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NXT - December 4, 2014

NXT
Date: December 4, 2014
Location: Full Sail University, Winter Park, Florida
Commentators: Jason Albert, Alex Riley, Rich Brennan

Reviewed by Tommy Hall

It's the last show before R-Evolution and I'd assume tonight is just going to be about firming up matches for next week. I'm really hoping we don't get a rushed heel turn from Neville as the match would be far more entertaining with both guys staying on the paths that got them here. Other than that we might have some fallout from Bayley calling out Lynch and Banks last week. Let's get to it.


Opening sequence.

Charlotte vs. Mia Yim

Non-title. Charlotte starts with a WOO before sending Mia into the corner for a slap to the back. Natural Selection is good for the pin at 51 seconds.

Post match Sasha Banks, in a Charlotte shirt, comes out and says just give her the title now. Charlotte tells her to bring it and starts a ratchet chant. Sasha says she has more flair than Charlotte and her daddy. She's going to beat Charlotte so badly that she'll be a bigger loser than her old man. This brings out Bayley in a big leg brace and on crutches to tell Sasha to shut her ratchet face. Banks kicks her in the knee and runs off when Charlotte comes up the ramp. Sasha tries to get a cheap shot but Charlotte drags her to the ring and says get a ref out here. Becky Lynch sneaks in from behind though and Banks lays out the champ.

Time for another silent movie from the Vaudevillains! This time the police commissioner calls them to say the Lucha Dragons are dropping water balloons off the roof of city hall. After a training montage (complete with Gotch fighting a video of a tiger), the Vaudevillains attach an anvil to the Dragons, sending them down.....into a mushroom cloud? Gotch is glad that they took the belts away because they would have just weighed the Dragons down even more. Keep in mind though that no Lucha Dragons were harmed in the filming of this motion picture, but that won't be the case next week. These things are brilliant.

Vaudevillians vs. Buddy Murphy/Wesley Blake

English jumps over Blake to start but dives into a powerslam for two. A snapmare sends Wesley into the ropes though in a nice idea. It's off to Murphy as the fans sound like they're sighing for some reason. Off to Gotch for some Hindu Squats while holding Buddy in an Indian Deathlock. English comes back in for some elbows to the leg before it's back to Gotch to stay on the leg. Murphy finally rolls away and makes the tag as everything breaks down. Blake is sent to the floor for a big crash and the Whirling Dervish ends Murphy at 4:15.

Rating: D+. Not much to see here but the Vaudevillains are getting better in the ring. Those vignettes are as good as anything I've seen in a long time. Murphy and Blake are decent in the ring but they really need to stop losing every time if they're supposed to have a future.

Regal is in the back with Tyler Breeze, who hasn't seen Marcus Louis since he wandered off last week. Tyson Kidd comes in and says he wants a rematch with Balor, but Regal makes it a tag with Itami/Balor vs. Kidd/Breeze. This took less than a minute and covered two stories. Why does it take Raw twenty minutes to cover one?

Bull Dempsey vs. Elias Samson

The fans count until the flying headbutt ends Samson at 22 seconds.

Baron Corbin vs. ???

End of Days, 11 seconds. Of course Bull was watching from the stage.

Kevin Owens video, talking about how he's fought and teamed with Seth Rollins, Daniel Bryan, Adrian Neville, and Sami Zayn (called Owens' best friend), but WWE called all of them first. Now it's his turn.

Tyler Breeze/Tyson Kidd vs. Hideo Itami/Finn Balor

Kidd holds the ropes open for Natalya and offers to do the same for Breeze in a funny bit. Itami and Kidd get things going but it's quickly off to Breeze, whose arm is quickly yanked. Balor comes in with a slingshot stomp for no count but Kidd makes a blind tag and decks Finn to take over as we go to a break. Back with Breeze coming in to stomp Finn in the corner before it's quickly back to Kidd for even faster stomping.

A neckbreaker gets two for Tyson and we hit a bow and arrow. Balor fights up but misses a dropkick to put him right back down. Breeze grabs a neckbreaker of his own for two before Kidd comes back in for a hard kick to the leg. A slingshot legdrop to the back of the head gets two for Kidd but he eats a Pele (now called a soccer kick), allowing Finn to tag Hideo. Itami fires off a series of kicks to destroy Breeze before hitting a delayed running dropkick in the corner to a sitting Tyler. Everything breaks down and Balor hits Shadows Over Hell, setting up Itami's kick to the back of the head for the pin at 11:30.

Rating: C. Pretty standard tag match here but Itami continues to look totally one dimensional. I know he isn't the biggest guy in the world but he needs to do something more than just kick a lot. Daniel Bryan has proven that a smaller guy can do more than just strike while still having it be a major part of his offense so it certainly can be done.

Post match Finn tells Ascension to bring everything they have because he's going to show them something they've never seen before.

Here's Adrian Neville for the final speech before the title match. A lot of people have said he should be conflicted by this match, but his goal is the same as always: to win at all cost. Some people say that he should be ashamed of what he did to retain the title at Fatal Four Way and every other title match. If he had it his way, it would have gone completely differently, but that's the fundamental difference between himself and Sami: Zayn doesn't have the killer instinct and that's why he'll never be NXT Champion.

This brings out Sami who says he's been listening to everything Neville has been saying and it's ticking him off. Who is Neville to act like Sami's babysitter and tell him how he should live? Whatever Sami decides to do after the match is up to him and his actions, not Neville's. Adrian backs off a bit and says he respects Sami more than anyone else and next week it's going to be an honor to face Sami in the match of their careers.

Adrian offers a handshake but Sami says no. This is where he goes wrong every single time but he won't do it here. This isn't about respect and he slaps Adrian in the face. Neville doesn't get to end him because it's going to be Sami ending Adrian's story and taking that title. This wasn't a heel turn for either guy but rather Sami just being more intense this time around.

Overall Rating: B-. The wrestling wasn't great here but I'm wanting to see Takeover a lot more than I did coming in. That main event has me drooling because you know those two are going to tear the house down with the near falls. The only match that doesn't do much for me is Ascension vs. Itami/Balor as there doesn't seem to be a ton of drama there, but whatever gets Ascension onto the main roster is a good thing at this point. This show did exactly what it was supposed to do and sets up a good looking card for next week.

Results
Charlotte b. Mia Yim – Natural Selection
Vaudevillians b. Wesley Blake/Buddy Murphy – Whirling Dervish to Murphy
Bull Dempsey b. Elias Samson – Flying headbutt
Baron Corbin b. ??? – End of Days
Finn Balor/Hideo Itami b. Tyler Breeze/Tyson Kidd – Kick to Breeze's head


Remember to check out my website at kbwrestlingreviews.com and head over to my Amazon author page with wrestling books for under $4 at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

Comments

  1. Cant wait for Takeover. That should be a really awesome show.

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  2. They all have been. It's even more proof of what WWE is capable of if they would stop over thinking it.

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  3. Yeah, I mean isn't there only a few people at most who are involved with writing and putting together the product?

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  4. I'm looking forward to Zayn v Neville more than any main roster match in, like, forever.

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  5. Its a story that has been well told. Simpler is better in wrestling.

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  6. It's a breezy hour. All they have to do is treat each hour like a new show and give said hour its own booker.

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  7. - It feels like they're using Bayley to get Charlotte some face heat
    - The Vaudevillains are just beyond awesome, and I love how their first theme was used for their 'films'

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  8. See: Jimmy Uso - Miz. Miz was a creep to Naomi, Jimmy didn't stand for that shit.

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  9. It's part of the reason the Rollins/Ambrose feud lost steam. Loads of interference, non finishes, a bloody HOLOGRAM. And Ambrose and Rollins just forget about each other, for no adequately explored reason. I think McMahon is turning into Russo.

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  10. Exactly three people have become bigger after leaving the machine: Jesse Ventura, The Rock, and Stacy Keibler. And that last one is debatable.

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  11. And while Fuji did some shit stuff, my all-time favorite has nothing to do with feces.


    I don't even remember where I heard it, much less any real specifics (All I remember is it was a southern territory), but the story of Fuji paying a mechanic to TAKE THE ENTIRE ENGINE OUT of one of the boys' vehicles, and the poor guys' thought process the next morning*, is an all time favorite. Also, Fuji did pay to have the engine reinstalled, IIRC.


    * "Why won't this car start? (steps out, walks to the front, pops the hood, looks in, and straight down at bare concrete) Well, that would explain that."

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  12. Yeah I mean. I just thought that Colt is very silly, so a silly question would be apropos

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  13. Damian Sandow might have gotten it over.

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  14. No way Hogan would agree to have his personal endorsement flop like that.

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  15. Eh, with the exception of the Fast and Furious movies The Rock tends to be the main star of all his films. Batista is one of the leads of Guardians, but he hasn't had a "Batista movie" in the same sense as Hercules, GI Joe 2, and other stuff are "Rock movies."

    Now Batista's Bond role and Guardians role are nothing to sneeze at -- both are awesome -- but he's certainly not Rock's level yet. The only thing that would hold Batista back from becoming a big star is his age.

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  16. Sure, but you're telling me Triple H--Head of Talent Relations--wasn't notified Punk called? But regardless, why didn't WWE contact him? They couldn't be bothered to make any inquiries about his health? How about calling him to say they want *their* doctors to look at him, see if his medical complaints were legit. Why no call after his suspension ran out after WrestleMania? From Punk's point of view he went home with an injury, sat out a suspension, heard nothing for 3 months, then right as he was getting married (which they knew about because they gave AJ the time off for the wedding and honeymoon) they fired him. I know you guys hate Punk and all, but tell me a scenario where this isn't at least half WWE's fault, and wouldn't require him crawling back on his hands and knees and beg to be taken back? Fine, Punk did nothing to go back... but what did WWE do to try and get him back?

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  17. They're quite good. Can't tell you how many times I've listened to the Maurice Lamarche/Rob Paulsen and Billy West/John DiMaggio ones, as well as the SDCC one with Punk.

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  18. I have never enjoyed a Duggan match but I always enjoyed the character, if that's possible. hoooooooooo tough guy

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  19. I will say that Duggan made at least one good point. He didn't have to do much to get the crowd into the match.

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  20. I don't disagree with any of this, but none of this has anything to do with my initial point.

    I don't understand why he seems so peeved that he was FIRED OMG AND ON MY WEDDING DAY from a job he quit and had no intentions of returning to from the day he left.

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  21. Duggan had one thing backwards: The feud with Andre dropped the Giant to the midcard, not Duggan to the main event.

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  22. Cheers mate these are awesome! Listening to the Adam West one right now :D

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  23. I don't know that we know he had no intention of returning. I'm not sure he even knew. What we do know is he intended to talk to the company after his honeymoon. His contract ran into July so there would have at least had to have been talk of possible renewal terms--at the very least Punk telling them he was leaving WWE, retiring, whichever. Who knows: he might have accompanied AJ to TV, had a good talk with Vince, let himself get talked into going out to pop the crowd, gotten that adrenaline rush...

    But no. They fired him. On his wedding day.

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  24. So can't wait fit Re-Takeover our whatever it's called. I'll try to do some live blogging from it if there is a thread.

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  25. btw: Batista as a Bond villain = awesome.

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  26. actually, if you didn't watch Smackdown from spring to fall of 2009, you missed a lot of good stuff.

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  27. that was exactly the first time after he left that he spoke about the WWE in public. you make it sound like he was doing interviews, podcast etc. all of the time.

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  28. of course not. but this seems already leaps and bounds ahead of pretty much all other wrestlers trying to get into film (besides The Rock).

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  29. Ahhh...cool. It's been so many years since I've seen the show, and only saw it once but I remember the magazine quite well.

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  30. God, and when Hogan broke Graham's cane over his knee and commanded him to walk, like Hogan was a bald roided-up Jesus....I'm amazed it took another year and a half for me to start to hate Hogan.


    Fun fact...that issue was the very first magazine of any kind I bought with my own money (used my allowance). Also remember the thing with Junkfood Dog talking about winning the Wrestling Classic, which was odd in retrospect because it was a year old by that point.

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  31. Just watched the ending promo, and man Sami Zayn just has it. He could absolutely be a star if the writers don't screw it up.

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  32. Does the crowd always do the Peter Griffin "oooh ahhh" when someone has a knee injury? This is the second episode of NXT I have ever seen and it's pretty good.

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  33. Is that what that is? I'm not a Family Guy fan.

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  34. Am I the only one who gets the vibe that Bull Dempsey and Baron Corbin are going to do it?

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  35. Think Corbin's opponent was Steve Cutler, going by the taping reports.

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  36. In a just world he would be in Lawler's spot on RAW, he was SO damn good on the mic. . .

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  37. Frank Burns would have been a great chickenshit heel.

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  38. My opinion

    There setting up Bayley/Charlotte as the 1989/90 version of Sting vs Flair

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  39. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-wjJzqA_fc

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  40. And now I remember why I don't watch that show.

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  41. You are half correct. It was more "I couldn't have done it without your help"

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  42. Honky's song ruled too

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  43. Lol that was NOT seinfeld. It was a 17 year old jewish/italian nerd

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  44. I loved that Tunney then marched on stage, waved, then walked away (like an old Simpsons gag)

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  45. RoryMotherfuckin'JohnsonDecember 17, 2014 at 10:37 PM

    yo you copied venkman faggot we comin' for you

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