The SmarK Rant for WWE NXT – 09.18.13
Taped from Orlando, FL
Your hosts are Tom Phillips & Alex Riley
I was gonna take a shot at ROH Death by Dishonor because it was free and all, but the stream died on me for minutes at a time and was basically unwatchable when it was working. Even at free, NO BUYS.
Sami Zayn v. Curt Hawkins
I’m starting to wonder which of the Edgeheads got the worst deal after the split. Zayn tries some mat wrestling, but Hawkins slugs out of it and Sami takes him down with armdrags instead. Sami slugs away in the corner and gets two off a clothesline, and a crucifix rollup gets two. Zayn with the chinlock, but Hawkins slams him and drops an elbow for two. And we hit the chinlock. Zayn elbows him down for two, but heads to the apron and gets sent into the ringpost as a result. And we take a break with that exciting cliffhanger. Back with another chinlock, and this is a thing that is happening very frequently in this match. Zayn fights up and they clothesline each other, and Zayn comes back with a crossbody for two. Hawkins hits him with a Pele kick and gets two, and an Impaler DDT gets two. Sami fights up and the excitement is so exciting that my Hulu stream nearly pulls an ROH, but they fight through the buffering and Hawkins slaps him around. This gets Zayn all fired up and hits the big boot into the tornado DDT to finish it at 17:00. This was…long. ** Not Zayn’s most thrilling hour.
Aiden English v. Michael Cuellari
Aiden actually sings his own classical Broadway theme on the way to the ring, and he’s damn good! English squashes the shit out of him and finishes with a neckbreaker at 1:28. And then we get the encore. This gimmick is MONEY.
Meanwhile, Bo Dallas is still skeptical about Sami Zayn’s credibility as a challenger.
Conor O’Brien, Rick Victor, Tyler Breeze & Leo Kruger v. Adrian Neville, CJ Parker, Xavier Woods & Corey Graves
The babyface side works Kruger over for a bit, before Graves gets caught in the wrong corner and beat up, and the crowd wants to see Tyler Breeze. Instead we get Xavier Woods, who hits Kruger with the Honor Roll before the heels bail to regroup. The babyfaces follow with dives and we take a break. Back with Victor hitting Woods with a spinebuster for two and Woods is the face-in-peril. And finally Breeze comes in for the HUGE babyface pop, gets one cheapshot, and tags out again, shaking his hand in pain. Awesome. The crowd agrees. Woods tries to fight out of a Kruger sleeper while the crowd is totally preoccupied with Breeze, so he tags in again and goes to work. And of course Woods gets one shot and Breeze tags out again. So great to see someone firmly embracing the prissy heel role. Breeze tags in again and gets suplexed, allowing CJ Parker to come in off the hot tag. Parker is the last person I would want as my hot tag man. Conor quickly destroys him and it’s BONZO GONZO, and with Parker near death now it’s time for Tyler Breeze to ascend to glory. He only gets two, sadly. And now Parker comes back and the other heels walk out on poor Tyler, leaving him to get HIT IN THE FACE! Repeatedly! Neville puts him out his misery with the shooting star press at 18:00 or so. That was so, SO fun. *** I’m of course a sucker for good tag matches and old school goofiness and this had both.
The Pulse
Although the opener was dull as dishwater, the rest was great fun, and thankfully last week was an aberration.
Let's all take a break from taking potshots at that crappy ROH stream to take some potshots at Corey Graves. I'll start- "do they just keep him around in case Punk gets pissed off and leaves a show early?"
ReplyDeleteDon't worry, I have plenty of pot shots lined up for ROH.
ReplyDeleteNO BUYS is right!
I just can't get over how dull these names are. Conor O'Brien is the worst.
ReplyDeleteWhy did they even bother putting the show up live if they couldn't even get the stream right? Funny how CZW, a company owned by a crazy methhead who holds some of the shows at his farm, has done nearly 20 live IPPVs and have never once had an issue whereas ROH is owned by the largest broadcast TV corporation in America and yet they can't even have more than two shows run without a hitch.
ReplyDeleteevery goddamn time I read it, I see "Conan O'Brien". Even knowing that it's supposed to be "Conor", I can't help it.
ReplyDeleteOh the flip side, Aiden English for a Broadway singer gimmick sounds pretty solid.
ReplyDeleteJust read the results on PWI. Having read your reports in the past, I can only imagine how that final outcome must have driven you nuts.
ReplyDeleteMini-thread jack..
ReplyDeleteWent to the ROH show last night. Good time overall, long night....Once you pass the three hour mark for anything it's a struggle.
Crowd seemed to have peaked early with the Cole/Ciampa match and then it was pretty much cheer for highspots only. Speaking of the crowd...ROH apparently sold tickets to the hard camera side last as it was the only floor section not full.
Couple other quick thoughts...
Jimmy Jacobs return received zero reaction. Haven't seen much of him in the ring but the cluster of 8-10 ROH know-it-alls near me were less than thrilled with his presence.
ACH's dive to the floor was ridiculous.
Forever Hooligan's were fun to watch. Again, didn't know much about them but enjoyed some old school heel-ing and were pretty decent in the ring.
Maria certainly brings the goods.
I enjoyed Cole's heel turn. Everybody seemed to know it was coming but it came off well and got a big pop.
Overall good night of wrestling. Only real complaint (besides the length) is a few matches have HUGE spots that seemingly should have ended it....but we got a kickout followed by the pin less tha 60 seconds later after a less impactful move.
That crowd you were in was bizzare. I've been watching ROH for years and I've never seen a crowd so lethargic
ReplyDeleteEspecially when it points to Cole vs Briscoe, a match that sucked the first time when I saw it LIVE in Toronto
ReplyDeleteThere was actually a lot more kids there than I anticipated.
ReplyDeleteMy section (hard camera) sucked...It was pretty much guys trying to out smark each other with comments and make it seem like they weren't enjoying themselves. The other side seemed to have a lot more fans into the action/chanting etc.
The great irony here. For months people have been demanding ROH return to "Their birthplace in Philidelphia"
ReplyDeleteand then, no offense, the crowd sucked. The Providence Rhode Island and Baltimore Maryland crowds (not to mention the super markets like NYC and Toronto) counted every near fall, popped for every entrance, and lost their shit at every awesome finish.
Compaing the Hooligans win from Philly and Providence is insane--The people in Rhode Island went nuts.
I can kinda see why they'd think it'd get over considering how insanely and instantly over Conor McGregot got in the UFC
ReplyDeleteActually the East Coast Wrestling Association, the company that used to be owned by Jim Kettner and hosts the annual Super 8 tournament, is the second oldest North American wrestling company still in existence, they have been around since 1967 but CZW is unfortunately the third oldest.
ReplyDeleteYou do know that Rob Conway is now the NWA champ right?
ReplyDeleteYeah, he's been the champ for awhile now and you know it's bad when a WWE low-carder who's been semi-retired for half a decade is considered an upgrade over a guy who calls himself Tokyo Monster when he's not a monster and he's never even been to Japan let alone hailed from there.
ReplyDelete