Friday, August 1, 2014

NXT & Superstars Report

Thursday nights on the WWE Network is the place to be. Starting with my favorite weekly wrestling program, NXT, the night is always fun. NXT kicked off with the number one contender, Tyler Breeze. He was in action against Angelo Dawkins. Those who know Dawkins know that this was generally a squash match. Breeze worked the tapings with an injured finger which might explain his recent short matches. After the match he announced that he's submitting his music video to the Oscars for Best Documentary, which got a "Thank You Tyler" chant. He talked trash about the NXT Champion, Adrian Neville, who came out and talked trash back, leading to him beating down the number one contender. It was pretty badass.



NXT Divas action followed, which is nearly always a good thing. Charlotte impressed me greatly at TakeOver, but since then, she's fallen back in my eyes. She would be facing one of my favorites since her days in SHIMMER, Becky Lynch. A few weeks ago, Becky made her debut with a weird Irish dancing gimmick but that has been scrapped. She now came out to some metal type music and it reminded me a lot of Seth Rollins when he was in NXT. The match itself was better than the disappointment that Charlotte and Summer Rae put on and Becky looked really good in defeat. NXT is off to a good start.




And here comes NXT taking a step down. The Ascension arrived and the talk was all about their 302 day reign as NXT Tag Team Champions. Not to take anything away from their reign but they've had no competition. I mean, even on the NXT Specials, they've beaten Too Cool on one and on the other they bested Kalisto and Ricardo Rodriguez. Not the most impressive list. And tonight, was yet another squash victory. The biggest news out of tonight's show was the announcement of a Number One Contender's Tag Team Tournament starting next week. This should be fun to help put a jolt into the Tag Team Division and I'd love to see Enzo & Cass or the Vaudevillains win.




Of course, with NXT not having the best tag team division in the world they need some makeshift teams. Mojo Rawley and his general awfulness was interviewed backstage by Jojo. First off, I loved seeing Jojo. Second, he suggested they team up as Mojo Jojo. Best thing Mr. Rawley has ever done. Bull Dempsey decided they should team together but warned him not to mess things up. They teamed up against "The Mechanics." I seriously can't make that up. This was basically another squash that helped get the team of Mojo & Bull over for the tournament but I don't see their team being successful and it will lead to Bull destroying Mojo.




In the main event, Adam Rose faced Tyson Kidd. Not the best main event ever. This was the longest match that I've ever seen from Adam Rose and he continued to not be the most impressive. He did give Natalya a lollipop at ringside and when she took it, the fans played up the situation. Tyson went outside and threw it away. After a decent bout, Rose won with a small package. Yes, he's undefeated and has a streak but Bo Dallas and The Undertaker don't anymore. Tyson Kidd is pretty pissed as Natalya enters the ring while the fans chant "Nattie's Better." Ouch. Overall, this was a disappointing episode of NXT. I enjoyed the first two segments but everything after wasn't really interesting.




Onto Superstars, which featured Alberto Del Rio again, this time in the opener. He went toe to toe with Justin Gabriel in what turned out to be a very good match. Del Rio continues to give it his all in the ring, even on a night where he was on little watched Superstars and where he received a nasty cut over his eyes. He, of course, made Justin Gabriel tap to the Cross Armbreaker while Renee Young was delightful on commentary.




The tag team main event featured Zack Ryder and Sin Cara taking on SLATER GATOR! They even got a backstage segment that was pretty funny. SLATER GATOR is taking over and I'm okay with that. It's awesome that Heath will do everything in his power with the gimmicks and angles that he's given and this is no different. SLATER GATOR won here and are moving up the tag team ranks. A decent episode of Superstars as I do tend to skip over the recaps of the weekly action that is already recapped way too often throughout the week.




While this is not general news from the Network, it's about the Network. During the NXT tapings last night it was announced that the third NXT Special will air on the WWE Network live on September 11th. It's titled "TakeOver 2" and I'm excited. The NXT Specials have been some of my favorite shows and, while they announced the three title matches for that show, I won't spoil them here. The other big news is that there will be a new NXT General Manager announced soon. Fun stuff right?