Tag: NXT

NXT Takeover Brooklyn II

NXT Takeover Brooklyn II
August 20, 2016
Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn, New York

Austin Aries vs. No Way Jose
– Jose’s tee is “No Way -Jose”. That friggin’ hyphen. Does Jose say “No Way” a lot? 😛 I’m not a fan of his dance spot, it’s real house show gimmick and he got Aries to do it (at the Dublin house show anyway)
– nothing notable; crowd initially like Jose but get solidly behind the far more talented veteran. Aries hits a sunset flip powerbomb (no chance of Aloha’ing there) and Last Chancery for the submission.
– Itami hits the ring and out of nowhere hits the GTS! Wow I can’t believe they gave it away so quickly. Looking forward to their match in 2 months.

Ember Moon vs Billy Kay
– Australia’s Billy Kay looks like the alternate costume version of Eva Marie.
– Enjoyed Ember’s Milena mouth veil and gothic entrance; then she starts bouncing up and down as she’s excited, odd mix!
– NXT is this weird place where you have 10+ year veterans and developmental talent on the same card. This match is between two new signees having a highly scripted match. Couple of awkward exchanges and dodgy punches, the two didn’t gel well.
– Loved Ember’s top rope RKO/Stunner. Looked awesome, popped the crowd.
– Not high hopes for either wrestler.

Bobby Roode vs. Andrade Almas
– amazing entrance by Roode. He tried very hard not to mark out, basking in the love of the NXT crowd singing his entrance theme (already!!). Ya gotta love when WWE do things solely for it’s very hardcore fans and they reciprocate in kind.
– match got Andrade’s gimmick/personality over a bit (eg countering thrown to the outside by tangling himself in the ropes) but was more just a coming-out party for Roode
– match had nothing huge going on, Roode won clean with his pump-handle slam (minus the bumming)

– OCC (not OOC) reveal the CWC trophy, which is a metallic, bulbous penis.

The Revival (c) vs. Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa
– Revival are great at being old school rasslin’ heels (eg pulling someone off the apron) and Gargano/Ciampa warmed up to an exciting finish, tons of near falls that the crowd were really into; right team won I felt, Revival win with an inverted figure 4 and can face TM61 next probably.
– The match was WAY better than expected! Very impressive. Crowd gave the challengers a standing ovation afterwards.
– For a couple of seconds they tease a Ciampa heel turn but they didn’t. Good stuff.

– Jolly Rancher’s new slogan is “keep on sucking”. ha ha ha!

Asuka (c) vs. Bayley
– fantastic storyline match: Bayley was clearly in over her head vs Asuka. The champ enjoyed being in front, smiling as she controlled Bayley – which is almost a heel thing.
– Bayley would fight back, despite changing tactics, hulking up, and escaping the Asuka lock, she’d get repeatedly beaten down
– In the end, Bayley’s never-say-die attitude was kicked in the head (literally) and she went down for the 3.
– AWESOME storytelling, the loss gets Bayley over more (as a sympathetic underdog) and Asuka looks like a fucking killer.
– Great shot of Bayley’s mates Becky & Sasha heartbroken afterwards.
– Small point but Charlotte was not sitting near the babyfaces – awesome kayfabe.
– I expect Bayley to be called up any day now (she bloody worked Battleground last month wtf!) and since she was thoroughly outclassed there’s no need for a round 3/getting that 2nd women’s title reign – it’s been 3.5 years!

Samoa Joe (c) vs. Shinsuke Nakamura
– Shinsuke’s entrance was very cool, had the violinist play a little piece beforehand and along with the main theme.
– Joe’s street-Godzilla theme is also cool
– started off with Joe dominating with well, rest holds, more of a showcase transitioning into various submission holds. It’s pretty awesome to see how large his repertoire is.
– after 10 minutes or so it built up into big moves trying to score the win
– both men kicked out of each other’s finishes (Joe selling a broken jaw is great)
– Nakamura hit a top rope knee to the back of the head then a Kinshasa for the win and the NXT title, place goes nuts.

Overall: Very good Takeover special (they’re always great) but it’s getting harder for them to live up to the unmatchable high standards/expectations set by previous attempts; especially losing a lot of wrestlers to the ‘big leagues’. It really is a TNA 2013 show with Aries, Roode and Joe in singles matches! With Sami doing nothing on the main roster maybe he could pop down for the next TakeOver. A very easy 2hr35m watch, but not unmissable.

An #NXTTakeOver debut worthy of only one word…
Excited to see the future of @REALBobbyRoode in @WWENXT. pic.twitter.com/mq8V0X1O26

— Triple H (@TripleH) August 21, 2016

Not too hard to see who Roode modeled himself on!

SummerSlam 2016 video review coming next week! More info: OSW Update for August

August 21, 2016
NXT Dublin Review! (14 June 2016)

NXT Dublin 14 June 2016

Yo! Here’s a quick write-up about last night’s NXT event at the 3 Arena. Thanks to James at MCD who comp’d our tickets! I’m no good at numbers but probably 4,000 were at it — not being full was great as in general you could get in and out in a few minutes. WWE have a deal with Three so they had to use this arena (as a WWE Network-only Developmental Show, a smaller one would’ve been preferable) so they closed off the entrance way side — but only the top section of seats were empty. More importantly, the crowd were rabid! The audience were into everything and everyone (except No Way Jose’s stop-match-to-dance spot) and sustained loud chanting throughout. Show kicked off about 7.30pm and finished at 9.45, including a 15m intermission. T-shirt-wise there were a TON of red Nakamura shirts and Balor Club shirts, a healthy dose of retro shirts (mostly nWo and Austin 3:16) and darest I say OSW shirts (which is so freakin’ awesome!). Shinsuke’s tees sold out immediately, and then Bálor’s (although half of the entire merch there was his!)

• Tye Dillinger v Hugo Knox
Tye cut a heel promo insulting Ireland’s draw against Sweden which drew heat, I was really impressed (Americans insulting Europeans about sports usually gets derisively dismissed). He shouted “you’re Ireland!” when beating up Hugo Knox. Who is Hugo Knox? Not Mike’s brother, that’s who. He got “who are ya?” chants. He’s an English Brakkus, a former Port Vale goalkeeper, and is ripped to the gills, congrats on the Roidy Magoo award! Still pretty green but moved well despite being absolutely huge. Perfect 10 has go-away heat from V1 but the crowd absolutely loved him. Sadly I’ll report it sounded like maybe 50/50 smarks and marks — I reckon a lot of smarks don’t do house shows. Silly to have Tye as a heel. Peeps brought 10 signs! Knox won with a split-legged moonsault, which the crowd didn’t appreciate.

• Wesley Blake v Andrade Cien Almas
Gosh it’s like a “great value” version of Trent Baretta and Sin Cara. Blake got (tag partner) “Murphy’s better” chants. His outfit was like a refresher bar and tassles – in the 80s he’d be face but is a heel in 2016. Thought the star on his arse said “BLAM!” but I think it was Blake, lol. Andrade (CMLL’s La Sombra) played a white-meat babyface Mexican who gets fired up from the crowd. His offence looked good but nobody cares about his character (and so his matches) yet. Andrade won after double knees in the corner. That move was done multiple times throughout the night, dammit d’lo!

• Sawyer Fulton & Alexander Wolfe v American Alpha
WHO? Two Mad Max scruffy-looking fellas. Wolfe (the blonde one) is German so the crowd heckled them about it. So that’s three matches in a row with at least one nobody/new guy that’s not over in it – i.e. people that need to be doing house shows. We’d great seats (on the ‘hard camera’ side) with only one tiered row in front of us but whenever stars started coming out (ie American Alpha) the 7 foot dude in front of me started standing for the entrances. And then the 7 foot guy beside Steve started doing the same!
Jordan and Gable were CRAZY OVER. They just stopped for a while to let the crowd chant the There’s No Limit song as well as the Kurt Angle song to their names. Gable looked so smooth and technical and sold a lot so Jordan could run wild, everyone lapped it up. Mad Maxes had some dodgy offense – the best/worst bit was Alexander Wolfe did these running fall-down splashes, and the crowd were agast at such a shit move – “WHAT WAS THAT?” chants! AA won with the Grand Amplitude and everyone was happy. Dash & Dawson showed up and talked smack, tried to ambush the faces but Dash was put in a double single ankle lock (Gable and Jordan with one ankle each) and they scarper.

• No Way Jose v Austin Aries
V1 said he’d be at the bar but after hearing No Way Jose’s theme but stayed for Austin Aries. Jose is supposed to be face but as soon as his entrance is done the crowd are solidly for Aries. Jose stops the match for a dance spot (he needs a definitive dance move if it’s to get over, like Fandango’ing had the pointy arms thing) and the crowd entertained it but gave massive cheers to Aries for attacking him to end the spot. I imagine Aries takes his craft seriously, I wonder if he was pissed to have do this Punch & Judy house-show shit. Aries looked extremely crisp (as he should, he’s amazing) and Jose didn’t have much, Aries lead this match. Someone gave Aries a “you can’t wrestle” chant, Aries shot him daggers after chain-wrestling Jose. Hilarious. A Double misses his discus elbow and Jose pins him with a schoolboy, fuck that.

• NXT Women’s Champion Asuka v Peyton Royce
Asuka got a great reaction but not as loud/sustained as I’d hoped. She’s gorgeous and a bad-ass. That she used to work for Xbox and Nintendo only sweetens the deal! Peyton really needs work, they did the ‘repeat the spot’ bit more than once as she loses the run of herself. As an Aussie, Peyton got “Knifey-Spoony!” chants, which was amazing. The champ got “Fuck ’em up Asuka, Fuck ’em up!” which is a popular one here. Casual swearing this side of the pond 🙂 Asuka won with her crossface chicken wing submission.

15m Intermission

Clicky for Part 2 incl. Nakamura/Roode and Finn/Joe!

June 15, 2016
NXT Dublin Review Part 2!

Click here for Part 1!

• Bobby Roode v Shinsuke Nakamura
Kinda devastated, we missed both of their entrances, we were out getting drinks and in the smoking area. But we met fans ther which was way better! After the show one of our brahs showed us his video of the entrance and you couldn’t see anything amonst the sea of marking out, lol. We switched seats on the way back in, thank God! Crowd LOVE Bobby Roode (Fuck TNA chants), Nakamura’s reaction was maybe louder than Finn’s reaction. He’s a superstar. Massive treat getting to see the two. OOC marked out seeing Roode, one of his favourite wrestlers. Unique chant, “Shinsuke’s on fire, Bobby Roode is terrified!”. Too busy marking out, but Nakamura won with the Kinshasa. He did his entrance deal for us and left to a sea of cheers. Awesome.

• Alexa Bliss & Nia Jax v Bayley & Carmella
Alexa Bliss, wow she is gorgeous. Plays “Row Z can see I’m a heel” well. Nia Jax has no physical charisma/presence, she looks awkward and unsure of herself (well, she is new!) Amazing chant of “your cousin sucks!”). Carmella was pretty over and enjoyed that, and Bayley was super popular (third behind Finn & Nakamura). She looked so happily embarrassed stopping to let us get our chants in. She also did her entrance mostly towards us which I appreciate! Alexa still has her Iron Man style outfit and had a nice blind tag. Bayley did her guillotine spots on Nia, did a Perfect 10 corner move/cartwheel spot, and won with a Bayley-to-Bayley suplex on Jax (who was very kind to jump).

• NXT Champion Samoa Joe vs. Finn Balor
There was an extra bit of build-up music for Finn’s theme, which had a Balor Worldwide and Irish flag, crowd went mental for him. He is super-ripped, he mustn’t have had a carb in 6 years! You can see the individual muscles in his quads. People were into Samoa Joe but as soon as it started, the crowd stood up and clapped and cheered for Finn whilst he was in wear-down spots (“Stand Up, If you love Ba-lor”!) it was crazy awesome. They’re very smooth together, blocking each other’s finishers; in the end Finn missed the Coup de Grace and Joe rolled him up for the win. Crowd were really disappointed, got Joe back into the ring so Finn could do his finish and his theme played.

Other notes:
• The ring announcer intonated just like Lillian Garcia but is some woman I’ve never seen before. Looked a bit like Eden Styles and Nia Jax put together.
• When she had signed photos in her hand, the guy behind me shouted “BUT WHERE CAN WE GET THESE SIGNED PHOTOS?!” as she shilled the merch stand. Hilarious.
• A couple of knobs started chanting “we are awesome” and was IMMEDIATELY SHUT DOWN by the crowd. Ha!
• There were adults wearing *child-sized* replica belts which I find SO FUNNY! On grown-ups they almost look like massive watches.

Met @OSWreview again at #NXTDublin !!! pic.twitter.com/NCtYgeM3A2

— NathanTheCampionOfTheWorld (@campion95) June 14, 2016

Meeting you guys!
Before the event, during the intermission and afterwards we got to meet maybe 2 dozen fans which was so awesome. They’re so lovely and funny dudes. I just know there was a good few more that we didn’t get to say hi to! Also was able to give away all of my Virgil Dollars. Also think taking a picture and wearing a waistcoat helped finding us. So I started accosting people I saw wearing OSW shirts! We found a group of fans and went for pints in the first place we could find.

Overall: Lots of house show/”needs work” wrestlers clogging up the first half but was fantastic seeing Aries, Nakamura/Roode, Balor/Joe and Asuka/Bayley. Crowd were WAY up for it which was great, and getting to meet you guys was brilliant! Sláinte!

If u went to the show or any NXT event on the tour, lemme know what you thought/if it differed from NXT Dublin! Tweet me any pics you have of the event!

June 15, 2016
WWE Beast In The East

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WWE Beast In The East house show
New Sumo Hall, Tokyo, Japan, July 4th, 2015 (10:30am BST)

I’m so glad they made the decision to air this on the Network. Despite having hallmarks of a house show, it’s very cool to see WWE in unfamiliar surroundings with a different setup. The production was more like NXT: harsh bright lighting, less rigid camerawork – no cutting every second or zooming in/shaking on moves like stomping. With Michael Cole & Byron Saxton on commentary (live from Stamford, CT) they weren’t shilling Sonic Burger or whatever bollocks about the United Authority – there were no promos, no backstage skits – they just talked about the match being presented and the background of the wrestlers, in a reserved, relaxed way. It was much more of a legitimate sporting event feel – really great stuff.

Two untelevised matches: Cesaro submitted Diego, and Lucha Dragons got the pin over New Day.

CHRIS JERICHO vs ADRIAN NEVILLE
Jericho has his light-up jacket, which is fun to see again. Cool to think the last light-up jacket used in Japan was Prince Devitt’s, who’s now in WWE but back in Japan! Mildly jarring remembering that Jericho’s in WWE (with Tough Enough) but doesn’t wrestle. He has more knacker tattoos than ever! Cole & Saxton talk about their pre-WWE backgrounds, it’s surreal, FMW (Jericho), DG (Pac). It makes Michael Cole especially sound so much smarter and credible. The lads are wearing matching purple attire. Jericho’s very windy and Neville’s SO much faster. Oddly they don’t work the crowd. Speaking of, there’s an awesome “I’m deaf” sign. It’s so odd to hear a Japanese crowd go through the usual WWE chants (this is awesome, later on ‘let’s go Cena, Cena sucks’ etc). There’s a couple of mistakes and very short sequences i.e. they’re calling this one in the ring, but overall it’s an entertaining match. Lots of Jericho countering/cutting off Neville. Y2J didn’t do any high-risk moves, he’s too old for that! The only real choreography was the finishing sequence. He catches Neville with a lionsault, Code Breaker, countered the Red Arrow with his knees and applies the Lion Tamer (a great treat! Something we only see with smaller opponents like Tyson Kidd) for the win in 16:20. I quite enjoyed it despite being a little sloppy and a little too long.

DIVAS CHAMPIONSHIP: NIKKI BELLA (c) vs PAIGE vs TAMINA
Nothing really of note here. Tamina gets teamed up on, replies with a Tower of Doom. She gets caught with a Nigel forearm from Nikki, who retains at 7:04.

BROCK LESNAR vs KOFI KINGSTON
No Heyman and instead of pyro, dry ice discharges! Brock is SO huge. A beast of a man, if you will. Cole mentions Brock being IWGP champion, which was this whole messy affair: Antonio Inoki left NJPW to create the IGF. Champion Brock left NJPW, but kept the title over a monetary dispute. He dropped this title to Kurt Angle at the first IGF show. Kurt then wrestled in NJPW and lost it to Shinsuke Nakamura, who became their new unified IWGP/IGF champion! (And all was right with the world again).
An obvious mismatch turned to be…an obvious mismatch. Kofi’s gameplan was to WCW Brock and counter suplexes by landing on his feet. After a minute Brock stops selling Kofi’s offense (looked great) and just catches him, suplex city over and over, F5 and pin. A blowout, dominant performance in a nothing match – just him being there was the draw. That felt quite house show-y but it gets over how big a deal Lesnar is, and god help Seth Rollins. He destroys/F5s New Day afterwards.

NXT CHAMPIONSHIP: KEVIN OWENS (c) vs FINN BALOR
I haven’t mentioned it but WWE have been doing a mini-documentary about Finn for the 3 weeks leading up to this match, it’s superb viewing. Devitt comes off as very humble, professional and dedicated. He loves legos and is big pals with Tensai. Becky Lynch is given tons of time talking about Fergal and going to his wrestling school. They show lots of photos, tweets and footage from his time in the Irish, English & Scottish indies, which is really amazing to see on WWE TV. They put the three parts together into a 26-minute mini-docu called “The Demon Revealed”, track it down!
Balor’s entrance is kinda in fast-forward, he didn’t revel in it. His full-on body paint has a Japanese demon head on his back, awesome. I LOVE the giving of flowers for championship matches. It’s so out of place with Demon Balor and KO. Finn thanks the Geisha whilst Owens throws his out onto the ramp. Fans throw coloured streamers for Balor’s entrance. Oh man, I’ve said it before but I wish someone worthy in WWE would take that gimmick of the streamers. Bryan (well, it’s too late now) or Itami or Balor himself would be perfect. After a dropkick into the barricade, you can see someone dressed as Curry Man. AWESOME. There’s also a Japanese Simon Gotch.
Owens spends a lot of time working the crowd, bowing to each side. He also builds up a big head of steam and into a headlock, shouting how he hates the country and everyone in it. Hilarious. He’s great. He successfully gets even me to hate him as they wrestle a WWE match, where the heel gets the shine for the vast majority; making it a slow affair, Devitt keeps getting cut off. Owens, the man with the most feuds of anyone in wrestling (Itami, Balor, Joe, Zayn, Cena) does the 5 Knuckle Shuffle. No chained sequences, just move to move; until Finn gains momentum, hitting a reverse & regular Bloody Sunday. Owens hits a sweet release german, cannonball and package slam; before a Green Bay Plunge from the 2nd rope. Some really sweet moves but at a heel’s pace. In the end, Balor his a running dropkick, sliding dropkick in the corner, and coup de grace double footstomp to win the NXT title at 19:26! Afterwards WWE HOF’er (lol) Tatsumi Fujinami congratulates Balor and the commentators and replays put Devitt over really strong.
Overall it spent a bit too much time with the heel being intentionally slowly dominant (we’ve seen even in WWE with Cena that KO can do a much faster pace) but it’s great to see the two have a prominent match, KO dropping the belt and fully graduating to the main roster, and Balor’s next in line to do so. This should’ve main-evented.
NXT right now is this weird (awesome) hybrid of extremely talented ROH/Japan guys and then dudes like Blake and Murphy, who REALLY need developmental. I wonder if people will still love NXT after Itami, Sayn and the most talented guys leave.

MAIN EVENT: JOHN CENA & DOLPH ZIGGLER VS KANE & KING BARRETT
A tag match main event? Featuring Dolph, Kane and Barrett no less? It must be a house show! Half an hour left to kill too. This match drags and drags, lots of time spent working over Ziggler. He eventually tags in Cena, who hits all of his signature moves on Barrett and gets the win at 23:51. Sadly Kane didn’t come out with a lei (Hawaiian wreath of flowers). That would’ve been boss. Hawaiian Kane. Since he went on Va-kane-tion. I’m so sorry.

Overall: I hope they do this televised house show every so often, it’s very cool. The house show mentality (for better and worse) made for a much more refreshing WWE production. 2 hours is perfect (like NXT Takeovers). Imagine if they had Cesaro/Brock instead. Could’ve used Ambrose & Rollins in the main event instead if they were intent on a tag match. If you’re sick of WWE’s 20-minute promos and 3-hour RAWs, I recommend giving this a watch. Great place to give Balor his first title in the company.

Link to the new Tough Enough/Tough Talk “Swamp Stories” review: OSWreview.com/tough-enough-602/[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]

Our brah Nate’s photos and live event experience:

[/vc_column_text][vc_gallery type=”flexslider_fade” interval=”10″ images=”4171,4172,4173,4174,4175,4176,4177,4178,4179,4180,4181,4182,4183,4184″ onclick=”link_image” custom_links_target=”_self” img_size=”717×538″]tricker[/vc_gallery][vc_accordion active_tab=”false”][vc_accordion_tab title=”Nate’s live show experience:”][vc_column_text]The crowd were straight up smoking hot! Folks got into the austere tradition and the funky colorful side of it, too: a whole gang of gents were in full Cena garb, fans were in cosplay like mad (I’ll send pics of that soon), and there were plenty of old school diehards running around – I saw Warrior shirts, Big Gold Belts, and even a Bunny!! (no Adam Rose, tho). Lots of foreign dudes were there – we all had an instant international chant-heavy connection.

Hope you loved the show! The crowd did manage to crank out some pretty good English chants, yeah? – even bigger than what was heard on the Network broadcast (someone seriously needs to muzzle Michael Cole!!). Too bad they left out the Cesaro vs. Matador Diego match, and New Day vs. Lucha Dragons, which the crowd were insane to see. All in all, it was a smaller-sized venue full of fans who were genuinely happy to be there; no cynics or grumblers in sight. They were GLUED to the performance, too – nary a side conversation going on, and so much energy for every move!!

This really was one of those cool live shows that just can’t be done proper justice on a TV. Never mind the surprisingly satisfying in-ring product (even the divas’ and the main event!) – the atmosphere was all positive, all enthused, and all inclusive. I could even hear myself roaring out “Y-2-J!!” and “Fozzy Rocks!!” on the broadcast like a mad shameless mark, but folks always got into it – people were yelling out great J-English phrases all the while: “Supa-koo(l), mahn!!” and “Yooo rock-oo!!”. Even my girlfriend was bouncing up and down for every match – too damned cool!!

Also on that, we were trying to do the old Savage / Elizabeth-on-shoulder pose for the picture. Didn’t realize that the shirts were so obscured, but that’s what a sushi / saki warm-up snack will do to a guy… C heck out the square whitish photos of Sumo wrestlers in the top left wall area! World class ! Y2J looks when I yell FOZZY and MOONGOOSE!

On the dark matches:
Yeah, they were solid! Cesaro / Diego was nice and fast with competing “Ole’s!!”, and Cesaro really knew how to work-up the crowd. He wings Diego for 27! The Matadores used some hilarious twin-magic with hugging each other and spinning in a circle at ringside, and when Cesaro went after them, they split up and ran under opposite sides of the ring, so he dug them both out and squashed both. It culminated with Torito wiggle dancing on top and pouncing on Cesaro, so he caught the baby bull and gorilla-pressed him over the turnbuckle onto Fernando before getting the pin.

New Day got great heat with the clapping and chanting, and LDragons started well with their signature speed-over-power action (awesome). Xavier looked great, and even Big E looked faster than usual with Sin Cara crawling all over him. After New Day pummeled them for a bit, Dragons turned it around with a double tope dive through the ropes, and Calisto spun around and rolled up Xavier for the win. Great opener-style match.

The crowd was just manic for both matches, and they actually kept awake for the whole show after (though some did leave during the final match — Cena just moves at such a glacial pace..). Still a surprisingly good show, and so much more fun to watch without having to listen to the commentators — this actually restores a bit of my faith in WWE, which is great considering the drop in wrestling numbers worldwide…[/vc_column_text][/vc_accordion_tab][/vc_accordion][/vc_column][/vc_row]

July 6, 2015
NXT TakeOver 6: Unstoppable

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NXT TakeOver 6: Unstoppable!
Wednesday 20th May from Full Sail University (FL), a 2-hour special on the WWE Network

Disappointing news, NXT oversold the event, meaning 100 or so people who had a ticket didn’t get in. Sorry @Fugoy brah! Also, Hideo Itami was injured/selling in the parking lot, and that’s the kayfabe reason for a torn rotator cuff, and being out of this next match:

TYLER BREEZE VS. FINN BALOR
Tyler had a super version of his entrance with multiple ‘models’ doing his selfie schtick, and had a furry red & yellow cape! It suits him really well. Finn did his spectacular Demon entrance – this time he had a bat wingspan and horns down his spine outfit, and spray-painted a massive eye on his back. Love how theatrical he is, it’s main event grade. The crowd shout “Holy shit!” and a dad chants along, while ear-muffing his kid. Amazing.
The match itself was what you’d expect but below what you’d hope. Finn survived a super-model kick, denied a Bloody Sunday, and dived onto Breeze from the top of the stage, which was 6 feet off the ground. He won with a double foot stomp in a decisive win and picks up the #1 contenders slot. Finn will (hopefully) be a megastar on the main roster but Tyler, I can’t see being anything beyond an Adam Rose/DJ Gabriel/(the world is) Sylvain Grenier level.

I gotta say, I LOVE how enthusiastic the NXT crowd are, they’re into everything, but they’re so obnoxious and smarky. They force themselves to chant constantly, from “please don’t die” (as Finn is 6 feet off the floor) to “you’re not counting” to the ref whilst the wrestlers are outside, to “marking out”, which is my second most hated chant (after “we are awesome”).

EMMA & DANA BROOKE VS. CHARLOTTE & BAYLEY

Emma’s dropping the dancing moron gimmick, looks much better with her new hair & outfit. Dana (as the most green) was successfully hidden and the match wasn’t anything spectacular. I’M A NOGGER! I’m always impressed with Bayley, a wrestling character aimed specifically at young girls, a straight happy babyface that is easily likeable. It was unmemorable; the finish had Bayley give Brooke the Belly to Bayley and after a Figure 8 (bridging Figure 4) and a snapmare (‘Natural Selection’) Charlotte picks up the win for the babyfaces and they do each other’s right analog stick taunts.

RHYNO VS. BARON CORBIN

Rhyno has access to R-Truth’s fountain of youth. He looks the same as he did in 2001. He was brought aboard for exactly this – wrestle with and improve younger talents, always dependable for a good match. Corbin’s gimmick of squashing people is very odd for a developmental territory (i.e. how is he supposed to improve?). He goes much longer in a 50/50 affair with Rhyno in a surprisingly decent match. They gassed out in the second half and picked up for the finish, which saw Corbin get the End of Days for the win.

BLAKE & MURPHY VS. ENZO AMORE & COLIN CASSADY FOR TAG TITLES

It’s weird how Blake & Murphy are the champions, especially when almost everyone in NXT has a strong gimmick. They’re extremely bland. That could be worked into a gimmick but they haven’t. Enzo, Can of Piss & Carmella do their SAWFT schtick (which is great). Enzo & Cassady generally have control which means they’ll get the upset loss; Alexa Bliss heels out on Carmella, and banana-peels Enzo, so he crotches himself on the top rope, and Murphy gets the win. It was alright.

SASHA BANKS VS. BECKY LYNCH FOR WOMEN’S TITLE

Becky is wearing some kind of steampunk outfit and has dyed her hair electric red. She’s running through a lot of unsuccessful looks, I hope she finds the right one before coming to the main roster, I really want her to do well. These women got 15 MINUTES, and did a great job – it’s either this or the main event for match of the night. They embarrassed the main-roster Divas, who are both shackled by Vince & Kevin Dunn’s portrayal of women, and couldn’t match the NXT females even if they did get 15 minutes, because the majority are models taught how to wrestle, not women wrestlers. Lots of working the arms; back suplex; Becky caught Banks and rushed her into the stairs whilst still selling her arm. Banks won with a top rope divorce court & bank statement (crossface) for the submission win. I love how the winners tonight got a minute or so to celebrate, to let the win sink in. Fans sang Becky’s song and gave her a standing ovation afterwards. Great stuff.

KEVIN OWENS VS SAMI ZAYN FOR THE NXT TITLE

Earlier, KO said he stepped on the US title as the NXT title is the real prize (awesome). He again warned Sami not to show up as he’ll injure him for good. Even though Sami injured his shoulder, he’s been cleared to compete, which really means ‘do the PPV, further injure yourself, and then take time off to heal’. KO comes out wearing John Cena’s tee (like a boss!). Steen’s psychology and promos are tremendous. Only drawback is seeing what a nice guy/loving dad he is on Twitter, it jars with his CM-Punk style character. They had an entertaining match (it’s KO & Zayn, how could they not!), 7 minutes in Owens powerbombs Sami into the apron, which injures him, and refs keep fending off Owen. It wasn’t stated but Owens should’ve been declared the winner by ref stoppage. He snuck in to kick Sayn in the head which was wonderful. Regal tried to get him to stop attacking Zayn and got headbutted for his troubles. Then Samoa Joe came out! Amazing to see him, looks in better shape already. His theme song sucks though, a TNA rip-off with a bit of dancing-pimp in there too. They went nose to nose but didn’t touch, Owens backed down and left. The whole thing was crazy over, with “Joe’s Gonna Kill You” and “Fight Owens Fight” chants. Joe’s still scheduled to work all his indie dates so it’s likely he’ll be like Rhyno, wrestling occasionally. Who do you wanna see Samoa Joe wrestle? And if he has to change his name, what would change it to? Besides “Joey Samoey”!

Crowd watching: The Mountain from GoT (did you know? Samoa Joe is doing a voice-acting in GoT’s Telltale games!), Stephanie, the un-named Uhaa Nation and Eva Marie.

So that was it! Good-but-nothing-spectacular undercard, but most importantly, the top 2 matches delivered; women in the ring, men storyline-wise, looking great for the future. What fate took away with Zayn & Itami, WWE’ve booked themselves out of it with Owens at Elimination Chamber and Samoa Joe (and Finn) as KO’s next opponents. Great! Crazy to think WWE has a show with Generico, Steen, Devitt, KENTA and Samoa Joe in it! I’d recommend watching the last 2 matches.

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News – TNA iMPACT CANCELLED (again!): OSWreview.com/tna-cancelled-again

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May 21, 2015
NXT Takeover: R Evolution

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Date: December 11, 2014
Venue: Full Sail University (Florida)
Attendance: 400 (free admission for FSU students)
Commentators: Rich Brennan, Alex Riley and Corey Graves (who announced his official in-ring retirement due to concussion issues and his new spot on commentary)

KEVIN OWENS (KEVIN STEEN) vs CJ PARKER
KO’s out first! Awesome to finally see him in WWE, STATE of his ring gear though! Cut-off tee, long shorts and high boots look awful! He’s lost a lot of weight from even joining NXT, good stuff.Straight out of the 80s, the babyface sends the hippie heel packing after two clotheslines and a running cannonball. Crowd fucking flip out for KO’s plancha to the outside. He landed hard on the ramp, ow! Since that’s the only area where there’s a bit of space around the ring, every match has some kind of plancha/tope out onto the ramp. It’s difficult/more awkward to chant Owens gonna kill you and fight Owens fight, since it’s 2 syllables, but the crowd do it well. Palm strike by CJ actually busts Steen’s nose, and a slightly bloody face looks great. Ref gets on the latex-allergy gloves but Owen just does a pop-up powerbomb and gets the 3 in 3:14. Like an Irish mammy the ref forces himself to clean KO’s nose. A short, strong debut showcasing Steen – huge huge potential and faith shown.

NXT TAG TITLES: LUCHA DRAGONS (Kalisto & Sin Cara) (c) vs VAUDVILLAINS (Aiden English & Simon Gotch)
Big fan of the complete anarchonism, turn of the century carny tough-men, and their 1920’s film style vignettes. However their theme is now more downbeat heel, their entrance now has an annoying stutter and Aiden especially seems to have completely dropped the pretense, while Gotch keeps it up. I love how their outfits are high contrast to look great in black and white (Gotch’s boots are magic). We get a video package of the Luchas speaking perfect english (don’t do that!) “IT FEELS INCREDIBLE WOOO!” lol. Luchas get some showcase spots before old timeys get the heat on Sin Cara. Hunico and Kalisto – about 10% of cost of Sin Cara and Mysterio. Kalisto gets the hot tag and salvages a botched roll up with a kick to the head, good save. Dragons look to perform double planchas but English pushes Gotch out of the way (gets “chivalry” chants!) but Kalisto catches Gotch with a Salida Del Sol (like a sliced bread without the use of a turnbuckle) and 3 in 6:40 to keep the belts. Have to say, Hunico’s not the best lucha – he’s a bigger guy and a bit windy, so his moves (while unbotched) are performed a bit slow. Another short, entertaining matchup, good stuff.

TYE DILLINGER vs BARON CORBIN
Who? That’s right. Music starts with a harley revving, it’s the DOA! It’s Baron Corbin, who was a jobber until his monster heel “coming out” last NXT Special (squashing CJ Parker). A great gimmick, the fans start counting as Corbin squashes his opponent in a matter of seconds. SHAME THEY CAN’T COUNT SECONDS, THEY JUST COUNT – FUCK YOU! IT’S CESARO’S SWING ALL OVER AGAIN. They give up at 32 anyway, shame as he was literally ONE MOVE from winning. He wins in 41 seconds with the end of days (swinging reverse STO). Bull Dempsy aka Tubby Rhyno looks on from ringside. A nothing squash match but Corbin is over (with the NXT crowd, who are on top form tonight. I wish WWE produced RAW shows good enough to get this type of unfaltering love.)

We get a picture-in-picture pre-taped Sami Zayn promo getting over his match (he’ll quit if he doesn’t win), as well as seeing Zayn get in the zone in the locker-room. Of note, Steen looks at him from another bench.

THE ASCENSION (Konnor & Viktor) vs HIDEO ITAMI & FINN BALOR (KENTA & Prince Devitt)
Please bare with me if I call indy or international guys by their non-WWE name, it’s only been a few weeks under WWE vs many years by something else. Couldn’t have more contrasting teams – The Asscension are two poor, lumbering brawlers booked like big men, taking on two world class high-workrate international wrestlers. Of course, Ascension and their 90s German metal song are getting called up to RAW. Hideo looks like Scorpion in his yellow and black robe. HOLY FUCK Balor’s entrance is incredible. The smoke, seeing something inhuman with dreadlocks contorting on all fours down the ramp, what an entrance. I got goosebumps watching. Amazing. Ascension sell it well, being dumbfounded by Devitt’s body & face paint. Ascension smartly make quick tags and work over Itami. Sadly it’s resthold city with headlocks that tries it’s best to kill the crowd. Konnor throws out Balor’s feet to prevent a tag but eventually he tags in & runs wild! Plancha to the outside, misses the double foot stomp, not great curtain call slam. KENTA gets Viktor up for a GTS – the crowd know EXACTLY what it is and pop (I love smarks!) I actually gasped when he went for it, gets cut off, Devitt hits a Pele kick, KENTA hits a running single leg dropkick and they both hit a double foot stomp (KENTA was a little late) and the faces pick up the win in 11:38! This match will just be remembered for the incredible Devitt entrance and get-up. Ascension was death on offense and the international lads were magic, but obviously holding back (we’ll have to wait until their singles run to see it). Devitt’s shown as the stronger of the two by far. Great stuff.

Backstage with Renee, the ‘bitch’ man Roman Reigns says he’ll be the first NXT graduate to be WWE Champion.

NXT WOMEN’S TITLE: CHARLOTTE (c) vs SASHA BANKS
Promo package! Charlotte says “To be the woman, you gotta beat the woman.” I thought you were shying away from the Flair stuff? Also, never talk about beating women. Just steer clear. Fresh off her embarrassing clean loss in 2 minutes on raw, which was the only promotion this Special got (“come watch the losers!”). Aitch explained the horrific booking as “it is what it is”. Well done Vince. Hilariously Sasha references THE SHOGUN OF HARLEM saying she’s the meanest, the baddest and the prettiest diva in NXT. Marked out. So this is a post-group breakup feud. Weirdly this seems to be heel-heel (both are narcissistic) but Charlotte plays complete babyface in the match. Hey, JoJo (from NXT) is the announcer. She wouldn’t have to watch her bag as Randy isn’t around. Charlotte’s Flair chops are shit, don’t do them. Weird booking as tiny Sasha slowly works over giant Charlotte – I wonder if Charlotte got a knock early on. “The Boss” Sasha mocks her with a Flair strut and uses Charlotte’s head figure four. They have some nice choreographed spots that the crowd really respond to (“this is awesome”, “this is wrestling” ) Charlotte performs a top rope moonsault, lands on her feet and flips forward to get Sasha. Flair’s daughter wins via her “Natural Selection”, a top rope neck breaker and retains the title in 12:12. Charlotte did a good job as underdog babyface (but it’s not ideal), Sasha’s not as talented (someone else would’ve been preferable) but the match got better as it went on, some nice reversals, and is still miles above anything you’ll ever see on raw. Good stuff.

MAIN EVENT! NXT WORLD TITLE: ADRIAN NEVILLE (c) vs SAMI ZAYN
37 minutes left with the singles main event – HELL YEAH. Zayn’s gimmick is that he “can’t win the big one”, and face Neville has been doing increasingly heel antics to retain his belt (eg faking injuries). Zayn is a tremendous natural babyface, a rare talent. I can’t see him being showcased so well on RAW but I hope I’m wrong. That’s how I feel about NXT in general, you’ll all get Jack Swagger’d. Or “Charlotte’d”! Please prove me wrong! Commentator Graves makes a “Newcastle playing at Sunderland” allusion for Neville getting a negative reaction, which is just tops. After a springboard moonsault to the outside, Neville hesitates coming back in before the ten count (a mild heel thing to do). Neville’s in control with Zayn hitting some big time moves before being cut off – like Neville’s in an electric chair and Zayn hits a tilt a whirl power bomb, Neville replies with a throw to the ropes seemlessly into a German. Awesome. They elbow the shit out of each other, Puro style. Zayn gets the knees up on the code red and smoothly applies the Koji Clutch. We get two WONDERFUL storyline spots where Sami gets distracted. Firstly, by being a good guy (which is always his undoing): The ref and Neville bang heads, Zayn checks on the ref (the crowd and commentators shout at him no!), he gets a hurricanrana (from behind) for his troubles. Sami replies with a sweet full nelson full rotation suplex and dive through the corner ropes DDT. Heel spot as Adrian pulls the ref in to take Sami’s helluva kick (although he was a little late) and smartly rolls out to the outside to recouperate. With the ref down and Neville in ring, Sami spots the NXT title on the mat. The crowd tell him no, don’t pay attention to it, but he picks it up. He fights with himself over using it (like Piper with the ringbell v Bret at WM8) and ultimately doesn’t, escapes a school boy, hits an exploder suplex, hulluva kick and gets the three to win the NXT title in 23:17! Finally he’s rewarded for staying babyface. Hilariously over the closing bit he seems to have sworn on four different occasions as the audio cut out for a few seconds each time. The match started off easy with Adrian wear-downs and built with smooth fast paced moves to a big storyline crescendo. Excellent stuff. Wrestlers and officials celebrate in ring with Zayn, and PAT PATTERSON gets a (network) payday! Hooray! A wonderful Christmas-time culmination of Sami’s journey to the NXT title. Zayn & Neville hug (turning back babyface), and finally Kevin Owens comes out (which is nice given their history) and swerve! KO throws Sami’s head into the steel ramp and powerbomb throws him back first into the apron. Ouch! So we’re getting Generico/Steen on NXT? SPOOGE MCDUCK!

Overall, God damn. Another belter by NXT. Absolutely killed anything else WWE have to offer. Excellent, go watch it. Excited to see what’s next. Amazing.

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December 12, 2014