NXT – August 12, 2015: I Want A Hug
NXT
Date: August 12, 2015
Location: Full Sail University, Winter Park, Florida
Commentators: Byron Saxton, Corey Graves, Rich Brennan
It’s time for another show built around a #1 contenders match as Bayley is facing Becky Lynch for the right to go to Brooklyn and challenge Sasha Banks for the Women’s Title. The Takeover card is mostly set and it’s time to firm things up, which can often lead to the best shows in a cycle. Let’s get to it.
After last week’s show, Regal confirmed that Owens vs. Balor will indeed be a ladder match. This was a long speech from Regal, clocking in at about 90 seconds.
Opening sequence.
Solomon Crowe vs. Tye Dillinger
It’s the debut of Dillinger’s Perfect 10 gimmick, which has been tearing up the NXT house shows lately. This is a simple one: Dillinger does moves and then holds up cards with scores on them. They fight over wrist and arm control to start before some nice standing switches set up a snapmare from Ty. Dillinger: “10!” A cartwheel gets the same score and there are 10 signs in the crowd. Oh yeah the gimmick is over.
Solomon trips Tye down and backflips into a headscissors, only to kick Dillinger in the head. Crowe charges into a boot in the corner though, setting up a stomp on the ear for 10. We hit a chinlock on Solomon before a single right hand puts him down. That’s fine with Solomon who starts slugging away and hits a Twist of Fate for no cover. Crowe gets kicked to the floor but pops back in, only to walk into a one knee Codebreaker for the pin at 4:36.
Rating: C. This was all about getting the gimmick over and that certainly was a success. Dillinger plays the new character to perfection and there’s a solid midcard future for him. Crowe on the other hand……yeah this isn’t working. I’d love to see the hacker gimmick come back as it has potential, but this little monster thing is going nowhere.
Mojo Rawley has been calling Zack Ryder since 3am and is already in his gear even though they’re not having a match tonight. He has to be ready you see. Mojo claims that he met ten chicks at the club last night but Ryder says no way. After some counting, Rawley says it was twelve. These two work well together.
Axel Tischer vs. Baron Corbin
The fans boo Baron out of the building, referring to him as boring. Baron slowly stomps away to play up the idea before End of Days takes care of Axel in 34 seconds. I love that Baron is one of the only things out there every week. It’s a nice way to build him up as a monster.
Post match Baron says he needs better competition because no one gets up from End of Days. Cue Steve Cutler, who gets laid out as well. This brings out Samoa Joe, who offers to exchange fisticuffs with Corbin at the present moment. Baron declines, but agrees to a confrontation at a time to be determined. This is a mere ruse of course, as Corbin uses his pugilistic skills but End of Days is countered into the Koquina Clutch to put Corbin out. The fans are very pleased with Joe.
Bull Dempsey is still training and continues to look like Bray Wyatt’s fat brother.
Tyler Breeze thinks his match with Liger is the perfect fit. Regal has brought in “Yushin” Thunder Liger. That’s what Regal did with Hideo Itami and that went well for Tyler, so domo arigato Mr. Liger, and thank you for making Breeze the new face of Japan.
Marcus Louis vs. Finn Balor
Non-title and non-demon here. I believe this is Balor’s first match on TV since winning the title. Balor cranks on a headlock to start and easily takes Marcus down to the mat. Marcus yells in his face a lot and gets two off a Rock Bottom before ripping at the champ’s face. That earns Marcus a chop in the corner, followed by the Sling Blade. A running corner dropkick sets up the Coup de Grace to give Finn the three count at 2:44.
Owens runs out and decks Balor from behind as Finn poses on the stage. The champ escapes a powerbomb to the apron though and dropkicks Owens through the barricade. They head inside and Kevin scores with the Pop Up Powerbomb before posing with the title.
The Vaudevillains have a plan to deal with Alexa Bliss in Brooklyn. Bliss comes in and mocks them for needing a way around her. Both guys get slapped, but Bliss is nice enough to wish them good luck. Well that’s nice of her.
Apollo Crews is coming at Takeover. His training video shows off some very impressive athleticism.
We run down the Takeover card, including Joe vs. Corbin. This looks awesome actually and is one of the better shows they’ve had in a long time. Of note: the Women’s Title match is listed after Owens vs. Balor.
Bayley vs. Becky Lynch
The winner gets Sasha Banks, out for commentary here, for the title at Takeover. Bayley even does a little dance and motions having the title around her waist. Could she get any more adorable? Feeling out process to start as the fans are way behind Bayley, which says a lot as Becky is very popular around here. Becky rolls over Bayley and hits a pair of very nice armdrags into an armbar.
The fans are split now as Becky takes her into the corner for a knee to the ribs. A bulldog gets two for Bayley but Becky comes back with a freaky hammerlock northern lights suplex for two of her own. I love the psychology behind that as Lynch focuses almost exclusively on the arm to set up the Disarm-Her. Byron and Sasha talk about the victory party after Takeover as Becky puts one foot on Bayley’s forearm and the other foot behind her triceps to push and pull at the same time. Well that’s different.
Sasha thinks Becky should be going after Bayley’s bad hand but Becky just isn’t smart enough for that. Sasha talks about Jay-Z showing up in Brooklyn. Saxton: “Is Darius Rucker (a country singer) going to be there?” Becky cranks on a chinlock while trapping the arm at the same time as we take a break. Back with Bayley escaping a pumphandle slam and rolling Becky up for some near falls. The arm starts giving out on her though and a pumphandle suplex gives Becky two more.
The running legdrop misses though and Bayley starts busting out her variety of back elbows. Bayley comes up favoring her hand but is still able to catch Lynch on top, pulling her down with a nice powerslam. The Disarm-Her goes on out of nowhere but Bayley is right next to the ropes. Another pumphandle is countered into a snap suplex but Becky grabs an armbar to break up the Bayley to Belly, only to have Bayley slip around into a rollup for the pin and the title shot at 16:15.
Rating: A-. I don’t know if it’s me being a Bayley fan or what but I haven’t been as excited to see a match as I am to see this title match than I’ve been in a very long time. It’s been such a well built story and the reaction if (more likely when) Bayley wins the title is going to be insane. This is another good example of women being able to tear the house down better than the men can as they built up the arm work throughout the match and then played it into the ending. You can’t beat that.
Banks stands on the table and stares Bayley down to wrap this up.
Overall Rating: A. Just when NXT seems to be slowing down, they throw out something like this. They’ve taken a character as silly and innocent as Bayley and turned her into one of the most over acts in all of NXT, to the point where I want to see her win the Women’s Title more than I wanted to see Sami Zayn win the NXT Title. The rest of the show was awesome too, as we saw a new gimmick, made a match for Takeover, and built up almost everything else on the card. This was a great wrestling hour and that’s where NXT excels.
Results
Tye Dillinger b. Solomon Crowe – Codebreaker
Baron Corbin b. Axel Tischer – End of Days
Finn Balor b. Marcus Louis – Coup de Grace
Bayley b. Becky Lynch – Rollup
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See, that’s what the Divas Revolution lacks. The girls down in NXT didn’t get over because they were good wrestlers. It helps, but they got over because they had and still have real storylines that the audience connects with and those storylines are paid off with competent matches. The way everyone was brought up, all we get it “so they can put together a 10 minute match. And?”
The main roster Divas have gotten better with the extra time and the serious matches, but the story needs to go somewhere. Like towards the title, once we get past AJ’s record of course.
Unless they have her defend it on the last day before the record (a Monday) and take it away there in a twist.
That’s half the point. THREE Divas were brought up from Developmental as a “revolution”. Other than “they are in NXT”, nothing was given to the fans about them. They’re from NXT, they can wrestle, and we’ve seen them wrestle. If you don’t watch NXT, that’s literally all you know, save for a little video on Charlotte this past week. What NXT does, and why the Divas division works down there, is that they have stories. The main roster has none.
Now, had they kept the current story of Paige chasing Nikki and getting help from Becky and Charlotte, and then introducing the audience to those two and WHY they are important, then we might have had something. I can find you 50 girls without trying that can wrestle matches. The key is getting fans to care.
To be fair, the other two got videos as well.
Two things here:
1. The reaction when the new girls were brought out shows that a lot of the WWE fans watch or know about NXT. I think WWE was counting on that and it seems to work.
2. True that might have had something, but we got something even better: another great moment, provided by STEPHANIE!
I think thats a little unfair to say nobody knows who Charlotte,Sasha,and Becky are when they debuted. I was there the night Stephanie brought them out and all 3 got equally loud pops.
Was this the go-home episode tonight before next Saturday? I know they taped 4 weeks on the last Taping.
90% chance they’ll have my sobbing if Bayley wins, just like they did with Sami. NXT is soooo good at moments like that.
For what it’s worth, Crowe sent out a tweet during the show tonight making it sound like he’s at least turning heel, if not a complete gimmick overhaul.