And Daniel Bryan got Bray Wyatt alone in a steel cage, where he promptly got his retribution by kicking his damn head in. And the WWE Universe screamed "YES!!!"
Down in NXT Land, things got back to basics with a wrestling-heavy episode, as we are on track to NXT's first live broadcast from Full Sail University.
As a wrestling fan, I don't just want the shows I watch to be talking segment after talking segment. The talking segments should always-- always-- set up action. Preferably, that action should take place in the same show. I understand that WWE has its own criteria and there will be weeks where the segments outnumber the wrestling, but as long as the wrestling makes up for it, it's not going to be a bad thing.
The wrestling should also tell a story itself. Squash matches can be entertaining once or twice, but after that, it can get dull, unless the wrestler doing the squashing does something interesting. It can be hard to tell a story when the wrestlers only have ten minutes to do it in, but it's not impossible. This week, that was proven with three out of the four matches.
A Word on This Week's Commentary
This week, the three man booth was Tom Phillips, heel-leaning Byron Saxton, and Tensai. Tensai has definitely slid into a 'coach' or 'mentor' role, and has admitted as such on commentary. Saxton (or "Simon" as Tensai kept calling him) continues his heel-leaning bent at the desk, and is doing it better than JBL is on Raw or Smackdown.
Opening Segment: Kicking It Off with The COO
Off the heels of last week's WWE Network announcement, COO Triple H came down to Full Sail University and out to the NXT ring. The Crowd, as usual, was welcoming and gave him a standing-o and "Yes" chants. Like on NXT 200, he kept his address short and to the point. He said it was an exciting time to be in the WWE Universe, and it was exciting for him to be in NXT to give this announcement. He brought up the WWE Network (debuting on February 24, 2014), and then announced that on February 27, NXT will go live on the WWE Network from Full Sail University.
As the Crowd chanted "Yes" again, Triple H said he expected them to be there, and to be loud, because he wants them to show the world that NXT is the future, and the future is now.
To no one's surprise, WWE continues to push the WWE Network hard. Hopefully they won't completely shove it down our throats like they have been with the WWE App, but the Network is major news and it's only natural that they'll continue to make a big deal out of it.
Match #1: Adrian Neville vs Tyler Breeze
The story going into this match goes back to NXT 200. Adrian Neville received another shot at Bo Dallas' NXT Championship, in a Lumberjack match. The only lumberjack worth mentioning in the match (and, notably, the only one who got more than a passing glance from the cameras) was none other than 'Prince Pretty' himself, Tyler Breeze. When Neville got tossed outside near Breeze, he took it upon himself to personally try to throw Neville back in the ring. However, Neville put the brakes on and slapped him in the face for trying to do it. Breeze spent the rest of the match sulking on the floor, until he pulled Dallas out of the way of Neville's Red Arrow finisher, allowing the champion to retain. Last week, Breeze and Neville were in the same room for the first time since then, and Neville asked for this match so he could introduce his fist to the 'Gorgeous One's' face.
The match itself gave us some very succinct summations of both men's characters. One visual during the model's entrance, when he reclined across the top rope in the corner, with his fur vest and furry tassels on, taking selfies with his fur-bedecked iPhone, was Tyler Breeze in a nutshell. Neville meanwhile gave us some amazing agility displays in the early going, particularly when he faked out Breeze on a dive, doing a handspring off the ropes, then a backflip.
The story of the match itself was that Breeze had Neville extremely well-scouted. There were many points where the 'Jumping Geordie' went high-risk, and was either blocked from pulling off the move, or countered or evaded. Breeze showed a lot more aggression than he usually does, while not really changing up his character overmuch, and held his own against the more seasoned veteran. Neville used his agility to take advantage when he could and punished him with kicks, trying to wear him down enough to go for the Red Arrow.
Commentary was certainly talking up Breeze when they could. They brought up his recent win over Mason Ryan, and that-- as he's now taken up seasonal residence in Campo Grande, Brazil-- he's recently started studying capoiera. (Or "dance fighting" as Byron Saxton called it.) They said he has his own private jet (called Breezin' On By) with a picture of his face on the tail-fin.
They did find time, however, to highlight the differences in the competitors' respective philosophies and reasons for getting into the business. Neville came from a large family and always wanted to be a pro wrestler, and is a firm believer in the 'code of respect.' Tom Phillips remarked that Neville doesn't believe in challenging for championship gold until he feels he's ready to do so. Contrast this with Breeze, whom commentary said only went into wrestling to further his modeling career, and will do whatever it takes to win.
In the home stretch, Neville kept trying to go up for the Red Arrow, only for Breeze to repeatedly cut him off or try to stop him. Eventually, Breeze set him up for a Frankensteiner, but Neville held on and let him crash on the mat. That finally gave Neville the opening for the Red Arrow to pick up the victory. The entire match told a consistent story, and Breeze came out benefiting from it, since he was able to hang with Neville and counter him at many turns, while Neville looks resilient, weathering the storm until he got the opening he needed to connect with a big move.
Match #2: CJ Parker vs Jason Jordan
This match is the one that had the least story to it. CJ Parker is still working his 'Moonchild' hippie gimmick, with the camera weaving around and zooming in and out during his gyrating entrance, which was honestly a bit nauseating. Jason Jordan received an actual entrance, and showed some agility during it, vaulting over the top rope and doing a standing backflip in the ring. He has an impressive physique as well, so perhaps Jordan is one of the next enhancement talent to receive further development in the next few months. Commentary was talking him up as well, bringing up his amateur background and his being a former Indiana Hoosier, going to the gym three times a day.
Jordan worked that amateur stuff to start out, going behind and grounding Parker for a while, rolling him into pinning predicaments while maintaining his waistlock. Eventually, however, Parker ran him chest-first into the top rope to break the hold. From there, Parker hit him with a spinning heel kick, then lined up and connected with the "Third Eye" palm strike for the victory.
Apart from Jordan receiving that entrance, this was a nothing match to fill time and remind us that CJ Parker still exists.
Match #3: Mojo Rawley vs Bo Dallas
There isn't much story going into this match. Mojo Rawley is still being talked up about his intensity and "get hyped/stay hyped" philosophy, and, according to commentary, received this match with the NXT Champion because of the "new Bo Dallas initiative, which is to give hot new up-and-coming talent an opportunity," apparently part of Dallas' New Year's resolutions.
The story in the match itself was that Dallas couldn't make it past Rawley's intensity and power. Rawley kept throwing him off of lock-up attempts and yelled out "You ain't hyped!" A lot of his offense was shoulder-tackles, and he actually went into a three-point stance as an intimidation method, keeping Dallas trapped in the corner until the champion bailed out of the ring to buy time and get space. He did find the chance to get his offense in, and then pummeled away.
Eventually, Rawley connected with a pair of stinger splashes, but Dallas bailed to the apron to avoid a charge. That set up the finishing sequence, as Rawley brought him back in, but missed on a third stinger splash, allowing Dallas to roll him up with a handful of the tights to pick up the victory. Dallas continues to click as a guy who is frequently outmatched by his opponents, but is just dangerously savvy enough to work in openings to cheap-shot or sneak attack them, up to and including outright cheating (e.g. exposing turnbuckles) to get the win.
Dallas has found himself a character that works at drawing great heat from the NXT Crowd, but it's the kind of character that won't translate well to the main WWE roster unless they give him a big win and/or a championship win very early to justify his "disingenuous Nice Guy" character. Rawley has the intensity and charisma, but just needs a little more development to really click well. His stinger splashes have some impressive horizontal distance on them, but he needs to pick up a little more height on his leaps to make them look that much more devastating. Also, Rawley really looks a little soggy about the midsection. A little more time in the gym to get some definition or to trim up that sagginess will work wonders.
Match #4: Alexander Rusev (w/ Lana) vs Kofi Kingston
The story going into this match dates back to NXT 200. Kofi was on hand to talk up NXT and was abruptly approached by Lana and challenged to a match against Rusev. Kofi being the good sport that he is, agreed to the match. Two weeks later, the match took place, which Kofi ended up losing after getting distracted by Lana. Last week, Kofi admitted he'd underestimated Rusev and took his eye off the ball, and asked for a rematch.
Let me start by saying that Rusev had been a little bit boring for me prior to this match. He's got a decent big-man moveset and the foreign heel is a tried-and-tested wrestling trope. His pace has often been plodding and dull, however, only really impressive when he shows off his strength or explosiveness. Plodding, methodical offense works best when it looks devastating or interesting, and in the parts of the match where he's slugging or pounding away on his opponent, Rusev doesn't look particularly devastating or interesting. Lana, meanwhile, I've been fairly critical of since she was introduced, since she does virtually nothing to make her interesting. She simply speaks foreign, stands there, and contributes nothing.
That said, they both showed some signs of working to get past these problems in this match. Rusev has always been a stoic sort, rarely showing emotion or losing his cool, but in this match he started to trash-talk in Bulgarian at some points, and even looked toward Lana on the outside, nodding to her in a way that could either mean "this is how we get it done" or "yes, I heard your advice."
Lana has been slightly more vocal, but still hasn't come up with an interesting "hook" as a manager. Managers aren't just there as set dressing, they're meant to compliment a wrestler who otherwise lacks something. A foreign savage-type heel that doesn't speak English has a manager to serve as a mouthpiece, to translate for the audience, but they need to be interesting in some way. Take, for example, Umaga. He was a throwback to the savage Islander-type, and when he debuted, he had the inimitable Armando Alejandro Estrada to serve as his mouthpiece, a job that Estrada was perfect for. Umaga hadn't yet caught on with the fans enough to function independently, so Estrada oozed sleaze and heel charisma to help get him over. When Umaga had gotten over enough that he didn't need a mouthpiece anymore, Estrada was separated from him.
Rusev already had that charismatic, interesting manager in the form of Sylvester LeFort, French scumbag broke rich guy that he is. Suddenly separating Rusev-- barely a month into his membership in LeFort's Legionnaires-- from him and pairing him up with the thus-far-uninteresting Lana hasn't worked too well yet. Having a likewise-foreign manager works when they have that charisma about them that helps function as a heat magnet. Ricardo Rodriguez, when he was still paired with Alberto Del Rio, is a perfect example. He'd stand there at ringside, with the smuggest of smirks on his face, and even without saying anything, could make you want to see that smirk wiped off his face. Lana hasn't yet developed that kind of want-to-see-you-lose smug confidence that works so well in a manager.
Not helping Lana's case is that so much of her character has hit the snag of "show, don't tell." Everything we know about her we've been told by commentary, rather than have her tell us or otherwise show us. We've been told she comes from an affluent Russian family, but apart from wearing some expensive-looking pantsuits and some jewelry, Lana hasn't really shown this in any way that will contribute to her heat.
The story in this match was the age-old David-vs-Goliath, speed-vs-power dynamic. Kofi refused to stay down and kept fighting back, using his speed and agility to evade or counter Rusev's offense when he could, while Rusev used his power to throw Kofi around and smash him when he got his hands on him. Rusev does have some impressive moves at his disposal-- I'm a big fan of that clean-jerk Samoan Drop of his-- but he needs to make the slugging and pounding he does when he's not doing his power moves look more devastating, because as it is, it sometimes looks like he barely connects.
The NXT Crowd started to get bored during the match, which is never a good thing when you have a smark-heavy audience like that. We saw a smark-heavy crowd at the post-Mania Raw this past year turn on a match when they got bored, leading them to start thinking up other things to chant and do to amuse themselves. Rusev started pumping his arms at one point during the match, which prompted an immediate "Feed Me More" chant, and then a "Golllldberrrrg" chant. They started doing "the wave" late in the match, and even started chanting for Tensai over on commentary. When you lose the crowd, the match can suffer for it, so this should be a wake-up call that Rusev and Lana need to rethink their in-ring/ringside persona to avoid this kind of thing in the future.
Eventually, Rusev started to lose his cool and started getting noticeably angry at Kofi's refusal to stay down, especially when Kofi slipped out of the Accolade before he could lock it in. From there, Kofi hit a leaping clothesline and the Boom Drop, but was briefly distracted when Lana started screaming at him from the steps. This kind of distraction is what cost him the last match, but he proved he'd learned from his mistake when he ducked Rusev's charge, then connected with the Trouble in Paradise for the victory.
As I said, Rusev is starting to show a little more personality in the ring, but he needs to add more and work in a little more energy into what he does in the ring to avoid boring the fans in attendance. Lana needs to work on making her own presence interesting enough to justify her existence without distracting too much from what goes on in the ring. There was some promise here, but they still have a long way to go.
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