NXT
Date:
February 19, 2014
Location:
Full Sail University, Winter Park, Florida
Commentators:
Tom Phillips, Byron Saxton, Tensai
Reviewed by Tommy Hall
It's
the go home show for Arrival, meaning I wouldn't expect much of
interest tonight. The main stories are Neville vs. Dallas for the
NXT Title in a ladder match and Cesaro vs. Zayn in a 2/3 falls match
because HHH wanted it to happen. Hopefully the boss isn't around to
impose his will on a promotion that doesn't need him at all. Let's
get to it.
Welcome
Home.
Paul
Heyman, Bret Hart and Diesel will be doing an NXT Kickoff show on the
Network next week.
Ascension
vs. Mike Lebosca/Casey Marion
Non-title.
Viktor runs over Mike to start and gets two off a hard clothesline.
Off to Konnor for a double powerbomb and the Fall of Man is good for
the pin on Marion at 1:21.
Tyler
Breeze is officially in the building.
Summer
Rae vs. Emma
Bayley
plays Lodi with Emma's signs as the bubbles fill the entrance.
Tensai: “BUBBLES AND HUGS! BUBBLES AND HUGS!” Summer can't rip
up the sign and Emma gets a quick two count off a rollup. Off to an
armbar on Summer but she has to kick out of a dancing sunset flip.
Emma gets knocked off the apron to the floor before it's off to Rae
for an armbar of her own. We get some choking with those long legs,
drawing an ultra rare boring chant. Emma gets caught in a
bodyscissors and we take a break.
Back
with Summer getting two off something we didn't see before she does
her stretching choke on the apron. Rae gets frustrated and hammers
away for two before we hit the chinlock. Emma fights up and hooks
the Dilemma for a few seconds followed by the cross body in the
corner. Sasha Banks gets in a quick slap to give Summer a two count
but it's the Emma Lock for the submission at 7:14 shown of 10:44.
Rating:
D. The match was really boring
as they were clearly just filling time for the most part. Instead of
going over this boring mess, let's look at why Emma is bombing on
Raw. It's really simple: they're not playing to her strengths at
all. Instead of being the goofy dancer that we can laugh with at
stuff like fighting to be able to skin the cat before the matches and
the bubbles, she's second banana to one of the most annoying
characters in the company. Santino has his fans, but he's one of
those guys that people either love or hate and it's alienating a big
chunk of the audience. Let Emma be herself and she'll get over.
On
top of that look at how she dresses on both shows. On Raw she wears
a white t-shirt and black pants. She looks good enough in the
outfit, but here she's in shorts and looks like she got caught in a
confetti explosion. Emma may not be the hottest Diva on the roster,
but wearing more clothes hardly ever gets a female wrestler over.
Let her look fun and people will have fun with her.
Tyler
Breeze is NOT cool with Adrian Neville being the face of NXT.
Before
the break we got an Elimination Chamber ad. When we come back, we
get a video on Elimination Chamber. You can see the yellow and black
turning red before your eyes.
We
get a sitdown interview with Zayn and Cesaro. Sami congratulates
Cesaro on getting into the Elimination Chamber but Cesaro cuts him
off and says he'll win. Renee stops them both and explains the rules
of the interview (seriously): if Sami touches Cesaro, he loses any
future chances at the NXT Title. If Cesaro touches Sami, he's out of
the Chamber.
Sami
is asked about being medically cleared but Cesaro cuts him off again,
saying it's his Achilles. Cesaro cuts him off again so Sami gets to
his feet and says he knows what's going on. This is already behind
personal and it's on to being professional. Sami takes his
profession personally and after February 27, Cesaro won't have
anything left to say.
Emma
is asked about the BFFs but would rather talk about her sign and
title shot next week. She'll
say something to Paige's face next week.
Adrian
Neville vs. Tyler Breeze
Feeling
out process to start until Breeze stomps him down in the corner and
scores with a running dropkick. Before he follows up though, time
for a quick picture. Neville
comes back with kicks to the ribs and a ram into the buckle as Tensai
talks about ladder matches, name dropping Jeff Hardy and the Dudley
Boys. A running uppercut in the corner puts Breeze down but Neville
walks around instead of covering. Breeze misses a dropkick and gets
kicked to the floor, setting up a big dive as we take a break.
Back
with another Elimination Chamber ad because that's why this show
exists. Adrian gets two off a top rope dropkick and
picks Breeze up for a nice sitout powerbomb for two. In one of the
few nice sequences of the night, Neville loads up a springboard dive
but stops on the top as Breeze tries to dropkick him out of the air
but Neville hasn't even jumped yet. Breeze pops up and scores with a
superkick to put both guys down. The
Beauty Shot misses and a kick in the corner sets up the Red Arrow for
the pin by Neville at 8:25 shown of 11:25.
Rating:
C. The match was fine and that
fake out spot by Neville was a nice touch. There's nothing wrong
with giving Neville a win to set up the ladder match, but
unfortunately it comes at the end of a very boring show. Breeze
needs to add something new to his act because the appeal is starting
to wear off.
Post
match Neville grabs the mic but Bo Dallas' music cuts him off. Bo
congratulates Neville on his climb up the ladder of success. “Look
what I did there. Ladder?” Adrian has gone as far as he can
though because the title reign isn't ending next week. Neville has
finally figured Bo out: he's scared of Adrian but doesn't hate him.
Adrian is going to win the title next week but right now he'll let Bo
have a free shot. Bo takes off his jacket and walks away to end the
show.
Overall
Rating: D. I always knew this
day would come but I've been dreading it the entire time. NXT is
officially a Raw clone which takes away all of its appeal. It used
to be this fun underground show that offered a retreat from WWE and
gave you some old school wrestling fun. Now it's sitdown interviews
and the Face of NXT and Deus Ex Helmsley coming out and taking five
minutes to make a match instead of it just being made before the
show. This show is becoming
less and less fun every week and I get more and more worried about
what we'll be seeing after Arrival. The show is definitely not a
lost cause, but I'm scared.
Results
Ascension
b. Mike Lebosca/Casey Marion – Fall of Man to Marion
Emma
b. Summer Rae – Emma Lock
Adrian
Neville b. Tyler Breeze – Red Arrow
Remember to check out my website at kbwrestlingreviews.com and head over to my Amazon author page with wrestling books for just $4 at:
http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6
If they replace Reigns, I think Solomon Crowe would probably be the best choice at the moment.
ReplyDeleteIf they turned up his character a bit he would remind me of Ledger's Joker character from batman. Without clown makeup hopefully. Sort of like a cross between Jake and Pillman. I think that would work really well
ReplyDeleteHave you guys listened to Kevin Kelly's podcast? I really enjoy him on The PTB podcast, but I started listening to his first solo effort with the ROH champ (Adam Pearce?) and it started this way, "I want to introduce the ROH Heavyweight Champ, and when you are the ROH champion, I believe it means you are the best wrestler in the world. Adam Pearce, do you believe you are the best wrestler in the world." Maybe I should have kept listening, but that made it seem like it was going to be a PWI interview and for some reason, that really annoyed me.
ReplyDeleteThat's what I'm afraid of. They have to let the fans have him at least for a little bit before he becomes a full blow raging corporate WWE creation.
ReplyDeleteI like to think of the BoD as a real shitty version of the tomorrow show.
ReplyDeleteAs long as Rona Barrett doesn't show up and ruin everything.
ReplyDeleteWhy does the Shield have to break up? I hate that every successful group must be broken up for singles success, which almost never, ever comes in today's WWE.
ReplyDeleteDid the Four Horseman teach us nothing? I'd keep them together and given Reigns the mega-push with Ambrose/Rollins there to back him up, acting in a Tully/Arn role.
I have ZERO faith in the WWE keep these guys hot after a break up and the Shield is crazy over. Why mess with that?
I'm probably alone in this, but I'd rather see *Ambrose* be the guy who leaves The Shield and gets replaced with someone else to turn them into a face trio. Mostly because a) I agree that I have no idea what Rollins does without The Shield at this point, b) though I'm marking out for Reigns more and more these days, I'm afraid that he's just not ready to split off as a singles act, and needs to stay in the trio for a few more months to conitnue building his character/polishing up before he gets the true monster singles run.
ReplyDeleteI like the podcast overall, but I tend to use the 30 second skip button to breeze through a lot of it. I haven't yet listened to one of the interviews on it.
ReplyDeleteYou're on it.
ReplyDeleteThis company is lousy with marketing jargon. Marketing people are usually insufferable when it comes to speaking easy-to-use language, but they are living in some insane world where everyone walks around thinking in terms of branding. Take this from their most recent press release:
"A one-hour, groundbreaking, interactive, countdown series that will put the
power squarely in viewers’ hands by giving the audience the chance to discuss
and rank WWE’s most spectacular Superstars, unexpected moments, best catch phrases and more through digital polling and social media interaction. The
series premieres on Tuesday, February 25 at 10 pm ET with a sneak peek on
Monday, February 24 at 10 am ET."
NO, NO, NO, NO. You don't need "ground-breaking" and "interactive" in the first part of that sentence. Just say "A one-hour countdown series..."
Yeah, the story isn't just "Punk tricked them into disagreeing". It's "Reigns is getting better much faster than the other two, and doesn't need to cheat anymore, and this makes Ambrose jealous"
ReplyDeleteWe discussed the style of that interview and his chats with AJ Styles and especially Hanson moved away from that. Outside of that 20 minutes with Cole, it really has not been PWI/kayfabe style at all outside of small plugs for ROH shows.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the feedback.
WWE needs to somehow resist their usual fetish for 15 minute in ring promos. Reigns should never talk for more than a minute and it should be backstage with an interviewer. Just be a cool, self-contained guy who gets it done in the ring. No unfunny jokes or stories, no skits.
ReplyDeleteor, depending on which group you are a part of, a hunge new chunk of classic stuff ("coming to the WWE Network in September: relive the whole history of the NWA!").
ReplyDeleteSYHM. Jake was very cool.
ReplyDeleteCool. I'll check the others out. It was just such a weird departure from what he does on the regular show.
ReplyDeleteGlad you will check it back out. Like anything, it is a learning process. If you like "personal journey" type stories, the Hanson interview was really cool.
ReplyDeleteWhenever ROH is involved, there is going to be a bit of that "hybrid kayfabe" style just because he works there.
All non ROH is wide open though, and I feel the show has gone in that non ROH direction over the last two eps.
Thanks for listening to both KK and PTB, appreciated.
Ha I remember an episode on Byte This where a caller asked if Mabel was coming back (this was before 1998) and Kevin Kelly rudely hanged up on the caller and buried Mabel for being an unsafe worker in the ring.
ReplyDeleteHoping to get him to do the majority of an episode just on his Byte This stuff at some point.
ReplyDelete