On NXT, we got a look at how "tweeners" shouldn't wrestle each other, a much "hyped" debut, some women's action, and a visit from the human highlight reel, Rob Van Dam
One thing I like about NXT is the fact that they routinely change up their introductory video. Set to Coheed & Cambria's "Welcome Home," it keeps track of the changing NXT roster, removing wrestlers who get the call-up, adding newly-debuted stars, and every time the NXT Championship changes hands, the video is updated to show the current champion at the end. This is a thing that ECW used to do, in the days of Paul Heyman's leadership and continued in the WWE version, and it's a little touch I wish the other two WWE flagship shows should do. Update the Raw video to show the current WWE Champion, and the Smackdown video with the current World Heavyweight Champion.
The presence of Antonio Cesaro in the NXT video isn't surprising, since he's a frequent sight in NXT these days, although it's strange to see Damien Sandow in the video, since he hasn't made any real memorable appearances in NXT yet.
The show started out with the continuation of the issue that popped up last week, during the Bo Dallas Invitational. Leo Kruger and Antonio Cesaro had both come out to answer the challenge, but had taken exception to either man getting the match ahead of himself. They had started brawling, and gotten thrown out of the ring by Dallas, leaving the door open for Sami Zayn's sneaking in with a mask to challenge and defeat Dallas.
Match 1: Leo Kruger vs Antonio Cesaro
Kruger's entrance works very well in NXT, with the smaller venue and the unique approach the production team takes to their big screen. Even visiting WWE wrestlers or personalities get a different video on the NXT-Tron than they would on the standard TitanTron. In Kruger's case, as his low-pitched, creepy music plays, we get a glimpse of some distorted shots of Kruger looming in and out of shadows, before the music kicks up and the camera pulls back to show Kruger crouching on the ramp with his eerie grin.
The match itself featured two men who are in that strange "tweener" status in NXT. Both of their characters are nominal heels-- Kruger with his "hunter of men" mercenary status and Cesaro with his membership in the "Real Americans" stable-- but the NXT crowd are fans of their work and so they cheer for them. Not helping the heel/face confusion is the fact that neither man was solidified as the heel in the match. Matches featuring a tweener only work when the tweener is positioned against a definite heel or face. Two tweeners facing each other only complicates it.
Kruger started working heel at the start, raking the back and tangling Cesaro in the ring apron. This would have put Cesaro in a face position, but the moment Cesaro started taking control, he was glaring at the crowd and demanding they stop cheering for him, which are the actions of a heel. Kruger then changed up and started some face mannerisms, like doing his "hoo hoo hoo" chant as he set up his "Slice" lariat.
Cesaro ended up being positioned as the heel by the end of the match, however. He kept going for a count-out win, which is a heel tactic if ever I saw one. He also tried to win the match by using his chin-lock submission. Cesaro and Kruger were both being put over strong by commentary, and Alex Riley quoted Dolph Ziggler as saying, of Cesaro, "He's a better wrestler than me."
The finish came when Kruger rallied up out of the chin-lock, but got clobbered with a clothesline, setting up the Neutralizer. Cesaro wasn't done after the match, however, as he hit a huge top-rope knee-drop to Kruger's throat. Perhaps this is indicative of a continuing feud, to further slide either man more solidly into heel or face status. Or maybe Kruger is being put on the back burner for a while so NXT can try their hands with some other new talent, like the recently-signed Kalisto (né Samuray Del Sol) or Solomon Crowe (né Sami Callihan).
Match 2: Charlotte (w/ Bayley) vs Santana Garrett
Charlotte is the daughter of none other than "The Nature Boy" Ric Flair, and wrestled her first professional match on NXT earlier this year. Despite this, however, she has proved remarkably good for someone so green in the business. A gymnast, she often uses that flexibility and agility to show off some impressive moves. Bayley, who accompanied Charlotte to the ring, is a star-struck ingenue, often presented as somewhat naive or socially awkward, which is oddly endearing. Her presence was explained as a reaction to the recent alliance between Summer Rae and Sasha Banks, providing safety in numbers.
Santana Garrett is a newcomer to NXT, and as yet has no real characterization. This is not entirely unusual on the show, as many of these "enhancement talent" wrestlers will have little characterization like this, and are used to just get over another wrestler. Aiden English (more on him later) was in a similar status until last month. Santana will probably get a better defined persona in the future. Here, she was just there to be the nominal heel and sell for Charlotte's offense.
Charlotte herself did very well, although there's still improvements to be made. She needs to work a little bit on her timing (particularly on her front-flip cutter finisher), and get some better characterization for herself as well. On commentary, Riley and Tom Phillips and Renee Young all commented on how Charlotte is trying to step out from her father's shadow. That's all very good, and it's something I encourage as well, but it's somewhat hampered when Charlotte lets out a few "wooo's" of her own during the match, and uses knife-edge chops just like her father when rallying back.
During the match, Summer Rae and Sasha Banks made their way to ringside, where they sarcastically and mockingly cheered on Charlotte. After the match was over, after Bayley and Charlotte had left, they got in the ring, where Summer got on the microphone. She called herself and Sasha (respectively) "The First Lady and The Boss of NXT," and promised to run NXT, and then the WWE, while bragging about how Sasha took out Paige, meaning that no one could do anything about it.
This brought out Paige, the reigning NXT Women's Champion, herself, where she managed to attack Sasha for a few moments before she was double-teamed. Emma came out in response to this, and the two chased off the "BFFs" to end the segment, but it picked up again backstage where Summer & Sasha laid out a challenge to Emma and Paige for a tag-team match next week. It's worth nothing that Summer did almost all of the talking here, which is probably for the best, since Sasha's promo ability has been rather stilted and uncomfortable. I hope she'll hone that a bit better in the WWE's Performance Center.
Match 3: Danny Burch vs Mojo Rawley
I addressed Mojo last week, as a rookie in NXT that a lot of people see potential in, with size and agility and energy to spare. This week, during his match, they gave some more details on his background. He grew up in Alexandria, VA and graduated from the University of Maryland, and is a former NFL player for the Green Bay Packers and Arizona Cardinals. Naturally, since he's from Northern Virginia, I'm pulling for him all the more.
Danny Burch is a British technician/bruiser formerly known as Martin Stone on the British indie circuit. My only exposure to him prior to seeing him in NXT was his appearance at CHIKARA Pro's 2008 King of Trios tournament, where he helped represent IPW:UK. The only real characterization given has been "told" not "shown" by commentary, where they have said he's a Westham soccer club enthusiast. ("A pint and a fight is a good British night," as Riley put it.)
Mojo Rawley had a high-energy entrance, but surprisingly, Burch controlled most of the match. I expected that Rawley would dominate most of the match-- as one might expect for a "hyped" wrestler like him. It was a strange decision to be made, unless this is going to lead to Burch's development in his characterization.
To close out the match, Rawley hit a pair of Stinger Splashes, followed by a butt-butt (a la Naomi's "Rear View"), and then a running sit-down senton (a la Doink the Clown's "Whoopie Cushion"). This is an unusual finisher, and I hope that he gets a better one. Some kind of running strike would suit his energy better.
Interview: Paige & Emma
Backstage, Paige was talking with Emma, saying she didn't need Emma's help against Summer Rae & Sasha Banks earlier, when they were informed about the challenge made to them. Emma brought up Summer throwing bubble solution in her eyes, Paige brought up Sasha Banks hitting her in the back of the head, and they accepted the challenge. Paige noted that she'll win the match, "because I'm the champion." Emma just smirked at this, started doing her Emmalution dance, and said, "Not for long."
This is an interesting development, and while I doubt it means that either woman is turning heel, it adds a little depth to the characters. It also helps put over the NXT Women's Championship as something that every NXT women's wrestler is gunning for.
Match 4: LeFort's Legionnaires (Scott Dawson & Alexander Rusev) (w/ Sylvester LeFort) vs Enzo Amore & Colin Cassidy
Sylvester LeFort first caught attention under his real name, Tom La Ruffa, on the show "World of Hurt," where he portrayed an egotistical character dubbed the "French Stallion." On NXT, LeFort is a French entrepreneur who is solely focused on one thing: getting lots of "Monay." To that end, he has positioned himself as a manager in flashy shirts and equally loud pants. His first team, Scott Dawson & Garrett Dylan, were a couple of Southern rednecks, but when Dylan was released in August this year, he continued managing Dawson, and recently brought Alexander Rusev into his "Legionnaires" faction.
Scott Dawson, dubbed "Captain Roughneck," is a brawler with some solid technical ability to back it up. He's been compared to Arn Anderson, which is one hell one to make, for his ability, a comparison helped by Dawson using a spinebuster in his moveset.
Alexander Rusev is called "The Bulgarian Brute," which is obvious when one looks at his incredible build and his "foreign wildman" character. He wrestles in what can only be called a leather loincloth and barefoot as well. He made waves a few weeks ago, when he debuted against a visiting Dolph Ziggler, and to everyone's surprise did very well for it. He's described as having a background in Muay Thai and Sumo, and comes out with a wooden board with his opponent's name on it, which he ritually breaks over his knee.
I spoke on Enzo & BIG CASS last week, and their face turn continued this week in their entrance, as Enzo incorporated a call-and-response into his self-introduction. ("My name is Enzo Amore, and this here is--" "BIG CASS!") Cass himself proved his own skill on the mic again, calling the Legionnaires a couple of "sloppy jalopies," leading to Enzo setting up the catchphrase: "Do I gotta spell it out for you? S-A-W-F-T-- SAWWWFT!"
Unfortunately, while Enzo & BIG CASS are great on the microphone, they continue to not get a chance to do very much in the ring. Cass started out against Rusev and managed to get some moves in on the big man, but when Enzo tagged in, he immediately got destroyed by both Rusev and Dawson. Rusev finished him off with a charging backward splash in the corner, then locked him in a camel clutch, which has been dubbed "The Accolade," for the tap-out victory.
After the match, the Legionnaires continued the humiliation by hitting Cass with that wrecking-ball splash and put him in the Accolade too. The Legionnaires (who debuted a new entrance vid and music this week) are clearly being built up as a heel threat on NXT, but the face tag-team scene on NXT is a little thin at present, since I've heard the Neville/Graves team is breaking up soon.
Interview:
Backstage, Renee Young interviewed Sami Zayn about last week and his upcoming title shot against Bo Dallas. Zayn talked briefly on the difficulty in getting the match in the first place, but Dallas himself interrupted very quickly with a disapproving expression. Dallas said it was "really not cool what you did to me last week. I thought we were friends." Zayn was quick to say it wasn't personal, it's just that Dallas has the NXT Championship, which is something that Zayn wants. Dallas suggested instead of fighting, they be tag team partners and challenge for the NXT Tag Team Championship. Zayn agreed, "but let's do it after I beat you for the NXT Championship."
Bo Dallas has become a lot easier to swallow since they turned him heel, and I see some comparisons in this Dallas/Zayn feud to the Matt Hardy/MVP feud in 2007. Hardy wanted the US Championship that MVP had, but the two were forced by circumstance to become tag partners and won the Tag Team Championship. This led to Hardy doing the bulk of the work (necessary due to MVP injuring himself), and leading to MVP trying to play up their friendship to try to duck out of Hardy's challenge for the title.
If Zayn fails to win the NXT Championship next week, the Zayn/Dallas tag-team could be a good way to extend the feud a little more, and add some needed depth to the tag roster in NXT for a couple of months until Zayn manages to get another title shot.
Match 5: Aiden English vs Rob Van Dam (w/ Ricardo Rodriguez)
Earlier, I spoke on Aiden English and how his character was developed further recently. This is a common thing on NXT, for wrestlers to be used in the "jobber" role for a few matches over the course of a few months, while they work on developing their character off-camera, trying out personas at house shows and practicing at the Performance Center. English is a good example of this. He'd briefly shown off his "thespian" character in FCW, but when coming to NXT, he was mostly used in the jobber roles, while the occasional reference to his theater background was dropped, but never shown.
A few weeks ago, however, English finally stepped up and showed off that thespian character of his. Dubbing himself "The Artiste," coming to the ring with an old-school weightlifter's belt like a circus strongman around his waist, he does his own ring entrance by singing a song like the WWE is a musical, and uses a variation on a side Russian legsweep as a finisher, prefaced with a shout of "Take a bow!" That finisher, and that taunt, seems like a perfect set up for a Stroke-style finisher, so perhaps it may change.
The match was this week's main event, as RVD was introduced by Ricardo Rodriguez (who promptly did nothing else for most of the match), and then worked his traditional spots. English got the chance during all of this to showcase his character perfectly by begging off and protesting about the attacks being made to him. I don't know how well "The Artiste" character would play on the main roster, but he could be a good enhancement talent, if nothing else. He could also fit very well as a protege/partner to Damien Sandow, as Sandow's "Intellectual Savior of the Masses" persona would mesh well with English's erudite thespian "Artiste."
Alex Riley, as I noted before, is on commentary this week, a role he's been slotted into in the last couple of months, and at which he's doing a very good job. He was no great shakes as a wrestler (although he had great energy and I'm sorry he didn't make it), but he's been good on commentary, putting over the wrestlers and adding little things to the matches as he does. For instance, he put over the experience of wrestling a "legend" like RVD, saying, "[English]'s gonna wake up tomorrow, he's going to be so confident, even if he loses this match-- he's in the ring with one of the best in the world."
As one might expect, RVD won the match, rallying back from English's heat segment and finishing him with a thrust kick, the Rolling Thunder, and the Five-Star Frog Splash. This is RVD's last WWE televised appearance for now, as he's "taking a break" from WWE after his loss at Battleground on Sunday.
Next Week: Sami Zayn vs Bo Dallas for the NXT Championship!
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