Peter Kostka
Taped at Full Sail University. Tom Phillips, Renee Young and Byron Saxton are commentating.
Enzo Amore & BIG CASS vs. The Vaudevillians (NXT tag tournament semifinal match)
The Certified G’s control Gotch to start, but English dropkicks Gotch onto Cass and they finish with their senton combo (now called That’s A Wrap) for the pin. That was….brief. Afterwards, The Legionnaires attack Cass and Enzo and shave part of Enzo’s beard.
Thoughts: The Vaudevillians hit one offensive move and get the pin. I kind of expected a LITTLE more out of this than that.
Triple H comes out for a “major announcement”: on September 11th, we will have NXT Takeover II LIVE on WWE Network. All three NXT titles will be defended, including The Ascension defending against whoever wins the tournament. He also promises a new NXT General Manager next week.
We recap last week’s main event, with #DirtbagTysonKidd interfering. Tyler Breeze is not very happy about that and it look like we’ve got a match here.
#DirtbagTysonKidd vs. Tyler Breeze
Breeze aggressively goes after Kidd to start but Kidd gets the better of him and goes for the Sharpshooter, but Breeze bails. He says he ” doesn’t need this” and walks off giving Kidd the countout victory which he celebrates like it’s a big win.
Thoughts: What the fuck? Is there a Beat the Clock challenge tonight where they are trying to wrestle as little as possible?
Charlotte vs Becky Lynch (non-title)
So now Lynch has added screaming like a banshee to her repertoire. Anything is better than the dancing. They keep it on the mat for most of the match and Lynch bridges out of the figure four headlock for 2. She makes the comeback but Charlotte blocks a suplex with a kind of t-bone bodyslam and Bow Down to the Queen finishes.
Thoughts: Decent little match, though I think Lynch should tone it down a bit with the screaming and whipping he hair around. The Lita vibe she had a few weeks ago was just about perfect.
Amore and Cass reappear to challenge The Legionnaires to a Hair vs. Hair match at Takeover. Hitting the fast forward button on this setup I see.
We recap Bull Dempsey beating the shit out of his stupid tag partner last week. Oh good, that idiot has a match.
Mojo Rawley vs. Steve Cutler
Mojo shows us a bit more of an aggressive, angry side as he survives an early flurry from Cutler and finishes with the Hyperdrive. He cuts a promo on Dempsey, saying that his smile is gone. This could be a decent power match for Takeover.
Kalisto & Sin Cara vs Adam Rose and Sami Zayn (NXT tag tournament semifinal)
Rose’s Rosebuds have been downsized by the budget cuts it looks like. Stalemate between Kalisto and Rose so the partners tag in and Cara gets the best of it leaving Sami and Rose to regroup on the outside as we take a break.
Kalisto hits a springboard torpedo roll on Rose for 2 but Rose gets a suplex to take over and Zayn works him over as this match just has a weird feel to it. Kalisto shows off some incredible athleticism, walking on his hands to stop his momentum after a whip and back flipping into a headscissors for 2. They have something with this guy. It’s really weird to see Zayn and Rose kind of playing a heelish role in this match as they work over Kalisto. Also, Rose looks SO out of place amid all of these fast technical wrestlers. He hits a nice spinebuster for 2 however. Kalisto makes the tag and Cara runs wild, diving onto Zayn on the outside. Rose blasts Kalisto with a clothesline, then does his little dance thing after doing something pretty heelish. This match is messing with me. Kalisto comes back and hits Salito del Sol (the now named finisher) and Cara hits a senton for the pin.
Thoughts: Did I mention this was a weird fucking match? Rose and Zayn were treated like a heel job team when they are the two biggest faces in NXT. Even the crowd didn’t really know what to make of this match. Why couldn’t they have just had Kidd and Gabriel in this spot? This honestly really baffles me.
Final Thoughts: What a weird episode. They fucked up the tag tournament for whatever reason (I assume Kalisto and Cara advance given how strongly they’ve been booked in this) and a lot of the in ring action was almost an afterthought. I really hope we see guys like Devitt, KENTA and Steen come into the fold pretty soon because things need a fairly big shakeup. At the very least either do something interesting with people like Mojo Rawley or just cut them loose for people that actually bring more to the table.
See you next week.
