NXT
Date: May 27, 2015
Location: Full Sail
University, Winter Park, Florida
Commentators: Corey
Graves, Byron Saxton, Rich Brennan
Reviewed by Tommy Hall
It's the week after
Takeover: Unstoppable and the main story seems to be Kevin Owens
fights everyone at once. After challenging John Cena on Raw, sending
Sami Zayn away to get shoulder surgery, possibly putting Hideo Itami
on the shelf, attacking Commissioner William Regal and getting a new
#1 contender with Samoa Joe, Owens now has to deal with the debuting
Samoa Joe. Let's get to it.
We open with a recap of
last week, complete with a quick interview with Joe where he says
he's coming for the title.
Opening sequence.
Sami Zayn's music opens
the show but we get Kevin Owens instead. He was going to issue an
NXT Title Open Challenge, but he isn't insecure enough to have to
defend his title against anyone every week. The fans sing JOHN CENA
SUCKS, but Owens finds it odd that they never say that about Sami
Zayn and he sucks too. We won't be seeing Sami again anyway because
Owens did exactly what he said he would do at Takeover. The only
reason he did that was so he could keep the NXT Title and keep
providing for his family, because that's what a good man does.
Another thing a good
man did was to let Samoa Joe live last week. A lot of people have
said that Joe is gonna kill him, but that's as ridiculous as the
colors of John Cena's merchandise. If Joe ever steps in the same
ring as Owens again, he'll drop Joe just like that. Speaking of
dropping people, that's what he's going to do at Elimination Chamber
when he shows John Cena that the champ is here.
This brings out General
Manager William Regal, who says Owens is walking a thin line. Owens
says Regal put his hands on Owens first, which Regal considers the
only reason Owens still works here. Regal lists off all the people
who have been taken out on a stretcher since Owens arrived, but Kevin
denies being behind Itami's injury. Also, Sami's injuries are on
Sami for asking for it and on Regal for making the match.
This brings
out.....Solomon Crowe? Solomon heard Owens talking about how he
isn't going to fight anyone unless they earn it and that means Kevin
is scared. Kevin thinks Solomon has just earned an opportunity, so
Regal makes the match. That means you can add Solomon to the list of
people he's sent out of here on a stretcher (“Riley, Sami, Sami,
Sami, and now him.”).
Look back at Hideo's
arm injury last week.
Hideo says he's had
surgery and when he comes back, there will be no stopping him.
We get an interview
from last week with Zack Ryder, who was interrupted by Mojo Rawley,
who freaked Zack out a little bit.
Emma
vs. Bayley
Emma is flanked by Dana
Brooke. Bayley gets stomped down in the corner to start and Emma
cranks on an armbar, only to have Bayley throw her to the mat and
just pound away with right hands. A kick to the face gets two near
falls for Emma as the fans are of course completely behind Bayley.
Emma throws her down by the hair a few times and grabs a leg drag,
followed by the Emma Lock for the clean submission at 4:13.
Rating:
D+. This was a glorified squash
for Emma, which isn't something you often see in this division. Emma
being more aggressive is a good change of character for her, but I'm
not sure where Bayley goes from here. She's so ridiculously over
that it's kind of a strange choice to have her lose like this.
Charlotte
comes out for the post match save but gets beaten down as well.
Recap
of Baron Corbin beating Rhyno last week.
Baron
was being interviewed after his win last week when Rhyno came up and
said they should do it again soon.
We
see Becky Lynch's career retrospective from last week with new
footage of her match with Sasha
last week.
Elias
Samson/Mike Rallis
vs. Blake/Murphy
Non-title
and Alexa Bliss is with the champs. Blake
and Rallis get things going with Mike taking a quick beating. It's
off to Murphy for a slingshot hilo and a chinlock as
the champs continue to dismantle Rallis. Mike
finally rolls over for a hot tag, bringing in Elias for some
dropkicks. That lasts all
of ten seconds before the running brainbuster into the frog splash is
enough for the pin on Samson
at 3:15.
Rating:
D+. Another squash here to
establish the new trio. The new look works very, very well for Bliss
and she's very fitting as a woman who looks down on everyone around
her. Blake and Murphy are good in these roles but I'm really not
sure how far they can go after they lose the belts.
Samson
takes a Sparkle Splash for some insult to injury.
Post
break, Bliss says she gravitated to the team because they're all
winners. Compare this to Carmella, who is famous for being from a
garbage dump like Long Island. Next week, that's where Bliss is
sending her.
Tye
Dillinger vs. Finn Balor
Dillinger
scores with a quick elbow to the face but Balor smiles at him. Some
choking with a boot in the corner has some more effect on Finn and we
hit the chinlock. Balor
comes back with a running forearm and basement dropkick, followed by
the Sling Blade. The Coup de Grace completes the squash for Finn at
2:45.
Jason
Jordan says he's found the perfect partner when Chad Gable comes up,
saying it has to be him. Gable
lists off his qualifications but Jordan says he already has a
partner. He also says the wrong name so Gable throws him a towel
with his name on it.
Kevin
Owens vs. Solomon Crowe
Non-title.
Owens bails to the floor so
Solomon goes after him, only to eat some right hands to the face.
Back in and Owens throws him
outside again and we take a break. We come back with Owens
putting on a chinlock. That
gets boring in a hurry so Owens just hammers him down and tosses
Solomon back to the floor. The
pop-up powerbomb finally ends Crowe at 9:24.
Rating: D+.
Another dull squash but did anyone expect anything else? There was
no need for this to be anything other than Owens crushing Crowe and
it's not like you lose anything. Crowe is the definition of a guy
who is just there and not doing a thing despite being a fairly big
signing back in the day. Nothing to see here.
Owens
loads up the apron powerbomb but Samoa Joe comes out big staredown,
sending Kevin running to end
the show.
Overall
Rating: D+. This just wasn't
very good. It's a big fallout show from Takeover, but unfortunately
that meant little more than airing clips from the show and having the
winners in squash matches. It wasn't the worst because not a lot
happened, but this was one of the flatter shows they've done in a
long time. Things should pick up when they start the big stories
again soon.
Results
Emma b. Bayley – Emma
Lock
Blake/Murphy b. Elias
Samson/Mike Rallis – Frog splash to Samson
Finn Balor b. Tye
Dillinger – Coup de Grace
Kevin Owens b. Solomon
Crowe – Pop up powerbomb
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