WWE NXT – 1/8/2014 – CXF | Culture Crossfire

WWE NXT – 1/8/14

NXT opens with the entrance theme of Summer Rae, so this is already a great show.

Alex Riley, Tom Phillips and Byron Saxton welcome us to the show as Saxton points out Summer Rae and Sasha Banks are making fun of Bayley by sporting similar headbands.

Bayley comes out, accompanied by Natalya.

Summer Rae vs. Bayley

Summer begins trying to mock Bayley by asking for a hug. A confused Bayley goes in but crowd dissuades her with “NO” chants. Bayley rips of Summer’s headband and does a quick rollup.

Summer takes control but I am focused on the corner leg choke because, you know.

Summer starts incorporating more dancing into her ringwork, going for a twirling facebuster and as the announce team talk about her evolution from ring announcer to dance partner to one of the best Divas in all of the WWE, she does some dancer stretches across Bayley’s head which is draped on the middle rope.

Bayley finds her opening, which she punctuates with a back elbow from the top to Summer’s pretty, pretty mouth. Not enough, Summer is resilient.

Bayley finds an opening for the HugPlex, which the announcer teams punctuates calling it Belly to Bayley and she scores the win.

Winner: Bayley

Devin Taylor backstage welcomes us to newly debuted main roster star, Xavier Woods. Xavier says he is pumped to be back for episode 203. Devin lets him know it is NXT 203. Xavier says “See you at 300” but Devin stops him to tell him Kane has plans for him tonight. Xavier makes more jokes about how ready he is before doing a self-fadeout.

Match graphics advertise tonight’s Tag Team Tornado bout between champions The Ascension versus Hunico and Camacho, as well as Aiden English vs. “Big Cass” Colin Cassidy.

Big Cass comes out with a solo entrance video, still with the same music he shares with the injured Enzo Amore. We get a recap of last week’s Sing Off.

Cassidy, looking like a taller Edge, is more intense than normal in the ring, as the Drama King walks out and demands his spotlight.

English is doing his own spin on Gilbert and Sullivan’s Modern Major General, which I am pretty certain he has used before. Guess he has to get used to rehashing things before being “main roster ready”.

Colin Cassidy vs. Aiden English

Before the bell can finish ringing, Cassidy is all over English. He hammer away getting a crowd participation S-A-W-F-T, SAWFT punch spree.

English slinks away and gets a hold on Cassidy as we hear about his disdain for street performers. Colin is able to regain and we learn he has two idols: Frank Sinatra and Patrick Ewing.

Cassidy’s emotions get too much for him and the Artiste capitalizes by pulling off The Director’s Cut from a Big Cass misstep.

Winner: Aiden English

The crowd chants “ENCORE”, which is denied, but English does bow for the roses tossed his way at the top of the ramp.

Devin is backstage with Adrian Neville. Neville’s phone starts ringing. Neville looks at his phone and looks up to see Tyler Breeze standing across the room on his phone. Adrian asks why he is calling from the same room. Breeze ramps the Zoolander to ten on this and talks about not wanting to see Adrian’s “uggo” face. He insincerely apologizes for interfering in Neville’s title match. Breeze hams it up, Neville acts tough and sets up a match for down the road. As the Jumpin Jordy leaves, Breeze says “Man That Gravity Forgot? More like The Man That Mother Nature Forgot to Make Good-Looking”. Well played.

Match graphic shows Xavier Woods vs. ??? as we hear Xavier is going to be addressed by KANE.

Xavier Woods comes out while Alex Riley makes bad jokes. Riley must’ve studied under Matt Striker, starting out well before it goes bad.

The announcer jumps straight to saying “And his opponent” when Kane’s music hits. Kane is out in his suit and tie AND GLASSES, while the announcers cover he isn’t likely to be the opponent of the Angel Grove resident.

Kane uses his well-spoken monster talk to say he bets Woods is proud, not of his impressive in-ring exploits, but rather the petition to bring back the Big Show. Kane states the Authority has waited for the appropriate time to punish Woods before bringing out Alexander Rusev. Kane gave some nice weaselly middle-management vibes, which was pretty cool.

Xavier Woods vs. Alexander Rusev

Rusev, who has been working house shows and dark matches, gets to go head to head with another main roster star. If he beat Kofi last week and Xavier this week, is WWE going to put him against Truth next week? Not cool.

Woods comes out with a house of fire and punches away. When the punches don’t do much, he rushes the ropes but when he dishes at the Bulgarian, he is caught in a huge Samoan Drop.

Rusev starts wailing away while we hear about where Lana has guided him and how agile the 300-pound bruiser is. Xavier tries to fight back back his punches make little impact. Xavier is able to dropkick Rusev in the corner. He successfully connects with the Honor Roll.

As normal, Woods tries to follow with Lost in the Woods but he is shoved away, finding himself locked in the Accolade.

Winner: Alexander Rusev

Saxton informs the audience that Woods should have learned his lesson.

A video shows Kofi Kingston’s reaction last week to his loss to Rusev. After blaming Lana’s non-American speaking, he calls the Accolade a Camel Clutch. I start wondering if Kofi is going to join the Real Americans but then he challenges Rusev to a re-match. Guess you are off the hook, Truth.

Tyson Kidd comes out for his opponent, Baron Corbin already in the ring. Alex Riley once again tries to compare Kidd to Eddie Guerrero.

Tyson Kidd vs. Baron Corbin

The former NFL offensive lineman, Baron Corbin, takes down Kidd early. We hear about Corbin often getting kicked out of practice while he uses his size on the ring veteran from Calgary.

Corbin dominates Kidd while the announce team puts over Kidd suffering the same injury as Washington Redskins franchise quarterback Robert Griffin III. They mention that despite being ten years old, Kidd was able to recover faster. Wow-wee Zow-wee.

As most should know, if Tyson Kidd gets an inch, he takes a mile. In a blink of an eye, Kidd hits a few offensive moves followed by floatover neckbreaker reminiscent of wrestling legend Buff Bagwell’s Buff Blockbuster for the victory.

Winner: Tyson Kidd

While Kidd celebrates, we hear about the upcoming FIRST EVER NXT TORNADO MATCH.

The evil gangster laugh of Hunico’s entrance music hits as the babyfaces ride out on their matching lowrider bicycles. Good stuff.

The tag team champions, Viktor and Konor, the Ascension, come out. I may have fell asleep in the entrance.

That’s not fair, Konor is solid.

They actually discuss the American Pitbulls recent appearance, despite word around the internet being that WWE has passed on the world class duo.

This match will be for the titles.

NXT Tag Team Championship Tornado Match

Hunico and Camacho vs. NXT Tag Team Champions The Ascension

All four men spread the ring while Riley makes reference to teaming in a match like this with Rey Mysterio against The Miz and Jack Swagger. The more talented of each team, Konor and Hunico, take advantage on each side of the ring.

Shortly after that sequence, Viktor and Camacho have the advantage.

Nothing of note truly happens when Hunico and Camacho both have an advantage on the champions. Then the champions take over and everything goes into a lull like usual. This drags and a commercial break happens.

The show comes back and some of the guys are brawling outside. They do a spot where both members of the Ascension deliver powerbombs to the challengers. I’m not usually one to rip on performers doing things that I would not be capable of but this may be one of the most painful matches, let alone main events, that has been on NXT in the eight or so months I have been recapping.

At some point, Hunico and Camacho take advantage but they focus on the wrong guy. Camacho gets taken out by Viktor on the outside and Hunico finds himself getting hit with the Fall of Man in the ring.

Winners: The Ascension

The final few spots are recapped in this really rough match.

Due to the weak main event, let me leave you with this show redeeming screen cap: