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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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