I love NXT. Ever since I discovered that it made the transition from terrible gameshow to ace wrestling show, I have been hooked. I'll give you the rundown for this week's episode and tell you who I feel the MVP and LVP of the show is. Let's see what we got:
JBL walks into Paige backstage and talks up how good of champion she has been. But, he tells her that it's unfair to have a champion who is going to be defending the main Divas title all over the world while she carries around the NXT title unable to consistently appear at its home. She fights it at first, but relinquishes the title to JBL. Shedding her developmental roots for the main title.
[HEADING=3] Alexander Rusev vs Jobber [/HEADING]
"Travis Tyler" charges in with a drop kick which causes the monster to stumble. Travis bounces into the ropes and gets rammed into the ground. He is absolutely destroyed for the next one or two minutes before the Accolade is locked in. He taps a few seconds later but isn't released until Lana says so.
It's a squash so no grade
[HEADING=3] Paige and Emma vs Charlotte and "the boss" Sasha Banks [/HEADING]
I'm temped to give an A+ just because Charlotte does a freaking Flair flop. She vastly improves every time she wrestles. The NXT women's division has easily the best submission wrestling in all of WWE. Man, that is something I never expected to say. Anyway, Paige is wearing down Sasha when she takes a drop kick to the knee from Charlotte. Sasha tags out and Charlotte hits that weird leapfrog cutter she does and pins the WWE DIVAS champion. The match was a lot of fun and everyone filled their rolls admirably, it was just a bit short.
[HEADING=3] B [/HEADING]
[HEADING=3] Tyson Kidd vs Mason Ryan [/HEADING]
I pretty much hate Mason Ryan. He's diet Batista with all of the size but none of the flavor. Also, come on commentators carrying Tyson Kidd isn't the slightest bit impressive. In the end he hits his flying neck breaker off the top for the 3. If I have to see Mason, thanks for making him job, WWE
[HEADING=3] C- [/HEADING]
Please never let Tyson speak again. PLEASE.
[HEADING=3] Angelo Dawkins vs Tyler breeze [/HEADING]
Angelo, you are one of the worst things I have ever seen. What gimmick is that? He's a backpacker/awful moonwalker? Did he ad-lib that second part? If so, release him before he can do any more harm. And...the match is over? Wow, that was a squash. Money Shot for the win extremely early on.
[HEADING=3] The Ascension and Corey Graves vs The Usos and Sammy Zayn [/HEADING]
Why are the Ascension working with Corey Graves? I can see The Usos and Zayn because they're all nice guys who mix together fast strikes and high flying offense, but this? The annoying scumbag who thinks he's "alternative" teaming with weird vaguely Satanistic monster men? I don't get it. Anyway, I see the Viktor and Konnor bump for the first time in forever. There is a significant amount of back and forth between the Usos and the Ascension. They outright refuse to tag in Graves and frankly, I don't blame them. Zayn is mostly kept out as well which is disappointing, but he gets his moment when he trashes Graves with minimal effort at the end. This was a well paced and pretty fun match that kept out Corey Graves which is a massive plus.
[HEADING=3] B+ [/HEADING]
MVP OF NXT (this week): Charlotte Flair
LVP OF NXT (this week): Mason Ryan
Overall it was an average episode of the show. It had a very good Divas match and a great finale but not a lot worth watching outside of that.
See you Tuesday for the Main Event report.