Peter Kostka
It’s the final week from the CFE Arena in Orlando, Florida. Your commentators are Tom Phillips and Corey Graves.
This week: Current NXT Champion Finn Balor faces the longest reigning NXT Champion Neville in a non-title match.
The Vaudevillains vs. Hugo Knox and Tucker Knight
Hugo Knox looks like Super Buff Matt Striker. I’m having trouble wrapping my head around the Vaudevillains right now. I get that they are supposed to be more “serious” now, but does that constitute a heel turn? They don’t play to the crowd as much as they used to, but they still do their “MANLY!” poses and still have their bouncy theme music. They also haven’t really changed up their in-ring routine as this is a pretty basic squash with no cheating or any other normal heel tactics. The crowd doesn’t seem to really know how to react to them either as they get some cheers but not much else.
Emma promises to make an example of her opponent tonight and Dana Brooke emasculates poor Alex Reyes.
Finn Balor hype video. This is becoming a lost art on RAW as they really don’t do stuff like this anymore. It’s a quick and easy way to show someone off.
We see The Revival (Dash and Dawson’s new team name) jumping Enzo Amore last week before we get a promo from Big Cass saying that they showed that they are gutless by their actions and they will take the titles. The Revival retort that if they want to hold the tag titles, maybe they’ll let Enzo and Cass spit shine them. It is revealed that they will face off for the titles on the WWE Roadblock live special on March 12th. That should be a great match.
Emma (w/Dana Brooke) vs. Santana Garrett
I swear that for Santana’s theme they just copied Emma’s theme, but added dubstep and a violin. It’s like the EXACT same beat.
Emma just toys with Garrett for most of the match, kicking her leg out when she puts it up to block a ram into the corner. Garrett tries to come back, but Emma drops her with a dropkick and has Dana check her face for damage. Dana also provides encouragement and advice (“NICE, EMMA!”) which is almost the best part of Emma matches right now. Garrett does make a comeback, hitting a nice springboard elbow, but Emma cuts her off as she goes to the top and hangs her in the Tree of Woe, kicking her in the spine. Dana pulls Santana’s hair because she can and Emma finishes her with the curbstomp and Emma Lock for the tap. I know I’ve said this a few times already, but I really would like to see Emma get a title program with Bayley because they kind of started a program last year, but Bayley broke her hand and they pretty much forgot about it until Bayley came back and they quickly blew it off so Bayley could go for Sasha. At the very least, Emma deserves another main roster run in this incarnation.
GM Regal butters up Nia Jax and Eva Marie before informing them he’s set up a tag match with them against Bayley and Asuka. Their smiles are replaced by GULP (TM Sasha Banks) faces.
GM Regal is in the ring to introduce NXT’s newest signing…..former TNA Heavyweight Champion Austin Aries! Tom and Corey pretty much mark out as Aries makes his way down the aisle, but Baron Corbin’s Indy Geek Sense apparently went off as he suddenly charges down and wipes him out, sending him into the apron before ripping off Austin’s shirt and hitting an End of Days on the floor. He screams “AN EYE FOR AN EYE” at Regal before throwing the shirt in his face which draws a big reaction from the crowd. Well he DID warn Regal about retribution. Hater of Independent Wrestling Baron Corbin is so fucking awesome right now. He needs to go to Battle of Los Angeles and spend the whole show sitting on a throne a la Mil Muertes looking bored out of his goddamn mind.
Steve Cutler vs. ….*sigh* The Drifter
Putting this guy at the end of a long TV taping does not seem like the best idea and quite a few empty seats suddenly spring up in the crowd. The crowd could not give any less of a shit about The Drifter by this point and neither can I. He starts playing air acoustic guitar for some reason and finishes Cutler (who seems to have the gimmick of “I was a soldier!” now) with the neckbreaker. I spent too many words on this match.
The Hype Bros are glad they lost to the Vaudevillains because it showed that they needed to take things seriously and show The Vaudevillains a thing or two. They walk off and The Vaudevillains emerge from the shadows with smiles that are half-evil and half-creepy.
Neville hype video.
Next Week: Sami Zayn faces Samoa Joe in a 2 out of 3 falls match to FINALLY determine a #1 contender to the NXT Championship.
Neville vs. Finn Balor (non-title)
In something I never thought would happen, Tom Phillips actually mentions the Bullet Club by name and the “rumors” that they are coming to join him in NXT. I thought they’d kind of find cute ways to talk around that, but they just came out and mentioned them. That’s….kinda awesome.
Speaking of awesome, this match is awesome. It’s similar to their match last year at Takeover: Rival as it starts pretty slowly with both guys getting brief advantages on the mat and Neville definitely taking the heel role and doing it really well. Balor rolls through a sunset flip into a dropkick but Neville answers by punching him in the kidney and hitting a gorgeous snap suplex, taking control as we take a break.
Neville remains in control but Finn backdrops him over the top on a corner charge and Neville hits the ring steps on the way down which is a crazy bump. Neville recovers and hits a springboard moonsault to the floor, rolling Finn back in for 2. They slug it out and Finn ducks a forearm, knocking Neville on his ass with a Pele kick as we now go to the “just beat the shit out of each other” portion of the match. Finn sends Neville to the outside after some chops and soccer kicks him in the face from the apron (Graves: “Neville’s teeth are in Disneyland right now.”). Neville escapes an inverted DDT and hits some HARD kicks, snapping off a German suplex before deadlifting Finn off the mat into another one for 2. I want to see Neville vs. Chad Gable in a bridging contest STAT. He goes up to finish after knocking Finn down with an enzigiri, but Finn pops up with one of his own, knocking Neville to the outside and follows him out with a dive. Finn goes up to finish but Neville cuts him off and ranas him off the top rope in a spot that barely avoided going REALLY badly. Neville goes up, but Finn rolls out of the way and hits the Slingblade and goes for the corner dropkick, but Neville avoids and rolls him up for a close 2. Finn catches a kick and clotheslines Neville out of his boots before the corner dropkick sends Neville flying halfway across the ring and the Coup de Grace and Bloody Sunday get the win. They shake hands as the crowd applauds their efforts.
Breaking news: Neville is a fucking great wrestler and it’s the biggest travesty of all that you need to watch NXT to realize that. On the main roster he’s just “that flippy dude with the cool finisher”, but he is SO MUCH MORE that it is so sad to see where he is right now. This match wasn’t as great as their Takeover match, but it was damn close and I have the first match for my Best of 2016 list.
Rich Brennan talks to the participants of next week’s big match. Samoa Joe is still mad that Sami is still ungrateful that Joe saved his career, but Sami Zayn doesn’t appreciate that Joe has waltzed in and is trying to piggyback off of the hard work people like Sami have done to build NXT into what it has become. “Your success is not going to be at my expense anymore.” Joe points out the irony that he saved Sami’s career when next week, he ends it. Great last bit of hype for what should be an insane match next week.
OVERALL: Unlike last week, this is definitely a show you want to check out. The Aries debut and Corbin attack was beautifully done, I always enjoy Emma in the ring and the main event was just straight up a great match. We are now a month from Takeover: Dallas and the card is coming more and more into focus.
Spoiler: it looks like an amazing show.
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