WWE Main Event 21st August 2013 Review

This week's Main Event was a bit hit and miss, with some matches working extremly whilst others were simply thrown together and didn't really do much for anyone. The Shield reminded everyone that they're still the most consistent team in WWE, whilst Funkacactyl Naomi got a chance to show what she can do in singles action against Diva's Champion AJ Lee.

Six Man Tag Team Match: 

Kofi Kingston & The Usos

 vs. 

The Shield

This weeks main event saw new McMahon assoiciates The Shield taking on Kofi Kingston and The Usos. There is a fair amount of history between the two teams, after Dean Ambrose defeated Kofi Kingston for the United States Championship at Extreme Rules, whilst The Usos challenged for Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns' Tag Team Championships at Money in the Bank. If I remember rightly, they've also had this exact same match a few months ago on Main Event, but Kingston and The Usos certainly weren't in the same positions they are in now, therefore this bout felt like it had a little more importance.

The bout was strong from the outset, with some good team work from the Usos and Kingston. The opening section was superb, flowing well and with some exciting spots, concluding with the three faces sending Rollins over the top rope into the arms of Ambrose and Reigns, before all three performed a spectacular dive over the top rope, even if Kingston over shot a little. It was a refreshing change to usual dynamic of The Shield's matches and really got the crowd involved in the contest. Of course, it didn't take long for The Shield to get back in control, with all three member doing a good job of working over an Uso, their psychology is always sound in these kind of matches, and coupled with good selling for Uso and Kingston and the other Uso working the crowd in the corner well, the match was coming together nicely.

The ending was so pacy and frenetic that there really was too much for me to cover here, Kofi Kingston's hot tag was great, Kofi's energy within a WWE ring over the last six years has been outstanding and this was much of the same, as he put on a good sequence with Ambrose, even making SOS look good! The ending saw Rollins throw an Uso into the ring, distracting the referee, allowing Rollins to push Kingston off the top rope and Ambrose to pick up the pinfall victory following a Headlock Driver. Whilst I'm not sure what the referee would have done if he hadn't been distracted, surely Rollins action wouldn't have resulted in disqualification, it was at least a creative finish and allowed The Shield to pick up a victory following their loss on Smackdown.

The Shield's association with the McMahon, Triple H and Randy Orton, could go one of two ways. Either The Shield will get pushed back into their previous role taking on some of WWE's top names before transitioning into singles competition seperatly, or they could end up being viewed simply as the McMahon's lackeys and struggling to recover, it all depends on if the WWE has any long term plans for the group. Kofi Kingston and The Usos on the other hand are once again in limbo, with WWE not having much for them at the moment. WWE has really dropped the ball with Kingston's return from injury, a feud with Ryback, the man who injured him a few months back, could have given both something to do over the last month.

Best of the Rest (In The World)

Elsewhere Diva's Champion AJ Lee, accompanied by Layla, took on Naomi, who was joined by Cameron in an average contest. Whilst the majority of the action was good and showed off the atleticism of Naomi well, the bout lack any coherent story or flow which was a shame. AJ Lee was also over reliant on the sleeper hold which she locked in twice and for a long time considering this bout was only a few minutes long. The ending saw Naomi look to have picked up the victory with Rear View (seriously? Her arse is big, but as finishing move?) but Layla caused the distraction, allowing Lee to lock in Black Widow to get the submission victory. I liked this ending mainly because of how beautifully Lee transitions into the submission hold, and the reason that a women finally has a recognisable finisher hold in WWE. This bout was simply there to allow Lee to pick up her victory after the loss in the tag team match on Raw.

So who will be AJ Lee's opponent at Night of Champions? It appeared that we might see one of The Funkadactyls get a shot after their victory on Raw, but this bout quickly dispelled any thoughts of that. Kaitlyn's time as Lee's opponent also seemed to come to a close at SummerSlam, and another match would certainly feel like overkill. That leaves the only other face woman on the roster, Natalya. Natalya holds victories over AJ in both singles and tag team action, as well as going over Brie Bella at SummerSlam, therefore she would seem like the perfect opponent for the Diva's Champion. Natalya's in ring skills, matched up against AJ Lee's could produce one of the most memorable women's matches in WWE, if the two are given enough time.

Bray Wyatt was also in action on Main Event, taking on Justin Gabriel. Similiar to Wyatt's match against R-Truth on Raw, this was simply a squash match to show off Wyatt's signature moves and make him look strong. Wyatt destroyed Gabriel in mere minutes, picking up the victory with Sister Abigail. I'd imagine that this will continue for sometime, with Wyatt running through WWE's undercard roster, expect matches against the likes of Zack Ryder and Yoshi Tatsu to come soon. They certainly need to build up Wyatt as singles performer, after pretty much having him destoryed by Kane in the Ring of Fire Match at SummerSlam.

The Great Khali also featured this week, taking on Jack Swagger of The Real Americans. The bout really was awful. With a minute or so of Swagger targeting Khali's knee (despite his finisher being an Ankle Lock), there was some cofuffle on the outside with Swagger throwing Hornswoggle in the wall, after Natalya had slapped Cesaro. With Khali waiting in the ring, hitting Swagger with a Brain Chop to pick up the victory. I've got absolutely no idea why Khali went over here, as his appearances are few and far between, whilst Swagger has been appearing on Raw regularly in tag team action. All this match really showed was how far Swagger's star has fallen since WrestleMania.

Finally...

What did I learn from this week's Main Event?

1. WWE has nothing for Kofi Kingston and The Usos at the moment.

2. AJ Lee should be facing Natalya at Night of Champions.

3. Both The Miz and Josh Matthews are seriously annoying on commentary.

WWE Main Event 10th July 2013 Review

This week’s Main Event featured another big match in the spotlight, that allowed a lengthy match to a superstar who would not usually get it, in Antonio Cesaro, and allowed a superstar struggling to find his feet as a face get an opportunity to continue to work on the persona in Dolph Ziggler. It was a shame however that we only got two matches this week, with a number of recaps from Monday’s Raw, hurting the shows feel.

Dolph Ziggler vs. Antonio Cesaro with Zeb Colter & Jack Swagger

As of late, Dolph Ziggler has struggled to find a definitive character that suits his new face role within WWE, he has not been helped by some strange booking decision such as involving Chris Jericho in Ziggler’s feud with World Heavyweight Champion Alberto Del Rio, the cloudy situation with Ziggler and heel girlfriend Diva’s Champion AJ Lee and a duo of matches with member of 3MB. However, in Cesaro he had an opponent who is a strong heel who is also receiving a big push at the moment. Before the contest, Zeb Colter of course got on the microphone to tell us about the state of America. Zeb seems to be back on form with these pre-match talks, using a metaphor based around ladders to talk about how America has changed, calling the fans lazy, which of course never goes down well.

The match allowed Ziggler to fight from underneath, displaying his superb selling technique, whilst also displaying the power of Cesaro well, these was seen best with Cesaro holding Ziggler in a painful looking submission which stretched Ziggler and looked legitimately painful. Cesaro controlled for most of the match, with minor come backs from Ziggler throughout on for Cesaro to quash any attempt with a well placed uppercut or similar manoeuvre. With Zeb Colter shouting advice for Cesaro at ringside, the relationship between them seems to finally have clicked into place, with Colter spurring Cesaro on to be even more vicious in his attack and Swagger there for when things don’t quite end up going Cesaro’s way.

This was seen in the ending of the match, with Ziggler on another comeback taking out Jack Swagger with a drop kick, before getting hit with a thunderous uppercut from Cesaro for a near fall. Cesaro then went for a suplex attempt only for Ziggler to escape over the top and hit a Zig Zag. With Ziggler looking to have the victory in the bag, Swagger pulled him out of the ring, resulting in a Disqualification for Cesaro and giving Ziggler the win. I was intrigued by this ending as I had fully expected Ziggler to pick up a clean pinfall here, however having the match end in disqualification could suggest that WWE has major plans for Cesaro going forward. After the match, Ziggler managed to out do all three opponents, escaping Swagger’s Patriot Lock, dumping Cesaro over the top rope with a back body drop, before leap frogging Zeb Colter, which helped keep Ziggler in line with his Show Off gimmick.

I think now Ziggler has found an in ring formula as a face, fighing from underneath, using his selling ability, and making flashy hard-fought comebacks, he could become someone the WWE Universe could really get behind. However, there is still work for Ziggler to do on his character to get the fans fully on his side, and we’ll see if Ziggler can manage this on Sunday at Money in the Bank and going forward. Cesaro on the other hand also seems on the up, and hopefully WWE officials took notice of this match, as this could easily have featured on a PPV on it’s own, possibly even main evented with a good enough story going into the bout.

 Best of the Rest (In The World)

The other match on the show was a bizarre six man tag team match. It was bizarre for a number of reason, firstly the competitors chosen to take part. Okay, the face team of Tons of Funk and The Great Khali kind of makes sense to pair together, they’re all big men, who should be booked as monster but instead choose to spend their time dancing. Now when I saw 3MB head towards the ring, I automatically decided that Heath Slater, Drew McIntyre and Jinder Mahal would be their opponents, which I think most people would have done. Instead they were joined by Team Rhodes Scholars who would be teaming with Heath Slater. Rhodes and Sandow did some more pre-match talking about how they are a complete unit, it’s becoming a bit too obvious what is about to happen at Money in the Bank, yes it’s always good to hear Sandow on the mic, but maybe this is too much of a good thing.

The match itself took a strange pattern with the face team controlling most of the match due to their size. Khali stayed on the apron with Tons of Funk doing the lions share of the work in the match. The heels finally got the upperhand when a confrontation broke out between 3MB’s Jinder Mahal  & Drew McIntyre and The Funkadactyls and Natalya who were all at ringside, with the distraction allowing the heels to take advantage. It wasn’t long however before Brodus Clay began to get the better of Sandow, leading Sandow to tag in Heath Slater and Team Rhodes Scholars to leave ringside. Cue Great Khali to enter the match, hitting Slater with a Brain Chop to pick up the victory for his team. All in all, this wasn’t a particularly bad match, and everyone did the best they could in the match (including Khali, who is definitely best used when being kept to a minimum), but it’s not exactly going to go down in the books as an all-time classic. For some reason it reminded me of a match you'd see on WCW Worldwide on Channel 5 back in the day.

Finally...

 

What have learned from this week's edition of Main Event?

1. Dolph Ziggler is beginning to find his feet with the face role, doing a much better job than The Miz who was on commentary.

2. Team Rhodes Scholars are going to split at Money in the Bank. If they don't I will eat my shoes.

3. Main Event doesn't need three different recaps of Raw.

WWE Main Event 26th June 2013 Review

The impressive thing about Main Event this week was that it featured two matches that on paper could have held the main event spot, with one cut short by interference, the other was a solid contest that showed off what the men involved can do well.

Chris Jericho vs. Cody Rhodes

For me this match felt like WWE taking a look at what Cody Rhodes can still do when tasked with a longer contest, such as this one. It’s been a while since Cody was in a position to have a match anywhere near this length on either TV or PPV, after kind of getting lost in the mix on Raw and Smackdown after the original break down of Team Rhodes Scholars in February. He hasn’t really been given anything to get his teeth into in terms of a feud, apart from a bit part in the Sheamus vs. Damien Sandow feud. It truly is telling that with Money in the Bank coming round, Cody isn’t being talked about as a potential winner, as he’s been the first name on most people’s lips for the last few years events.

The match was a back and forth type of contest, with each man being given just enough time in control of the match to showcase what they are capable of in the ring. The majority of the contest focussed around an injury to Jericho’s eye, caused after a stray thumb from Cody Rhodes. It was nice twist on the heel taking advantage of an injury type of match, which would usually see the heel work on the arm or leg. Rhodes used a lot of his signature moves throughout the contest including a beautiful moonsault onto a standing Jericho, the Disaster Kick (taking advantage of the Jericho’s eye) a huge Alabama Slam and Cross Rhodes all of which got him a two count. Rhodes managed to keep himself looking strong enough with by getting his foot on the ropes after a Codebreaker.

The end of the match saw Jericho block a kick from Rhodes, and after a long struggle eventually manage to turn it into the Walls of Jericho, resulting in the submission victory. I enjoyed this ending, as with Cody reaching and clawing to get to Jericho’s eye before he was turned over it felt like the storyline running throughout the match had led somewhere and brought a satisfactory conclusion to what was a good contest, for both men.

Chris Jericho has been known over the last few years for helping young talent get over with the WWE audience, mainly due to his selfless style of wrestling which allows his opponents to look as good as possible, as well as years of wrestling knowledge built up from around the world. Cody Rhodes certainly benefitted from being in the ring with Jericho for this amount of time and the psychology and story throughout the contest was spot on. It would seem Rhodes is being positioned for another repackage soon, after a long losing streak and having seen his finishing moves kicked out of by a number of opponent on the way. WWE would be foolish to let a talent like Rhodes go without ever giving him a proper chance to run with the ball.

Best of the Rest (in the World)

 

I mentioned at the start of this review that there was another match that could have potentially taken the Main Event spot, and if the rivalry hadn’t been completely missed from Raw this week it probably would have been. The match in question was Christian against the United States Champion Dean Ambrose of The Shield, it certainly had potential to fill the fifteen to twenty minute slot and with the rivalry behind it could arguably been a bigger draw than Jericho-Rhodes.

The match was essentially a brawl between the two spilling to the outside before Ambrose took control with a nice version of an STF. With Christian hitting a number of familiar moves, this match finally looked to be getting going, but was the unfortunately cut short as Tag Team Champions Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns interfered to push Christian off the top, to give Christian the disqualification win. It was a shame to have this match end so quickly, especially with a number of Ambrose’s matches having had similar endings recently, he hasn’t had much time to show what he can do on his own as of late. With The Shield beating down Christian, the number one contenders The Usos made the save, seeing off The Shield in style. Whilst both Christian and The Usos deserve to be in this position with The Shield, it’s difficult to see either in the same position as some of The Shield’s opponents over recent months.

Before Tons of Funk made their entrance to face The Prime Time Players, they were given a new entrance with The Funkadactyls and new Diva Jo-Jo (who’ll be appearing on reality show Total Divas in July) sang the entrance theme. It really was awful to watch and I felt pretty uncomfortable watching the three young ladies struggle in the ring, luckily this wasn’t Raw and hopefully it never happens again. Luckily the match was good tag team fare, with both teams looking good in the ring. It’s a shame we don’t see enough of Clay and Tensai as a duo, because as big men go they’re pretty good in the ring. The Prime Time Players needed the win to go into their match on Raw with CM Punk and Curtis Axel looking strong and duly delivered when Darren Young hit Brodus with his afro comb, allowing Titus O’Neil to get the pinfall, in a nice ending to develop the heel duo.

For the first time this week, I was disappointed with a Zeb Colter promo. I was behind the partnership with Antonio Cesaro to start with, if it emphasised how Colter had back tracked from his previous position, however that does not look to be the case. What was presented here was a over long rambling promo that took way too many tangents and seemed to forget that Colter was now aligned with a foreigner. Cesaro attempted to pull it back with a decent promo of his own, but it couldn’t quite paper over the cracks in the logic of their relationship. I'm sure the crowd chanting U-S-A was not the desired reaction! 

Announced For Friday's Smackdown:

Christian & The Usos vs. The Shield

WWE Main Event 12th June 2013 Review

This week’s edition of Main Event was slightly disappointing in comparison to the last two episodes which I’ve reviewed, mainly because the Main Event didn’t quite feel big enough, especially with it being a rematch from Raw two days ago.

The Miz vs. Cody Rhodes

The match between these two on Raw, wasn’t a contest I particularly wanted to see again. It was a short contest and saw The Miz get absolutely no offence in until he managed to find a way into the Figure Four Leg Lock for the victory. I was expecting this match to take much the same shape, only in a much longer more drawn out version of Monday’s Match.

The Miz can have some fairly good wrestling matches at times and it’s clear he’s come a long way since his days in ECW, but his matches are rarely particularly exciting to watch, especially since his face turn. This was much of the same with a lot of what was going on in the ring being fairly good, but nothing that would make you sit up out of your seat, and lacked any particular “Wow” moments throughout the contest. For some unknown reason Cody spent a lot of the match working over “The Awesome One’s” arm, which seemed a strange route to go down seeing The Miz has no real arm based holds and Cody doesn’t really use submission holds! However, the spot with Cody sending Miz’s arm into the ring post was well worked and The Miz did a good job of selling the injury.

Strangely, The Miz was allowed to kick out of Cody’s Beautiful Disaster Kick finishing move, it would seem WWE has no plans for Cody at the moment. The ending saw the Miz duck Rhodes and go for a Schoolboy roll up, only to change the pin into the Figure Four Leg Lock for the victory. The Miz might be no Ric Flair, but he has certainly worked hard at coming up with new was to get the Figure Four locked in and he is definitely more adept at that move than when it was first bestowed upon him.

With the triple threat contest with Wade Barrett and Curtis Axel at Payback for the Intercontinental Championship, it seems like a strange decision by WWE to attempt to build the Figure Four up at this time, when the move is going to be difficult to use, as it should get easily broken up. It would have been more interesting to see Cody injure Miz’ knee and the Miz have to win with the Skull Crushing Finale, which would have built the Miz as more than a one move guy. 

Best of the Rest

Damien Sandow was also in action against Sin Cara. Before the contest, Sandow cut a good promo, berating the WWE Universe, and announcing he plans to get his message across through more physical means, as well as putting over his match with Sheamus at Payback Kick-Off. So, we should be to expect a more aggressive side to Damien Sandow over the next couple of months, hopefully this will not be forgotten too soon, as we’ve seen with numerous competitors in past, Kofi Kingston springs to mind.

While the match couldn’t live up to Sin Cara’s match with Antonio Cesaro on Raw, I think that’s more to do with Cesaro being more aware of Sin Cara’s style of wrestling than anything else. The match was worked well by both men, as Sin Cara is beginning to look a lot more comfortable in a WWE ring and was a good opponent to help make Sandow look strong heading into his match with Sheamus. The ending saw Sin Cara miss a Senton Bomb, and Sandow hit his new Silencer finishing move. It was a quick ending and the match would have benefitted from another four or five minutes, but apart from that it did it’s job well.

The Usos continued their recent push with a match against Tons of Funk. There was an interesting face vs. face chemistry throughout, which at times left the crowd a little confused, especially the younger audience. The match at times was slightly drawn out with Tons of Funks spending a lot of the time dancing, which is fine before the match and maybe once during for a comedy spot but every four or five moves it got a bit tedious. Having said this there was a nice near fall with Brodus hitting a Splash on Jimmy only for Jey to make the save, and a ridiculous Samoan Drop from Jey on Tensai. Inevitably, The Usos picked up the winner after a Superfly Splash on Brodus Clay. Hopefully the Usos push continues until they finally gain the tag team titles they deserve, however I can’t see Tons of Funk moving up much higher in the tag team pecking order with the current gimmick.

Finally...

What have we learned from this weeks WWE Main Event?

1. Focussing on random body parts doesn't lead to a very entertaining match!

2. Damien Sandow works a lot better on the mic when not having to deal with rubbish segments like the Gordian Knot!

3. Wade Barrett is a very good commentator and does a good job of getting over the action in the ring.

WWE Main Event 10th April 2013 Review

I've enjoyed Main Event since it debuted in October last year, I originally enjoyed the concept of one big match with interviews and build up before hand, which made it feel worthwhile viewing and something different to the usual WWE programming. However within the last few months it has reverted to a usual WWE format, similiar to that used by Superstars, albeit still using Superstars higher-up the WWE totem pole. That doesn't mean there still can't be some great matches from time to time, just removes a little of the shows originally unique identity.

In this weeks Main Event, The Shield took on Tons of Funk & Kofi Kingston. As well as appearances from Jack Swagger and Big E Langston.

The Shield Vs. Tons of Funk & Kofi Kingston w/The Funkadactyls

Another solid outing from Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns. They are steadily becoming one of the best things about WWE programming constantly proving themselves in the ring against a huge variety of opponents. It's especially noticeable how far Roman Reigns has come since the formation of the group. I remember at the time wondering why WWE had put Reigns with Rollins and Ambrose after seeing the pair's previous work on the independent scene as Tyler Black and Jon Moxley respectively, but Reign's has since proved that he belongs amongst this elite group. 

It's also becoming interesting to see The Shield beginning to win their matches in a variety of way, we've seen the Triple Powerbomb, as well as The Flying Antelope, but on Main Event, Seth Rollins picked up the victory with a Leaping Knee Drop. Giving this group a variety of finishes will add to the unpredictable nature of the group that WWE has been running with.

However, we may have a case of too much of a good thing going on with The Shield, who we've already seen on Raw and NXT this week, and I believe we'll be seeing them on Smackdown as well. If WWE continue to have to group on all their programming, they may run out of steam quicker than they should do, which would be a shame after a great few months of build up.

Another point of interest is the fall of Kofi Kingston. After being a foot note in the Fandango and Chris Jericho confrontation on Raw, as well as being relegated to panelist on the Wrestlemania Pre-Show, and then another loss here to The Shield, it would appear Kofi is very out of favour with WWE at the moment, despite seemingly having a lot of support from the fans, both young and old, Kofi seems like someone who could do the rare thing of uniting the fan base, as he is both likeable and competent in the ring. However WWE obviously don't see that in Kingston as he has been stuck in the midcard for what seems like forever and now seems to have slipped even further. May we see Kofi future endeavoured very soon?

Best of The Rest

 

 

Zeb Colter continues to prove his worth to Jack Swagger, after a superb speech before Swagger's match with Yoshi Tatsu. Colter berated the Boston crowd on a number of topics including Boston playing a "Canadian Sport" which seemed to get a ton of heat (although it's difficult to tell on the pre-taped Main Event) Colter went on to bully Tatsu, by asking questions about his culture. This makes for uncomfortable watching, but I'm pretty sure that's the point, the character continues to push the fans buttons in wrestling world where real heat is difficult to come by, it's hard not to hate the Zeb Colter character and his views.

The match itself was quick and pacy, although it did not although either competitor to show much of what they could do in the ring as Swagger picked up an early victory with The Patriot Lock. It really is a shame how little WWE uses Yoshi Tatsu as he's had some of the best matches on WWE TV over the last few years, his match with Tyson Kidd (another under used talent) were completely different to anything on WWE at the time and they even managed to make an Object on a Pole Match worth watching.

There was also another outing for current NXT Champion Big E Langston who faced Zack Ryder. Before the match Langston was interviewed by Josh Matthews about his Wrestlemania match, his Raw debut and Dolph Ziggler cashing in Money in the Bank. Langston proved to be just as impressive on the mic as he is in the ring, switching between humourous and serious with expert pace. The match saw Langston dominate Ryder who barely got any offence in at all. It seems as if the Ryder Revolution truly is over (and not in the way Ryder had hoped)

Finally...

This Main Event was basically a collection of squash matches, there was no doubt who was going to win all three of these matches, something which wouldn't have happened in the earlier episodes. However there was some interesting stuff on the show, The Shield's match was solid, and their Triple Powerbomb of Tensai was impressive, Big E Langston showed us what he could do with a Microphone and Zeb Colter continue to do great work in making Jack Swagger look like a star. However for me, this Main Event was one of the under utilized star, the likes of Kofi Kingston, Yoshi Tatsu and Zack Ryder all extremely talented, but this new Post-Wrestlemania landscape and new stars like Bray Wyatt, Kassius Ohno and Adrian Neville on the horizon how long will it before these Superstars are sent packing by WWE?

WWE NXT 10th April 2013 Review

If you're unfamiliar with NXT, it's WWE's developmental territory in Florida, and features talent waiting to get the call up to the main roster a well as more established talent. The latest talent to emerge from the show on WWE television has include all three members of the Shield, current NXT Champion Big E Langston and Royal Rumble entrant Big E Langston.

This weeks saw the return of Brit William Regal to ring as he faced Kassius Ohno (formerly Chris Hero) after the two have been having quite the rivalry as of late.

William Regal Vs. Kassius Ohno

Firsty, it's great to see William Regal back in the ring, he's always been one of my favorites to watch in the ring as well as listening to on the mic. Personally I think he was one of the most misused talents in WWE, where he became something of a joke at points during his career, including as Kassius Ohno pointed out kissing Vince McMahon's backside live on Raw. Despite some silly storylines you can always count on Regal to perform in the ring.

 The match was a very enjoyable encounter between two talented competitors at either end of their career. It's interesting to see Regal playing the face in this match after spending most of his career as a dastardly villain, although Regal really hasn't changed his character that much, something which some WWE talent should take note of. Kassius works his role as student turning on teacher well throughout the match, as he has done since joining NXT.

Regal controlled most of the match, focussing mainly on the fingers of Ohno, bending them back, which made for uncomfortable viewing, especially when the camera showing Ohno putting his dislocated fingers back into the socket. The offence from Ohno focussed mainly on Regal's head, who looked off balance during parts of the match, including a nice two footed dive through the middle rope to the outside, as well as a big boot to Regal's head as it was propped against the ring post.

Regal won the match clean after Ohno missed with his KO and Regal hit the Knee Trembler. Hopefully this isn't the last we see between these two competitors as it feels like this rivalry has a lot more to give. Although if Ohno keeps putting in performances like this it can only be a matter of time before he gets called up to the main roster.

Best of the Rest

 

The opening contest saw Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns collectively known as The Shield take on Percy Watson, Scott Dawson and Axl Keegan. The match was short with the Shield dominating precedings throughout, eventually winning with their Flying Antelope double team on Axl Keegan. It's a shame to see Percy Watson who once looked destined for the main roster in this kind of match, as I had previously enjoyed his performances on the old incarnation of NXT.

After the match, The Shield cut another great promo on how they'd run Raw and Smackdown and will forever run NXT. They were interupted by Corey Graves on the titan tron. The Shield had previously cost Graves two shots at the NXT Championship and Graves challenged one member of The Shield to a match next week. Seth Rollins answered the challenge and gave Ambrose and Reigns the night of next week, saying once he was done with Graves he will Believe in The Shield. The match was later made a Lumberjack Match by NXT General Manager Dusty Rhodes. It was slightly confusing during this segment as to what roles The Shield and Corey Graves were attempting to play, as both have been,  presented as Heel over the past few months. Both the crowd and the wrestlers seemed to feel the same way.

There was also Divas action as Cameron & Naomi, The Funkadactyls took on Nikki and Brie, The Bella Twins. The match on the whole was well worked, with Naomi looking especially competent in the ring, it will be interesting to see if she gets another shot at the Divas Championship soon. However there were some moments of awkwardness where the competitors generally looked like they didn't know what was coming up next.

We also saw two interviews to continue two ongoing Diva's angles on NXT. Firstly, Tony Dawson interview Summer Rae, who gave the explanation to why she ran away from Paige the previous week as she had left her curling iron on. This worked well for Rae's character and she is really impressing me with her mic work as of late, even if The First Lady of NXT gimmick has been recycled from many other women's wrestlers. The Paige Vs. Summer Rae angle is heating up and it feels like it's only just getting started, take note main roster, if Divas are given stories to tell they can get themselves over with the crowd. Then we had Renee Young interviewing Emma about her dancing, in a silly segment. Unfortunately, neither interviewer or interviewee had any comic timing to pull off what was a pretty awful segment, ending with Emma falling over.

Finally...

For me NXT continues to be one of the most entertaining wrestling shows of the week, the angles feel fresh and exciting and it's always nice to take a breather from the main WWE stories that are occassionally a little heavy handed in their approach. Hopefully we'll get to see Regal and Ohno go at it again very soon.

Next Week: Seth Rollins Vs. Corey Graves.