TV Review: WWE NXT #212 - Austin Aries v Andrade Almas

With Andrade Almas and Austin Aries colliding inside the ring, would this week's episode of NXT manage to turn around the brand's recent poor form?

Austin Aries continued to gain momentum, as he went over Andrade "Cien" Almas in a good match. The contest was a strong showcase for both men, who seemed to have some deal of early chemistry with each, as they went through a series of slick action. The action before the ad break was nicely balanced, with Almas managing to stay one step ahead of Aries' tricks of the trade, whilst also showing a degree of showmanship himself as he out-whited Aries run around the ring by pulling out the old spider between the top and middle rope situation. There was some nice little touches, like Aries pulling on Almas' tights as Cien attempted to escape a headlock, which managed to add a little extra spice to what could have ended up a fairly straightforward bout, at least structure wise. The finish was well performed with The Greatest Man That Ever Lived turning Almas' springboard rana attempt into a snap powerbomb, before transitioning seamlessly into the Last Chancery for the victory. Almas' double knee smash in the corner was protected throughout, with Aries managing to dodge the move twice, which would set-up a potential rematch between the two nicely. It would perhaps be worrying for NXT that whilst the crowd were split on Aries, they seemed pretty indifferent about Almas.

Cruiserweight Classic contestants Ariya Daivari and Tony Nese made their NXT debuts in a losing effort to the hot and cold tandem TM61 [Nick Miller and Shane Thorne] in a cracking tag bout to kick off the show. To my knowledge, this was the first time that Nese and Daivari had ever been in the same match, let alone tagged together, so I was  surprised to see how fluid they were as a unit, putting on some cool double team sequences and working over Thorne well. There was some nice little touches to their work as they controlled the match and found different ways to prevent the hot tag to Miller that I got a real kick out of. The mid-match dive sequence that saw Thorne almost end up in orbit was also damn impressive stuff. The conclusion felt like a slight deflation, however, as Thorne was back inside the ring almost immediately, and whilst his selling was strong, I'd have preferred to have seen him do it on the outside of the ring as he attempted to recover from his prolonged beatdown. TM61 went on to win with Thunder Valley on Daivari as they continue to show promise, but not completely deliver it. 

NXT Champion Shinsuke Nakamura had his first outing since winning the belt, in a simple squash bout with Steve Cutler. Nakamura is always an entertaining performer to watch and this match resembled a cat playing with a ball of string as he batted Cutler about the ring, appeared to let him take control for a moment just for a change and then rocked him with an inverted exploder suplex and a Kinshasa to get the win. Even with Nakamura being the Champion, this match didn't deserve to go on last, because Cutler is still pretty much enhancement talent for the brand and the one win that he was given last week wasn't going to convince anyone that he was either a viable opponent for Nakamura or that he was capable of having a good match (even with some of the calibre of The King of Strong Style). Samoa Joe's appearance on commentary gave the most interesting developments, as he appeared much more subdued following losing the NXT Championship and walked out following a brief stare down with Nakamura.

Ember Moon made her NXT TV debut, picking up a swift victory over Leah Von [Leah Von Dutch] in another good showcase for the former Anarchy Championship Wrestling performer. This felt like an abridged version of Moon's Takeover: Brooklyn II bout with Billie Kay and I enjoyed it much more because of that. All the focus was on Moon and Von did a good job of allowing her opponent to shine, by extenuating certain elements of her character, managing to get a strong reaction out of the Winter Park crowd in the process. That diving corkscrew stunner finish Moon has is a thing of beauty and now perfectly called The Total Eclipse. Asuka claimed she'd driven the competition out of NXT, and at this moment with only two broadcast contests to her name, it feels like Moon could be #1 Contender, already. 

Finally...

ATPW Scale Rating - 4.81/10

A much better show from NXT this week, than what they've put out over the previous two episodes, as the show contained two quality contests. Austin Aries and Andrade Almas had a cracking outing that complemented both of their styles well and probably deserved to end the show, whilst TM61 continued to develop in a stellar tag team collision against the debuting Ariya Daivari and Tony Nese. The other two matches were quick squash matches for Shinsuke Nakamura and Ember Moon, both of which showcased the talents well, but it's hard to rate that kind of match particularly highly, especially when one of them includes the NXT Champion. 

Whilst this show was an improvement, as a whole it still was a below average hour of wrestling.  

Content - James Marston
Banner Credit - Kai Stellar

TV Review: WWE NXT #211 - Tye Dillinger v Buddy Murphy 2

Aired - 31st August 2016

For the second week in a row, Tye Dillinger found himself in the main event of NXT, this time taking on former Tag Team Champion Buddy Murphy, but would that be enough to end NXT's summer with a bang? 

This week's headline encounter saw "The Perfect Ten" Tye Dillinger continue to build momentum with a victory over Buddy Murphy in what was a solid outing for the pair. Whilst Dillinger is clearly a crowd favourite thanks to his Perfect Ten gimmick, I was particularly impressed with Murphy here, as he not only worked hard to allow Dillinger to look as good as possible, but also had a couple of promising moments himself. Whilst he may look like a boot-leg version of Triple H circa 2002, Murphy showed that he's got a little more about him this week, which included hitting a tasty meteora for a two count. Dillinger seemed to be resting on his Perfect Ten popularity to pull him through the match, as his comeback was especially basic here, not really containing anything to get too excited about, en route to getting the pinfall with the Tye Breaker [Fireman's carry neckbreaker]. I feel like if Dillinger wants to continue to main event NXT, then he needs to add a little bit more to his in-ring work, especially if working as a babyface. 

After thirteen previous attempt, Steve Cutler finally got himself a televised victory with a quick win over Kenneth Crawford, thanks to a Fisherman suplex slam, in the semi-main. I wasn't at all impressed with Cutler in his triumph however, as not only did he look like the budget lovechild of Baron Corbin and Corey Graves in his pre-commentary days, but he was pretty damn sloppy in the ring. The crowd clearly didn't have much time for him either, showering the bout with the sound of complete indifference. Crawford showed some moments of promise, including a nice running shooting star press, but also had his own fair share of slips and trips during the match. Considering Cutler has been in NXT since 2014, had a years worth of Indy experience before being signed and has faced talents now on the main roster like Baron Corbin, Chad Gable and Aiden English on a regular basis, he's nowhere near where you'd expect him to be at this point in his career. 

No Way Jose looked to build momentum following his Takeover: Brooklyn II loss to Austin Aries, with a swift success over Angelo Dawkins. This was a real nothing match, in which there seemed to be a vacuum on entertainment or anything notable before Jose got the pin with a Cobra clutch slam. If I'm going to criticise Steve Cutler for his tenure in NXT, then I need to bring up that Dawkins has been with the company since 2012 and lost 21 TV bouts in a row. His character is undefined as he comes to ring doing a weird stirring motion, whilst wearing two headbands like a shit Bobby Lashley and being extremely cocky for a chap who has lost 21 matches in a row. Jose finished things off by dancing in the crowd, which was nice. 

In his first appearance in the Full Sail Arena since winning the NXT Championship from Samoa Joe at Takeover: Brooklyn II, Shinsuke Nakamura came out and said a few words about his win. The crowd love The King of Strong-Style and they hang of his every word as he explained that he was still hurting from his match with Joe, but that doesn't matter because he has the belt in his signature charismatic style. It would certainly be impossible to criticise what was present on screen across the 6 minute segment, but I can't help feeling that it lacked any feel of drama and didn't advance anything in terms of story. As cool as it was to have Nakamura speaking directly to the crowd, everything that was done could have been done in a backstage interview, with this time given over to a lengthier main event or something with a bit more drive behind it. Closing the show with a promo that no matter how enthralling, was still a straight forward promo was a odd decision that didn't pay off completely. 

In the weakest contest of the evening, Liv Morgan and Aliyah worked a sloppy and illogical match in front of a crowd that was as dead as a dodo. There was some promise early on, but the match quickly showed up both women as not quite being ready for this kind of spotlight. Things like Aliyah not moving Morgan away from the ringropes when going for a pin shouldn't be happening by the time talents have come up to television, whilst Aliyah's wear down hold looked more like a finisher, which effected the flow of the contest and made it hard to believe that Morgan could actually have escaped it. Morgan picked up her first TV win with a nasty looking Reverse Roundhouse Kick, that needs a lot more polishing. With Sasha Banks, Becky Lynch, Bayley, Alexa Bliss, Emma, Charlotte and Carmella all departing the roster over the last year or so, it's left Asuka holding up a skeleton of a division that Morgan and Aliyah aren't ready to contribute positively to. 

Best of the Rest 

• With Johnny Gargano out injured, Tag Team Champions The Revival (Dash Wilder and Scott Dawson) to advantage of the situation, attacking Tomasso Ciampa during an interview before destroying him in the ring.

Finally...

ATPW Scale Rating - 2.95/10 

Man, this was not a good episode of NXT. When the highlights are an average main event between Tye Dillinger and Buddy Murphy and an inconsequential promo from Shinsuke Nakamura, you know that the hour of TV that you've just watched probably wasn't that good. The three squash bouts left a lot to be desired, with no one involved coming off all that well. There's some talent down the lower portion of NXT's roster that currently aren't up to scratch, which is worrying considering the length of time that some of them have been attending the Performance Center. 

I'd expect the show to improve over the next few weeks, there's plenty of stars on the roster to do that, but there's questions that need to be asked about why more home-grown talent like Steve Cutler and Angelo Dawkins aren't cutting the mustard.

Words - James Marston
Banner Credit - Kai Stellar