SteelEdge Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 Excellent review again, Linus. To add to the title finish questions, I've had a hunt and apart from the non-title Austin/Bret match at WM13, I can't find any other "referee stoppage"/TKO finishes. Arnold Skaaland threw in the towel in the Backlund/Sheik match, and am I right in saying Owen talked his mum (I think) into throwing the towel for a Bret match? One last thing. I have a feeling that may be the only time we ever see that finish, I can't see Vince ever letting it work on the main roster. Didn't the Quebecers beat Bret and Owen at Rumble '94 by ref stoppage after they went after Bret's leg? Only time I can remember a ref stoppage in a title match though Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Arch Stanton Posted February 12, 2015 Paid Members Share Posted February 12, 2015 Not a title match, but I remember Brock Lesnar destroying Jeff Hardy in his first official match, winning via referee stoppage. They also had Tensai beat some guys by stoppage when he came back to the company in 2012. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digforvictory Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 Again not a title match but Jericho beat Shawn Michaels by ref stoppage on one PPV in 2008 when he kept punching HBK in his wonky eye. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigfoote Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 OK, idiot me forgot to clarify. I meant in a title match and ostensibly, on PPV. That'll teach me not to proof read. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FUM Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 I've never enjoyed a female wrestling match as much as that. In fact, I'd go as far as to say I've maybe only ever enjoyed about two of them with the exception of the scantily clad matches when I was younger. Brilliant match. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Arch Stanton Posted February 12, 2015 Paid Members Share Posted February 12, 2015 Think the thing I popped hardest for on the whole show was Tyler Breeze appearing with a furry selfie stick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juan Manforce Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 (edited) Great show. Itami vs Breeze was a decent opener, Breeze should have been on the main roster months ago, the guy more than holds his own with the 'big' names in NXT and his character is excellent. Corbin vs Dempsey was mercifully short, nowhere near as bad as I expected, bar that one terrible spot from Dempsey. Speaking of terrible spots, I thought the tag title match was awful. Blown spots all over the place from Sin Cara and Kalisto, Blake and Murphy didn't do anything wrong as such but the psychology seemed non existent in this match. Neville vs Balor was great, a far cry from the MOTYC some people are calling it, but they worked hard and put on an exciting, action packed match that got the crowd going. The Women's title match was the best on the show for my money. A hectic pace with everyone getting their moments to shine, it saddens me how the women in NXT are frequently a highlight of the show but on the main roster Nikki Bella's arse is about the only thing keeping me interested. The main event wasn't too far behind it in quality, I think we all expected Zayn and Owens to put on a great show, it was refreshing to see them mix things up a bit and I thought the finish was great. Zayn doesn't lose anything in fighting as long as he could and looking like a martyr, while Owens looked like an absolute beast that anyone will struggle to beat. I know everyone already knows it, but it's still ridiculous to me how comparing NXT to WWE is like night and day right now. How can the 'developmental' promotion be so much better than the main product on such a consistent basis? Edited February 12, 2015 by Juan Manforce Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members JNLister Posted February 12, 2015 Paid Members Share Posted February 12, 2015 It's a slightly different thing, but Piper won the I-C title from Mountie with the sleeper and the ref doing the dropping the arm three times, so it wasn't a pinfall or an actual submission. I guess you'd call it a technical submission like they do in MMA. Annoyingly they ignored that precedent at IYH: Rock Bottom when Foley beat Rock with the mandible claw. Back in the Bruno Sammartino days, they'd occasionally have a new challenger win the first match when the ref stopped it because Bruno was bleeding too much, which didn't count as a title change. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shane O' Mac Version 2 Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 NXT knocks it out of the park again. I'll be interested to see if the wrestlers on Fastlane respond to this by trying to steal the show, like what they tried and failed to do with TLC. Itami has finally got his groove, and tons of credit to Tyler Breeze for helping him get there. Two things I loved from Breeze on the show- I pissed myself laughing at the furry selfie stick, and also at Breeze's complete non-reaction to the fan jumping in, asides from a slight smirk. Breeze is awesome, and gorgeous and all that. Corbin seemed kind of blown up after about 4 minutes. Weak match, and The End of Days was more like a Flatliner this time around. The tag match started off clunky, but it had some good spots to pick things up later on. The huge neckbreaker combo from the Cowboys was sweet, and Blake has a really good frog splash. I liked the story of the champs getting a definitive win with a finishing move rather than the fluky roll-up again. Pity the tag division in NXT is so thin, the Lucha Dragons are probably finished now, so there's the Vaudevillians and... Enzo/Big Cass? Tag wrestling is probably the single area where the main roster beats NXT. Neville vs. Balor was a great match, although I feel like something was held back a little. Don't get me wrong, it was amazing stuff, but I feel like 5 more minutes would have pushed the match into a whole new level of greatness. That corkscrew from the second rope from Neville was brilliant, but it has to be said that Itami took the corner dropkick better. Poor Neville, he keeps getting matched up against more over faces, first Zayn and now Balor. There was a good portion of the crowd going "No!" as he went for the Red Arrow. The Fatal 4 Way was another fantastic encounter, and I honestly didn't think it would be that great, just because I hadn't seen enough of Becky Lynch to know if she could hold her own on a big stage. Also, usually a wrestler gets left out in terms of really making a mark in these multi-person matches, but everyone had a chance to shine. Side note- I love Corey Graves. His line on Lynch: "I don't like her personally, there's nothing authentic about her as a human being"- the latter part of that said in such a matter of fact way. I like that Graves stays in character even on commentary, it makes total sense that a guy like him would hate Lynch and her constant posing. That main event- as long as they don't overuse it, I love what was done here by having them rip off the Lesnar-Cena blueprint and take it up a notch. Zayn doesn't really need the title, it's all about the chase for him, and Owens has been quickly legitimised. I was thinking, how many matches has Owens had on NXT? Debut against CJ Parker, then he wrestled Neville... maybe there was a tag match in there?... and the title match. Thought it may have been a record, but then I remembered the likes of Carlito and Santino winning the belt in their debuts. Damn them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glen Quagmire Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 I remember seeing a clip from a WWE top 10 video a few weeks ago where a title changed hands on a referee stoppage, it wasn't a WWF/E match or title but it looked like one of the Von Erich's losing to Jerry Lawler when Lawler's opponent was heavily crimison masked and the referee stopped it for "his safety". If I find it I'll link it up. Also in non-title scenarios, wasn't Chris Masters' original gimmick involving the Master lock regarded as being so dangerous that once locked in, the referee called for the bell without asking for a submission? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Pitcos Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 Enjoyed the show. I didn't think much of most of the undercard -- Tyler Breeze is superb and Itami's getting comfortable now, but I liked their match the other week more. Neville vs Balor was nothing special, but I'm not into either character. The highlight for me was Adrian Neville's outfit in his sitdown interview hyping it. I skipped past Val and Venis vs Lucha Dragons, and didn't pay much attention to Corbin vs Dempsey, although the hilariously ill-advised bump from Dempsey was fun. The women's match was great. I love Corey Graves talking about Becky Lynch. Her character/performance is infuriatingly false, which I suppose works pretty well for her being a heel. Tremendous effort from all involved, and the right woman probably won. Banks is on top form, Bayley doesn't really need it, and Lynch isn't there yet. To fantasy book, Charlotte should go to the main roster now and win the women's title at WrestleMania. Promote her as a star from the off, get Nature Boy in to perv on the Bellas in the build-up, and she beats Nikki one on one at the biggest show of the year. Main event was cracking. They're both just so good at what they do, and the finish was genius. Enhances both men and necessitates a rematch. I'm a bit annoyed that there's a different number one contender! It struck me watching NXT that WWE could really use a different division on it's main roster. Call it what you will (thanks, Matt) - cruiserweight, light heavyweight, X Division - but have guys like the NXT guys that make that step, alongside your Zigglers, your Ryders, and the rest. It would freshen up the main show, in the way that the luchadores used to do on Nitro. Terrible, terrible idea. The last thing any new talent needs in 2015 is a cruiserweight ghetto, or a "this is for the fans who hate Raw" division. Daniel Bryan looks smaller and shitter than pretty much everybody who has ever wrestled, and he main-evented the last WrestleMania and may do so again. If he can do it, then any of the top NXT guys can. There is no sense whatsoever in putting a needless barrier of segregation in front of them when they hit the big time. And you know why that is? Because NXT books its women as women, not as an advert for a reality show on E! Fuck Total Divas. Blaming Total Divas for WWE women's wrestling being crap is the new equivalent of "PG SUX" -- it's nonsense fantasy that forgets the thing was rubbish well before the scapegoat came along. Raw wasn't broadcasting the glory days of women's wrestling prior to Total Divas starting. Between Trish Stratus' heyday ending and the Performance Center crew, there were only ever about a handful of decent divas. For the most part, it's just been barely-trained models making shitehawks like AJ Lee and Natalya consider themselves the greatest wrestlers of all time in comparison, which led to a horrible combination of arrogance and low standards. Add in the traditional piss-break role that the women's match plays, and you're not going to get great results. As the NXT female roster evolves onto the main shows and phases out the old guard, things may change. The big danger I foresee is one that folks often bring up, which is making things seem new when NXT exists. If WWE has Charlotte and Sasha Banks wrestling each other for the divas title eight times in 2016, it's going to seem like old hat to those of us who saw them wrestling each other eight times over the last few months. How can the 'developmental' promotion be so much better than the main product on such a consistent basis? It's easy. Raw is trying to please millions of people with diverse interests in a prime time TV slot. NXT is just trying to please hardcore wrestling fans who hate Raw and subscribe to a niche internet service. It's easy enough to know what the NXT viewer wants, because we all post on forums and twitter. Most people who watch Raw just watch it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WyattSheepMask Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 After it was pointed out yesterday, the only time I can remember the title changing by ref stoppage is HBK/Bulldog when they switched the European title in 97 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 Bret hart vs bob backlund stopped via ref stoppage after Owen tricked Helen into throwing n Bret's towel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WyattSheepMask Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 But isn't the throwing of the towel viewed as a submission on the wrestlers behalf, as opposed to the referee making making the decision to stop the match Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pryko Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 That show was awesome. So glad Sasha Banks won the Womens Title. She is the Boss (and fit as f***) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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