WWE NXT Review – January 21st, 2015

WWE NXT Review – January 21st, 2015

Sometimes stuff happens and so recap columns happen 2 days late. Well? Better late than never, right?

What time is it?


VADER TIME?


Clobberin’ Time?!

Its TIME for the best weekly wrestling show!

RECAP!

A few weeks ago we learned that Kevin Owens = a bit of a jerk.

Jump ahead: Last week Zayn and Neville tore the house down.

Also last week? Kevin Owens: really really intent on displaying his jerkdom.

REGAL!

He’s backstage in his incredibly middle management office. He announces the next NXT special will take place on February 11th! Giddyup! Also we’ll have a tournament to establish a Number One Contender, AND Sasha Banks gets another shot at Charlotte since she pinned her last week!

OPENING VIDEO!

IN RING!

Sami’s music hits. Crowd Roars. No dancing. No joy. No smile from the NXT Champion. He’s AAAALLLLLLLLLL Bidness as he stomps to the ring in his gear. Slides under the ring and starts WAILING away on Tye Dillenger. Throws Dillenger out of the ring and gets a mic. Sami isn’t happy and is screaming “OWENS!”

No Owens as Regal’s music hits. Regal admonishes Sami’s behavior. Sami is like “I do WHATEVA I WANT! Gimme OWENS!” Regal answers with “Owens isn’t going to take short cuts and jump people to climb above people to get title shots.” Sami is like “It can be non title. I just need it.” He even asks nicely. Regal mulls it over and says, Sami can have his match with Owens at the next Takeover. And… Good luck Fastlane competing with THAT. Crowd chants “Thank you Regal”. Couldn’t agree more.

HYPE! Later tonight we have Charlotte vs. Sasha (we knew that) – Also Axel vs. Balor and Itami vs. Breeze are first round #1 Contender matches… TONIGHT!

BACKSTAGE!

More REGAL! Next week there will be a contract signing between Owens and Zayn! … Sure that will go smoothly…. no violence or tables being broken. You can bet the house on it!

IN RING!

Curtis Axel’s music hits and he’s on his way to lose. I mean… well… yeah the match ups are fun, but the first round of this tourney is pretty predictable. Balor’s music hits. Crowd chants FINN-FINN-FINN-FINN. Some smoke and awesome lights later. Finn is in ring. They feel each other out (keep your heads out of the gutter…) Axel gets the early advantage. But a big Balor Dropkick and a somersault plancha later Finn Balor is in control. Match a little more methodical. Axel lures Finn in and kicks out the knee. Then a nasty clothesline to the back of Balor’s head and Lil’ Perfect is back control. Axel hits a nice dropkick, crowd chants “YOU SUCK”. Nasty knee lift from Curtis got 2 and change. Axel went for second rope axe handle smash, but… NOBODY HOME! Balor on the offensive. Pele. Slingblade (Shouldna-done that- he’s juss a boy… mmmm hhmmmm…) Double stomp called Coupe de Grace by PbP Rich… I think its Rich. So they’ve named his double stomp. I dig the name. Works with his theatrics for sure. Balor moves on.

ANNOUNCE TABLE!

RICH! ALBERT! GRAVES! Hyping the rest of the field. Itami/Breeze. Neville/Kidd. and Corbin/Dempsey.

RECAP!

Women’s tag team match from last week. Sasha wins with a first full of tights. C”mon Charlotte. You’re dad’s the Dirtiest Player in the game. You gotta see that coming!

BACKSTAGE!

Sasha silences a question. Then says she’s gonna beat Charlotte and be the new NXT Women’s Champion. One dismissive hair flip later? She walks off.

BACKSTAGE?

Or wherever Bull Dempsey is. He’s looking at his hands. His hands are gonna do something and people are gonna chant “BULL! BULL! BULL!” and that means bad news for Baron Corbin.

IN RING!

Banks is out with Becky Lynch in tow. Charlotte out second. Championship Ring Intros. Jaw jacking and a shove kick us off. Charlotte flaunts her size and strength advantage. Collar and elbow with some nice mat grappling. I like how each time these two are in the ring there is a different feel. They stay in the collar and elbow and end up falling through the ropes. Charlotte stays on the attack. Lynch comes in for an attack, but Charlotte is like, “NUH UH!” Back in the ring. Knee drop gets two. Sasha reversed a whip into a Thesz Press and right hands. Then Charlotte hits a Thesz Press of her own and goes to brawl, but Lynch is in and attacks Charlotte. Bell rings. Sasha shoves Becky in frustration, but then the two on one beat down is on. Bayley is out for the save! Bayley spends a little TOO long holding and ogling Charlotte’s title. So Ms Flair gets grabby and snatches the belt back. This doesn’t sit well with Bayley who spins Charlotte around into a big Bayley to Belly!

REGAL!

Regal is back. As this special addition of NXT: Regal continues! He makes a fatal four way between Charlotte, Bayley, Becky, and Sasha. Huge Women’s title match that should be excellent. A second “THANK YOU REGAL” Chant from Full Sail. Once again, I agree.

BACKSTAGE!

Owens is on his phone. I assume KO is playing Angry Birds. He seems like an Angry Birds dude man. Some guy walks and wants Owen’s time and thoughts and words and whatnot. Owens eyeballs this suited mic stand and gets a hearty chuckle from your humble recapped with this line “DO YOU WORK HERE?!” Owens barely suffers this fool. Says whatever he has to say to Sami he’ll say to him at the contract signing NEXT week. Hopefully Suited Mic Stand’s second interview goes better.

IN RING!

Black and White and the sound of a projector can only mean ONE Thing. Time to get MANLY! Vaudevillains are on the way. Graves lets us know Gotch and English are doing “Dinosaur Training”. Yyyyeah… I’m just gonna let that one go. Already in the ring are the Vaudevillains’ Victims, Buddy Murphy and uhh… Something something… Blake? ooh… Wesley! That’s right. Music-less entrances aren’t a good sign for Murphy and Blake. Dig Wes and Buddy’s matching tights. [/red carpet comentary] English in control early. Hits a nice back kick in the corner. Gotch in. Quick tags and working over Buddy. English backbreaker sends him nicely into Gotch who hits a nice vertical suplex and floats over for two. English keeps wearing on Murphy. Blake should make the most of his time by selling popcorn. They try the back breaker into a vertical suplex double team, but Murphy flips out of English’s attempt and makes the desperate tag! Good thing Blake wasn’t out slinging popcorn, after all! House of fire. Spring board forearm. Kips up. Hits a big power slam. Gets two and change. Gotch breaks it up. Murphy and Gotch brawl a bit and Murphy ends up on the outside. Blake reverses a whip into the ropes and ducks and as English follows in and ends up between the ropes he eats a kick from Murphy from the outside. Blake makes a cover… ONE… TWO… THREE?!?! Whoa upset!

BACKSTAGE!

Prince Pretty is gonna move on in this tournament no matter what the Uggos think.

BACKSTAGE!

Blake and Murphy are celebrating. And… SUITED MIC STAND WANTS MORE THOUGHTS! Oh Buddy is Australian…

Pretty standard promo. Not great. Not awful. They want to challenge the Lucha Dragons next week. We’ll see about that, fellas.

HYPE!

Next week’s Contender tourney matches. AND CONTRACT SIGNING!

IN RING!

LOOK EVERYONE ITS TYLER! Announcers sell that someone/something was behind Tyler on the ramp. I wonder if it was Marcus Louis. Breeze lounges in the corner, HBK style.

Hideo’s music hits. Breeze runs and hides from Itami’s kicks. Uses the ref as a human shield and hits a nice kick. Knee to the gut and vicious kick to Breeze’s chest puts Hideo in the driver’s seat. Breeze grabs some tights and pulls Itami into the corner. TIDE…TURNED!!!! Breeze punts Itami’s ribs. Breeze showing a mean streak. Working Itami over with stomps. Kicks. A snap mare, and now… REVERSE CHINLOCK… O’ … .DOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!! A neck breaker gets Breeze a two plus count. They take a break. Come back. The RCOD is still locked in.

Announcers let us know the tag titles will be on the line NEXT WEEK!

Itami starts to fire up. Three clothesline. Nice leg sweep. Running knee in the corner. Tornado Hot Shot and flying clothesline. He gets the TWO PLUS! Breeze teases hitting a piledriver?! Itami reverses with a knee and a fisherman’s suplex. They wrestle and counter wrestle and Breeze hits a WONDERFUL Superkick! TWO PLUS that bordered on THREE MINUS! They struggle to get up. Crowd chanting their approval. Tyler goes aggro in the corner. Has to be pulled off Hideo two different times. Breeze puts Itami up on the top rope. Kick caught by Breeze. Then a crucifix driver by Breeze! Nice!!! He got two plus outta that. Breeze starts yelling at Itami while wailing away on Itami who starts hulking up, so to speak. Series of open palm strikes, kicks, a back hand drives Breeze back into the corner. Stalling dropkick into the corner. Running high speed kick to Breeze and BOOM! Itami wins!

IN CLOSING!

This kicked off an amazing road to their next live special. The tournament set up is amazing. We already have two matches for the next Takeover both of which can be amazing, and once again NXT will be lined up to out perform the WWE PPV that it shares a month with. Main Event was match of the night. Breeze had a great match with Itami. He really impressed me. I was STUNNED by the Vaudevillains loss. I liked it, though. Everything else, while entertaining was pretty predictable and this added some spice/surprise to the show. Plus the tag division is a little stagnant. Hopefully Buddy and Wes can spice it up a bit.

I saw in a tweet that Itami/Balor have never had a one on one contest… ANYWHERE. So that immediately makes that semifinal so insanely special. I hope it gets twenty or forty or the whole damn show. I’m already insanely stoked for the next Takeover!

See ya next week!