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NXT - Post NXT Takeover discussion in progress


NEWM

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Hey, I watched NXT!

 

The show starts in the worst possible way for me - the Ascension. Man, they've been awful. No skills, no promos, no charisma. They're a poor man's Kronik.

 

You know what, though? The first half of this, with Viktor and Jason Jordan, wasn't bad at all. Real improvement, with both men making the other look good. Then Konnor & Tye Dillinger tag in and it's a crappy squash again. Almost there.

 

Then Hideo, the brave idiot, came down and laid into the Ascension, with predictable results. They beat on him AND WON'T SOMEBODY MAKE THE SAVE???? No-one did. Hideo has no friends.

 

I feel for CJ Parker. He's got something but he's buried in his current gimmick, the eco-warrior. Which, obviously, is a heel gimmick. America! He's against Tyler Breeze here. Somebody on this thread NAILED it when they said that Tyler Breeze was perfect late-WCW fodder. I still like his boots.

 

Mojo Rawley comes out for this one and STARES. He STARES and STARES and STARES. STARE HYPED! Parker gets a bit on top, which is the way thins work on NXT because what's the point in burying everyone? Unfortunately, they take that into the main shows and nobody gets over.

 

Breeze wins and Mojo STARES some more.

 

The Americans then got a Titus Neill interview and a Baron Corbin bit. I don't think we missed much.

 

Hey, it's Buddy Murphy and Wesley Blake! I like them! They're up against the Vaudevillains, who are subtley turning heel. By subtley, I mean scowling and having darker music.

 

This was a Good Match. Only 4 minutes, but Good. Vaudevillains went over with the Gentlemens Congress (surely Gentlemens Relish?), an uppercut into a swinging neckbreaker combo. Blake & Murphy got enough to build on their bright showing last week. Top stuff.

 

Women! Yay! Its Sasha Banks, who really shouldn't be very good but is, versus Bayley, who is a delight. This is, again, a Good Match. NXT has the knack of getting good back and forth matches out of 4-5 minute contests. That's good booking.

 

Banks wins with the Bank(s) Statement, and then laid into Bayley after the tap. Becky Lynch, the woman with a voice deeper than the Marianas Trench, came out to make the save, AND THEN TURNED ON BAYLEY! The hooer. Banks loves it.

 

The Americans got an Enzo & Cass skit. We did not. This makes me sad.

 

He, it's the main event. It's Titus O'Neil fighting Adrian Neville for the NXT Championship. O'Neil's just come in, from a show where he's feuding with a bunny rabbit. LEAVE MY PRECIOUS NXT CHAMPIONSHIP ALONE, YOU JOBBER!

 

I don't get Neville. I understand he's very good at what he does, but it means nothing to me. Still, he and O'Neil have a decent match, better in the places where it's an old school brawl than the spotty spotty flying monkey stuff Neville does. Good finish, too, if a bit rushed. Neville wins with that Red Arrow thingy.

 

Sami Zayn congratulates Neville but tells him he wants the belt. Good lad.

 

A Good Show.

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It's a poor gimmick, whatever side it's used on. But it really sends a weird message having people boo him for warning of our planets demise, you know? I'd have dropped it by now. Isn't that what NXT is for? :)

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He only went full-on eco warrior at the point he began turning heel, IIRC.

 

Prior to that, he was just a general hippie character, that people started booing because they thought it (and/or he?) was shit.

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Hey, it's that NXT show I like!

Sami Zayn looks like Seth Rogen. This is a good thing if, like me, you like Seth Rogen. Sami Zayn is dressed like a hipster douchebag. This is a bad thing, if like me, you hate hipster douchebags. He said he will win a match. Titus O'Neill said Zayn wouldn't, or something. They're going to fight again.

Hey, it's a Tag Team Battle Royal! It's Enzo & Cass, Blake & Murphy, Dillinger & Jordan, the Vaudevillains, and The Ascension. I'd rather see all these teams than another Dust Brothers versus Usos match.

The announce team stress that the way to win the Battle Royal is to work as a team, which nobody then does. There were lots of near-eliminations, which is annoying more than dramatic. I sense this may be an NXT I do not like. Dillinger & Jordan and Blake & Murphy are both eliminated by The Ascension, but not in a way that helps anybody get over.

The Vaudevillains then leave the ring under the bottom rope, but no-one notices so it's lost on everyone. The Ascension then make Enzo look like a jobber dick and win the Battle Royal.

EXCEPT~! Hideo Itami comes out to distract the Ascension, which proves how stupid all three of them are - them for constantly getting distracted by him and him for constantly getting beaten up by them, two on one - and The Vaudevillains get back in the ring and dump the Ascension out for the win. They are now the #1 Contenders to the Lucha Dragons tag team titles.

After the match, Itami runs in and, after some brief offense, gets destroyed by the Ascension again. FIVE WEEKS IN A ROW. Idiot.

Hey. it's Emma. I still don't get it. She's fit but obviously mental, and not in an interesting way. She's fighting Carmella, who isn't a patch on Enzo & Cass, charisma-wise.

I love women's matches on NXT but given how this show is going - and how green Carmella is - this may change. Yeah, it's not great. Emma does her best, bless her, and then has to do the job to an admittedly great-looking submission. Crowd couldn't give a shit.

Hey, it's Justin Gabriel! I don't know much of his work - he seems to be wheeled in to be a kind of super-jobber. He's up against Bull Dempsey, who's lost a small amount of weight since the last time we saw him. This is a good thing because fat heels are Good, but wobbly fat heels are Not Good.

It's back and forth stuff, but Bull wins with the flying headbutt.

Bayley is sad that Becky Lynch turned on her. But, unlike Itami, she has friends and will bring Charlotte to fight Sasha Banks & Becky Lynch next week. That should be good. I mean it.

Hey, it's Baron Corbin, who still doesn't step over the top rope. He's facing the anonymous Tony Briggs, and the crowd counted from the bell to the pin, and got to 20. He has something but I'm not sure what it is.

Marcus Louis beat Sylvester Lefort, in a revenge match because Lefort's cowardice (read: Frenchness) caused him to lose his hair. Louis looks awesome as an angry bald man. I like him. Lefort looks like he smells. I do not like him.

Itami has finally realised he needs some help against the Ascension. He'll have it next week. Thank Christ.

Hey, it's Sami Zayn! He's going to fight Titus O'Neil, who gets to stink up main events on my show for ever, it seems. Go back to Main Event!

Last week, Adrian Neville and Titus had a match, which was good in the brawling parts and bad when they went to anything else. This is just mostly bad. Sami won with an Exploder into the corner, and the Helluva Kick to Titus's stupid face. I liked the finish.

Then WCW's Tyler Breeze came out and told Sami Zayn he has to beat him next. Or NXT. I'm fine with that.

This was the first episode of NXT that's been a chore to watch. Two bad matches, and three average ones. Stop that.

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Hey, it's that NXT show I like!

They did a package about Sami Zayn's Road To Redemption, which sounds like he's done some bad stuff rather than just lose a few matches. Tonight's he's fighting Tyler Breeze, of 2001 WCW style.

They build slowly, with lots of simple wrestling, and Breeze acts like a massive cock. Sami just smiles his Seth Rogen smile. It's really all Breeze early on, and the story is Zayn kicking out of pins. Breeze hits a neckbreaker that, because Zayn gets air for it, looks like it might actually break someone's neck. Nice, if scary.

The finish is Zayn hitting an exploder into the turnbuckles out of nowhere, followed up by the Helluva kick for the pin. This was a Good Match.

Backstage Renee Young (which is a great nickname for her) talks to Adrian Neville about Zayn's road to his title. Neville is happy for his pal but says it doesn't matter because he can't win it. There's being confident, and there's being a cock.

Hey, it's Dash Wilder! Party liaison? Kidding, he's a tough guy. He's fighting Tyson Kidd, who's lost the heat he had a few months ago. Barely a "Natty's Wife" to be heard. Sad.

Wilder gets enough to show he's an old school hand but Kidd controls this, and gets the win with the sharpshooter. Wilder reminded me of Buzz Sawyer. Which isn't a bad thing.

Haha, it's a Marcus Louis vignette, doing a crazy talking to himself thing. He does good crazy, the bald fool.

Backstage Renee Young talks to Sami Zayn. He says he wants Neville NXT week. Renee says she'll sort that. Good girl.

Hey, it's the women! Yay! It's Sasha Banks and Becky Lynch versus Bayley and Charlotte. Team Surname versus Team No Surname! Becky comes down singing along to her theme. At first I thought it was her singing it on the tape, but then realised it was a deep man's voice and so far too high-pitched for Becky. Rimshot!

Lynch and Bayley start out, and Bayley gets some fire early but it's the bad gals who soon take over. Charlotte is jonesing to get in and beat up Sasha, which is odd because her motivation is that Sasha got Becky to beat up Bayley. *Shrug*

Charlotte gets in and Sasha won't. So Charlotte beats up Becky a lot. There's a chase round the ring before Charlotte gets double-teamed and the heels take over. Bayley is in and it's back to facetown. Becky is taking some punishment here. Sasha is a bad friend.

Finish is when Becky tries to yank Charlotte off the apron, and fail, but Sasha succeed in knocking her to the floor. Bayley rolls Sasha through for the pin, but Sasha rolls it through herself for the tights-assisted 1-2-3. A Very Good Match, with Charlotte built as a monster. Charlotte versus Sasha will be good.

Backstage Renee Young goes to see William Regal in his office, who Alzeimers his way through a promo in deciding that, yes, the title match will happen NXT week.

Hey, it's the main event (I guess?)! The Ascension come out and bore the world with their demand to have Hideo Itami something something. Itami comes out and introduces his friend - Finn Balor! It's Prince Devitt, and the crowd knows it because they're really good at this kind of thing.

The announcers talk about how reknowned Balor is, really getting him over, and he and Itami basically destroy the Ascension. Balor should have his make-up, hopefully he will down the line, but this is a team I wouldn't mind jumping right now to the main shows. Hopefully they'll stick around on my NXT show for a bit.

A Good Show.

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sound like linus saw the same thing as me but on other write ups i've seen of this weeks nxt, Hideo came out, then some new music plays, "Prince Devitt" is written on the screen, then that fades away and changes to "Finn Balor"

Are there different versions of nxt knoxking about as i'm certain the version i saw only showed Balor's name appear on the screen.

 

Such a tiny thing but after how they handled the kenta/Hideo thing, i was surprised/let down they didn't do the same for Devitt

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They're talking about footage that was leaked of the live debut, where his name did transform from Devitt to Balor on the screen. The broadcast show didn't show this. It was on youtube but I just had a quick look and couldn't find it.

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Clever bit of editing, really, makes it look like the Full Sail crowd are going nuts for a "WWE creation" rather than being based off indy fame. 

 

The KENTA/Itami thing worked well to transition names for those familar with KENTAs past work, but it was a little jarring for someone who was unfamilar, like myself. A bit like when they pulled the "Bryan Danielson/Daniel Bryan" shoot promo in NXT. Far easier to say, "Hey, this is *insert WWE name here*, he's travelled the world and has a wealth of experience".

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