NXT
Date: January 2, 2013
Location: Full Sail University, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Tony Dawson, William Regal

We’re back to a regular show this week after last week’s pretty awesome year in review show. The main change is that the Shield has now been acknowledged in NXT, which is kind of strange as Ambrose never appeared on this show that I remember. Anyway, it’s nice to see things caught up even a little bit as we’ve now hit Survivor Series. Skipping a week or so wouldn’t really be that big of a deal would it? Let’s get to it.

Before anything else has time to happen, the Shield is beating down some guys who we didn’t even get to see. The bell was ringing as Coheed and Cambria were wrapping up the theme song. Dusty pops up on stage and says that’s enough. Ambrose says that’s just a small taste of what they’re capable of. It’s all in the name of justice and righting wrongs. Rollins says they’re taking over NXT just like they did with Raw and Smackdown. Dusty says that Rollins is defending the title against Corey Graves tonight. Rollins says ok but be careful what you wish for. Reigns says this is their house and Dusty is paying rent.

Bo Dallas vs. Epico

The fans want the absent Rosa and I can’t say I blame them. Dallas runs him over to start and grabs a headlock, only to nearly fall to the floor as Epico sends him into the ropes. A knee to Dallas’ ribs takes him down and a slingshot hilo gets two. Epico hooks a body scissors followed by a backbreaker with Dallas being bent over the knee. A dropkick from Epico sends Dallas into the most overblown fall this side of a Curt Hennig match and gets two. He spun in about a circle and a half from a standard dropkick. Dallas shrugs off right hands and starts to smile. A belly to belly suplex to Epico sets up the spear for the pin at 5:06.

Rating: C-. I try to get into Bo Dallas matches but I just do not care for the guy. He certainly isn’t terrible and I don’t groan when he has a match, but man alive I just do not care when he’s in the ring. Part of it is the spear as a finisher. I can’t stand it when small guys use the spear as it never looks right. It drove me crazy when Christian would use it because as a power move, it wouldn’t do much damage using wrestling logic. Anyway, not a terrible match or anything here and the fans are into Dallas.

Post match the cousins circle Dallas until McGillicutty makes the save, likely setting up a tag match.

Sasha Banks vs. Tamina Snuka

Tamina pounds her down as Regal talks about how she’s a second generation athlete. The interesting part: he DOESN’T say whose daughter she is! After an abdominal stretch from Tamina, Sasha makes a comeback with chops and a monkey flip followed by a victory roll for one. Dawson reminds us who Tamina’s papa is as she hits a Samoan Drop and Superfly Splash for the pin at 2:49. Total squash.

Kassius Ohno/Leo Kruger vs. Tyson Kidd/Justin Gabriel

For some reason I never put it together that Gabriel and Kruger are both from South Africa. The non-South Africans start things off and trade a few go behinds until it’s off to Gabriel so things can speed up. Ohno hits a knee/kick to the face and brings in Kruger to face the almost immediately tagged Kidd. International Airstrike (were they ever officially called that?) hit some MCMG style double team moves to torment Kruger, with most of the moves being based around kicks to the face.

We get a breather as Kidd hooks a quick armbar but changes over to a Sharpshooter attempt instead. Kruger heads to the floor along with Ohno and it’s time to unleash the dives. Kidd takes out Kruger after Gabriel dives on Ohno and we take a break. Back with IA hitting stereo kicks to Kruger’s chest/back for two for Tyson. An Ohno distraction lets Kruger hit a spinebuster on Kidd to take over.

Ohno comes in with a standing backsplash for two and it’s off to a modified cravate to crank on Kidd’s neck a bit. Back to Leo for a snap suplex for two followed by some elbows. Kassius shouts that Leo is an animal. So should he want to hunt himself? Kruger drops knees on Tyson’s ribs and hooks a quick chinlock before Ohno comes back in. Kidd dives to the corner and makes the hot tag, allowing Gabriel to speed things WAY up. After diving on Ohno, a blue thunder bomb gets two on Kruger. Everything breaks down as the South Africans trade rollups. Leo hits the Kruger End for the pin at 8:13 shown of 11:43.

Rating: C+. Good tag match here, although I don’t think Dawson is accurate when he calls this a career defining win. I like Kruger more every time I see him aside from his finisher and the big game hunter thing is working for him. Kidd and Gabriel were their usual awesome selves here. That leaves Ohno, who I still do not get the appeal of at all. I know he’s talented, but this just isn’t working for me at all.

NXT Title: Seth Rollins vs. Corey Graves

Something tells me Graves isn’t really the favorite here. They slug it out to start with Graves taking over, getting two each off a small package and backslide. He goes for the leg lock but Seth makes a rope. Meaning it can only be regular leg work for now. Rollins gets an elbow up to slow things down and a running knee to the chest gets two. Off to a headscissors hold by the champion followed by a forearm to the face to keep Graves down. Rollins starts getting fired up but Graves takes the knee out and puts on the 13^th Step….and here’s the Shield for the DQ at 4:43.

Rating: C. This was starting to get good but how much can you do with just five minutes? They were in a weird spot here as Graves was a heel coming in but had to play the face here out of necessity. I’m thinking this is the end of this pairing though as the Shield debut changed everything about Rollins, so him fighting a heel doesn’t make a ton of sense. Still though, decent match while it lasted.

Dusty sends some jobbers out to try to stop the Shield but they have no luck. We get up to about eight guys in there and they still can’t get Shield out of there. Bo Dallas gets stuck in there alone and takes the Triple Bomb. Now in a good wrestling company, this is where the top face of the company would come to the ring for a BIG showdown. Thankfully NXT is a good wrestling company so here’s Big E. Langston and the place goes nuts. Despite being up 3-1, the Shield bails. Dusty makes Langston vs. Rollins next week for the title.

Overall Rating: B-. As usual, NXT continues to be the textbook example of what you can get from a basic, by the book wrestling company. There’s nothing going on here that is over the top or ridiculous or trying to swerve the fans, and yet it’s the show I enjoy watching the most all week. The matches are still fresh, although to be fair they only have an hour a week to fill vs. WWE’s five plus. Anyway, good stuff here and I’m fired up for next week’s showdown.

Results

Bo Dallas b. Epico – Spear

Tamina Snuka b. Sasha Banks – Superfly Splash

Leo Kruger/Kassius Ohno b. Tyson Kidd/Justin Gabriel – Kruger End

Corey Graves b. Seth Rollins via Dqq when the Shield interfered

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews

NXT
Date: December 26, 2012
Host: Tony Dawson

Back to Florida and we’ve got a new challenger for Rollins in the form of Corey Graves. That’s by far the biggest thing that happened last week as the main event was Big Show squashing Bo Dallas for no apparent reason. The shows have been solid lately and hopefully they close out 2012 with another good one. Let’s get to it.

Welcome Home…..to a year in review show. Apparently this is going to be highlights from the season, so I’ll be cutting and pasting a lot here. Note that the full matches likely won’t be shown but I’ll be posting the full review from the match.

From August 29:

NXT Championship: Jinder Mahal vs. Seth Rollins

They have a ton of time for this. Fink may be fat and older now (he’s only 62 so he’s hardly ancient), but that voice is still perfect. Mahal won’t shake Dusty’s hand before the match. Rollins tries to take him to the mat to start but Mahal gets back up quickly. A dropkick puts Mahal down again and Rollins hits a hard chop. Mahal gets sent to the floor but he avoids a dive and sends Rollins face first into the apron. A suplex onto the ramp has Rollins in trouble and we head back in.

We take a break and come back with Rollins in even more trouble. Mahal stomps him down and hits a backbreaker to start setting up the camel clutch. Rollins gets choked against the ropes and the fans are behind Rollins now. He tries a comeback but gets kneed in the face by Mahal to take him back down. The camel clutch is escaped so Mahal pounds him in the back again. An enziguri out of nowhere puts Mahal down and Rollins punches Jinder down.

Mahal goes up for another knee but Rollins knocks him off the top and out to the floor. Rollins hits a HUGE dive to the floor and both guys are down. Back in and Seth goes up again, only to get crotched and superplexed from the top. We take another break and come back with the two of them slugging it out. Mahal might have a bad knee but he pulls off a sitout slam for two. A full nelson slam is countered and Rollins goes to the apron.

Seth hits an enziguri to the head and a running knee for two. The near falls are getting closer and closer here. A running forearm in the corner staggers Mahal but he manages to drop Rollins face first into the buckle. The low superkick (I think he calls it Avada Kadavra, making Rollins awesome) gets two. Phoenix Splash (moonsault into a 450) misses and Mahal hits the full nelson slam for two. Rollins gets to the rope before the clutch can go on and Rollins rolls him up for two. Rollins comes back with the buckle bomb and the Blackout out of nowhere for the pin and the title at 14:24 shown of 21:24.

Rating: B. I’m still not wild on Rollins’ in ring work but the fans are into him and he’s not dull. He also needs a new finisher as the Blackout looks pretty forced to put it mildly. As for the match though, they did a great job of building both guys up as unbeatable and then having them go at it. The match was very good as far as making you wonder who was going to win and it turned into a good back and forth fight at the end. Not a masterpiece or anything, but for the first NXT Championship, this was more than acceptable.

We get some clips of the rematch. This segues into clips from Raw of the Shield.

We get some highlights of various stars from NXT, such as Richie Steamboat, Bo Dallas, CJ Parker, Audrey Marie, Big E. Langston and Bray Wyatt (gets by far the most time).

From July 11:

Aiden English vs. Bray Wyatt

Wyatt talks on the way to the ring, calling himself the angel in the dirt and singing Time is on My Side by the Rolling Stones. Wyatt pounds him down and sends English to the floor and into the barricade. Back in and Wyatt rolls around on the apron before splashing English in the corner. Wyatt dances with English a bit (literally) before hitting a rolling Downward Spiral for the pin at 1:48. Awesome debut here and a good transition from promos to in ring work which was what I was worried about from Wyatt.

Bray Wyatt talks about how it’s a new year for your loved ones to betray you in his name.

We get an exclusive match tonight between Kane and Rhodes.

Video on Kassius Ohno. I still don’t care. He talks about inflicting pain on people and we get a recap of his attacks on various people with Regal making the save.

Ohno says a new year is coming and that the year of 13 will be a year for pain.

Punk talks about telling Rollins to beat respect out of people and somehow that evolved into the Shield. The future is here in NXT and he hopes people are taking notice.

Video on Langston and the FIVE count.

From November 28:

Camacho vs. Big E. Langston

This is a match for the $5000 bounty that Vickie has put on Langston’s head. Camacho tries to pound on him but Langston keeps shoving him away. A shot out of the corner puts Big E. down but Camacho slaps him like an idiot. The Big Ending (falling slam) ends Camacho at 2:06.

Langston demands the five count and you don’t tell a man like that no. Camacho gets two more Big Endings for good measure.

We get a clip of Langston debuting on Raw. Ok, now the question is are they going to reference this on NXT starting next week? They’re making it clear what’s going on in the main world, so they can’t (and by can’t I mean will but shouldn’t) ignore it from now on.

Langston says he attacked Cena because he was helping his friend. His business here on NXT is to become NXT Champion. His New Year’s Resolution is to do just that. Unfortunately his manic style is gone now and he sounds all serious.

Video on various people in NXT that we haven’t covered yet, including Kruger and Paige.

It’s Rollins defending against Graves next week.

We get a clip from Main Event of Kane injuring Cody’s shoulder.

Kane vs. Cody Rhodes

This is from July but it’s never before seen. Cody immediately bails to the floor and stalls. Back in and Cody pounds away in the corner, only to be pounded right back down. Kane hits the low dropkick for two and Cody heads to the floor. Rhodes gets beaten up on the stage and aisle before we head back to the ring. Kane misses the clothesline and Cody escapes the chokeslam before sending Kane into the corner.

Cody goes after the knee as we get into a more standard match here. We take a break (complete with a John Cena loves NXT promo) and come back with the announcers talking about a HUGE leap from Cody. We don’t get to see it of course, but here’s a sidewalk slam from Kane for two instead. The top rope clothesline hits but Cody grabs the rope to avoid a chokeslam. There’s the Disaster Kick for two but Cross Rhodes is countered into a chokeslam for the pin at 7:00 shown.

Rating: D+. This was pretty lame. Neither team was formed yet so there’s only so much to care about from these guys. Cody had a pretty awful year after showing amazing potential in 2011 while Kane resurrected his career for about the 12^th time with the comedy team. This match didn’t show much of either though and it was a dull match as a result.

Todd is talking about the upcoming year when Shield cuts into the feed. Rollins talks about being NXT Champion for months but never getting the call from WWE. Ambrose talks about how the WWE is ill and suffering from lies and corruption. The real world has enough injustice in it already and that’s not how WWE is supposed to be. Rollins understands why Corey Graves did what he did but next time, Graves is leaving on a stretcher. Ambrose says they’re the best. Reigns gets in a great line of “NXT is our house and while we may come and go as we please, we’ll always collect the rent.” The Shield is here next week.

Overall Rating: B+. What a great show. This was designed to recap everything that happened in NXT so far and I don’t think they missed a thing. Everyone got at least a soundbyte or a video about them and we got some matches on top of it. The feature match holds this back because it’s just not that good, but it’s nice to see them acknowledging what’s going on at Raw and hopefully incorporating that into NXT. Good stuff here that reminded me what I love about NXT.

Results

Kane b. Cody Rhodes – Chokeslam

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews

NXT
Date: December 13, 2012
Location: Full Sail University, Winter Park, Florida
Commentators: Tom Phillips, William Regal

It’s finally time for Mahal vs. Rollins II, which is annoying as things have changed a lot since this was filmed. Anyway, the match last time was fine but I wish there was more of a reason for these two to be fighting instead of just over the title. All we’ve really heard is “I’m the champion” and “I want the title.” That’s not exactly enough to hook fans with a guy treated as a jobber in WWE vs. a member of a team whose gimmick doesn’t exist in NXT yet. Let’s get to it.

We open with a recap of the title situation and Mahal attacking Rollins recently.

Paige vs. Sasha Banks

Apparently Banks is debuting here and has been in the New England indies for a few years. I really have an issue with two people in a match being younger than me. It makes me feel old watching this. Banks isn’t bad looking but Paige is WAY over with the fans here. Paige takes Banks to the mat with a headscissors and rolls her around with it in a move I haven’t seen before.

Sasha nips up to escape and hits a Sin Cara armdrag out of the corner for two. Paige goes into banshee mode with her screaming and the fans go NUTS. A fisherman’s suplex gets two for Paige and it’s off to a double chickenwing. Sasha escapes with a pair of rollups for two but Paige hits that snap Angle Slam kind of move called the Paige Turner for the pin at 4:03.

Rating: C. Nothing too bad here as Paige continues to impress. She’s clearly very comfortable in the ring and can do whatever is needed of her. Her looks are just a bonus at this point, but unfortunately she likely would get messed up on the main roster because of her pale skin color. Anyway, decent match here and Sasha looked decent enough.

Roman Reigns brags about the size of his watch but gets a phone call and leaves.

We recap the end of last week’s show where Regal saved Kidd from Kruger and Ohno.

Ohno and Kruger are gunning for Steamboat, Kidd and Barretta. Kruger’s voice is pretty awesome here. Oh and if Regal gets involved in their business again, Regal can join them in the ICU.

Oliver Grey vs. ???

Before the match, we get another awesome Bray Wyatt promo about love and power. Wyatt brings out his son, who is a big bald guy with an awesome beard whose name I couldn’t understand. The guy is big and muscular and he kicks Grey in the face to start. He looks like he’s in green prison garb for lack of a better description. Wyatt is sitting in a rocking chair on the stage. The guy slams Grey down and puts on a bearhug where he whips Grey from side to side. A big side slam ends Grey at 2:00.

Post match Wyatt says the man’s name is Rowan and says to follow the buzzards.

Here’s Commissioner Dusty Rhodes to hype up the main event. However, he also wants to talk about Vickie Guerrero. Vickie is welcome here any time, but there are no bounties allowed in NXT unless it’s run by Dusty. The bounty is officially revoked and here’s Camacho to protest. He calls Dusty jefe (boss) and Dusty says it’s either General Commissioner or…..Camacho: “El Capitan?” Dusty: “I LOVE THAT!” Camacho says the bounty has to be on because he has to get Hunico out of Mexico. If Dusty doesn’t reinstate the bounty then Camacho is going to reinstate it on Dusty.

This brings out Big E. Langston, and Dusty makes a handicap match with Camacho and whoever he picks against Langston. Big E. is cool with that. Again: Dusty isn’t out here long and he makes something happen while advancing a storyline. Dusty was there about four minutes, which is the longest time he’s been on camera yet on this show.

Big Show is answering Bo Dallas’ challenge. He says that he’s going to knock out Dallas so that Dallas never makes it to the main shows. That’s next week as well.

NXT Title: Seth Rollins vs. Jinder Mahal

Mahal is now in 3MB, which is annoying as all the promos and videos tonight have had Mahal in his old attire. After some big match intros we’re ready to go. Mahal immediately heads to the floor for a few seconds to mess with Rollins’ head. Back in and the champion (Rollins) goes for Mahal’s arm, sending him to the ropes for more stalling. Rollins hooks a headlock which goes nowhere so Seth peppers him with forearms.

They head to the floor and Rollins hits a HARD chop. Back in and Seth hits some kicks as Mahal is in trouble. Jinder sends him to the apron and shoves Seth off the ropes to finally take over. We take a break and come back with Mahal choking in the corner. A suplex on the floor gets two for Mahal and it’s off to a double arm hold. That doesn’t last long so a backbreaker gets another two count, as does a knee to the face.

We hit a quick chinlock but Rollins fights out with some shots to the ribs and a backdrop. Seth tries to go up top but is almost immediately crotched. A clothesline gets two for Jinder and it’s back to the chinlock as we take another break. Back with Rollins in a reverse chinlock which is transitioned into a regular version. Rollins fights up and hits a big enziguri to put both guys down.

Back up and Seth dropkicks Mahal down and fires off right hands on the mat. They slug it out until Mahal gets clotheslined to the floor. Rollins hits a suicide dive and Mahal is in trouble. Back in and Seth hits a springboard knee to the side of the head for two. Seth puts him on the top and kicks Mahal in the head, but his super rana is countered into a sunset flip for two.

Jinder comes back again with a sitout slam for two but jumps into a dropkick/knee to the ribs from Seth. This is a very back and forth match. Rollins misses a splash in the corner and Jinder pounds away. Seth counters out of it and hits the running buckle bomb on the opposite corner. The full nelson slam is escaped so Mahal hits a knee to the back of the head and hooks the camel clutch. Seth immediately gets to the rope and comes back with the low superkick (Avada Kedavra) and the standing Sliced Bread (Skywalker) for the pin to retain at 15:20 shown of 22:20.

Rating: B. No complaints here as these two have some solid chemistry together. Thankfully this wasn’t a comedy match for Mahal and he was just in different attire instead of being completely goofy. Rollins winning these come from behind matches is the perfect way to build up a guy like him and the match worked very well overall. Good stuff, especially for a TV match.

Corey Graves gets in Rollins’ face to end the show with a sarcastic clap.

Overall Rating: A. Good match, decent Divas match, good character stuff with Wyatt and Rowan, setting up the next title feud, promo addressing the end of last week’s show and two big matches announced for next week. What else could you possibly want in a one hour wrestling show?

Results

Paige b. Sasha Banks – Paige Turner

Rowan b. Oliver Grey – Side Slam

Seth Rollins b. Jinder Mahal – Skywalker

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews

NXT
Date: August 29, 2012
Location: Full Sail University, Winter Park, Florida
Commentators: Byron Saxton, William Regal

It’s time for the title match tonight and I’m actually somewhat excited. This change officially turns NXT into its own regular promotion which is what it needed for the last year and a half or so. It’s Jinder Mahal vs. Seth Rollins for the inaugural title, which is a matchup I didn’t think I’d like. Mahal is growing on me as a basic foreign heel and Rollins….well he’s energetic. Let’s get to it.

Jason Jordan/Mike Dalton vs. Hunico/Camacho

Jordan/Dalton won the first match between these teams. Regal calls the fans the NXT Universe now. Great. Now we’re hearing the same stupid lines from NXT that we hear on Raw and Smackdown. Jordan and Camacho start us off with Jordan getting in some basic offense before walking into a pretty good spinebuster. Camacho pounds on Jordan’s face and suplexes him down to bring in Hunico.

Back to Camacho after nothing of note and the bigger guy throws Jordan around with a nice butterfly suplex. A legdrop gets two but Jordan escapes a suplex and tags in Dalton. Dalton hits a spinwheel kick and a charge in the corner, followed by a hurricanrana for two. A missile dropkick gets two on Hunico and everything breaks down. As Jordan is being put back on the apron, Camacho hits Dalton from behing, allowing Hunico to hit his version of an Angle Slam for the pin at 4:00.

Rating: C. This was your run of the mill tag match between four guys who aren’t that interesting but they made it work well enough. Hunico and Camacho are fine for a low level tag team and giving the unknowns a win over them in the first match was a good way to give Dalton and Jordan some exposure. As is the case with almost everyone on NXT though, they need ring time.

Here are the Usos with something to say. They call out the Ascension and as the lights go out for Ascension’s entrance, Ascension runs in from behind and jumps the Usos, laying them out with relative ease.

Raw ReBound is about Punk vs. Lawler. I’m still curious as to when Cena forgot hot to climb a cage.

Big E. Langston vs. Chase Donovan

A clothesline and that falling slam thing gets the pin at 40 seconds. He really needs to change finishers. A powerslam would be fine.

The locker room comes out to watch the title match.

Langston says nothing.

Howard Finkel is doing the announcing for the main event.

Dusty comes out and JR is now on commentary.

NXT Championship: Jinder Mahal vs. Seth Rollins

They have a ton of time for this. Fink may be fat and older now (he’s only 62 so he’s hardly ancient), but that voice is still perfect. Mahal won’t shake Dusty’s hand before the match. Rollins tries to take him to the mat to start but Mahal gets back up quickly. A dropkick puts Mahal down again and Rollins hits a hard chop. Mahal gets sent to the floor but he avoids a dive and sends Rollins face first into the apron. A suplex onto the ramp has Rollins in trouble and we head back in.

We take a break and come back with Rollins in even more trouble. Mahal stomps him down and hits a backbreaker to start setting up the camel clutch. Rollins gets choked against the ropes and the fans are behind Rollins now. He tries a comeback but gets kneed in the face by Mahal to take him back down. The camel clutch is escaped so Mahal pounds him in the back again. An enziguri out of nowhere puts Mahal down and Rollins punches Jinder down.

Mahal goes up for another knee but Rollins knocks him off the top and out to the floor. Rollins hits a HUGE dive to the floor and both guys are down. Back in and Seth goes up again, only to get crotched and superplexed from the top. We take another break and come back with the two of them slugging it out. Mahal might have a bad knee but he pulls off a sitout slam for two. A full nelson slam is countered and Rollins goes to the apron.

Seth hits an enziguri to the head and a running knee for two. The near falls are getting closer and closer here. A running forearm in the corner staggers Mahal but he manages to drop Rollins face first into the buckle. The low superkick (I think he calls it Avada Kadavra, making Rollins awesome) gets two. Phoenix Splash (moonsault into a 450) misses and Mahal hits the full nelson slam for two. Rollins gets to the rope before the clutch can go on and Rollins rolls him up for two. Rollins comes back with the buckle bomb and the Blackout out of nowhere for the pin and the title at 14:24 shown of 21:24.

Rating: B. I’m still not wild on Rollins’ in ring work but the fans are into him and he’s not dull. He also needs a new finisher as the Blackout looks pretty forced to put it mildly. As for the match though, they did a great job of building both guys up as unbeatable and then having them go at it. The match was very good as far as making you wonder who was going to win and it turned into a good back and forth fight at the end. Not a masterpiece or anything, but for the first NXT Championship, this was more than acceptable.

Fink giving Rollins the NEEEEEEEEEEEEEW treatment makes the announcement much better. The roster puts Rollins on their shoulders to end the show.

Overall Rating: B. This was all about the main event so I’m not going to really bother thinking about the rest of it. Rollins is a good choice for a first champion as he can defend the title for a few months and then have a big time heel beat him to take the title. This felt like a big show and I wanted to see it, which is the right idea here. I’m very pleased with this and it worked quite well.

Results

Hunico/Camacho b. Jason Jordan/Mike Dalton – Reverse fireman’s carry slam to Dalton

Big E. Langston b. Chase Donovan – Over the shoulder mat slam

Seth Rollins b. Jinder Mahal – Blackout

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews