Peter Kostka
NXT got me back into the writing game. About 10 years ago (man I’m old) I wrote recaps of RAW and Smackdown for the old TheSmartMarks.com site. I enjoyed it for a while, but WWE has a distinct knack of sucking the joy out of everything after a while. I dropped off as a fan for a few years after Benoit and only for the last few years have really gotten back into the product. Unfortunately, RAW has become a bloated mess that can barely hold itself together for two hours, let alone three. Smackdown — while having some good matches and promos on occasion — rarely has any significant storyline progress. Enter the WWE Network. Enter NXT.
At one hour, NXT has very little time to waste on stupid comedy, meaningless matches or just plain filler. Here I get to see what should be the future of this company grow and learn their craft. mix it up with established WWE stars and separate the wheat from the chaff. It’s a wrestling show in a company that hates the word “wrestling”, taking me back to those Saturday mornings (I never got into the NWA as a kid) I would watch Superstars and Wrestling Challenge. Hopefully in the near future we will able to see the people in this recap in featured roles on RAW and Smackdown.
As the opening says: “The Future is Now.”
Taped at Full Sail University in Orlando, Florida. Renee Young, Jason Albert and Rich Brennan are your commentators.
Bayley vs. Summer Rae (NXT Women’s Championship #1 Contenders Match)
I’m an unabashed Bailey fan. Adorable as hell. If the budget cuts affect the wavy tube people I riot. Bailey controls to start and sends Summer to the outside, but Rae suckers her back in to take the advantage as we see the champion Charlotte watching in the back. Summer has the audacity to pull off Bayley’s headband. That’s just low. Bayley catches a kick and sweeps her to the mat as the fans chant “Bayley’s gonna hug you”. She does the world’s cutest comeback (OK, this is bordering on creepy) and gets 2 off a suplex but Summer connects with a spinkick to the ribs and hits the Summer Crush for the pin.
Thoughts: A basic match. I rather would have wanted to see Bayley try to finally get one over on the women who have bullied her forever and I just don’t think much of Summer in the ring.
Last week: Tyson Kidd and Justin Gabriel beat up on Sami Zayn leading to Adrian Neville making the save and setting up our main event tonight. Backstage, the faces are disgusted at the ” shameful” actions by Kidd and Gabriel but Gabriel is just sick of being a loser. Somewhere in Long Island Zack Ryder watches, a single tear running down his cheek as he mouths “why not me?”
The Award Winning Music Video Artist and #1 Contender for the NXT Title Tyler Breeze has entered the building! My night is made!
Sin Cara vs. Wesley Blake
Man, remember when Sin Cara was supposed to be something? He hung out with Scooby Doo and everything! Cara dominates the start, including a nice dive through the ropes, but Wesley does the tried and true strategy of “punch him hard in the face” to take over. Cara comes back with a springboard elbow and hits a senton for the pin.
Thoughts: Well, put Sin Cara in the ring with Kalisto and give them a little time on a live show and I would be quite happy with that. Might be time to finally retire the gimmick though if two guys can’t do anything with it.
Natalya confronts her husband in the back. She’s not happy about his interview with Renee last week and doesn’t like his attitude lately, but Tyson just tells her to get onboard or get to steppin’. Massive prick Tyson Kidd works for me.
Summer celebrates her win in front of the makeup mirror and tells Sasha Banks that once Summer wins the title she’ll want to be BFFs again and enjoy the “Summer of Summer”.
CJ Parker walks out and calls out Xavier Woods (and his shiny suit). CJ apologizes for his comments last week, but Xavier wants nothing of it, so CJ completely whiffs on a kick to lay him out. That looked quite bad. Just push him really hard or something next time.
The Vaudevillains be awesome while declaring their want to be tag champions. This leads into a video package on The Ascension’s dominance.
Bull Dempsey vs. Angelo Dawkins
Dempsey counters an armdrag into a headlock and a sunset flip into a sit down splash and that’s basically it for Dawkins’ offense as Bull grounds him into the mat, cutting off a brief comeback with an avalanche and the Bulldozer for the pin. Renee calls him a ” Brooklyn Mastodon “. Bull declares he won’t stop until he is NXT champion.
Thoughts: I’m warming up to Bull; he looks tough, cuts a decent promo and can definitely play the NXT version of a monster heel even if he’s not 400 pounds.
Backstage, Sami Zayn interviews Adrian Neville and holy shit, Adrian is short. They reiterate their desire to win tonight.
Sami Zayn & Adrian Neville vs. Tyson Kidd (w/Natalya) & Justin Gabriel
The faces lay into Kidd to start and Neville works the arm, tagging Zayn for some more punishment. Kidd tags Gabriel, but gets double teamed including an amazing corkscrew splash by Neville off of Zayn’s back (he’s short but goddamn he’s awesome). Gabriel knees him to control and tags Kidd, so Neville just does a couple of forward flips and springboards into a crossbody for 2. As easy as going to the mailbox. Zayn in and he fights off the heels, but gets dumped to the outside by Kidd as we take a break.
Zayn gets worked over as we return and eats a double kick for 2. Kidd and Gabriel are looking great as a badass tag team here, I must admit. Hot tag to Neville as he kicks the shit out of Gabriel and a standing shooting star press for 2. Sitout powerbomb gets another 2. Kidd tags in and he plays the Shelton Benjamin to Adrian’s HBK, springboarding right into a superkick for 2. He sets up for the Red Arrow but Gabriel distracts him enough for Kidd to dropkick him down and hit a springboard elbow, but Zayn saves. Sami blind tags in and hits a crossbody off the top as Neville dives through the ropes into Gabriel, but only gets another 2. These guys are great. Kidd goes dirty with a rake to the face but Sami dumps him and hits a hilo onto everybody (including Adrian) on the outside. Kidd sells a knee injury as Natalya checks on him. Kidd tries to sucker punch him but Sami knocks him back into Natalya, sending her to the floor. Sami goes to check on her as Kidd looks concerned, but instead takes advantage and rolls him up for the pin.
Thoughts: Dirtbag Tyson is the best. These four worked tremendously well together and matches like this are why I love this show. Adrian Neville is crazy.
Final Thoughts: Seems like we’re setting up some matches for either a big episode at the end of the month or for another live show before SummerSlam. The main event delivered and we saw some nice development of some lower card feuds and you can’t really ask for much more — except no update on Tyler Breeze’s finger. I need that info, dammit!
Thanks for reading this week. Leave a comment or tweet me @PKIsTwitting with some feedback. See you next week.
