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 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 3rd July 2013 Review

This week’s episode of NXT was a vast improvement on the week before. Mainly because a lot of the contests were made to feel important, even if they were essentially enhancement matches. Having William Regal on commentary also helps, as he is probably the best commentator WWE has in terms of getting talent over to an audience whilst being entertaining at the same time.

NXT Championship Match: Bo Dallas ©  vs. Antonio Cesaro

This match was set up at the start of the show, with Renee Young interviewing NXT Champion Bo Dallas. I was actually pleasantly surprised with Dallas’ promo, he seemed confident and has worked hard on his character over recent weeks. It would seem WWE is planning on turning him heel, as he really plays up that butter wouldn’t melt act, whilst also referring to his “Bolievers” which is incredibly annoying. If WWE is planning to continue to keep him face, I really can’t see Bo getting over with this kind of style. Antonio Cesaro turned up a produced another solid promo involving his new “We the People” gimmick, however there was no Zeb Colter in sight. The match was set somehow and Bo told Cesaro he would never forget his name before smiling a big goofy grin.

The crowd was behind Cesaro for the majority of the match up, but once again I was surprised with Bo’s performance. Obviously being in the ring with a talented performer like Cesaro was always going to help, but Dallas seemed to put in a lot of effort throughout to make this a credible contest. Cesaro controlled the early going with some amateur wrestling holds, whilst Bo did a good job of selling. A clever moment early on saw Cesaro work up the crowd into thinking they were going to get a big kick to Dallas’ back, only for Cesaro to apply a headlock. Leo Kruger also came out to ring side early on to watch the match, I’m still not sure if a Dallas/Kruger rivalry will work at this moment in time and it would take a major twist for me to get more involved in the story.

Dallas continued to kick out of every that Cesaro would throw at him, including a Gutwrench Superplex, which really helped to make Dallas look a lot tougher than he has in the past, although the little offence he got in during the match didn’t make him look much of the Champion. There was also a dangerous looking moment, when Dallas went for a Belly-to-Belly superplex, but seemed to release Cesaro too early, which could have been fatal for Cesaro. Dallas still needs a lot of work to polish up some of these moves if he wants to step up to the big time. The ending saw Cesaro attempt to clothesline Dallas only for the NXT Champion to side step and send him crashing into Kruger. Dallas then hit his Belly-to-Belly throw finish to pick up the pinfall victory and retain the title. It was a disappointing ending to the match, which deserved a better finish than this, whilst Dallas’ finish still looks incredibly weak.

After the match, Kruger began to beat down on Dallas hitting him with a vicious looking neckbreaker, before Cesaro ran in and hit Kruger with an uppercut. Cesaro then continued to beat on Dallas himself before Kruger came back and the two sided together to beat on the NXT Champion. The save was inevitably made by Sami Zayn who came charging down to the ring to take down Cesaro. Dallas and Zayn eventually got rid of the heels, before Dallas celebrated with his championship. Will Dallas’s association with Zayn help him get over with the crowd? Probably not, they’re cleverer than that. Would turning on Zayn some point down the road get him major heat with the crowd? Almost certainly. 

Best of the Rest (in the World)

The NXT’s Women’s Championship tournament reached the semi-final stage this week with Paige facing Alicia Fox. Whilst Alicia has been lost on the main roster for a while now her matches over on NXT have been pretty good and this was another decent match against NXT standout Paige. With some extra definition of Fox as a character she could be a vital asset to the WWE Diva’s Division. Paige on the other hand seems to have her character nailed on, with the Anti-Diva thing working well in all aspects of her game, the idea of long running feud between her and Diva’s Champion AJ Lee is surely something WWE has on their minds for the future, and if not they should have.

The match was a see-saw battle with a lot of back and forth throughout. The wrestling was strong for both Diva’s and both made it seem like they wanted to win the Women’s Championship. Paige eventually picked up the victory with a Paige turned after Fox had run into a kick to the stomach. It was a decent ending, but could have been built up further with a few more near falls. With Paige advancing, and the other semi final featuring Summer Rae and Emma, it has to be said that Paige is clear favourite to become the first ever NXT Women’s Champion, which can surely only help to continue her development.

Elsewhere Xavier Woods faced off against Scott Dawson, managed by Sylvester LeFort. It would seem, due to the commentary, that Garrett Dylan has been dropped from the group as there was no mention of him at all throughout the match. This seems an odd decision by WWE for me, as Dylan and Dawson seemed to work well as a team. The match was another decent, if not maybe a little short contest, with both men looking good throughout. Xavier Woods certainly has the ability to get over with an audience and his character is extremely likable, he could probably slip straight into a mid-card slot on the main WWE roster. The dynamic was played upon well with Dawson slowing Woods down by working on the face and head, including a painful looking rope hung face plant, before Woods managed to gain some separation and pick up the victory with Lost in the Woods.

Renee Young interviewed Corey Graves and Adrian Neville backstage about Kassius Ohno’s injuries suffered at the hands of the Wyatt Family last week. Graves and Neville did a good job of the interview, asking William Regal to join with them in the fight against the Wyatt’s. The only thing I can see holding Adrian Neville back in WWE is his Geordie accent, which some American viewers might find difficult to understand. Otherwise both Graves and Neville have shown tonnes of talent in and out of the ring and both will surely be making big splashes in WWE at some point in the future. 

Tremadog’s own Mason Ryan was in action not once but twice on the show. Firstly, facing off against Enzo Amore. Amore cut a nice charisimatic promo before the contest, putting himself and friend Colin Cassady over well, Amore is certainly entertaining on the microphone and I can see his “SAWFT” catchphrase getting over well with the “WWE Universe”. After Ryan quickly dispatched of Amore with a punch, Amore sent in Cassady claiming “he wasn’t ready”. Cassady faired a little better than Amore but it wasn’t long before Ryan picked up the win with a new finish, similar to Ted DiBiase’s Dream Street. Ryan looked powerful, but Enzo Amore came out looking like more of a star to me.

Liverpool’s Andy Baker had his NXT debut this week in an enhancement match against Conor O’Brian, who was accompanied by Ascension team mate, Rick Victor. The match didn’t go particularly long with O’Brian hitting a flap jack, followed up with a Leg Drop to the back of the head for the victory. O’Brian hasn’t really shown me much in the ring on NXT so far, and I’d like to see him get some opportunities in longer matches on a regular basis soon. As for Rick Victor, I’m still not quite sure if he quite fits with O’Brian and whether WWE would have been better off having them stay apart, I’ll wait and see though.

Finally...

What have I learned from this week's NXT?

1. Bo Dallas has some potential if handled correctly.

2. Paige is most likely to win the NXT Women's Championship, after two victories over main roster Diva's.

3. With Paige, Adrian Neville, Mason Ryan, William Regal and Andy Baker there was a lot of British talent hanging around NXT this week. 

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.