WWE NXT 8/21/2013 Results and Review
Last week's show is here:
http://prowresblog.blogspot.com/2013/08/wwe-nxt-8142013-results-and-review.html
CLICK ON THE PICTURES FOR BIGGER VERSIONS
WWE Diva's Championship - AJ Lee vs Bayley
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| "Did you want a hug now, Bayley? I'm sorry. I'm hugging your neck now." - AJ Lee |
AJ Lee beat Bayley with the Shining Wizard. Bayley went to console AJ near the end as you can see above and AJ made her pay for it. This wasn't much of a match but it was entertaining. Bayley wanted to hug AJ early and AJ took advantage of it. Then, Bayley got a hope spot in and got her hug in. However, she then hugged AJ right into the buckles. She then looked like she was going to pull it off before AJ slammed her back into reality. Bayley was really fun here and I love her gimmick.
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| "Do you wanna take a picture?" - Tyler Breeze | "Uhm, yeah!" - Girl |
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| "Of me." - Tyler Breeze |
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| "Are you serious? Who photobombed my picture? The ruining of my entire life..." - Tyler Breeze |
Michael Zaki and Ron Hicks vs The Ascension
Michael Zaki is the same guy from Tough Enough who bullied Ryan Skidmarks.
Amazingly, he is the most successful participant on the last season of Tough Enough, as he is the only guy to actually have a WWE match. Big Silent Rage Andy must be having a silent fit somewhere. Michael Zaki was real roided up IIRC on Tough Enough. Not anymore.
The Ascension won with their Total Elimination like finisher. It was the same squash they always do.
They said CJ Parker was debuting next. Clearly, we have different definitions of debuting. Mine does not include appearing multiple times and having a storyline before. His last official match was against Roman Reigns from 10/31/2012 -
http://prowresblog.blogspot.com/2012/11/nxt-10312012-review.html
CJ Parker vs Baron Corbin
CJ Parker has a new and very odd gimmick. He appears to be on drugs, possibly the criznack and is doing a hippie gimmick. I'm okay with a hippie gimmick and hey, he definitely sticks out.
CJ Parker won with a leg swinging DDT above. The match was a squash and wasn't real interesting. He didn't get much of a reaction but that's understandable since I don't know what to make of himself. This is NXT though and they have gotten over stranger stuff, so please just give this time.
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| "Where have I been? Renee, it's more like, where haven't I been?" - CJ Parker |
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| "You might call me a hippie but I'm just a guy that's going with the flow and having a little fun." - CJ Parker |
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| "By having a little bit of fun, you mean by photobombing other NXT superstars?" - Renee Young | "Bomb? That's pretty harsh, Renee. Pump the brakes, mellow out, I more like call it videolovin' "-CJ Parker |
Tyler Breeze came out.
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| "Look what you did to my gorgeous picture." - Tyler Breeze |
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| "We're just having a little fun. Chillax, hotboy." - CJ Parker |
Tyler Breeze asked if this was a joke and wasn't amused.
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| "Does this look like a joke, you Lenny Kravitz wannabe?" - Tyler Breeze |
Tylere pushed him and then Parker went to nail him when he ran.
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| "First the picture and now my face?" - Tyler Breeze |
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| "You're ruining my entire life every single time. You ruined my picture." - Tyler Breeze |
Tyler Breeze was really good here. He talks like such a sissy primadonna and you just naturally want to slap him aside the head. I loved him treating the ruined picture like the end of the world.
Dolph Ziggler vs Alexander Rusev
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| "Alexander Rusev - this guy has a muay thai background with some sumo training." - Tom Phillips |
Alexander Rusev works a powerhouse style and wrestles a lot like Michael Elgin. He had some spots in FCW and should fit in NXT well. To make his gimmick work, we need packages with him doing cool martial arts training and they need to got the Tong Po from Kickboxer route. Also, we need to see him break something with his head. Okay, maybe we don't, but I'd like to see it.
Dolph Ziggler beat Alexander Rusev with a Zig Zag after a missed Rusev splash. Rusev has the tools and has the ability, but they need to fine tune him and do more to get him over. He needs to do less of the muay thai stance stuff and more of the flying and power moves. He didn't do bad, but had he gotten what Big E got to do and just run over guys, he'd do better. This match was mostly all Rusev. I wanna see more Tong Po and less crazy caveman.
2/3 Falls - Antonio Cesaro vs Sami Zayn
Zayn got the first fall in about 30 seconds when he hit a Yakuza kick and rolled Cesaro up.
Cesaro got the 2nd fall with a chinlock. No, really.
Antonio Cesaro beat Sami Zayn with a Gotch Style Neutralizer. This was good but disappointing. It did not live up to the hype at all minus Cesaro's catch near the end of Zayn and honestly, I thought their first match was better. The big problems were that the first fall was a giant waste and they didn't get to do much either in the second fall. The crowd absolutely loved it, but I've seen Cesaro do less and have better matches. I'm not sure where the hype for this came from as I'm not even confident that this would make my top 5 WWE matches of the last month. I think the overhyping of this hurt it for me. A big Sami Zayn comeback would have done this wonders. Rating:***1/2
The crowd then oddly broke into a Match of the Year chant. I can assure you, this wasn't even in the running for it. I don't think this would even make my top 20.
NOTE - Apparently the main was edited with possibly 10 minutes being cut off. I can't speak for what I didn't see, only for what I did see. This would have been better with 10 extra minutes and may have been so. I personally would have cut The Ascension's match which was nothing special along with the opening videos that took three minutes or so and I guarantee, I would have gotten this thing aired in full.
Overall thoughts: Good show with an overrated main event. Bayley was good here as was Tyler Breeze and while the main was good, it wasn't what it was pushed to be.
Watching the main event live for me was special. The feeling in the crowd was electric. Hairs standing up on our arms. Listen to those “match of the year” chants. Those are sincere. I’m one of those voices, and while I can’t speak for everyone yelling it, I was screaming MATCH OF THE YEAR as loud as I could so Cesaro, Zayn, and anyone who signs their paychecks would hear it and know it.
ReplyDeleteThe first 30 seconds of the match are more exciting than things you see on pay-per-views, and it all made sense. Zayn knows he’s physically outmatched but STILL underestimated, so he goes for the gold immediately, taking out Cesaro with the most powerful bombs he can throw and getting a flash pin. He tries to keep that going, but as soon as Cesaro takes control, he TAKES CONTROL. By this point, we’re hopping up and down on our seats, popping for chinlocks because the wrestlers have made them MATTER. By the time Cesaro’s swinging Zayn around by his neck and squatting over him trying to twist his head off, we’re like, “shit, that’s gotta be it.” And it is.
That leads to a finale as good as any I’ve seen. The tornado DDT through the ring ropes is the big one. El Generico used to do that all the time, but Zayn’s never pulled it out, and it was one of those things you thought WWE would just quietly remove from his matches, like the top rope brainbuster. When Cesaro rolled to the outside and Zayn rolled out diagonally, my brain started subconsciously screaming DUDE, DUDE, and by the time Cesaro started standing up I started violently nudging my friend Ariana, yelling HE’S GONNA DO THE DDT, OH MY GOD HE’S GONNA DO THE DDT. And then BOOM. WWE audiences have seen a move that makes me go “how the f**king f**k did he do that” every single time he does it.
It all builds to the finish, and what a finish it was.
The power of the match for me is that I’ve seen El Generico and Claudio Castagnoli have great matches before, and what they did here trumped all of it. The tornado DDT through the ropes is a great example, because as cool as it is in an armory, it becomes LEGENDARY when WWE fans can see it, tell their friends about it and build folk stories about how great this guy is as he rises to the top. That’s what’s happening with Bray Wyatt on Raw right now. He hasn’t been great off a microphone, but he’s got so much good will and NO NO NO WE SWEAR HE’S AMAZING built up he can coast on shitty R-Truth squashes for another six months without fail.
Another example is the finish, where Cesaro stops a Zayn DDT and counters it in Swiss Death. I’ve seen them do that in Ring of Honor before, right? But here, two things make it more important:
1. The tornado DDT out of the corner is Zayn’s finish, not just a move he does. So when we’re 20 minutes into a 2-out-of-3 falls match and Zayn goes for it, he’s going for his last big move of the night. Make or break. Live or die. If he hits it, it’s over, and he proves Cesaro wrong. If he doesn’t … well, he’s probably toast.
2. They almost messed it up. That’s what’s so special about this move. Cesaro was just supposed to pull him up out of the stalled DDT position and hurl him into the air in one motion. That’s how they’ve done it before. Something went wrong, though, and Cesaro lost control on the way up … but he’s SO F**KING STRONG that he was able to steady himself and keep Zayn in the air Dirty Dancing style until he could get his footing. So a guy walks around WITH A GROWN MAN HELD OVER HIS HEAD WITHOUT ANY ASSISTANCE WHATSOEVER, then squats and f**king LAUNCHES him into the air for the Swiss Death. Instead of a “whoaaa … OHH!” reaction, you get “whoaaa .. ooooh … OOOH, OH GOD, OH GOD, WHOA, OH SHIIIIT YOU’RE DEAD, YOU’RE DEAD.” Even the announcers start losing their shit here, which they NEVER do in NXT. Alex Riley even lost THE MIZ’s shit.
I will never forget the experience of seeing this match live. I urge every single person reading to try to get to a live NXT taping !