WWE NXT Review (06.09.13)

Welcome back to our weekly review of NXT, the development talent show.

The show starts off this week with a women’s tag team match, with Bayley and Charlotte (daughter of Ric Flair) versus Alicia Fox and Aksana. The crowd aim plenty of Ric Flair “Woo’s” at Charlotte, a good sign for the rookie second generation diva. Bayley’s excitable nerd character is very over with the fans and she plays it well and with energy that stands out. Aksana has improved a lot since she first started out, starting the match with power moves and seductive crawling around the ring. Alicia Fox tags in and works with Bayley for a while. Fox is one of the most solid women on the entire WWE roster in my view and should get much more exposure on the main roster. Fox hits Bayley with a great looking northern lights suplex. That’s right folks, a woman throwing suplexes into the mix. If only all the women in the WWE had a chance to show off what they could actually do in the ring. The crowd try to get Bayley some momentum by chanting for her. Bayley hits a hug/belly to belly suplex on Aksana before making the tag to Charlotte. Charlotte shows a lot of potential with her athletic gymnastic type moves and sequences. The match, though sloppy in places, is a solid one and helped show off the abilities and improvements that all the women here have made. Bayley scores the win for her team via pinfall.

We see a backstage segment with Sylvester LaFort, Scott Dawson and Alexander Rusev. They talk about their matches later in the night. Rusev breaks a piece of wood across his knee and growls.

Rick Victor makes his way to the ring along with his Ascension partner Conor O’Brian for a singles match against Corey Graves. Adrian Neville accompanies his punk-rock partner to the ring. Graves starts off with a flurry of punches to Victor. I could see Graves having a fun main roster feud with CM Punk one day, their styles and appearances would mingle well. Lots of punches, kicks and front-facelocks in this match, keeping it slow and to the mat. Graves sells his taped ribs regularly, holding himself after hitting most offensive moves. That’s nice to see. Neville takes out O’Brian with a slingshot followed by Graves reversing Victor’s finisher into a roll-up for the victory. Decent match, just a little slow and sluggish at times.

We see a backstage segment with Summer Rae and Sasha Banks, hyping Banks’ and Paige’s’ one-on-one match, next week. Maybe this is teasing a future Banks heel turn.

Coming back from the ad-breaks we hear from the NXT Women’s Champion Paige, who talks about her opinions of Summer and Sasha, she puts Sasha over and insults Summer Rae. Another segment to hype the match for next week.

Sylvester LaFort and Dawson come out next to announce “The Bulgarian Brute” Alexander Rusev. Rusev comes out with another plank of wood in his hand. Ok. Rusev breaks the wood over his knee before his opponent, Mason “Batista Lite” Ryan comes to the ring for the one-on-one match. It’s a slow power match with back and forth pushes, shoves, shoulder blocks, punches, kicks and the usual bunch of moves one has come to expect from these sorts of contests. Rusev hits an impressive flying heel kick on Ryan, showing he has a lot of agility for a guy of his size. Ryan is really slow and his reactions look really bad at times, no wonder he isn’t on the main roster any more. Rusev is impressive though, his offence looks forceful and he’s pretty damn fast for a big guy. Rusev wins the match with a camel clutch submission.

We see footage of Leo Kruger laughing over a beaten Xavier Woods backstage.

Now, one of the very best development talents currently working in WWE, Sami Zayn, comes out to face Jack “Tumbleweed Reaction” Swagger, who is accompanied by “Dirty Dutch” Zeb Coulter. “The Floppiest Hair in Wrestling” Jack Swagger starts of the match with some typical offence before Zayn takes control, hitting knife-edge chops and a dropkick. The crowd pops massively for Zayn, who is undoubtedly going to be a big star. Swagger regains control with a mean lariat and a cluster of knees to the gut of Zayn. Jack is solid and talented but has just never been over with crowds very much and he lacks charisma. Still, this match is the loudest involving Swagger that I’ve seen in, well, a long time. Zayn hits a sit-out powerbomb for a near-win. Swagger nails Zayn with a gut-wrench powerbomb for the near-fall. The crowd chants “this is awesome”, and it is, it’s a great match and the best Swagger match in years. Swagger clasps the ankle lock on Zayn as the crowd continue to shout support for the former El Generico. Zayn counters a Swagger-bomb before nailing Jack with a big boot to the face for another near-fall. There’s a great top rope powerbomb spot that allows another Zayn close-call on Swaggs. Bo Dallas comes to ringside to a big heel reaction and plenty of “no more Bo” chants. Dallas distracts Zayn, allowing Swagger to grab Zayn’s ankle again and score the victory via tapout. A fantastic match, one of my favourite’s on NXT so far, and that says a lot.

This brings the show to an end, and what a way to end it.

Show MVP: Sami Zayn

Show Dud: Mason Ryan

Best Match: Zayn/Swagger

Best Crowd Sign: “Jack Thwagger Thuckth!”