NXT
Date:
August 29, 2012
Location:
Full Sail University, Winter Park, Florida
Commentators:
Byron Saxton, William Regal
Reviewed by Tommy Hall
It's
time for the title match tonight and I'm actually somewhat excited.
This change officially turns NXT into its own regular promotion which
is what it needed for the last year and a half or so. It's Jinder
Mahal vs. Seth Rollins for the inaugural title, which is a matchup I
didn't think I'd like. Mahal is growing on me as a basic foreign
heel and Rollins....well he's energetic. Let's get to it.
Jason
Jordan/Mike Dalton vs. Hunico/Camacho
Jordan/Dalton
won the first match between these teams. Regal calls the fans the
NXT Universe now. Great. Now we're hearing the same stupid lines
from NXT that we hear on Raw and Smackdown. Jordan and Camacho start
us off with Jordan getting in some basic offense before walking into
a pretty good spinebuster. Camacho pounds on Jordan's face and
suplexes him down to bring in Hunico.
Back
to Camacho after nothing of note and the bigger guy throws Jordan
around with a nice butterfly suplex. A legdrop gets two but Jordan
escapes a suplex and tags in Dalton. Dalton hits a spinwheel kick
and a charge in the corner, followed by a hurricanrana for two. A
missile dropkick gets two on Hunico and everything breaks down. As
Jordan is being put back on the apron, Camacho hits Dalton from
behing, allowing Hunico to hit his version of an Angle Slam for the
pin at 4:00.
Rating:
C. This was your run of the
mill tag match between four guys who aren't that interesting but they
made it work well enough. Hunico and Camacho are fine for a low
level tag team and giving the unknowns a win over them in the first
match was a good way to give Dalton and Jordan some exposure. As is
the case with almost everyone on NXT though, they need ring time.
Here
are the Usos with something to say. They call out the Ascension and
as the lights go out for Ascension's entrance, Ascension runs in from
behind and jumps the Usos, laying them out with relative ease.
Raw
ReBound is about Punk vs. Lawler. I'm still curious as to when Cena
forgot hot to climb a cage.
Big
E. Langston vs. Chase Donovan
A
clothesline and that falling slam thing gets the pin at 40 seconds.
He really needs to change finishers. A powerslam would be fine.
The
locker room comes out to watch the title match.
Langston
says nothing.
Howard
Finkel is doing the announcing for the main event.
Dusty
comes out and JR is now on commentary.
NXT
Championship: Jinder Mahal vs. Seth Rollins
They
have a ton of time for this. Fink may be fat and older now (he's
only 62 so he's hardly ancient), but that voice is still perfect.
Mahal won't shake Dusty's hand before the match. Rollins tries to
take him to the mat to start but Mahal gets back up quickly. A
dropkick puts Mahal down again and Rollins hits a hard chop. Mahal
gets sent to the floor but he avoids a dive and sends Rollins face
first into the apron. A suplex onto the ramp has Rollins in trouble
and we head back in.
We
take a break and come back with Rollins in even more trouble. Mahal
stomps him down and hits a backbreaker to start setting up the camel
clutch. Rollins gets choked against the ropes and the fans are
behind Rollins now. He tries a comeback but gets kneed in the face
by Mahal to take him back down. The camel clutch is escaped so Mahal
pounds him in the back again. An enziguri out of nowhere puts Mahal
down and Rollins punches Jinder down.
Mahal
goes up for another knee but Rollins knocks him off the top and out
to the floor. Rollins hits a HUGE dive to the floor and both guys
are down. Back in and Seth goes up again, only to get crotched and
superplexed from the top. We take another break and come back with
the two of them slugging it out. Mahal might have a bad knee but he
pulls off a sitout slam for two. A full nelson slam is countered and
Rollins goes to the apron.
Seth
hits an enziguri to the head and a running knee for two. The near
falls are getting closer and closer here. A running forearm in the
corner staggers Mahal but he manages to drop Rollins face first into
the buckle. The low superkick (I think he calls it Avada Kadavra,
making Rollins awesome) gets two. Phoenix Splash (moonsault into a
450) misses and Mahal hits the full nelson slam for two. Rollins
gets to the rope before the clutch can go on and Rollins rolls him up
for two. Rollins comes back with the buckle bomb and the Blackout
out of nowhere for the pin and the title at 14:24 shown of 21:24.
Rating:
B. I'm still not wild on
Rollins' in ring work but the fans are into him and he's not dull.
He also needs a new finisher as the Blackout looks pretty forced to
put it mildly. As for the match though, they did a great job of
building both guys up as unbeatable and then having them go at it.
The match was very good as far as making you wonder who was going to
win and it turned into a good back and forth fight at the end. Not a
masterpiece or anything, but for the first NXT Championship, this was
more than acceptable.
Fink
giving Rollins the NEEEEEEEEEEEEEW treatment makes the announcement
much better. The roster puts Rollins on their shoulders to end the
show.
Overall
Rating: B. This was all about
the main event so I'm not going to really bother thinking about the
rest of it. Rollins is a good choice for a first champion as he can
defend the title for a few months and then have a big time heel beat
him to take the title. This felt like a big show and I wanted to see
it, which is the right idea here. I'm very pleased with this and it
worked quite well.
Results
Hunico/Camacho
b. Jason Jordan/Mike Dalton – Reverse fireman's carry slam to
Dalton
Big
E. Langston b. Chase Donovan – Over the shoulder mat slam
Seth
Rollins b. Jinder Mahal – Blackout
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