NXT - Post NXT Takeover discussion in progress

[GlennCullen]

It certainly didn't help that comedy character Sandow was bigger than power and paint Viktor. 

 

Is it a proper NXT tonight? Or another 'Best Of'?

[The Dart]

Proper episode.

 

The Ascension have always been shit. The crowd caring was the only thing that made a difference.

 

NXT is moving to Wednesdays night 1am our time in 2 weeks.

[Big Benny HG]

Proper episode.

 

The Ascension have always been shit. The crowd caring was the only thing that made a difference.

 

NXT is moving to Wednesdays night 1am our time in 2 weeks.

So we are still getting it after all? Super.

 

EDIT: realised you were talking about on the Network. D'oh.

Edited January 2, 2015 by Big Benny HG

[Linus]

Hey, it's NXT! Legally, I cannot watch this show!

Show starts with the NXT Tag Team champions Lucha Dragons coming to the ring. They are very over with this crowd. I think it's the kind of over that could translate to the main show but who knows? Backstage Renee (who is quite the announcer) was impressed that they matched their tights to their belts.

They're fighting Jason Jordan and Tye Dillinger, who are a team on TV but have been broken up on house shows for months. Yeah, I don't know. They have bawss music.

Dillinger and Kalisto start out and Dillinger gets the heat on the little fella. Some quick tags from the heels kept on top, and at one point the crowd start chanting, "Gotch" Gotch!" when Jordan (or Dillinger, I can't remember - ace reporter here!) herk jerked Kalisto off the mat into a suplex.

Kalisto made the hot tag to Sin Cara who hits a nice spingboard crossbody on Dillinger. They then mess up the next move a bit, which makes the crowd chant, "botch! botch!". Good lads.

Kalisto saves the day with a corkscrew plancha, and Sin Cara gets the win with a sunset bomb which looked really ouchy.

The Lucha Dragons are celebrating when the Vaudevillains run in and ATTACK them. Sadly, the screen does not turn black and white. The heels leave their foes lying on the mat and talk smack about winning the titles. This feud must continue!

Backstage, CJ Parker is nervous about his match with Baron Corbin. As he should be. Bull Dempsey tries to give him advice but Parker shrugs it off as he also must have shrugged off the advice of his acting coach.

Hey, it's Enzo and Cass! They are the fucking bomb. They do their usual shizz and introduce Carmella. Boooooooo! She does her thing - which is just stealing time from the boys at this point. Booooooo! I say again!

The crowd, sensing brilliance, want Blue Pants. Enzo & Cass, being brilliant, give them Blue Pants. Cass looks so happy about being in this angle. I mean that sincerely.

Enzo says that, in tribute to Sami Zayn's path to REvolution, Blue Pants is on her own Road To Redemption, and she comes out with a graphic that reads - I shit you not - Blue Pants. This show is awesome.

Backstage Renee claims to have spoken to Blue Pants before the match, and says that she told her that if Magneto would not take responsibility for his actions, then "God help me, I will". I would marry that woman tomorrow.

Carmella dominates Blue Pants but not quickly enough for Enzo, who gets up on the apron to urge her to win. Carmella is distracted by this and falls prey to a roll-up from Blue Pants for the 1-2-3. LET'S GO BLUE PANTS! She celebrates like she's won the world title. Gold.

Carmella is NOT happy with Enzo, and Cass makes peacekeeper. Just remember, bro's before ho's, Cass.

CJ Parker comes to the ring with a sign that reads, "You can break my sign but you can't break my spirit." The crowd chant, "break his spirit!".

Baron Corbin arrives and beats Parker in 28 seconds, although the crowd chant 34. He then grabs a mic - yikes! - and calls out Bull Dempsey. Dempsey is stood at ringside watching, wearing an NXT tracksuit top that I would love to own. They obviously do them in fat guy size.

Corbin and Bull start punching each other until lots of refs break them up, and Corbin gets back in the ring and STARES at Bull. The crowd chant, "let them fight!". Yes, let them fight! They do not let them fight.

Backstage, Devin Taylor talks to William Regal, who announces Sami Zayn will be on the show next week to talk about what happened at Takeover. He is interrupted by Curist Axel, who wants to know if Regal would grant his wish to reboot his career on NXT. Regal will, and next week Axel will face Hideo Itami. Aces.

After a commercial, Devin is now in the ring, and she calls out "her guest at this time", NXT Women's Champion Charlotte. The crowd chants, "blue pants!" at Charlotte, who reminds them she is genetically superior and they should listen when she is talking. Hmm.

Devin asks her what's left for her in NXT. What indeed? She puts over NXT, the women, and Sasha Banks, and this brings out Banks.

INTERLUDE: I watched some of Main Event this week - don't worry, it won't become a habit - because it had a Charlotte versus Sasha Banks match on it. They had, by WWE main roster standards, a hell of a match, but it was the least of their recent bouts. Sasha Banks really laid it in at points, and three quarters of the match was her dominating Charlotte, which brought out some, "Charlotte! Charlotte!" chants from the crwod. Smart. Charlotte won with the Natural Selection, and THIS is the kind of match they should have used on Raw to promote Takeover, the dicks.

Sasha and Becky come out and surround Charlotte, threatening to beat her ass. It's 2 on 1 but Natalya's music hits and she comes down to even up the odds. This makes the heels go to the back, but I'm sure we'll see this at some point.

Sami Zayn sent in a seflie video from his house, which seems to be a shack in the snow. He says he can only thinks about how his best friend turned on him.

Backstage Renee interviews Kevin Owens, shortly after the finale of Takeover but not shown until now. He is sitting on the chair backwards, like a bad ass. She asks him how he feels about stealing Sami Zayn's moment after being his lifelong friend. Owens points out he is 30 years old and has known Zayn for 12 years so doesn't know where Renee gets her maths from. He also says that if she's going to accuse him of stealing stuff he's going to leave. And he does. He is a bad ass.

Hey, it's our main event! It's a re-match from Takeover, as The Ascension take on Hideo Itami and Finn Balor!

They show a goofy clip from backstage at Takeover, where Itami is staring at Balor, who is in his make-up. He asks what's up and Balor says that he has risen. Itami looks baffled.

Itami and Balor get the heat early, working over Viktor with some quick tags. The match switches during the commercial break, and when we come back Konnor is all over Balor, who plays the most Irish Ricky Morton you've ever seen. This is not a good match. I can only think that this is because the Ascension suck.

A Pele Kick from out of nowhere takes Konnor down and Balor makes the hot tag to Itami, who runs wild on Konnor and Viktor. He teases the Go To Sleep on Viktor but Viktor fights out. Balor hits a ouble footstomp on Konnor on the outside, and Itami KICKS VIKTOR TO DEATH for the win. I assume this is the last we'll see of the Ascension who, as you read this, are major main roster stars.

This was a Good Show. The main dragged a little, and the Charlotte/Banks angle was a little clumsy in execution but that's small complaints. NXT remains the best wrestling show on your TV and you should do ANYTHING to keep watching it.

[Your Fight Site]

Is Linus on holiday? Was looking forward to his NXT review…

 

Sami starts the show off cutting a promo. He says the belt isn’t his… But every one’s! And that he’s the leader of his own band, Sami Zayn and Zayniacs. Adrian Neville comes out to congratulate Sami with no hint of heelism. Sami takes the compliment and admits he doesn’t know all of the rules in the book, but believes Neville does has a rematch opportunity. William Regal’s music hits and the GM strolls out. The re-match is made for next week.

 

The latest guy-WWE-has-no-plans-for that swans down to NXT is Curtis Axel. He’s put in a match with Hideo Itami that’s so-so. I’m really struggling to see what all the rave about Hideo was after seeing him in a few singles and tag matches now. I don’t know if it’s the opponents, the new environment, or a combination, but my inner Shania Twain says that he doesn’t impress me that much.

 

Byron Saxon wants to ask Tyson Kidd some questions, but he’s busy preparing for his match. Natalya starts waxing lyrical about her time on Total Divas. Of course, Kidd doesn’t like this so cuts in to take the limelight, which he does by revealing a few too many details of what he does when his cats are ill. He sends Natalya home to check on the cats, whilst he reveals he’s setting his sights on the NXT Championship again in a cat reference-riddled promo.

 

A video package airs detailing the lukewarm animosity between Bull Dempsey and Baron Corbin. They’re going to have their match next week. I would have liked this to have got more heated and maybe have the eventual match on the next NXT showcase, but alas.

 

Alexa Bliss comes out. I love that girl. The commentators say the last time Alexa was seen was in a match with “The Boss” Sasha Banks and that she broke Bliss’ nose so this week she’ll be facing… Sasha Banks again. Alexa gets some pin attempts in, but it’s pretty much all Sasha, who quickly dispatches Alexa with the Banks Statement. Bit disappointing, but I may be just ever so slightly biased with having a huge crush on Alexa.

 

“Prince Pretty” returns. It’s Tyler Breeze versus jobber-already-in-the-ring, Chad Gable. Nonetheless, Chad seems to be over with the crowd. He has a chant going. It’s not quite Blue Pants popularity, but it’s there. In his star-spangled singlet Gable starts the match with a few amateur wrestling throws and headlocks. His gimmick seems to be a poor man’s Kurt Angle. Breeze turns the momentum, but it switches back to Gable after an awesome… figure-four-arm-lock-over-the-rope, Tarantula-style I guess you would call it. But Gable walks into the Beauty Shot and Breeze takes the match. Short match, but enjoyable.

 

This will go down well with NXT fans: it’s an R-Evolution re-match between the Lucha Dragons and the Vaudevillians for the NXT Tag Team Championship! It’s also dawned on me that Aiden English looks like a muscular Derren Brown. I also spotted a “Wrestle! Wrestle!” placard in the crowd, presumably mocking the Lucha Dragons’ “Lucha! Lucha!” chant. Everything about NXT is great, even its fans.

 

The Dragons start the match off strong. The tide changes when Kalisto goes for his springboard arm drag on English, but Gotch holds English’s ankle from the outside so Kalisto crashes-and-burns from high up in the air. Unique defence. The Vaudevillians hold it until Kalisto makes a tag, mid-headscissor takeover. I love these four guys. They always do something new each time they face each other. After a hot tag, Sin Cara gets a near fall with the sunset bomb. Gotch is sent packing to the outside and Cara picks English up in a single-arm powerbomb-type position, Kalisto tags himself in and hits a crazy spinning forearm-type strike from the type move to force English down, and the Dragons pick up the win to retain the titles (boo!) and close the show.

[WyattSheepMask]

 

 

The latest guy-WWE-has-no-plans-for that swans down to NXT is Curtis Axel. He’s put in a match with Hideo Itami that’s so-so. I’m really struggling to see what all the rave about Hideo was after seeing him in a few singles and tag matches now. I don’t know if it’s the opponents, the new environment, or a combination, but my inner Shania Twain says that he doesn’t impress me that much.

 

Putting him in with the likes of The Ascension off the bat hasn't done him any favours, but I would put it down to the fact that he is wrestling a completely different styles to what he had been doing predominantly for over 10 years. He's still only 4 months from his NXT debut, its going to take a bit of time. Balor seems to have taken to it better, but he is a bit more well traveled and more used to different styles than Itami is.

We all saw what can happen when Mistico went straight to the main roster working a completely different style to what he was used to. I wouldn't be suprised if Itami is in NXT for the rest of the year just so that he can really take the time to get to grips with the style 

[MichaelMush]

Loved Tyson Kidd's interview, the guy is comedy gold with his obsession with his cats. His hat was hilarious. 

[Linus]

Give me a chance! Just watched it, great show as always. Review to follow!

 

Natalya: "First, that's gross - it's what mother birds do for their babies and you are not a mother bird"

 

Tyson Kidd: "I am not"

[MichaelMush]

Hilarious!

 

Tyson Kidd: "Finn Balor next week. I'm not looking past him... but I'm looking past him"

[Undefeated Steak]

A few notes - 

 

That legends video with Warrior's promo over the top was great, wasn't it.

 

Sasha Banks is awesome and could the best diva since Stratus.

 

Simon Gotch might be my favourite NXT wrestler. It's been said already but Kalisto is the next Mysterio. 

 

I know he wasn't on this show but Enzo Amore is the next John Cena. 

[MichaelMush]

Yeah seen that promo a few times on the Network and love it.

 

Big Cass looks like the love child of Edge and Test.

 

Bull Dempsey looks like the love child of Taz (because of the ring gear) and Father Fintan Stack

 

Edited January 9, 2015 by MichaelMush

[hallicks]

Dempsey is too cuddly to seem like a threat. I'm not sure if it's his face, ring gear, tubby physique or all three.

 

Corey Graves commentary is haphazard, and not in a good way.

 

That Chad Gable fellow seemed pretty over for his debut, was it just that he wrestling Breeze?

[WyattSheepMask]

He was rumoured to be leading some kind of stable of technical wrestlers called 'Shoot Nation' which was supposed to feature Angelo Dawkins whose going through a gimmick overhaul

[MichaelMush]

Yeah the fans were behind Gable a lot. I don't think it's because he was against Breeze because he's usually over with the fans, well for a heel anyway. The NXT fans are generally weird anyway, they'll chant anything if they can do the 'Clap clap clapclapclap' between it.

[Linus]

Although it was Gable's first TV appearance he's been on house shows for a while and the Full Sail fans are bound to have seen him before.