I'm Jay 2K Winger, and I am a wrestling fan. I've watched WWE pretty consistently since 2000, I follow what goes on in That Other Company (which shall always remain nameless on this blog), and I am a fan of independent wrestling, having followed and attended Ring of Honor for many years, and am a card-carrying member of the CHIKARMY fan-club of CHIKARA Pro.
The current form of NXT started in June 2012, as WWE reached a deal with Full Sail University in Orlando, Florida, filming the show from their facilities and essentially importing the roster from their old developmental league Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW) to comprise the roster of the new NXT. What developed since then is a fantastic show, with a hot, loyal crowd, featuring young talent looking to secure a main roster spot, all with WWE's expert production values. The show is now hosted on Hulu, where every episode of NXT is now available for free. (As opposed to the rest of WWE's shows on Hulu, which are only available through Hulu Plus.)
NXT has its own titles as well, the NXT Tag Team Championship, NXT Championship, and even an NXT Women's Championship. (Do note that it is specifically called such, not the "NXT Diva's Championship," but Women's Championship. In terms of kayfabe, NXT is overseen by GM Dusty Rhodes, who is a fair face authority figure, although he can sometimes be overridden by other authority figures that pop in for a visit.
NXT has proven it's not afraid to turn a wrestler that's getting a different reaction from the crowd than expected. If an intended heel is getting face reactions, then that heel turns face, usually without changing their schtick too much. If an intended face is getting heel reactions, then that face turns heel, although thus far that has only happened to Bo Dallas. (More on that later.) This feels very refreshing, after seeing the main WWE shows continue to try to push wrestlers that aren't getting measurable reactions in the way that the WWE management (read: Vince McMahon) want. Seeing heels like Enzo Amore turn face solely due to crowd reaction, while keeping their characters largely the same, also helps keep the fans engaged. With a consistent crowd like the one at Full Sail University, it's important to keep them interested, since it's not like the main roster, which may get lukewarm or nonexistent reactions in one town, but can simply pack up and move on to the next town for the next show.
Another key reason to like NXT is the fact that all of the indie wrestlers that WWE signs inevitably end up on the show, so it's a good chance to see them perform in front of what is essentially an informed ("indie") WWE crowd. This undoubtedly helps the recently signed guys as well, gradually introducing them to the WWE style, while keeping them in front of a smaller crowd that they'd be more comfortable with as they work out the kinks. With the WWE's new Performance Center in Florida as well, indie wrestlers can work with the WWE's trainers in all aspects of the craft, from the physical to the mental, as the Performance Center also works on developing them character-wise, helping them with cutting promos and getting comfortable in front of a camera.
In this blog going forward, I'll be reviewing every episode of WWE NXT, highlighting the little things I like, noting the parts that don't work or need improvement, and otherwise providing coverage of one of my favorite weekly wrestling shows.
Let's start out by talking about Bo Dallas. Bo, a third generation wrestler, is the son of Michael Rotunda (aka Irwin R. Shyster) and grandson of Blackjack Mulligan, and it was clear from early on in his FCW career that the WWE saw potential in him. From his background and athleticism, they wanted him to be a big star. The main thing that was holding him back was his utter blandness. He has little babyface charisma, and he struggled in the early days of NXT to muster any kind of big reactions from the crowd for it.
Not really paying attention to this, WWE nonetheless had him win a competition at the Royal Rumble 2013 Fanfest that earned him a spot in the Rumble match, where he notably lasted for 20 minutes and eliminated Wade Barrett, then Intercontinental Champion. This sparked a brief feud, with Bo scoring an upset win on Raw, but when WWE fans failed to care too much about this, Bo was very quickly attacked backstage and kicked back down to NXT.
What followed were months of various feuds as Bo tried (and failed) to score championship shots in NXT, while more charismatic and interesting characters were coming up all the time, whom the fans wanted to see more of, compared to Bo. By the time Wrestlemania 29 came along, NXT fans were officially getting sick of Bo Dallas. Chants of "Don't Tag Bo" and "No Mo' Bo" became more and more common, and soon Bo's character subtly shifted, being convinced of his own greatness and guaranteed legend status by associating himself with main roster members (and name-dropping the always-controversial John Cena definitely helped), and being a very disingenuous friend to Adrian Neville. By June, he had defeated NXT Champion Big E Langston through some chicanery with an exposed turnbuckle, becoming champion himself and finally giving the fans a reason to really hate him. (Big E was a face in NXT despite his heel status on the main roster.) Bo Dallas' shift from bland vanilla looking-for-competition babyface to disingenuous, delusional heel was a bit gradual, but it worked.
Recently, new NXT talent Sami Zayn arrived and made a big splash by defeating Curt Hawkins and then Antonio Cesaro in his debut night. His fast-paced style changed little from his independent days (where you might have heard of him as El Generico), and very quickly developed a strong following in front of the NXT faithful. He has been positioned high since day one, although his win/loss ratio hasn't always been the strongest. Fans want to see Zayn beat Bo Dallas for the NXT Championship, and Zayn certainly wants a shot at it, but Dallas in recent weeks has been reluctant to grant him a title shot. Delusional Bo sees himself as a friend and mentor to Zayn, and pointed out Zayn's losses as a reason to decline giving him a shot at the title, and then pointedly excluded Zayn from the "Bo Dallas Invitational," a match in which anyone on the roster can challenge Bo to a non-title match, granting them a future title shot if they manage to beat him.
There's a part of me that questions why WWE would unmask a masked indie wrestler, even if they want to trademark every character on their shows. Changing up his mask and giving him a new name wouldn't have been that difficult, and masks still sell at the merch stands in WWE. Dropping the "generic luchador" character has been a bit of a bad thing, since Zayn still seems pretty vanilla, but his in-ring action, at least in my opinion, more than makes up for it. Generico never spoke when his actions would do it for him, and Zayn looks to be continuing that aspect of himself.
The main event this week was the Bo Dallas Invitational, and we'll get to it later. Because right now, I want to talk about the opening match, which saw the latest stage of the Emma vs Summer Rae feud.
Match 1: Fandango & Summer Rae vs Emma & Santino Marella
The women's division in NXT is far and away more interesting than the main roster's. My biggest complaint about the WWE Divas division will always be the interchangeability of virtually every single one of them. There's little characterization to any of them, and most heel Divas tend to fall into the same "arrogant mean girl" tropes, while most of the face Divas only really vary in terms of which one is getting a push in any given month. AJ Lee was a breath of fresh air, with a notably different style and character, which has stayed pretty consistent, but without compelling characters, the Divas division has never been that interesting to me.
Contrast that with NXT, where most of the women wrestlers are given at least some character, and suddenly you stop tuning out what's going on and you start paying attention. Emma and Summer Rae are key examples. Summer Rae-- better known on WWE TV as Fandango's dance partner-- is a spoiled primadonna type, and she plays the character very well. Emma was introduced as a somewhat ditzy Australian girl who thought she was a great dancer, presumably intended to be a heel. Her kooky dance, later dubbed the "Emmalution," won her instant approval from the NXT crowd, however, and she hasn't looked back since. She shows a good submission style, too, using both the Tarantula and the Muta Lock as signatures. (Her entrance music will also get stuck in your head.)
Contrast that with NXT, where most of the women wrestlers are given at least some character, and suddenly you stop tuning out what's going on and you start paying attention. Emma and Summer Rae are key examples. Summer Rae-- better known on WWE TV as Fandango's dance partner-- is a spoiled primadonna type, and she plays the character very well. Emma was introduced as a somewhat ditzy Australian girl who thought she was a great dancer, presumably intended to be a heel. Her kooky dance, later dubbed the "Emmalution," won her instant approval from the NXT crowd, however, and she hasn't looked back since. She shows a good submission style, too, using both the Tarantula and the Muta Lock as signatures. (Her entrance music will also get stuck in your head.)
Summer's dislike of Emma led to her throwing bubble solution into Emma's eyes a few weeks ago, and she challenged Emma to find a partner for a mixed tag team match this week. Summer's partner, of course, was Fandango, while Emma revealed that her partner was the returning Santino Marella.
The match that followed is one of the funniest matches I've seen in WWE in quite some time. In fact, I'd be hard-pressed to find a funnier one. Some people may look down on comedy in wrestling, but it can't be super serious all the time, or it loses something. Remember, WWE stands for World Wrestling Entertainment, and comedy, done well, is very entertaining. Emma and Santino played up some miscommunications for laughs-- such as not knowing whether to power-walk or dance down the ramp, and repeated "great job" high-fives being mistaken for tags-- and it definitely got the show off to a great start.
Emma got to hit Summer with her "cannonball crossbody" (for lack of a better name) and tease a Cobra of her own, but in the end, Santino hit Fandango with the Cobra himself for the victory. Give credit to Fandango as well, because despite all the comedy going on, he played it exactly as serious as he needed to, because comedy like this only works when there's a straight man. (And I never thought I'd call Fandango the "straight man" in anything.)
I'd say that Emma is ready to be called up any day now. She could be inserted seamlessly into the Santino/Khali/Hornswoggle group without much fuss, and a main show version of this match-- with a reverse of the setup, requiring Santino to find himself a partner to face Fandango and Summer-- would not be unwelcome.
Promo Time: The Ascension
Starting out the next part of the show, the Ascension addressed the camera. The Ascension is a group that's gone through many changes since their debut in FCW. Originally a talent agency stable led by Ricardo Rodriguez, they soon severed ties with him and became a darker, feral group consisting of Conor O'Brian, Kenneth Cameron, Tito Colon (aka Epico), and Raquel Diaz (aka Eddy Guerrero's daughter). It was never really made clear what the Ascension were meant to be-- vampires? werewolves? demons?-- but their pack mentality and berserk frenzies, not to mention their awesome music ("Let Battle Commence" by Daniel Nielsen), made them a team to watch, even as Epico was called up himself, and Diaz left the group. The O'Brian/Cameron team were clearly being groomed to dominate for the nascent NXT Tag Team division, before Cameron was fired for getting drunk and punching a cop.
O'Brian has made leaps and bounds since his NXT Season 4 appearance, where he was immediately compared to a rat and generally looked lost. He's changed up his style and mannerisms to downplay those comparisons, and his huge frame and hulking presence help add to his menacing character. He's also clearly spent time working on his promo ability, with his deep voice and excellent evil laugh only adding to the whole thing.
Rick Victor recently joined O'Brian in the Ascension, upgrading himself from jobber status immediately. Wearing all-black contacts and inexplicable steampunk goggles around his neck or on his forehead, he's still getting the hang of his Ascension character, although a guy who used to wrestle as "Apoc" (as in Apocalypse) on the indies will probably adapt sooner rather than later.
The promo they cut here tonight brought up their recent defeat of Enzo Amore and Colin Cassidy to secure the #1 contendership to the NXT Tag Titles, and promised a similar fate for Neville & Graves, with Victor supplying their tagline, "Tonight, you will fall, while the Ascension will rise." (Cue O'Brian's evil laugh.)
Match 2: Kassius Ohno vs Luke Harper
Kassius Ohno is one of those guys who seems like he should be on the main roster already. He's got the size, look, and in-ring ability to do it, but is being held back for some reason. Perhaps it's an attitude problem, or the infamous "Creative has nothing for you" curse, but I know many people (including myself) want to see him on Raw or Smackdown. The former Chris Hero has changed since his potbellied, trashbag-gear days on the indies, where he mocked the "flippy-do" style that smaller indie wrestlers are known for with his own agility and athleticism, compounding it with his own flippy finishers and extensive repertoire of moves. Toward the end of his indie career, he changed up his style, shifting to a hard-hitting striking style and dubbing himself "That Young Knock-Out Kid." He's continued that style since coming to NXT, where he's worked as a heel until a recent feud with the Wyatt Family led to him turning face to pair up with Graves and Neville to challenge them.
Ohno was "injured" at the hands of the Wyatt Family a month ago, and has been off NXT since then (some news reports state he was in the infamous "doghouse" for his perceived unwillingness to hit the gym more often), but he returned last week, demanding a match from visiting Raw GM Brad Maddox. Maddox gave Ohno a match against any one member of the Wyatt Family, and Ohno chose Luke Harper, himself brought in from the indie scene, where he was better known as Brodie Lee.
Harper's another one of those guys who has made subtle changes to his style and character. He was introduced on NXT as "the first son of the Wyatt Family," doing Bray Wyatt's bidding while Bray himself was recouping from an injury. Still wearing his trademark tattered jeans and dirty wife-beater, Harper's wild man appearance fits with the "psycho hillbilly" look, and he's still the same bruiser in the ring. All he needed to add was his in-ring patter of "yeahyeahyeahyeahyeah" to really cement his character.
The match was brief and ended up being a squash for Harper, surprisingly. Ordinarily, it's the returning-from-injury guy who gets the victory, but apart from a few hope spots, Ohno got wrecked in short order by Harper, who derailed him with his big boot, then finished him off with the discus lariat. I don't know if perhaps Harper is going to be continuing on NXT for a while, or if this was just to put over Harper as a threat in the main roster, but I hope that Ohno works his way back into the good graces of fate (and WWE management) to make it to the main roster.
Promo Time: Enzo Amore & BIG CASS
Enzo Amore, on the surface, seems like he was given a gimmick destined to fail. An egotistical Jersey boy who shoots his mouth off and a pathological inability to notice when he's outmatched? That just spells "heel jobber." To Enzo's credit, he took it and ran with it, dripping with charisma and a quick-to-catch-on catchphrase ("S-A-W-F-T ... SAWWWWFT!"), the NXT fans immediately started cheering for him. When Colin Cassidy was introduced, it seemed like he might be Jackson Andrews 2.0, but he's proven gifted on the mic himself, even if he hasn't much opportunity to show his in-ring skill on NXT as yet.
Recently, Enzo & BIG CASS have been feuding with Sylvester LaFort's Legionnaires, Scott Dawson and Alexander Rusev, and this promo was meant to address that. Enzo was in his usual "speaking first and thinking later" mode, but when Cass made a crack about how Dawson and Rusev "looked like you been hittin' the taco stand too much, and you ain't been eatin' the hard tacos," it got funny. Cass kept talking, while Enzo started muttering about "what other kinda tacos are there," ignoring Cass' dismissive "shut up." Playing up Enzo's fearless fool tendencies helps out a bit, and while I don't see any potential in Enzo as a main eventer, he'd make a solid addition to the midcard. A potential 3MB vs Amore/Cass feud would be welcome.
Hype Video: Mojo Rawley
Mojo Rawley's been getting some buzz recently, apparently being compared to John Cena by those in charge of developmental, and his only real exposure to WWE/NXT fans has been at house shows or at Funfest/Axxess type events. What I saw of him, however, was a high-energy guy with a great build, apparently tag-teaming with Xavier Woods, something which I wouldn't have said "no" too, if it meant seeing more of Woods.
This video marks the first time that Rawley was officially televised, and consisted of promotional clips of Rawley working out and showing off his energy/agility, in between clips of Rawley speaking about "hype" and how it can make someone ordinary become superhuman. The gist of it all is that "I don't get hyped, I STAY hyped!"
Mojo Rawley debuts next week, and I guess the real test will come then.
Match 3: NXT Tag Team Championship - Adrian Neville & Corey Graves defend vs The Ascension (Conor O'Brian & Rick Victor)
I already spoke on the Ascension, so now it's time to talk about Neville and Graves. Let's start with Neville.
Adrian Neville came from the indies, where he was called "PAC," and he wrestled largely in Europe, but made numerous appearances for Pro Wrestling Guerrilla and toured several times for Dragon Gate in Japan. Billed as "The Man That Gravity Forgot," he was known for his unbelievable high-flying ability, pulling off jaw-dropping aerial moves that really have to be seen to be believed. Many fans worried that his high-flying would be neutered upon arrival in WWE, or that his small stature would be a death sentence, but the moment he showcased his finisher, the Red Arrow corkscrew shooting star press, all doubts were silenced.
Neville was immediately plugged into a tag team with fellow Brit Oliver Grey, and the two of them won the NXT Tag Team Championship tournament, defeating the Wyatt Family to win the titles. However, Grey was very quickly sidelined with a torn ACL, and Neville had to partner with Bo Dallas to defend (and then lose) the titles against the Wyatt Family. Neville briefly went into singles competition, but the Wyatt Family feud soon forced him to find a tag partner, and that ended up being Corey Graves, with whom he won the Tag Titles again.
Corey Graves was known on the indies as Sterling James Keenan (SJK), where he competed in several indies including the International Wrestling Cartel and the British indie 1 Pro Wrestling, before he was signed to WWE. In FCW, he partnered up with Jake Carter (son of Big Van Vader) and continued this tag team briefly in the early rebranded NXT, but the partnership soon dissolved when Graves went solo, using his tattoos and hard lifestyle to bill himself as the "Savior of Misbehavior." He works a technical style to set up his submission finisher, the Lucky 13 Fuller leglock, and worked as a heel until the Shield invaded NXT to protect then-NXT Champion Seth Rollins. Graves had been building up as a challenger to Rollins, and turned face by default against the Shield, before transitioning into a feud with the Wyatt Family.
The Wyatt Family feud forced the solo-mindset Graves to ally himself with Kassius Ohno and Neville, and the makeshift Neville/Graves tag team defeated the Wyatt Family to reclaim the NXT Tag Titles, but the Ascension have been making themselves a major menace, attacking the team backstage and in the ring, even briefly stealing the belts themselves. Part of the feud included a rib injury to Graves, which has since healed, but plays a role in the match tonight.
The match was a very solid tag team match, featuring Graves as the face-in-peril. Neville started out against Victor, and got to show off his quickness and agility with a few flips and evasions, before the Ascension started to take control. As noted, O'Brian has improved markedly, and the little things he does in the match help show his awareness, such as glancing at Graves on the apron before coming off the ropes near him, or pushing Victor out of the way so the legal man can make the pinfall.
Graves got his ribs worked over by the Ascension during the heat portion of the match, and ended up taking the pin at the end of the match. Neville had managed to pick up some steam and looked to hit Victor with the Red Arrow, but O'Brian pulled him out of the way. Graves tagged himself in, but when he went to clip Victor's leg for the Lucky 13, Victor hit him with a running knee to the face, immediately setting Graves up for the Fall of Man (a modified Total Elimination) to give the Ascension the win and their long-awaited Tag Title reign.
The Ascension needs a little more polishing, as the O'Brian/Victor pairing is still relatively new and Victor needs to shakedown a little bit more to gel with him and fine-tune his character. While their version of the Total Elimination features Victor hitting a variation on his "Psycho Crusher" flying European uppercut finisher from the indies, I happen to find the Total Elimination a boring move. A move that makes use of O'Brian's power and Victor's agility would work much better. A powerbomb/uppercut finisher, perhaps?
Graves is another one of those guys that I think should have been called up sooner. With his tattoos and scuzzy appearance, plus his notorious "Stay Down" knuckle tats, he seems like he would have been a shoo-in for Paul Heyman to bring in as a "replacement for CM Punk" in that feud, especially with Heyman repeatedly imploring Punk to "stay down" himself. Comparisons between Graves and Punk based on tattoos alone are going to happen anyway, they might as well play into it from the get-go.
Neville needs a little more time to polish up his style to gel with the WWE style, but when he gets it, I foresee at least a midcard push when he gets called up.
Hype Video: Rob Van Dam
RVD himself will make a guest appearance next week on NXT, so look for something to happen there. He'll presumably be bringing Ricardo Rodriguez along with him. I don't recall who the taping spoilers said he was going to face, so this could go either way in terms of good or bad.
Match 4A: The Bo Dallas Invitational - Bo Dallas vs ...This Guy
The segment started out with Bo Dallas coming out in his usual fashion-- as if he were getting the biggest face ovation in the world, completely ignoring the utter contempt the NXT fans have for him-- and cutting one of his disingenuous promos where he encouraged anyone from the back to come out and face him. We got a member of the NXT roster whose name was never introduced, and whom I don't recognize on sight. He was a rather lanky guy, and the fans caught onto his non-introduction and immediately started chanting "Let's Go This Guy!"
If I may be permitted a brief tangent on This Guy, I actually want to see his non-introduction keep going for a week or two. A brief Colin Delaney-esque push or something, and just have his attempts to introduce himself keep getting interrupted or ignored or something.
At any rate, This Guy had a brief moment of hope, but Bo pretty quickly dispatched him with his Spear finisher, which seriously needs to be changed. There's already three other people on the main roster who do the Spear better than him, and one of them is Christian, whose Spear takes after Edge's in the "running hug" fashion.
After pinning This Guy, Bo grabbed the mic again and basically asked for someone else to come out and have a go at it. Leo Kruger came out to answer the call. Kruger's improved since he shifted his character from a Zoolander-esque male model type to a demented South African hunter/mercenary. He seems to have plateaued in NXT, however, so I hope they either do something with him soon, since there doesn't seem to be any room for him on the main roster right now. He's in a weird sort of tweener status on NXT, as well-- the fans like him and cheer for him, but he's still acting like a heel and positioned as one.
The fans were very interested to see Kruger challenge Bo, but before he even made it down the ramp, Antonio Cesaro came out to answer the challenge too. Cesaro's another quasi-tweener on NXT. He's still working his heel "Real American" character, carrying the Gadsden Flag and doing his "We The People" taunt, but the NXT fans cheer for almost everything he does, because they recognize his talent. Kruger and Cesaro had a brief argument over which one of them was going to challenge Bo, leading to them brawling in the ring and getting thrown out by Bo for it.
This is when El Lo Cal came out to challenge Bo instead. El Lo Cal is a masked luchador, formerly known as Chimaera on the indies, who makes very occasional appearances on C-level shows for WWE. He's appeared on Superstars and Saturday Morning Slam, with one or two NXT appearances, including last week, where he was defeated by Sami Zayn. El Lo Cal was looking a little leaner this week, for what it's worth. (wink wink)
Match 4B: The Bo Dallas Invitational - Bo Dallas vs El Lo Cal
This match was about as brief as the last, as Lo Cal hit a flurry of moves to get Bo Dallas off his game, and then almost took his head off with a running boot in the corner before rolling him up for a quick three-count. Bo Dallas was shocked at the surprise pin, but that surprise was nothing compared to what was waiting for him next:
El Lo Cal pulled the mask off to reveal that, much like Ciclope did to Chris Jericho back in WCW, it was the last person Bo Dallas wanted to see underneath. It was Sami Zayn! Zayn looked smug and satisfied with his win, while Dallas was almost apoplectic in his shock.
Obviously, there's every possibility that Dallas will find any excuse he can to back out of the match that Zayn has now earned himself. He could claim the victory is invalid, since Zayn was pointedly not invited into the Invitational. He could point out it wasn't Zayn that had beaten him, it was El Lo Cal, and give Lo Cal the match instead. He could point out that the bell never rang before his match with Zayn/Lo Cal, so the match doesn't count.
Of course, Cesaro and Kruger could both claim that they had come out first, so they had dibs, and take exception with Zayn jumping in front of them-- and this is almost certainly what will happen. It's clear that Zayn is destined for big things on NXT, and with his Syrian heritage and multilingual talents, he'll be an ambassador for WWE overseas as well. (Zayn already did promotional work for WWE for their recent Middle East tour.) I was a big fan of El Generico, so I do hope that Zayn gets a shot on the main roster when he gets called up.
This concludes this week's NXT review. See you next week!
-=Jay 2K Winger=-
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