It’s another Wednesday night, another episode of NXT. My wife is trying to get our daughter to sleep and it is going a little rough. Hopefully we can get it done within the hour. In the meantime, NXT shall we?
NXT OPENING
We get the roar of the crowd and all that intro song then we get..
The Vaudevillains vs. Hype Bros
Simon Gotch looks thinner than usual and looks like a new haircut. He looks EXTRA angry too. Corey Graves said they became a side-show and were for the people, now they are just manly.
The Hype Bros. come out to some cheers, since they are the good guys we can assume the Villains are villains. Tom points out that there was a lot of buzz about the Hype Bros. Corey says they remind him of Johnny Manziel because they don’t focus on the ring, they focus on the club.
Zack Ryder looks more comfortable with these team than in previous episodes. He is helping Mojo with his chants and seems to be enjoying the crowd. He usually looked like he felt he was better than the people in there. English and Gotch are beating on Ryder and double teaming him up the wazoo.
Corey Graves calls Mojo “Slimer” like he was in Ghostbusters II. The match built the Mojo hot tag, then the hot tag happened and within a few moves Rawley tags Ryder back in. That decision proved futile as The Villains win with a Whirling Dervish.
And I’m Like… This match was here so we can understand that the Villains are the same type of characters but we should boo them now because Graves suddenly supports these ‘hipsters’ and they are going up against guys that have only been babyfaces. The Villains befuddle me.. Are they being built up again? I feel like they have done everything they could do in NXT but if they get called up they will probably only beat the Ascension…
Tom Phillips has a sit down with Carmella, the NXT Woman’s Number One Contender.
Phil said that Carmella has always been talented even though we see her Cass and Enzo. Carmella says she is a 2nd generation wrestler and that surprises the hell out of me. You’d think that would be talked about more.
Phillips brings up Baymella. We see their friendship and how it has evolved. Carmella says outside of her boyfriend Cass, Bayley was the first friend she made in NXT. She said that they are mature enough to handle competing against each other and nothing will get in the way of that.
Carmella says she will prove to everyone she deserves to be Number One Contender by beating Emma.
And I’m Like… That was a nice character snapshot. It adds some depth to Carmella and teaches us something new. I am excited for her and Bayley. I know Bayley can have a good match with anyone. I also know that Bayley wants to be the torch bearer and wants to elevate talent. This is her first test, she might be able to make Carmella a thing after this feud. I mean Carmella is a thing, but she isn’t really a thing we care about. Slowly but surely she might be a fully fledged character that we can emotionally get behind if we haven’t already.
Dash and Dawson are interviewed about The Realest Guys in the Room. Dash says they are like Groundhogs Day with saying the same things over and over. Dawson says “the tag team revival keeps on rolling” Dawson says they are on their way to being the greatest tag champs in NXT of all time.
Dash has a coat on that says “the powder keg” not sure what Dawson’s says. They make sure to clank their titles to end the promo.
Carmella vs. Emma w/Dana Brooke
Carmella comes out to her Nicki Minaj type song. She drops her normal lines and does the Bada-Bing thing. Then Emma comes
Emma is a far cry from her first character. It’s amazing the transformation she has made, she makes her character now feel so organic, if I hadn’t seen her be a babyface, I would say it’s damn near impossible to pull that off. She is a great talent.
Emma is taking Carmella lightly and is lackadaisical in her movements. Emma does a few mounted punches and thinks that is enough for a pin. She then does the move where she stands on her opponents hair and pulls the arms. Emma is stretching the hell out of Carmella like she was Stu Hart in the dungeon.
The crowd is eerily quiet and not the Full Sail I am used to. You can hear word for word what Dana Brooke is yelling. As Emma was getting hit with Carmella’s signatures a “how you doin” chant breaks and it gets pretty strong until Emma stops all of Carmella’s momentum.
Emma never took the match seriously and got caught sleeping with a backslide by Carmella.
And I’m Like… If the crowd was more involved I probably would have liked it better. The match was fine, told a story, progressed a character, it just didn’t FEEL like an NXT match you know? It looked like it but didn’t FEEL it.
Sami Zayn talks about how he is waiting on Regal’s opinion of last week. Sami said because the Sharpshooter was on longer than the Crossface, Sami says he should be champion.
Joe doesn’t answer a question for the reporter. He makes him flinch and punks him instead.
American Alpha video package. “We get the job done, no nonsense, we do what we need to do then it’s on to the next one.” The video is interspersed with video footage of Alpha kicking all sorts of ass. The announcers put over American Alpha HARD.
Realest Guys in the Room vs. Local Talent
Corey Graves says Enzo is a convicted felon, then he retracts and said he should be one. Enzo does his normal spiel. Then ends it with “if me and Big Cass had a dime for every time we got knocked down and didn’t get back up.. I’d have ZERO dimes.”
Enzo and Cass are up against some ‘local talent’ and Enzo is dominating because of it. Bad news is after he does that cool dance with the snaps and the silky moves, he dabs….. STOP THAT! Fat Joe’s Lean Back was a more complicated dance.
After not f’n around at all. Enzo and Cass win the match very easily.
And I’m Like… Just like with The Vaudevillains, what is going on with these two? Where are they headed? They developed a mean streak but I am not sure where they fit in.
Apollo has a promo. He is getting better at speaking but he still feels very awkward. He seems way too happy to be in feuds where he is mad at people. I think his promo style would be better suited as a heel just because he IS so talented, he can just be too happy to be himself with his gifted skillset. I would boo that in the right context.
William Regal makes a special announcement for the Number One Contender to the NXT Title. Regal’s decision is that there will be a rematch, he is cut off by Baron who walks in and demands a rematch. Regal says the only thing that was certain was that Baron lost. Corbin says “this is a joke” and leaves.. He needs a little bit more umph on his statements. Regal says Zayn vs. Joe to decide the contender.
Asuka vs. Santana Garrett
Corey Graves says
someone is gonna get their head kicked in
. Tom and Corey point out how unnerving Asuka is when she does her smile that relishes pain.
Santana strikes the hell out of Asuka, who just smiles and slaps her own ass after taking Garrett down. Santana does a russian leg sweep and gets a very close two count.
Santana is really taking it to Asuka. For not having an entrance and having a bland haircolor for Diva’s, I am surprised at how much offense she is getting in.
Asuka puts the Asuka lock on and it is a blatant choke. Garrett taps out very quickly and furiously.
And I’m Like… Asuka wins every time she comes out and always impresses. I see Carmella losing to Bayley and either Asuka stepping up as a top contender or Asuka beating Carmella to get to Bayley. Problem is, Asuka can’t be defeated. At least in my mind she can’t. She loves pain, you gotta legit knock her out and incapacitate her in some shape or form.
Apollo Crews vs. Finn Balor
This is a match to settle the score. Crews challenged Balor so he can know how he measures up to the NXT Champion.
I feel like Finn’s entrance changes weekly. His intro song is always a little different, his main theme hasn’t changed much. It’s nice that he knows the peaks and valleys of his song, not like when he first came out and crawled slowly the whole way through just looking awkward as hell. Now he gets this type of entrance all the time.
Corey calls Balor “the measuring stick”. The match starts with a handshake. I bet Baron Corbin thinks they both learned that in ROH. Crews says he wants to earn the title shot, not just claim a shot in front of the crowd ala Baron Corbin.
This match might take some minutes, it starts off with a pretty long headlock. Crews almost reversed it into his powerbomb dealy but Balor was able to keep the headlock applied. Finn knows he does not have Apollo in the power skill. So, he is gonna apply headlocks and make Crews use most of his energy and power trying to get out of a hold instead of applying the hold.
Graves talks about how amazing Balor is with his ground game, says that is where Balor would be able to find a weakness. In the ring Apollo has very few weaknesses.
We come back from break and Apollo has a headlock on Finn like this was a Monday Night Raw. Beautiful sequence where Apollo went for a sunset flip, Balor rolls through it and kicks Crews in the face.
The headlock turned into an arm lock by Finn onto Apollo. This match feels like it is still the feeling out process with all the slow movements and such.
I don’t know if I am missing something, but I am not sure what the storyline to the match is. It might be “hold for hold” or something but these guys just work on each others limbs and do some headlocks.
Apollo missed an Asai Moonsault to the outside and Finn dove over the top rope and flips onto Crews. Finn then hit his double stomp on the back of the head of Apollo. Crews kicks out at two.
Apollo shows some fire and does a few high impact moves because frustration is showing through and it’s time fore Crews to take out the best tricks in his magic bag.
Finn goes for a shotgun dropkick and Apollo catches Balor with an ax kick. Apollo does the Military Press into the standing shooting star and only gets two. Demon Finn would MDK Apollo Crews.
Finn stopped the funny business and decided to end Crews quickly. He even does a Bloody Sunday after the Coup de Gras because I am sure Finn wasn’t too positive his finish would legit finish off Apollo Crews.
And I’m Like… That match though, it was bland. Like, it was good, the spots were planned nice, the athleticism is over the top! I think the problem for me was the match never hit a high gear, it’s like they don’t know how to build a match. I know they do, maybe it was just their chemistry in the ring or something. Maybe I am the one who is off and missed what was exceptional with that match.
Well that was a quick episode. Honestly not much happened outside of building to next week which is kinda weird to say. NXT usually delivers the best wrestling of the week, but this seemed to be another, road to Takeover, type episode.
It is late, and I am going to bed. If it isn’t too late for you, could you please share this? It helps me out and helps you achieve the cool points for the day.
Have a good one
-Jake
