NXT – October 23, 2014: My Kind Of Champion
NXT
Date: October 23, 2014
Location: Full Sail University, Winter Park, Florida
Commentators: Jason Albert, Alex Riley, Rich Brennan
NXT continues to be the show gives me the most hope in wrestling as you can see the big stories building and they’re as well put together as anything else in wrestling today. You can see Zayn vs. Neville coming and you can hear the roar of the crowd for the near falls. There’s other good stuff coming too so let’s get to it.
Opening sequence.
Ascension vs. Jason Jordan/Tye Dillinger
Jordan takes Viktor down by the waist to start but gets chopped hard back into the corner. Off to Konnor for a double shoulder and a big stomping in the corner. Konnor charges into an elbow and Dillinger comes in off the tag, only to walk into the flapjack. Fall of Man is good for the pin at 2:30.
Hideo Itami comes out post match but gets destroyed with ease.
CJ Parker vs. Tyler Breeze
Parker is quickly sent to the apron and then out to the floor as Breeze is more aggressive than usual. Back in and Parker hammers away before a top rope ax handle gets two. An injured Mojo Rawley comes out as Breeze punches CJ out of the air. A rollup gets two for Parker before the Beauty Shot is good for the pin at 2:56.
Vaudevillains vs. Buddy Murphy/Wesley Blake
English cranks on Blake’s arm to start before it’s off to the partners. Gotch takes him down and the fans call him manly. The villains start taking Murphy apart by the arm, including slamming it onto the mat for two. Blake slips over Aiden’s back and teases a rollup but crawls over to make the tag instead. Smart move there. Wesley cleans house but Aiden makes a blind tag, setting up a European uppercut from Gotch to the back of the head and a running neckbreaker from English (combined to form the Gentlemen’s Congress) for the pin at 4:21.
Rating: C-. Basic tag match here with the Vaudevillains clearly as the next opponents for the Dragons. They have a good gimmick that could set up a new team with a big win and that’s all you need most of the time. Good little match here and the Aussies (Blake and Murphy) have a future of their own.
Bayley vs. Sasha Banks
Bayley chases her into the ropes a few times before finally taking her down and slamming Sasha’s head into the mat. A knee drop gets two on Sasha and she armdrags Sasha out of the corner. Sasha finally kicks her in the ribs to take over and stands on Bayley’s hair for good measure. A running slap gets two and Sasha cranks on both arms at the same time. Back up and Bayley sends her into corner and gets two off a middle rope back elbow to the jaw. Not that it matters though as the Backstabber sets up the Bank Statement to make Bayley tap at 5:13.
Rating: C-. Standard Divas match here with Sasha continuing her climb up the card for a showdown with Charlotte at the next Takeover show. Sasha may not have it in the ring as well as many others but at least she has the character down, which is far more important than the in ring abilities.
Sasha goes after her post match but Becky Lynch runs down, only to turn heel and beat Bayley down herself.
NXT Title: Titus O’Neil vs. Adrian Neville
Titus is challenging and we get some big match intros. The champ grabs a headlock to start before dropkicking him into the corner. Adrian tries to flip again and finally gets caught by a charge to take over very slowly. Titus sets Neville on the top rope and kicks him down to the floor for a big crash and two back inside. We take a break and come back with Titus putting on a bearhug. Adrian slaps him in the head to escape and nails a kick in the head. O’Neil charges into a boot in the corner and the Red Arrow retains the title at 10:02.
Rating: D. Get Titus out of NXT NOW. The guy is dragging down good wrestlers because he has almost no energy out there and is doing the most generic power guy act I’ve ever seen. It doesn’t help that he’s billed as a WWE star but Neville has accomplished more in his career in NXT than Titus has ever accomplished in WWE.
Post match Sami comes out for a congratulation but says he’s on a mission to become NXT Champion. Adrian says anywhere and any time because Sami can’t win the big one.
Overall Rating: C. That ending has me drooling for the next Takeover show because Neville is being built up to be an unbeatable champion instead of the same cowardly heel that we almost always get. By the time we get to the next Takeover, both guys are going to look unbeatable, but that’s what Sami has looked like going into every big match he’s had. The rest of the show wasn’t much but it sets up some stuff for the future. Hopefully we get there soon though as this treading water is getting a bit hard to take.
Results
Ascension b. Jason Jordan/Tye Dillinger – Fall of Man to Dillinger
Tyler Breeze b. CJ Parker – Beauty Shot
Vaudevillains b. Buddy Murphy/Wesley Blake – Gentlemen’s Congress to Blake
Sasha Banks b. Bayley – Bank Statement
Adrian Neville b. Titus O’Neil – Red Arrow
I always thought Titus was fun on the mic and had a good bead on the character but was ridiculously limited in the ring. He worked, for me, in the Prime Time Players where he could be (oddly enough) both the power and the voice of the team and let the boring but technically better Darren do most of the in ring stuff.