NXT
Date:
January 22, 2014
Location:
Full Sail University, Winter Park, Florida
Commentators:
Tom Phillips, Byron Saxton, Tensai
Reviewed by Tommy Hall
The
main story coming out of last week is the live NXT special on
February 27 which really is the closest thing to a pay per view that
NXT has ever had. There are no matches announced for it yet but I
can't imagine Dallas keeps the title coming out of that show. The
question now is who challenges him on the special. Let's get to it.
Welcome
Home.
The
announcers intro the show. We've got a Championship Celebration for
Bo Dallas tonight.
Adrian
Neville vs. Wesley Blake
Blake
is a cowboy. The fans are WAY into Neville here. They fight over a
wristlock to start until Neville spins around to escape. A headlock
takes Blake to the mat and it's off to an armbar as they're still in
first gear. Neville puts him down again with a springboard missile
dropkick followed by a loud chop in the corner. Fans: ONE MORE TIME!
Blake blocks it with a kick to the ribs and is immediately the most
hated man in the arena. Neville comes back with kicks to the gut and
head before the Red Arrow hits for the pin at 4:14.
Rating:
C. Take a popular act and let
him fly around for a few minutes. It's worked as a way to open the
show for years and it still works now. Blake was as generic of a
heel as you could ask for but there's something nice about seeing a
70s gimmick like EVIL cowboy being dragged out of mothballs.
The
BFF's brag about how awesome their lives are with Charlotte talking
about riding in limos in jets. She doesn't care about Bayley either
because life is vicious and you have to drop the nobodies. Charlotte
is good as a heel, as if she could be anything else.
Xavier
Woods vs. Alexander Rusev
Woods
tries to speed things up to start but Rusev shrugs off a dropkick and
hits Woods in the head with a forearm. He rains down some heavy
right hands before a double stomp gets two. Xavier fights back with
a kick to the ribs and a second dropkick followed by a Shining Wizard
for two. Rusev hits a jumping kick to the chest of all things and
the Accolade gets the submission at 2:40. Woods still does nothing
for me.
Rusev
keeps the hold on but Sin Cara of all people makes the save.
CJ
Parker vs. Antonio Cesaro
Cesaro
throws him around to start as the fans just don't care about Parker.
CJ tries to speed things up but dives back first onto Cesaro's knees
and we hit the chinlock with a knee in the back. Parker fights back
with some knees to the chest in the corner and a high cross body for
two before loading up an airplane spin. Cesaro isn't phased for some
reason and does his own Swing before the Neutralizer gets the pin at
3:34.
Rating:
D. People just do not care
about Parker and it's time to pull the plug. He's generic in the
ring and feels like he's playing a character instead of being natural
at it whatsoever. Still though, Cesaro looks good and him shrugging
off the 1972 offense was a very nice touch. The match sucked though.
Post
match Sami Zayn comes out on crutches and says that 2013 was the best
year of his career. However he's been thinking about one match in
particular (fans: “MATCH OF THE YEAR!”) because it's the one
blemish on his record. Sami wants a rematch but Cesaro walks up the
ramp and says no to his face.
Miz
is in the back and calls Full Sail awesome. He's feeling saucy
tonight so maybe we should have a MizTV tonight. CJ Parker comes in
and wants to know why the people keep booing him. Miz says he can
see why and accuses Parker of disrespecting him. Parker says Miz is
leaving a toxic footprint by spewing all that toxic waste before
slapping Miz in the face. Hopefully this is the start of a turn for
Parker.
Natalya
vs. Summer Rae
Bayley
and the BFF's are seconds here and Renee Young is on commentary.
Feeling out process to start with Natalya taking over using some
technical stuff. She can't get a backslide though but a snapmare
allows her to step on a seated Rae's back, sending Summer face first
into the mat.
A
running seated dropkick gets two but Summer goes after the legs and
puts them in a modified Indian Deathlock, only to have Natalya
reverse it into a hold of her own. Summer is sent to the floor for a
second before Natalya brings her back in for some hard clotheslines
and forearms. Summer's spinwheel kick is caught and the Sharpshooter
makes her tap at 2:54.
Colin
Cassady and Enzo Amore (still in a wheelchair but complete with
leopard print seat cover) say Enzo is making a full recovery with
Enzo saying he'll fly. Aiden English comes in and brags about
beating Cassady over and over. Cassady points out the cheating so
English offers to sing. Enzo runs over Aiden's foot.
Time
for Bo's celebration for being a record setting 224 day long title
reign. He broke the record nearly three months ago but why not have
a celebration now? Bo thanks us for such a great ovation and says
we're here for an historic moment. He cherishes our cheers,
especially when we say LET'S GO BO. Tonight the NXT officials are
going to celebrate the longest reigning NXT Champion of all time, and
that's not Rollins or Langston.
Bo,
with the best over the top grin ever, accepts the honor and thanks
some friends in the audience: his third cousin Charles, his sister's
college roommate, and his fourth grade teacher. We get a banner
raised which looks like it's computer generated. Bo celebrates his
here's Adrian Neville to protest. He's here to speak for everyone
when he says shut up. The fans say Bo is a wanker as Adrian says
he's going to win the title.
Bo
laughs by saying Adrian got a title match before by beating someone
in 4:45. Dallas could easily beat Neville in less than 4:45. HHH
pops up on screen and says that Bo is going to get a chance to make
him a Bo-Liever. Right now, there's going to be a match with a 4:45
time limit. If Bo can't win, then Neville gets his rematch at the
live show on February 27.
Bo
Dallas vs. Adrian Neville
Dallas
is in street clothes. Neville avoids a charge and points at the
clock before hiptossing Bo down and out to the floor. Bo pulls him
outside as well and we're under four minutes. Adrian gets on the
apron but Dallas pulls the ring skirt to take Neville down. The
referee gets to nine and more time is burned off the clock. Dallas
pounds away with three minutes left and gets two off a suplex.
Some
elbows rock Neville in the corner and a slam gets two with two
minutes to go. Dallas wastes a lot of time by driving some shoulders
into Neville, only to have Adrian come back with kicks to the thigh
and a forearm. A dropkick puts Dallas down with forty five seconds
on the clock. The Red Arrow is loaded up but Bo rolls outside.
Neville stands on the top rope and looks at the clock. Bo comes back
in with fifteen seconds left but gets backdropped to the floor as
time expires at 4:45.
Rating:
D. This was an angle instead of
a match. I'm glad Bo didn't lose, but at the same time I'm not wild
on having Neville get the title shot by just surviving a quick
beating and then running away for a minute and a half. The match
will be good when they get the time to actually wrestle.
Bo
comes back in post match and misses a charge, setting up a Red Arrow
to end the show.
Overall
Rating: C-. Not one of their
better efforts tonight but at least they've set up some interesting
stuff for the future. The good thing about NXT is that they can
change things up next week and not have to deal with these guys again
for another week. Hopefully they don't spend the next month building
up to the live show like WWE does every few weeks.
Results
Adrian
Neville b. Wesley Blake – Red Arrow
Alexander
Rusev b. Xavier Woods – Accolade
Antonio
Cesaro b. CJ Parker – Neutralizer
Natalya
b. Summer Rae – Sharpshooter
Adrian
Neville vs. Bo Dallas went to a time limit draw
Remember to pick up my new book of the History of Summerslam for just $4 from Amazon at:
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Great stuff. People sways say this is the most historically significant match of all time, Keller says austin/tyson wm 14, I've seen people claim andre/Hogan was. Think those are the 3 in some order
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgT5ta5oWCc
ReplyDeleteAlways makes me laugh.
WWE needs more Cheatum, the one eyed evil midget.
ReplyDeleteI agreed with this criticism too. It seems like very few of the talents today actually try to get the crowd into the match and just move from spot to spot, but that is because many of them are trained to just perform for the camera and not the live crowd. It's why Randy Orton has no idea how to handle a hostile crowd despite being in the business for a very long time.
ReplyDeleteIt may not have been this shoot, but I remember Jake being asked one time what he thought about other wrestlers using the DDT as a transition move. He shrugged and said he didn't care because if they did it on the same card and he used it as a finisher then it made his look more powerful. Made sense to me.
I watched a Rick Martel shoot on YouTube a couple months ago and he said its Haku without question. Martel's French accent made "baddest mother fucker" sound humorous.
ReplyDeleteHistory of the WWF says attendance was 26,292 which included 4,000 at Felt Forum
ReplyDeleteOf ALL the crazy/fun stipulations on the wheel from cage, first blood, barbed wire, etc. it had to land on Coal Miner's Glove. As a kid I had no idea what that even was when I rented the tape. When I saw what it was I thought it was a dumb gimmick.
ReplyDeleteIt's a classic case of WCW being WCW too. The pay-per-view garnered WCW's highest buyrate up to that point IIRC, so of course they go out and pick the worst stipulation possible for the fans that bought the show.
I think in my order for top 5 I would go (I don't know diddly about wrestling pre-1985 so anything before that doesn't factor in):
ReplyDelete1. Hogan-Sheik here
2. Austin-Michaels @ WM 14
3. Hogan-Andre @ WM 3
4. Bret-Michaels @ Survivor Series '97
5. Bret-Austin @ WM 13
That's still one of the most goosebump-raising pops I've ever heard from a wrestling crowd. Amazing stuff.
ReplyDeleteNow we would be treated to Michael Cole screaming like a little school girl or something and telling us how damn important it was. Lawler would probably say it was "the greatest thing ever" because everything that happens at a given even is "the greatest ever" according to Lawler. He's reaching Schiavone levels of overhype at this point.
ReplyDeleteI go back and forth between your 1 and 2. Hogan/sheik definitely helped them win the territory war and establish themselves as a company. Austin/HBK set them into a super white hot period and propelled them to eventually take over as the #1 promotion. If i had to pick one I'd go hogan/sheik
ReplyDeleteVINTAGE BAYLESS!
ReplyDeleteI wonder if I default to Hogan because he was the guy when I was a really young kid. Both Austin and Hogan made tons of money for the company, both helped them become the #1 promotion in North America, and both brought in casual fans and made wrestling "cool." I don't think you can fault either one, but I think Hogan arguably ended up as the bigger star of the two when all was said and done and had a longer shelf life in wrestling and hence greater historical significance (both good and bad).
ReplyDeleteI miss the days when winning the title was a big deal. Especially hearing the Fink shout "...and NEWWWWWWW!"
ReplyDeleteThese days, even if someone does win the title, we've been trained to expect them not to hold it onto long or assume (usually rightly) that the mid-card champ will be jobbed out all the time.
I love to watch the crowd in these big historical moments. Nothing beats seeing people get really excited and go crazy for a wrestling match. It's a testament to something Jim Cornette said on his podcast with Steve Austin in that people don't have to believe wrestling is real, they just need to believe in a character. If people believe in a character then they are willing to suspend disbelief and act like what they are seeing is real.
ReplyDeleteSeeing the fans in the front row go nuts and jump up and down reminds me of when fans went wild after Jericho beat Triple H for the world title in 2000 and when Ron Simmons beat Vader in 1992.
The twist, the down vote is from Brooke Hogan.
ReplyDeleteI won't disagree at all with those comments. It's a tough struggle because he works for the company, so that portion of the show should be looked at as canon. Glad you enjoyed it though!
ReplyDeleteI loved the pause that Finkel put between the clauses of the statement too. "Ladies and gentlemen, the winner of this bout....and NEEWWWW." Nearly caused a riot at the 1991 Rumble when Slaughter won the title.
ReplyDeleteI watched a Jake/Honky match on youtube a while back, I think from a house show or something....and they're basically doing nothing and the crowd is just going insane for the simplest thing. It's just amazing to think how much it's all changed, when two guys who are over can get a reaction for any little thing they do, while there's guys today who are flying all over the place and nobody cares.
ReplyDeleteI think I imitated that Finkel new champion announcement at least 1,000 times. Spectacular.
ReplyDeleteDoes Outsiders-Sting/Luger/Savage come close to Top 5?
ReplyDeleteSame. I wish they'd put it in the 2k14 video game instead of Justin Roberts. I remember I did mock announcements for the guys that won the titles in my old N64 games.
ReplyDeleteUgly World Title? Do a search for the Inter-Continental belt at the time (and that's what they called it, with hyphen). Looks like a bad hubcap with felt.
ReplyDeleteI'd put that as the easy #6. I might consider it as #5 since the NWO eventually succeeded in its mission in destroying WCW. I just think Austin-Bret really gave Austin the needed momentum to go to another level that put him in the main event mix for good and since he's the guy that eventually won the war for the WWF, I give it the nod at #5. Still, that would be arguably WCW's most historic match.
ReplyDelete...I'm not sure whether to upvote or downvote you for that. Plus for recognizing Bayless, minus for the "vintage" bit. So confused...
ReplyDeleteI think it's hard to not let the fact you viewed wrestling differently as a kid influence your decision. I always look back at things that happened when I was younger as having more magnitude then they probably objectively did.
ReplyDeleteI guess it depends on if you think it's harder to establish and build a self sustaining company or if it's harder to fend off potential financial failure and excel. Who knows. I think Hogans overall a slightly bigger star then Austin so I'm with you. I'll go with sheik/Hogan
Wwe totally messed with numbers back then.
ReplyDeleteThe "Doing Time with New Jack" shoot has him explaining what he WOULD have done, had he known what a nothing part of the film he had. It's pretty god damn funny.
ReplyDeleteNow, now, they had to count all of the people "hanging from the rafters" into the attendance too!
ReplyDeleteWasn't the story behind it being a Coal Miner's Glove match that WCW neglected to gimmick the wheel?
ReplyDeleteReally? It was on the first Hulkamania tape and they pointed to this match on those releases. TV wise, though, I agree that they didn't really drive home that he won the title from the Sheik.
ReplyDeleteDid I leave in a ton of spelling errors again
ReplyDeleteIt depended on the show. You would hear a random reference to it here and there on Prime Time or a syndicated show, but never on a PPV.
ReplyDeleteFor me, it's Hogan-Shiek, easy. Austin-Michaels was big and kicked off the Attitude Era, but if not for this match, we wouldn't get any other era. Hogan helped kicked the whole industry into hyperdrive.
ReplyDeleteNice little half-kayfabe/half-shoot interview with the Sheik on wwe.com about the match.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.wwe.com/classics/iron-sheik-discusses-hulkamania-26177137
A sold out show at MSG, with Hogan headlining in the 80s and early 90s was always a fantastic time. Loud, boisterous and excited. I'm so glad I got the chance to do that when I was a kid.
ReplyDeleteIf this is true, that's awesome.
ReplyDeleteI have watched this match many times, and this is the first that I have noticed that.
ReplyDeleteThank you for that, I will never unsee it.
That's always what I've heard, that they left it up to an honest spin.
ReplyDeleteThat Hogan guy was fairly popular.
ReplyDeleteI heard that on his Ring Rust Radio podcast interview.
ReplyDeleteAustin seems to have two favorite questions: 1. What did you think of the time Dr. D roughed up John Stossell? and 2. Who was legit the toughest guy in wrestling?
ReplyDeletethat's one of the reasons why I prefer Monsoon over Jim Ross.
ReplyDeleteto me, it instantly made Punk's title win at the Survivor Series in 2011 more meaningful.
ReplyDelete30 years since Sheikie got s boner before givining a camel clutch.
ReplyDeleteone of the problems of course is that now that "the genie is out the bottle" it would be hard to "untrain" the audience.
ReplyDelete(and don't forget that many people really dislike those that put thought into their moves. for example, the Big Show is usually right for not doing too many "flashy" moves. still he gets critized for it)
to quote Cornette: "Who are the marks now?"
ReplyDeletegood vs. evil. hero vs. villain. Hornswoggle vs. Cheatum.
ReplyDeleteOne more this I forgot. The Shiek sold that legdrop like his head was being cut off by a guillotine.
ReplyDeleteThe confusion is building momentum!
ReplyDeleteI feel really old now.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to have been privvy to Hogans thoughts the second Sheik locked that cluych in.
ReplyDelete"Huh? What's that digging into my back? Didn't think we were doing the slap-Jack spot? Why does he have one in his trunks? Wait a minute?"
Another great review. Did Jake and Savage have a heel on heel bout that I'm unaware of?
ReplyDeleteI'd say it's less 'untraining' the audience and more 'untraining' the wrestlers. Today's wrestlers have to do flashy moves because they don't have a clue how to work a crowd like Jake could. I bet an in-his-prime Jake Roberts could wrestle the exact same way and would still be over huge if dropped into 2014 (assuming WWE would actually hire him of course).
ReplyDeleteIn terms of fan mark-out moments, nothing will ever top that kid sprinting from 3 rows back and jumping up and down at the barricade like a maniac when Simmons won the title. I think he was legit crying too.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget attacking Iron Sheik from behind with an axe-handle before the bell rings!
ReplyDelete