The SmarK Rant for WWE NXT – 09.04.13
Taped from Orlando, FL
Your hosts are Tom Phillips & Alex Riley
Bayley & Charlotte v. Alicia Fox & Aksana
Yes, it’s FOXANA. Aksana offers a hug to superfan Bayley to start, and of course gives her a sucker punch. Backbreaker gets two. Aksana drops elbows for two. Fox in with a dropkick for two as A-Ry regales us with tales of his early days in the WWE locker room and his advice for new wrestlers. Frankly, taking career advice from Alex Riley doesn’t seem like a good idea unless you want to be a C-show commentator. Aksana with a chinlock and a Nash choke in the corner, but Bayley hugs her into a belly to belly to escape. Hot tag Charlotte, who does a Flair Flip and goes up, only to get slammed off just like dad. Bayley tags herself back in and they argue over it, which lets Alicia whip Bayley into the corner, but Bayley gets an ugly rollup for the pin at 4:32. Well that was ugly, but Charlotte’s literally had something like 3 matches in her career so I can give it a pass. Glad to see them putting the newcomers over. *1/2
Meanwhile, Alexander Rusev plots revenge on Mason Ryan. The plan: First they win, then they go to SIZZLER.
Corey Graves v. Rick Victor
Graves is right pissed and attacks to start, stomping Victor down and putting him down with an elbow for two. Graves takes him down with a facelock, but Victor throws forearms to retaliate and they slug it out. Graves with a suplex for two. Crossbody, but the ribs are taped and thus this proves to be a stupid move. Victor goes to work on the ribs and drops Graves on the top rope, as we take a break. Really? Are they afraid of people changing channels on Hulu? Anyway, back with Victor stomping a mudhole in the corner, and he adds a gutbuster for two. Victor drops knees on the ribs and goes to a chinlock as the crowd’s not really feeling this one. Victor pounds the ribs again for two and goes to another chinlock. Note to Alex Riley: You don’t have to relate EVERYTHING to your limited experiences as Miz’s bag-carrier and curtain jerking babyface. Graves makes the comeback and puts Victor down with a knee and a short clothesline. The partners get involved for distraction and Victor tries a gutbuster, but Graves rolls him up into a small package at 10:55. And Graves steals his half of the tag belts back as well, so logically you put the Ascension over when the do the title match. Decent but dull match. **
Meanwhile, Summer Rae continues her mean girl abuse of Sasha Banks.
Meanwhile, Paige is not particularly afraid of Sasha or Summer. Next week: The title match.
Alexander Rusev v. Mason Ryan
Now, Rusev already broke the board with Ryan’s name on it in the pre-match skit, and now he does it again. Am I to believe this is some sort of MAGIC BOARD? I hope someone got fired for that blunder. Mason Ryan is, how to say this, 17 sizes smaller here. Not that I’m insinuating anything, but let’s just say that if he was walking around backstage at RAW, HHH would probably make fun of him for losing so much weight. Plus he’s got long greasy hair now. It’s a weird change for him. Ryan tries and fails to overpower Rusev, and walks into a leg lariat that gets two. Rusev drops headbutts and puts him down for two. Blind charge misses and Ryan slugs him down, then puts him down with a big boot and cleans house on the other heels. This allows Rusev to drop Ryan and finish with a camel clutch at 4:00. That’s kind of a career low for Mason Ryan. *
Sami Zayn v. Jack Swagger
Zayn puts Swagger down with a dropkick and chops him down for two. Swagger bails and Zayn teases a dive, but flips back into the ring instead. Big reaction from the crowd to that one, but Swagger gets a cheapshot and takes over with knees in the corner. And we take a break. Back with Swagger hitting a suplex and choking away on the ropes, but Zayn suckers him into a charge and puts him on the floor. Zayn follows with a BEAUTY of a dive, and back in for a high cross that gets two. Sunset flip gets two. Swagger powers him down with a throw for two, and then tries an Oklahoma Stampede, which Zayn turns into a powerbomb for two. Swagger grabs the ankle and then hits a Doctorbomb for two. The straps come down and it’s another anklelock, but Sami makes the ropes after freaking out the crowd. Swagger stomps him down while Zayn sells the ankle, but Zayn blocks the Swaggerbomb and comes back with the running boot in the corner for two. They slug it out and Zayn goes up, but Swagger crotches him and tries the superplex, but Zayn powerbombs him off the top and gets two. Dammit! He had me sucked in with that one, too. This brings out Bo Dallas to “cheerlead”, and Swagger grabs the ankle again for the submission at 15:15. How is Zayn not on the main roster yesterday? What more can he possibly need to “develop”? ***3/4
The Pulse
Another round of logical, weekly booking topped off by Sami Zayn having a crazy good match AND building towards the storyline of his challenge for the NXT title. What a great show this is!
I'm assuming Zayn is in the same position Ambrose was, where he doesn't really need to develop anything, they're just waiting for the right storyline for him.
ReplyDeleteHey did you guys know that Alex Riley is a WWE Superstar?? If not, listen to him for a couple minutes and he'll be sure to let you know EVERY one of his "career" highlights. Why should Jerry Lawler bore us with tales from his 40+ years in wrestling?? I'd much rather hear Riley.
ReplyDeleteThe annoying thing is that Riley has a really good voice for commentary, kind of like Mauro Renallo, but his observations are SO banal and his attempts to tie every experience into his life story get on your nerves within one match. You used to be a wrestler, WE FUCKING GET IT ALREADY.
ReplyDeleteEvery time Alexander Rusev breaks a board, Hacksaw Jim Duggan sheds a tear.
ReplyDeleteIs there a rational reason why Riley's in this role? What was so terrible about him as a wrestler?
ReplyDeleteI agree on his voice. I heard his father was an ESPN announcer, so it probably comes naturally.. he just needs to lay off the "I can relate to that guy" style that he uses. Yes.. he has a perspective, but so do half the other commentators and he's not as special as he thinks he is.
ReplyDeleteThey're probably waiting for Zay to "develop" ten more pounds of muscle mass and a tan. Although he does look much better in both departments than he did as Generico.
ReplyDeleteI still insist, that they just put Zayn in the Sin Cara costume, and you have your new Mysterio X 100
ReplyDeleteI don't know what you're talking about; Generico is in Mexico helping the orphans. This Zayn guy does look pretty good, though.
ReplyDeleteI love Mauro's enthusiasm for MMA, but he doesn't so much talk as he does puke words, and he never varies his pitch or excitement in relation to what's happening in the fight. So everything ends up sounding just as exciting as everything else. Nitpicking, of course. It's an incredibly tough job.
ReplyDeleteI do miss Todd Harris from the WEC, though. I wish the UFC would have gone with him instead of Anik for the UFC b-team. Anik and Florian sound too much alike.
He's currently in a Cleveland radio show in the morning with Chuck Booms
ReplyDeleteYou see them snowflakes Drunk Murphy, or does Generico get all the love here?
ReplyDeleteEh...I think the ship has sailed on the Sin Cara gimmick. It reeks of jobber no matter who's under the hood at this point. Plus I never understood the mood lighting. I feel like every other comment of mine mentions kayfabe, but in all seriousness, why would a guy who's a serious professional wrestler agree to a match with different lighting? That's not what they train for. And hell, now Sin Cara loses matches with his mood lighting, so what's the point, even? At least with someone like Kane, he was a monster and a heel, and only used it in his first few matches. Even then, something from the announcers would have been nice, like "Paul Bearer is offering a monetary bonus for wrestlers willing to get in the ring with Kane under his conditions" or something.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of announcers, and this show...as annoying as Riley sometimes is, I think the reason why he works is just because it's someone, ANYone, different. Think of the old WWF days...there were 4 or 5 different commentary teams. Heck, think of the NFL, where there's a whole bunch of commentary teams. So you're not hearing the same guys every single time you watch a game. Now, every week you watch Raw to see your favorite wrestlers and 2 out of the 3 guys have been doing the job since I was in high school. Lawler in particular is beyond stale at this point.
NWA/WCW has been resurrected as NXT. Seriously, this show builds just like a mid-80's NWA TV show. It's great. I love it.
ReplyDeletePlus side, when he's on NXT, Zayn gets 15 minute show closing matches. that's really fun. I'm still hoping this leads to him losing to the real Americans and then a strange, generic masked man comes in, looking to fight injustice.
ReplyDeleteLet's all just talk about how much more awesome it is when Regal's out there.
ReplyDeleteI don't, without the mask he's the most charismatic guy I think I've seen since John Cena. I hope we haven't seen the end of El Generico, he could play a Blue Blazer type character, where he keeps denying it's him, but everyone knows. That would be pretty great actually.
ReplyDeleteMaybe Zayne can fued with Bryan over the cruiserweight title
ReplyDeleteNah, with Kane it was MAGIC.
ReplyDeleteBring it back down the road for when he really needs it, like Foley turning into Cactus.
ReplyDeleteOnly after Zeb calls him, oh I don't know, a 'yellow dog'.
ReplyDeleteYes I know he's El Generico, but if we're going JCP it's gotta be done right.
ReplyDeleteJerry would have to tell the crowd who he's talking about. 'See, Lance Russell was an announcer back in the days when they had to be good. Now we have Michael Cole'.
ReplyDeleteSami Zayn might be the best pure babyface since Ricky Steamboat and Ricky Morton. At the very least since El Generico
ReplyDeleteKinda like a reverse Hurricane! ;)
ReplyDeleteHis terribleness.
ReplyDeletePoor Tommy Hall.
ReplyDeleteNXT - September 4, 2013
Posted by Thomashall 0 rants
The SmarK Rant for WWE NXT: 09.04.13
Posted by Scott Keith 26 rants (added mine)
No Emma, no watch. JK Sami is doing great stuff. Still more Emma, though.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing holding back el generico from wwe superstardom is that name. That's the best they can do?
ReplyDeleteAlso when TNA goes out of business someone should tell who ever signs new talent they could have had cm punk, Daniel Bryan, Cesaro, el generico, dean ambrose, Seth Rollins, Chris hero and PAC on the cheap. That could be the top of their roster.
And if they say "well we dont have the scouting resources of wwe" I'd tell them I'm just a dude with a lap top and I was familiar with the awesomeness of every dude on that list before they signed developmental deals. Nice job Dixie!
Maybe TNA offered all or some of them deals, but they decided to try to latch onto WWE instead?
ReplyDeleteThe way things are lucking, they'll be able to pick up Chris Hero for dirt cheap real soon.
Yeah, you've got the "poor" part right.
ReplyDeleteOMG BOOK IT.
ReplyDeleteSFHFGFSG BOOK THIS TOO.
ReplyDeleteI agree.. I never really watched it until now, but I enjoy this show more than most WWE programming lately. I love that you can really hear the crowd again.. it's those little things that made me fall in love with those old Saturday Night shows on TBS.
ReplyDeleteOh I fuckin love the guy, I'm just sayin, from their perspective. Although from the looks of things it won't be long til he's on the road.
ReplyDeleteOoooooh shit how about Zayn coming in as backup for Bryan, playing them up as old friends and Zayn isn't on the roster, so he doesn't have to do HHH's bidding? Might be something there.
ReplyDeleteViva la Emmalution!
ReplyDeleteI'm kind of looking forward to seeing if he can literally tie everything he sees in NXT to his nine months as Miz's intern. To give him credit, I did appreciate how he was marking out at the end of the main event.
ReplyDelete