NXT
Date:
November 27, 2013
Location:
Full Sail University, Winter Park, Florida
Commentators:
Tom Phillips, William Regal, Renee Young
Reviewed by Tommy Hall
The
main story coming into tonight is the #1 contenders match between
Sami Zayn and Adrian Neville with the winner getting a shot at Bo
Dallas next week. Other than that we have our usual drama with the
Divas which should be very nice for a change after watching two Total
Divas matches from the pay per view and Raw. Let's get to it.
The
opening video recaps last week's Beat the Clock challenge with Sami
and Adrian finishing with the same time, setting up tonight's match.
Welcome
Home.
Yoshi
Tatsu vs. Antonio Cesaro
Cesaro
gets in ring announcer Byron Saxton's face over accidentally stepping
on the flag, causing Regal to get up from commentary and get Saxton
to safety. The distraction allows Tatsu to get a quick rollup for
two but Cesaro catches his spinwheel kick in midair and slams Tatsu
down. A spinebuster puts Yoshi down and there's the Cesaro Swing for
about 35 seconds. He must be having an off day. The fans tell
Cesaro that he's awesome and it's off to the standing chinlock.
Cesaro holds Tatsu in place and glares at Regal before the
Neutralizer (complete with a wave to the announcers' table) is good
for the pin at 3:33.
Rating:
D+. Just a squash here but it
sets up a match between Regal and Cesaro. If they're given enough
time the showdown could be very entertaining and fortunately NXT is
the place where that could happen. Whatever happened to Tatsu? The
guy was hanging out with Cena on Raw and now is lucky to job on the
minor league show.
Bo
Dallas is in the back and says we're all winners because we get to
see two youngsters fight their hearts out for a chance to live their
dream. “It's just like The Voice!' Of course neither of them have
a chance to beat Dallas but it's nice to see them try. CJ Parker
comes up and just stands there, so Dallas calls him Captain Fantastic
and asks why he's here. Parker: “I didn't realize I was harshing
your mellow.” Dallas: “I didn't realize you were still
employed.” A match is made and the Beatles are quoted in a
bizarrely entertaining segment.
CJ
Parker vs. Bo Dallas
Now
that's quick. Non-title of course. Bo avoids a charge to start and
fires off some elbows to the head. A clothesline gets two for the
champion and we hit the cravate. Parker rolls out and makes a
comeback with some running knees in the corner followed by a falling
front DDT (think Christian's falling reverse DDT but facing the other
way) for two. Parker goes up but gets crotched, setting up Dallas'
bulldog out out of the corner for the pin at 3:03.
Rating:
C-. I can't believe I'm saying
this but Dallas is on fire right now. He's absolutely nailing the
character right now and the switch to the bulldog from the spear is a
huge improvement. I always found it a stretch for someone even
Edge's size to use that move but for Dallas it never worked at all.
Parker continues to be worthless as always.
Emma
talks about being attacked by the BFF's in the locker room, resulting
in some head injuries. Paige comes in and wants no excuses from Emma
when Paige beats her for the title. The champion recaps the
incidents between the two of them and a fight is teased but they both
back off. God bless reality TV because it's keeping these two off
Raw in exchange for JoJo and Eva Marie.
Speaking
of the Total Divas, Natalya comes into Paige's locker room
complaining about something unspecified. Paige talks about Natalya
going Hollywood and not caring about the titles at all. A match is
set up for the title even though I have no idea what Natalya's
problem was in the first place. She complains about everything on
Total Divas anyway so maybe that's her gimmick now.
Tyler
Breeze vs. Kassius Ohno
Alexander
Rusev jumps Ohno during his entrance to leave him laying. Ohno says
he can fight but gets pinned by the Beauty Shot (spinning heel kick)
at 10 seconds. That's Ohno's last televised match in WWE.
The
BFF's are in the back but Charlotte leaves just before Bayley comes
in. Bayley wants to see Charlotte but a tag match is made for later.
The BFF's point out that Bayley has no friends but Bayley says she
has a surprise. Bayley is so adorable it's unreal.
Neville
and Zayn are in the back to talk about the main event tonight.
Adrian says they're friends with a good history but this is about
getting to Raw and Smackdown. You can look at Seth Rollins and Big
E. Langston and see what the title means. Sami agrees that they're
friends but he'll do whatever it takes to win. There's some tension
here but it isn't bad.
Hunico/Camacho
vs. Ascension
Non-title.
Viktor starts with Camacho and rams his head into the corner to get
things going. Camacho comes back with some stomps in the corner and
a belly to back suplex for no cover. Off to Hunico with a slingshot
hilo for two and a springboard cross body for the same. Viktor pulls
him to the corner though and it's off to Conor for the beating. A
spinebuster sets up more stomping from Viktor and the double
powerbomb by Ascension. Camacho comes in with a distraction though,
allowing Hunico to roll up Viktor for the upset at 3:37.
Rating:
C-. Hunico is another guy with
very usable talent who hopefully can get another shot on the main
shows. This was just a match to set up a title match likely next
week and there's nothing wrong with that. I'm not sure I'd have had
the champions get pinned, but at least it was on a fluke instead of a
dominant win by Hunico and Camacho.
We
get the same Beat the Clock video that opened the show. I really
hope they don't start this nonsense in NXT as well.
Adrian
Neville vs. Sami Zayn
Winner
gets Dallas for the title next week. Bo has replaced Regal on
commentary which should be hilarious. They shake hands to start and
we're ready to go. Sami grabs a wristlock but Neville flips out and
sweeps Sami's legs out for two. Some shoulders put Zayn down again
but he comes back with some very deep armdrags to put Adrian in the
corner. They circle each other a bit until Sami grabs the leg for a
hold that goes nowhere.
Back
up and Neville sends Sami to the floor, only to have Zayn get back in
and send Adrian to the floor, followed by a HUGE flip dive to take
both guys down. We take a break and come back with Sami chopping the
skin off Adrian's chest before putting on a chinlock. Back up and a
tilt-a-whirl backbreaker gets two on Neville as the fans are staying
into this. Sami misses his running big boot in the corner and falls
out to the floor as Dallas calls Renee very smart for a Canadian.
A
kick to Sami's face sets up a great looking top rope Asai Moonsault,
followed by a missile dropkick for two for Neville. Back up and
Neville's cartwheel elbow is caught in a blue thunder bomb for a
close two. A Michinoku Driver gets the same for Sami and there's the
running boot in the corner but he can't follow up. Neville
cartwheels into a hurricanrana for two as the fans chant YES. Adrian
gets in a shot to the head to set up the Red Arrow but Sami breaks it
up. Sami's superplex is broken up though and the Red Arrow gives
Neville the title shot at 11:42 shown of 15:12.
Rating:
B. Very solid match here with
both guys looking great. That's another key difference between WWE
and NXT. WWE has people lose without getting anything out of it.
Here in NXT, Sami has lost every one of his major matches but has
been allowed to look competitive which keeps him over. Why is that
so complicated so often?
Post
match Neville and Zayn almost come to blows but hug it out to end the
show.
Overall
Rating: B-. As usual, NXT knows
how to put on the most entertaining hour of wrestling each week.
This set up a lot of stuff but didn't get boring throughout the time.
We have at least five matches set for the future (though Ohno vs.
Rusev won't happen) with most of the payoffs coming next week. That
should make for an excellent show and since this is a well run
promotion, we should actually get an excellent show as a result.
Results
Antonio
Cesaro b. Yoshi Tatsu – Neutralizer
Bo
Dallas b. CJ Parker – Bulldog out of the corner
Tyler
Breeze b. Kassius Ohno – Beauty Shot
Hunico/Camacho
b. Ascension – Small package to Viktor
Adrian
Neville b. Sami Zayn – Red Arrow
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