NXT
Date: May 8, 2014
Location: Full Sail
University, Winter Park, Florida
Commentators: Jason
Albert, Renee Young, Rich Brennan
Reviewed by Tommy Hall
We're getting closer to
Takeover and the big story is the lack of a challenger for NXT
Champion Adrian Neville. After dispatching Brodus Clay last week,
Adrian needs someone new to fight and odds are we'll find out who
that is tonight. The Women's Title tournament will also continue
tonight and since this is NXT, that's not necessarily a bad thing.
Let's get to it.
Opening sequence.
NXT Womens Title
Tournament First Round: Emma vs. Charlotte
They circle each other
to start until Charlotte takes him up against the ropes. A hard
clothesline puts Charlotte down for one but she snaps Emma's throat
over the top rope to take over. We hit a figure four neck lock on
Emma before she rams Emma's face into the mat ala Madison Rayne.
Emma fights up and nails another clothesline to put both girls down.
She loads up the pink Cobra because that's what WWE has done to her
but Sasha Banks offers a distraction, allowing Charlotte to roll Emma
up and bridge onto the legs (called Charlotte's Web) for the pin at
3:50.
Rating: D+.
This didn't have time to go anywhere and the Cobra made it even
worse. It's one of the most annoying things about WWE and NXT: the
people get over in NXT but then they make it to the main roster and
the writers or whoever is responsible for these ideas have to change
everything that worked and then blame the wrestlers when it doesn't
work.
The
#1 contender to Neville's title will be determined in a battle royal
tonight.
Legionnaires
vs.
El Local/Kalisto
The
Legionnaires are Sylvester LeFort and Marcus Louis who I believe is
making his debut here. The masked men take over to start but LeFort
comes back with a swinging neckbreaker on Local as things settle
down. A headdbut from Louis has Local in even more trouble as the
heels start some fast tagging.
Louis
cranks on the neck for a bit until he runs into Local's boot in the
corner. The hot tag brings in the rather short Kalisto for some
springboard cross bodies and a jump into an Edge-O-Matic for two on
Louis. Everything
breaks down and Kalisto kicks LeFort in the head, followed by a
Tajiri handspring into another kick to the head for the pin at 4:17.
Rating: D+.
This was too short for the tag team formula to work all that well but
Kalisto was fun to watch with all of his dives. If nothing else this
is the way to build up some opponents for the Ascension as they've
run through all of the teams in the promotion with relative ease so
far.
Adam
Rose fires up one of his Rosebuds for his match.
Camacho
vs. Captain Comic
Captain
Comic is one of Rose's friends dressed like a superhero. Fans:
“MATCH OF THE YEAR!” Camacho destroys him with ease as we're
certainly in squash territory. We hit a quick chinlock as the
dominance continues. A running Samoan drop sets up a powerslam for
the pin at 2:36.
Alicia
Fox and Alexa Bliss don't have much to say before their match but
they both want the Women's Title.
NXT
Womens Title Tournament First Round: Alicia Fox vs. Alexa Bliss
This
is Bliss' debut and she's in what Renee describes as a fairy costume.
Fox is quickly taken down for a standing moonsault with the knees
intentionally landing on Fox's chest. Alicia comes back with a
tilt-a-whirl backbreaker for two and we're already in the chinlock.
That great looking northern
lights suplex gets two for Fox and it's off to the headlock. The
beating continues for a few more seconds until Bliss grabs a small
package out of nowhere for the pin at 3:10.
Rating: D+.
This was just a squash with a surprise finish which is only so
interesting. We didn't get much out of Bliss here but she didn't
have the chance to show anything. Her winning is the right move but
I need to see more from her to know what she can do in the ring. Fox
is a decent enough test for her though.
Adrian
Neville says he wants people to step up and challenge him.
Battle
Royal
Aiden
English, Baron Corbin, Bo Dallas, Brodus Clay, Camacho, Colin
Cassady, Curt Hawkins, Danny Burch, El Local, Jason Jordan, Sami
Zayn, Tyson Kidd, Tyler Breeze, Kalisto, Marcus Louis, Mason Ryan,
Mojo
Rawley,
Oliver Grey, Sylvester Lefort, Xavier Woods, Yoshi Tatsu
Winner gets Adrian
Neville at Takeover. It's a big brawl to start until everyone gangs
up on Brodus for the elimination. No one is eliminated for a good
while until Ryan throws out I think English as we take an early
break. Back with Kalisto avoiding elimination as we hear about Woods
saving himself ala Kofi Kingston. The fans are behind Tatsu here as
we're still waiting on more eliminations. LeFort and Kalisto are
gone as I type that and Sami Zayn slips back in from the apron.
Things slow down as
they're known to do in battle royals until Woods and Camacho chop it
out in the middle of the ring. Woods gets a running start and
eliminates himself and Camacho with a Cactus Clothesline. We have
about nine left in the match. Jason throws out Mojo in an upset as
Kidd gets back in over the top. Corbin throws Jordan to the apron
and then kicks him out with a huge boot. Dallas knocks Corbin out
with a clothesline and does the same to Yoshi a few seconds later.
We're down to Sami,
Breeze, Kidd, Ryan, Dallas and Cassady but Bo puts out Cassady and
Ryan with ease. Kidd comes out of nowhere to dropkick Dallas out
(fans: “THANK YOU TYSON!”) and we're down to three. Breeze hits
a Beauty Shot on Kidd and the fans are way behind the model. Sami
throws Breeze to the apron but misses a kick and winds up on the
apron as well. Kidd misses a charge of his own and winds up on the
apron, leaving only Breeze in the ring. Both good guys pull him out
but fall out at the same time for a triple elimination at 13:30.
Rating: C.
The match was your usual battle royal but the ending was a nice
surprise. Any of those three would be a good challenger for Adrian
and that's one of the cool things about NXT. I would assume it's a
triple threat which you would think goes to Breeze for heel vs. face
but things aren't always that basic in NXT.
Post
match HHH comes out because JBL barely exists in NXT anymore and
makes a triple threat for the shot next week. All three argue to end
the show.
Overall Rating: C+.
Here's the difference between WWE and NXT. When something bad
happens in WWE, they just keep going with the idea and expect the
fans to go with it. When something bad happens in NXT, they have a
show like this which fixes all of the problems. It's no shock why I
enjoy one over the other. This wasn't about the wrestling but it set
up a lot of stuff down the line, which is very important as well.
Results
Charlotte b. Emma –
Charlotte's Web
El Local/Kalisto b.
Legionnaires – Spinning kick to the head to LeFort
Camacho b. Captain
Comic – Running powerslam
Alexa Bliss b. Alicia
Fox – Small package
Sami Zayn, Tyler Breeze
and Tyson Kidd won a battle royal last eliminating each other
Remember to check out my website at kbwrestlingreviews.com and head over to my Amazon author page with wrestling books for under $4 at:
Emma learned a valuable lesson tonight: Cobras don't get to wear belts.
ReplyDelete"When something bad happens in WWE, they just keep going with the idea and expect the fans to go with it."
ReplyDeleteBatista winning the Rumble?
"Post match HHH comes out because JBL barely exists in NXT anymore"
ReplyDeleteThose Bermuda to Orlando flights must be killer.
That would be one of them but at least they finally fixed it a little bit.
ReplyDeleteWell I'd say more than a little bit but I get your point.
ReplyDeleteAlright, so I read the TNA Impact thread and felt like I never wanted to watch the show again. Then I read the NXT thread and wonder why I haven't been watching this one! I need to start catching up on NXT, it sounds great week-to-week.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I still hate Adam Rose. Just for the record.