as has been with a theme with WWE in the last year or so. 

Tag Team Match: 

NXT Champion Bo Dallas & Sami Zayn 

vs. 

Antonio Cesaro & Leo Kruger

These four guys have all been involved in some interweaving storylines over the last two months or so, and it has actually been done pretty well, feeling like fairly old school in its booking. With the four wrestlers having matches with each other in a varying combination. So with the blow off seemingly on its way with Bo Dallas defending his NXT Championship against Leo Kruger, and Sami Zayn and Antonio Cesaro surely having their rubber match sooner rather than later, this was a nice way to build to those match, as well as beginning to tease to what might be coming once those rivalries are finished.

It’s interesting to note that Dallas got the biggest heel reaction from the crowd, despite playing a face character. The Full Sail arena are certainly not fans of Dallas’ and they’ve made that clear since he became NXT Champion, and it simply boils down to the fact that Bo isn’t ready to be the top guy on NXT and his character is so damn annoying. A smiling happy babyface is a difficult character to get over with anyone anymore, especially when the in ring skills aren’t quite there as well. This being said, the match did a good job of playing on this, with Dallas tagging himself in and looking reluctant to tag in fan favourite Sami Zayn. If WWE changed Dallas heel they could at least have a chance of rescuing him after they through him in at deep end to early, and a rivalry with a Zayn fresh off of beating Cesaro would certainly work well.

The match saw Cesaro and Kruger working well as a team to dominate Zayn for most of the match, with some nice psychology between Cesaro and Zayn, where Cesaro would only face Zayn after Kruger had beaten him down. The interesting turning point, where Zayn got the hot tag to Dallas, got roundly booed, and Dallas did his happy face routine. With Cesaro and Zayn pulling out an angle that is rarely used these days, the fight to the back, it really helped to sell their rivalry even further. The ending saw Dallas throw a fleeing Kruger back into the ring, only to take a knee to the face and Kruger’s Slice Lariat to pick up the pinfall victory for his team. It was a nice ending and gave Kruger momentum heading into the NXT Title match, and the crowd loved it because Dallas lost!

Now, I’ve already touched on where I think this is going to go in the next few weeks. It can only be a matter of time before Bo Dallas is turned heel, WWE can’t keep putting out the smiling babyface Dallas, because people just aren’t buying it, and he isn’t technically strong enough for people to get behind, against stronger competitors like Cesaro and Kruger. Cesaro and Zayn could very well be NXT’s match of the year, they’ve already have two fantastic battles on NXT, but you know that these two will bring everything possible to knock this one out of the park. Personally, I’d have Zayn pick up the victory, because it won’t harm Cesaro, whilst it would allow Zayn to move into a feud with a newly heel Bo Dallas for the NXT Championship.

Best of the Rest (In The World)

Elsewhere on the show, new NXT Tag Team Champion Corey Graves was in action against Scott Dawson, who had Sylvester LeFort in tow. With Graves accompanied by partner Adrian Neville who in a backstage segment said he’d be joining Graves, in case The Wyatt Family turned up. The match was pretty basic with Dawson working over Graves for the majority of the match, with some simple holds and blows. The ending was quick, with Graves making a comeback with a chopblock, before locking in Lucky 13 for the submission victory. The match did what it had to do, in setting up what was to come, but could not be accused of being exciting.

After the match, the distinctive opening of The Shield’s music hit, as United States Champion Dean Ambrose and Tag Team Champions Seth Rollins & Roman Reigns, made their welcome return to NXT. With Seth Rollins renewing his feud with Corey Graves with a solid promo, and then Dean Ambrose ripping into Adrian Neville, accusing him off simply stepping into Kassius Ohno’s shoes. Neville retored by challenging Ambrose to put his money where his mouth is, in a match for his United States Championship, which Ambrose eventually agreed to have next week. It was a great segment and a good way to bring The Shield back into the NXT fold, the prospect of Ambrose vs. Neville next week is one I’m definitely looking forward to. I imagine we may see a Champions vs. Champions Tag Team Match somewhere down the line.

The Wyatt Family made what looked to be their final appearance on NXT this week, and did so as faces. After Luke Harper and Erick Rowan had quickly squashed Mickey Keegan and Aiden English, via pinfall after a big splash from Rowan. Bray Wyatt went to cut a fantastic face promo, possibly my favourite of any promos I’ve seen him cut. It really opened my eyes to the fact that the Wyatt’s could be used as a face group without too much tweaking to the gimmick. It will a new NXT landscape without The Wyatt Family, and I expect them, like we’ve seen with The Shield, to make occasional appearances from now.

In the opening segment of the show, Enzo Amore and Colin Cassady came out with Amore cutting a charismatic promo, however Cassady’s attempt was not so great. Maybe it would be better if WWE keep Cassady as Amore’s silent stooge. With Amore mentioning dancing, a surprise appearance from Tons of Funk (minus The Funkadactyls) as they came out to confront Amore and Cassady, who attempted to run off. They were stopped by rival Mason Ryan who sent them back into the ring to be destroyed by Brodus Clay and Tensai. This really didn’t work for me, as with Ryan getting involved, it was basically three on two, towards the faces, which wasn’t helped by the fact that Amore and Cassady are more over with the crowd.

There was also womens action this week, with Charlotte taking on Sascha Banks. Charlotte is clearly incredibly green in the ring, and I’m surprised she’s been pushed so heavily on NXT so quickly, with most wrestler’s having to do a certain amount of time at the bottom of the card before getting the treatment Charlotte is, obviously Daddy has done a lot. Now that’s not saying she is awful and she does have some impressive moves, like Charlotte’s web, but there was no sense of story or flow to this match. As for Sasha Banks, I didn’t even know she meant to be heel until about half way through the match. Charlotte picked up the victory with a Forward Somersault Cutter. Charlotte does seem to have potential, but WWE needs to be careful not to push her too quickly, because she simply isn’t ready.

Continuing on the dance theme, with NXT General Manager Dusty Rhodes talking to new NXT Women’s Champion Paige, alongside Emma, Summer Rae interrupted to complain about not being involved. There was some bickering between Emma and Summer, before Summer offered up the idea of a Dance Contest next week, with Dusty making the “match” official. Paige summed it for me, reminding Emma and Summer that this was wrestling, if only someone in WWE would listen to her words.

After his debut last week Tyler Breeze was interviewed by Renee Young. We didn’t get many answers, but Breeze plays the obnoxious heel role pretty well, it’s an old gimmick that’s been updated for the Selfie generation. CJ Parker also turned up in the background of the interview, including making a dreadlock mustache. We haven’t seen much of Parker on NXT, mainly jobbing to talent higher up the card and so it will be interesting to see him moved into a more prominent role.

Finally...

What did I learn from this week's NXT?

1. Even Sami Zayn can't get the NXT crowd to cheer for Bo Dallas.

2. With Ambrose vs. Neville and Cesaro vs. Zayn III on the way, the next few weeks of NXT are must watch.

3. WWE needs to remember the cliche, "This ain't ballet" and minimize the dancing gimmicks.

WWE NXT 17th July 2013 Review

It was another big week in the history of NXT, with the Tag Team Championships on the line in the main event, as well as the crowning of a brand new number one contender for Bo Dallas’ NXT Championship. To add to the important feeling of the night, we also got appearances from Hall of Famer Ric Flair, and main roster wrestlers Sheamus and Antonio Cesaro throughout the night.

NXT Tag Team Championship Match: 

Adrian Neville & Corey Graves 

vs. 

The Wyatt Family (Eric Rowan & Luke Harper) © 

with Bray Wyatt

It’s been a busy week for the Wyatt Family, turning up on Raw to attack R-Truth, before taking out 3MB and Justin Gabriel on Main Event, as they continued to send messages to Kane in the build up to a possible contest at Summerslam. Over in the alternative universe of NXT, The Wyatt Family have been feuding with Adrian Neville & Corey Graves for sometime now, with The Wyatt Family taking out Neville’s former tag team partner Oliver Grey and interfering in a number of Corey Graves’ matches, with all the matches we’ve seen with these two versus The Wyatt’s in varations combinations involving the likes Bo Dallas, Kassius Ohno and William Regal, it seemed this match could very well be the last of the feud that has built well to this over the last few months. In the build up to the contest, The Wyatt Family attacked Sheamus during a backstage interview about Sheamus’ match next week, leaving him lying.

In terms of the story being told, the match was nothing much out of the ordinary, with The Wyatts dominating Corey Graves for most of the opening section. Rowan and Harper continue to look impressive in the natural big man tandem role, with a number of nice double team moves added to their arsenal, it only helps to add variety of the match which is needed when telling a basic story like this one. Corey Graves’ selling has also improved in recent weeks, at first I questioned how Graves would transfer into a face role on NXT, as seeming like a natural heel on the earlier episodes of the new format, however coupled with his great rallying promos, his stronger selling ability has really turned him into a fan favourite, which was needed here for Graves to really work the crowd up in anticipation of the hot tag.

The moment when Graves managed to make the tag to Neville, after Harper had missed a running big boot in the corner, was made ten times better by Neville really reaching out for the tag, making it seem of the upmost importance that the tag be made, as Graves did a good job of edging towards his corner. William Regal also did a fantastic job on commentary in really building up the moment, why Regal isn’t on regular WWE programming I’ll never know. After some fantastic high-flying action from Neville, including a great hurricanrana from the apron to the floor on Luke Harper, and a top rope springboard moonsault onto both of this opponents, things swung into the favour of the challengers. That is until Bray Wyatt got involved pushing Neville off the top rope, for a near fall for his family. This brought out Sheamus in a pay off of the segment we saw earlier, as Sheamus took out Wyatt sending him into the steel steps. With Graves taking out Rowan’s knee, Neville headed to the top rope, hitting Red Arrow to win his team the NXT Tag Team Championships. It was a good ending and a logical one with The Wyatt’s now competing on the main roster WWE shows, and having Sheamus come down to even the odds, elevated the match by association.

I’m not sure how many appearances the Wyatt Family have left on NXT, so I’m enjoying their run on the show while it lasts. It’s been an enjoyable run for the trio and I hope they can continue to relate this success to the rest of the WWE, because as a group they have a lot of potential. I see Neville and Graves, as almost placeholder champions however, yes both men are extremely talented in differing ways, but I see both guys having separate careers, rather than continuing as this tag team. It will be interesting to see who steps up to challenge Neville & Graves, as NXT is currently pretty bare on tag team combinations.

Best of the Rest (In The World)

Elsewhere on NXT, there was a triple threat match to decide the new number one contender for Bo Dallas’ NXT Championship, featuring Sami Zayn, Antonio Cesaro and Leo Kruger. The story has built well heading into this one, with Cesaro and Zayn having a long running series, and Kruger’s involvement with Dallas interweaving heading into the triple threat. The match as well as similar well built and well paced, with solid action throughout that involved all three of the competitors involved for an optimum amount of time. The three men meshed together well, which can be a problem within triple threat matches, with each man bringing a new element to the contest. Sami Zayn brought his high flying skills to match, hitting a nice running senton over the top rope to Cesaro and Kruger. Whilst Cesaro brought a technically sound power game to the proceedings, and Kruger bringing some nice character work, as he remains something of an unknown entity on NXT.

The highlight of the match for me, saw Cesaro german suplex both Kruger and Zayn at the same time, it was an impressive moment that was reminiscent of Kurt Angle in the way it was delivered. The ending saw some more good work between Zayn and Cesaro, with Cesaro eventually hitting the Neutralizer, only for Leo Kruger to run in and steal the victory, becoming Number One Contender for the NXT Championship in the process. It was a good ending, that built on Kruger’s character as a former poacher, as he poached the victory off Cesaro, whilst also leaving it open for another Cesaro and Zayn match in the future. However, I’m not quite sure Kruger is the ideal opponent to face Bo Dallas, who simply can not get over with the NXT crowd, therefore surely have Dallas defend against a face, before eventually turning on them would have been the better option here.

Dallas himself was in action later in the night, against Scott Dawson who was accompanied by his manager Sylvester LeFort, who cut a good pre-match promo hying up Dawson for the match. It wasn’t a particularly great contest, with Dallas looking increasingly sloppy in the ring with some poor looking dropkicks and an awkward bulldog. Dallas simply isn’t ready to be competing at this level, and whilst Dawson did a good job working over Dallas, it doesn’t really matter when the crowd doesn’t like the guy you’re beating down. Dallas picked up a fairly speedy victory after a comeback, with his belly to belly suplex finish, which still doesn’t look anything like a finishing move. After the match, Leo Kruger came out and took Dallas, finishing him off with Kruger End. The crowd confirmed my earlier thoughts about the decision to have Kruger named number one contenders by chanting “Thank You Kruger”.

Ric Flair made a second consecutive appearance on NXT this week, to accompany his daughter Charlotte to the ring for her first match on NXT against Bayley. In terms of looks, Charlotte looks like she might have just wandered off the set of ITV’s Gladiators, with a strongly muscular physique, much more so than any of the Divas on the current roster, she also looks incredibly tall. I was actually pretty surprised by the match, as I expected to see Charlotte look a little awkward in the ring (she might be related to the Naith, but so was David Flair) but she appeared calm and athletic throughout with a number of interesting moves to boot. Being up against Bayley also helped as the two women’s styles fitted together well, and Bayley’s character is always a joy to watch. After Charlotte won the contest with a forward somersault cutter, she celebrated in the ring with her father, performing his signature strut. Whilst Charlotte looked pretty good for her first match, one thing that will need to be worked on is character, as I’m not sure how far she will get on the gimmick of being Ric Flair’s daughter. 

Finally...

What have I learnt from this week's NXT?

1. You can still make a well-trodden story feel exciting and fresh, given the right combination of action and character, as seen in the Tag Team Championship contest.

2. Leo Kruger was the wrong choice for Number One Contender, not because he isn't ready, but because he is a poor fit for Bo Dallas at this time.

3. William Regal is the best commentator around, bar none.