WWE NXT #252 Review

On 14th June, WWE aired the 252nd episode of NXT, taped at Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida on May 25th. The show's main event saw Asuka defend her NXT Women's Title against Nikki Cross & Ruby Riot in an eliminations match. With matches also featuring Drew McIntyre, Velveteen Dream, Authors of Pain and the newly contracted CWC competitor Raul Mendoza, why was all of this so dull?

McIntyre def. Ryzin

Drew McIntyre's out against a newly red-haired Rob Ryzin, they lock up to begin with Ryzin transitioning to a waitslock followed by a chinlock, Drew hits a big belly-to-belly and... you know, I can't be bothered. Drew hits a Claymore to win, it's fine, I yawned at one point and missed the match. Doing these matches to build up new signees is fine but don't just keep doing them because you have nothing for them.

• Talking of people in need of a fucking storyline, here's an Aleister Black package. Seriously, just do the Bull Dempsey-Baron Corbin storyline with Black and McIntyre, do anything with them just give them something to do.

Authors of Pain def. Dominguez & Freyday

Akam is in first and he hits a big boot taking out Wilmer Freyday before in comes Anthony Dominguez to get taken out as well. Dominguez is thrown practically onto the ramp before Akam hits a Modified Death Valley Driver for the win. Another day, another NXT squash match that does little but add another notch to AoP's belts.

• After the match, the AoP hit the Super Collider on Dominguez and Freyday. Paul Ellering calls out Heavy Machinery claiming that they haven't read the book of pain and that they're about to write a new book, the book of dominance, this one has music in it, in fact, it's where music comes from. Also that, Otis Dozovic and Tucker Knight will be a footnote in the book. Out come Heavy Machinery for a four way big lad staredown. Intense, I guess.

• Roderick Strong tweeted about Bobby Roode. Huge if true.

• Sonya Deville gets a package. It's pretty good at aping the style of MMA video segments. She's in action next week. I can't wait.

Dream def. Mendoza

As Velveteen Dream makes his entrance, Tom Phillips makes a reference to a 'sign of the times', do you get it? Dream is like Prince! Ha! Dream plays with his Raul Mendoza to begin with using his collegiate wrestling background to wrestle him to the mat and then literally walks over him to taunt at the audience. They lock up, Dream hits a Little Red Corvette sized shoulder block, Mendoza rolls up but only for a 1 count. The two trade strikes till Dream cuts off Mendoza with a boot as Mendoza attempted a springboard. Dream makes Mendoza's chest look like a raspberry beret in the corner and throws a belly to back suplex. A Purple Rain of chops onto Mendoza's chest light him up. Mendoza comes back with a high kick and chops, but just as he's beginning to party like it's 1999, a flapjack, a rolling death valley driver and a Glam Slam Top Rope Elbow Drop from Dream earn him the pin. After picking up the win, he eye-fucks the camera, so much. Both men look solid but frankly, there is nothing achieved here. Still, hopefully Dream can build on this potential and move into an actual story.

• Kassius Ohno is interviewed backstage and he regrets sinking into frustration like Hideo Itami and he's leading by example in a match with Aleister Black, now that's more like it.

• Ember Moon package, she's back and facing Peyton Royce next week. The way Royce has been performing recently, this could be very fun.

Asuka vs. Cross vs. Riot ends in a No Contest

So, um, what was that? I'm not even commenting on the performance of the three women who are arguably three of the best performers in WWE at the moment but somehow they took the template of a match that was a fun mess a few weeks ago and re-created it as something that doubles down on how much of a mess it was but in terms of fun... 

It had promise as a match, especially if you love multiple dropkick variations as after all three women brawled to begin with. Cross hit Riot with a front missile dropkick, Asuka hit Cross with a side missle dropkick, Cross and Riot team up to get Asuka out of the ring before doing the lets fight each other but also keep Asuka out the match. The sections like this which focus in on Cross and Riot work best as they continue to suggest that when we actually get a singles match with these two it will be mental and amazing. Riot hits a superkick to Cross to take us into the Ad break. Post break, Asuka is back and hits Riot with running bum (because let's face it, she doesn't really use her hips) but Riot responds with a hurricanrana, Cross does her crazy attacking thing but Riot retaliates with her Wind-Up Overhead Kick finish going for a cover but Asuka breaks it up getting some Riotous slaps for her effort. Asuka kicks Riot in the head and gets a two count, Cross pulls Asuka out of the ring, Riot hits both of them with an apron dropkick on both women. Back in the ring and Riot hits a shotgun dropkick on Cross, she heads up top but Asuka pushes her out of the ring before attempting a dropkick, Cross with her Fisherman's Neckbreaker finisher but Asuka rolls out before she can be covered, Riot hits a Saito Suplex. From here on out, the fragile thread holding this match seems to fall apart without Riot as lets note that Tom Phillips makes every effort to remind us that this is all under Triple Threat rules so no countouts or DQs, only pins, submissions and maybe KOs but certainly no way that this is going to have to be thrown out on a double countout. 

So the two women fight in the ring briefly before taking it to the outside again, after a few near falls, they brawl near the audience and out into the wing and the referee throws out the match. For one thing, throughout this and the previous match, the most impressive performer has been Ruby Riot, so of course she is the only one to take a legal pinfall in both matches. For another, it may have been a symptom of the crowd being completely dead but this match just felt supremely messy and its finish was completely nonsensical. If you wanted to build up Cross to keep her on Asuka's level, there are cleaner ways to do it than just throwing out storytelling. It might have all been redeemed if the match had something we didn't get in the Chicago Triple Threat but this felt as much as rehash as a rematch at times. I wanted to like this so much more than I did. As it is, I think we're finally hitting the point where Asuka has almost jumped the shark. She's been built to look so unbeatable that when someone, be it Cross or Moon, eventually does beat her, it will be that much more difficult to make it believable.

Finally...

ATPW Scale Rating: 3/10

I'm bored of this, I'm going for a twix.

TV Review: WWE NXT #206 - Shinsuke Nakamura v Wesley Blake

After three weeks of big matches and having it's roster heavily depleted by the recent WWE Draft, NXT looked to re-build and quickly with just four episodes until the next Takeover event. With a more low-key card, could NXT still provide the quality of action it's fans have come to expect? 

This week's main event came at the top of the show as Shinsuke Nakamura went 9-0 in NXT with a victory over Wesley Blake. A dominant performance from Nakamura here, in an entertaining extended squash, as Blake continues to find his feet as a singles competitor. The match was much more a set-up for General Manager William Regal to come out to ringside and announce that Nakamura would be facing Samoa Joe for the title at Takeover: Brooklyn II on 20th August (more on that in a moment), than it was an attempt to have a brilliant match, but of course, anytime Nakamura is in the ring it's difficult to take your eyes of the screen. Blake put in a decent performance in his role, mimicking "The King of Strong-Styles"' offence and blowing kisses at him, which made the moment he got hit in the face with the Kinshasa all the more satisfying.

Kota Ibushi made his NXT debut with a victory over Buddy Murphy, in a short contest that managed to pack a lot action into it's diminutive screen time. A much more balanced contest than the earlier Nakamura v Blake match (with the Blake and Murphy being former tag partners comparisons between the two are inevitable) and therefore it was much more exciting fight to watch. The tempo was rapid, especially as the matches headed to it's near fall rammed conclusion, with the momentum shifting one way and then another. I much prefer this type of debut for Ibushi, to say an out and out squash match, as it shows the fans of the brand, what kind of matches they can expect and offers something to look forward to, whilst also giving him a debut victory. I'd like to see what else Buddy Murphy is capable of on his own, as he gave a good showing of himself here.

Steve Cutler continued his thirteen match, 2 year losing streak on NXT TV, with a defeat to No Way Jose in less than two minutes. There was some dancing and then Jose won with a cobra clutch slam, a real treat. The real story here though was Jose cutting a killer promo on rival Austin Aries. He brought some genuine depth to his character, that it definitely need if Jose wants to progress any further on the brand. Jose built the promo well, as it grew and began to tell a story about his background, explaining his motivations for fighting and dancing and just what that means for Aries. The exclamation point left me wanting to see Jose and Aries have a fight, which I previously had been completely mild for. 

The show would end with NXT Champion Samoa Joe voice his displeasure with having Shinsuke Nakamura as his Number One contender. Joe was on fire with his promo, not coming across as a cowardly heel who doesn't want to fight Nakamura, but coming across as someone who didn't believe Nakamura was good enough to get a title shot. Of course, the fans want to see the match, so Joe trying to block that makes him look like real bastard. Also, Joe referencing his own road to the NXT Championship gave the promo an extra dimension, where the viewer could see where Joe was coming from but still disagree with his opinion. Of course, by the end of the show, William Regal had forced Joe's hand and made sure the contest would take place, but somehow NXT managed to raised the stakes with this simple and effective piece of storytelling for a match that many had already labelled as must-see.  

Billie Kay got her first win on TV with a victory over Stardom's Santana Garrett in a match. It was a fairly basic encounter, that without having being told a lot about Kay over her 13 month run on TV was hard to get to into. To be honest, I was more convinced by Garrett's bubbly babyface character than I was by whatever Kay was doing, that looked a bit unsure. Perhaps an interview with Kay beforehand or after would have been a better way of introducing her character fully. NXT is in real need of bulking up it's roster of women on TV, since Alexa Bliss, Carmella, Eva Marie and Nia Jax were all bought up to RAW and Smackdown Live a few weeks ago, so it makes sense to start using girls like Kay in more prominent positions but this was a flat first victory for her. 

In the only tag team action on the show, TM-61 (Nick Miller & Shane Thorne) got themselves another victory, as they destroyed Rob Ryzin and Adrian Nails. After six weeks off TV, this felt like a way to keep Miller and Thorne in the consciousness of the audience, without NXT having much of a plan for either at this stage. Their opponents on the other hand were some of the worst enhancement talent who I can remember NXT using. I feel that these guys were just wondering around Full Sail University and got roped into wrestling a match. Nails wrestled in jeans, which is cool if you're known to the audience, but looks like you've just forgotten your gear if you're not. Then he took a fucking awful spinebuster, that looked like he'd never bumped in his entire life. The best thing I can say about this was that TM-61 came away unscathed and hopefully Ryzin and Nails won't be booked again anytime soon. 

Result 

Singles Match: Shinsuke Nakamura def. Wesley Blake in 4 minutes, 28 seconds 

Singles Match: Billie Kay def. Santana Garrett in 3 minutes, 8 seconds.

Tag Team Match: TM-61 - Nick Miller & Shane Thorne def. Adrian Nails & Rob Ryzin in 3 minutes, 4 seconds.

Singles Match: No Way Jose def. Steve Cutler in 1 minute, 52 seconds. 

Singles Match: Kota Ibushi def. Buddy Murphy in 5 minutes, 19 seconds.

Finally...

ATPW Scale Rating - 4.04

Clearly, this episode was never going to be as strong as the last three weeks of television NXT has produced, but this was a watchable episode that developed a couple of storylines and attempted to introduce or re-introduce a couple of competitors. Samoa Joe's promo and interaction with William Regal was the strongest part of the show with Joe delivering some great lines and creating an extra level of intrigue for his upcoming bout with Shinsuke Nakamura. The debuting Kota Ibushi's match with Buddy Murphy was the strongest match of the show, turning what could have been a rather straight-forward bout into an exciting sprint. 

The rating is pulled down by the shorter segments, involving the women's and tag team divisions, which either struggled to hold my attention or were let down by sloppy enhancement talent. 

With the Takeover: Brooklyn II card beginning to come together, the next few week's should begin to pick up in terms of storylines and new talent development as there's big spaces on the card left by American Alpha, Finn Balor, Nia Jax and others. It's an interesting time for the brand, let's hope that that translates as interesting television! 

All content by James Marston.