Jonathan Dehn
WWE NXT Takeover
05/29/2014
Full Sail University
-We begin the show with The Exotic Express’ inhabitants streaming into the building. Rose has a megaphone and introduces a party atmosphere.
Adam Rose vs. Camacho
The crowd looks at Camacho as a party pooper, and we begin with Rose frustrating Camacho. The bigger guy puts on a full nelson. Rose gets out of it with a dry humping and goes on a Bugs Bunny offensive. Camacho slugs him down and stomps away. Camacho hits a double underhook suplex for two. Camacho goes to a straitjacket. Rose escapes, but gets stomped. Rose hulks up, but takes a big boot for two. Camacho goes back to the hold. The crowd chants for party time to be all the time, but Camacho stays in control and hits a legdrop.
Rose kicks out at one. Adam gets the boot up and hits a series of punches. Rose catches him with a spinebuster and runs through him in the corner. Rose runs the train over him and finishes him with The Party Foul.
Final Thoughts: *. This was just a nice way to get the crowd going into the beginning of the show.
NXT Tag Team Championship – The Ascension © vs. Kalisto vs El Local
The Ascension burst forth right at the bell but get hurricanranas. The luchadores charge up, but run right into matching forearms. Victor tosses Kalisto into the corner and brings in Connor. They whip Kalisto down. Connor hits an elbow for two. He lifts up with a double chickenwing, and Victor comes in to do some damage. Victor hits a chop for two. He lifts Kalisto to the top rope and hangs him in the tree of woe. Connor comes in and stomps away. Victor brings him out of the tree with a slam for two. He goes to the chinlock. Kalisto is tossed from the ring and gets chokeslammed into the ropes on the outside. Kalisto fights back, though, and gets back in the ring.
Still, he’s driven back into the corner, and Victor delivers a chop. Kalisto gets the boot up and head scissors him over. In comes El Local as a house of fire. He kind of botches a crossbody, but then comes forward with a second rope moonault for two. We break down. Kalisto gets tossed, and El Local takes and STO. Fall of Man ends it.
Final Thoughts: *1/2. This was an extended squash, but better in that The Ascension actually worked a match instead of crushing nondescript jobbers.
Sami Zayn vs. Tyler Breeze
This is a number one contender match. They changed Tyler’s entrance. GOD DAMMIT, WWE! Stop meddling! This theme is awful. Everything is now ruined. I don’t care anymore. Anyway, they feel each other out to begin. They counter over the arm, where Sami shows his superiority. Tyler also gets the arm, but Sami gets a couple of deep armdrags. Zayn grabs a side headlock and comes out with a leg lariat. Zayn follows with getting an elbow up in the corner, but gets shoved from the top turnbuckle and falls from the ring.
Breeze gets him back inside and stomps away in the corner. Breeze drops the knee and gets one. Tyler hits a bulldog into the second buckle on Zayn. That was cool. Breeze brutalizes him a bit and grabs another cover. Tyler keeps Zayn on the mat with a front facelock. Finally, Sami shoves Breeze out of the front facelock. Zayn dodges a charge and Tyler tumbles outside. Sami springs out and hits a nifty moonsault onto Breeze. There was such a high degree of difficulty there. Zayn comes back in with a crossbody for two. Tyler fights out of the Blue Thunder Bomb, but Sami holds on and hits it anyway for two. Sami goes up to the top once more, but has to roll away and Tyler hits the implant DDT for a two count.
Breeze pulls Zayn out of the corner with a powerbomb that also gets two. Tyler slugs away in the corner before the referee pulls him out. Zayn catches Tyler, though, and hits him with an exploder in the corner! They two trade main event punches in the middle of the ring. Sami pulls up before running into the ref and gets rolled up for two. Counters a plenty before Tyler takes his head off with a superkick that gets two. They’re spent. Breeze hits some rights at the ropes. Sami absorbs and slaps Tyler’s pretty face. Tyler clubs away in response. Sami uses some spirit and after they botch it just a bit, hits an outrageous releasing powerbomb. That gets two.
Breeze bails, so Sami just flips out onto him because this is nuts. Breeze’s head smashes against the ramp. Back inside, Tyler ducks the big boot in the corner, and Sami goes nuts first into the top buckle…and Tyler’s forearms. Tyler takes advantage and hits the Beauty Shot that Zayn gives a great bump for. Tyler picks up the hard earned win.
Final Thoughts: ***3/4. This was terrific and the best I’ve been able to see of Breeze. Someone needs to quit it with Tyler’s theme. They need to change it back. Anyways, this was great and everyone should watch it. Everyone should watch Sami Zayn when he gets more than ten minutes. You have to think that they’re going to bring Sami up soon to give some life to the midcard with some good wrestling.
Rusev vs. Mojo Rawley
We have a couple of flags for this match, with Mojo talking about good old American flag sodomy. Mojo comes down and gets demolished as Regal notes how embarrassing this is for Americans. Rusev locks on the Accolade and humbles Mojo. Well, that wasn’t really a match. After this segment, Rusev stalks Mojo on the ramp and locks it in again.
Final Thoughts: PRAY FOR MOJO. Mojo’s screams of pain are pretty good, and remind me of Hulk Hogan.
-Paige is in the ring before the NXT Women’s Championship match. She’s here to thank everyone and be a bit cheesy. She’s proud to also be the first NXT Women’s Champion.
NXT Women’s Championship – Charlotte w/Ric Flair vs. Natalya w/Bret Hart
Charlotte’s theme is a dance version of 2001. I wanna dance to this. Also, Charles Robinson is referee. COLLUSION! This certainly has a nice, epic feel to it. They battle over a lockup before Nattie takes her down for two. Nattie takes her down again, but Charlotte takes the arm. Nattie gets a fireman’s carry into an armbar. Charlotte gets a headscissors and they break. Nattie works a headlock on the ground. Charlotte works out of it and flips into an armbar. Natalya reverses and gets the leg. They call the next spot and take a break. Charlotte catches the boot, but Nattie reverses back to the mat, where she gets a leglock. Charlotte comes back with a side headlock, but Nattie gets into a front facelock. Nattie woos at Ric, but Charlotte reverses. They run, and Nattie reverses into a victory roll for two. She goes into a body scissors.
Charlotte spins around and goes into a mount. Nattie has Charlotte scurry from a cross armbreaker. Back to her feet, they trade slaps. Nattie gets a roll up, but Charlotte comes back with a big spinning chop. Flair makes sure to taunt at Bret. Nattie gets up and grabs a chop of her own. Nattie floats over in the corner and climbs on top with a sleeper. Charlotte gets a backpack stunner for two. Charlotte rams her face down into the mat a couple of times. Charlotte chokes in the corner and pulls Nattie out for two. Charlotte throws on a figure-four headlock. Regal tells me this. Charlotte works the hell out of the hold, nicely. Charlotte even snap mares Nattie over with it for two. Charlotte goes to the abdominal stretch. Nattie goes old school and reverses to one of her own. Nattie works a backslide, but Charlotte comes out of it with a front dropkick for two.
Out of the corner, Nattie hits a butterfly suplex and a clothesline. Nattie runs over the back and follows with a running dropkick for two. Charlotte does the Flair flip and gets…knocked from the apron. WOO! Charlotte legwhips Nattie out of the ring. Back inside, Charlotte drops down for two. Ric yells at Lil’ Naitch to count faster. Charlotte goes to the top rope, but misses a gorgeous moonsault. Nattie hits the discus clothesline for two and goes for the Sharpshooter. Charlotte crawls, but gets dragged back in the middle. Charlotte rolls out and moves into the figure-four leglock, naturally. I don’t mind. They fight over the leglock and throw slaps at each other. Charlottes actually rolls to the apron and drags Nattie down with the hold. Badass. They tumble from the ring. Charlotte is first up and kicks Nattie into the ring steps. You know Nattie is hurt since she took off her knee pad. Back in the ring, Nattie stares at Bret and puts on a Sharpshooter. Nattie gamely fights out, but Charlotte kicks her away from the Sharpshooter attempt and hits her with Bow to the Queen to win the gold. After the match, the four embrace, and Charlotte gets a victory lap of sorts. Flair is soaked with his own tears, as is Charlotte.
Final Thoughts: ****. I can’t give this any less. The crowd was molten; they laid this thing out perfectly and hit all of their spots. I loved watching them fight over the figure-four and exchanged slaps to the face. Charlotte went over and rightly so. She’s naturally amazing. She’s been at this for just a couple of years. This was just brilliantly put on. This was the best women’s match that WWE has ever had.
NXT Championship – Tyson Kidd vs. Adrian Neville ©
They crouch over and stare each other down to start. They lockup and tussle around the ring. They shake hands and get in a bit of trash talk. Kidd snags a side headlock. Neville looks to reverse, but Kidd goes right back to it. Neville tries to use his speed to get out, but Tyson takes him down, hops back to his fight and slaps Neville on the back, encouraging him to do better. Tyson wrings the arm and takes Neville down with a wristlock. Neville gets free with great athleticism and whip Kidd to the mat, letting him know that he has arrived. Neville grabs an armdrag. Adrian holds onto the arm and hits a suplex before returning. When they get back to their feet, Kidd quickly grabs the headlock and then a shoulderblock. They start to mirror each other with armdrags and dropkick attempts. Then, matching nip ups. Kidd grows frustrated and just forearms Neville.
Tyson puts him into the corner and hangs him in the tree of woe to do some damage. Tyson drives some boots into his back and hits a dropkick into the face. Kidd hits a back elbow and gets two. Tyson moves back to the side headlock. Neville gets back to his feet, but takes a stungun. Kidd follows with a dropkick that sends Neville outside. Kidd flips outside onto him, and quickly brings him back in for two. Tyson goes to the rear chinlock. Adrian gets the boot up in the corner, and they collide in the middle of the ring with dual crossbody blocks. Neville gets a few chops, and hits a flourish, finishing with a boot to Tyson’s head. Neville puts Tyson into the tree of woe and delivers his own kicks and running dropkick.
Neville springs from the apron with a forearm for two. They battle towards the apron, where Neville dumps him. Adrian goes for the dive, but gets kicked in the head for two. Tyson climbs to the top, but Neville cuts him off. Adrian climbs up, but Tyson comes back with a sunset flip attempt that Neville reverses with a backflip across the ring. Kidd leaps at him, but just leaps into a big powerbomb for two. Adrian throws some kicks to the chest and gets the boot up on the whip. Kidd catches up to Neville on the ropes and brings him back into the ring with a Russian Legsweep for two.
Kidd climbs up to the top, dodges the knees, but gets rolled up for two. Kidd comes up with a kick flourish, but then they hold on and suplex each other out of the ring in a great spot. They both get back into the ring at nine out of ten. They grapple each other to climb to their feet. They exchange forearms, but then Tyson trips him up and puts on his Dungeon Lock. Regal mentions that it isn’t entirely locked in. Neville reaches the rope.
Back on the apron, Kidd kicks Neville in the face an goes up with Neville doubled over. Kidd comes off with a somersault legdrop for two! Kidd’s wheels turn and he goes back up to the top. Neville halts his progress, but gets pushed off. Neville gets up and is slugged down again. Neville won’t be denied and hits a top rope hurricanrana that he follows up with a beautiful Red Arrow to retain the title. After the match, Neville looks for a handshake, but Kidd just walks through him.
Final Thoughts: ****. It was a terrific story told in the match where they were just going through their Mortal Kombat mirror match. At the end, it was the younger lion sending Kidd packing and on his way. How they had enough time and could tell their story was so appreciated.
–Well, this show was absolutely amazing. Watch it. Then, watch it again. Also, make sure to at least watch the post-show recap. HHH acts as a proud father, and Heyman brings the goods and riles everything up. This might be the show of the year for some, with MOTN hard to decide and the card teeming with quality.
