WWE NXT Yellow Ropes Report 4/17 (Clay, Neville, Ascension)

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The Glimpse:

 

The Action:

Match 1: Colin Cassidy vs Aiden English

Winner:   Aiden English via pinfall

The crowd begs English for a pre-match encore, which he denies them.

English comes out firing right hands, as these guys have some history.  Cass quickly turns things around in the corner and lays into English’s midsection with knees and forearms.  Leaping knee to the face of English leads to a boot soon after for two.  English bails to the apron and uses the ref to keep distance then kicks out the knee of the taller Cass so he can club away at his back.  Boots and clubs in the corner from the Drama King before a kick to the head for two.  Cass starts a comeback with a back body drop.  English counters a fall away slam to try the Director’s Cut, which Cass counters back to the fall away slam position.  English counters again with a school boy (and a fistful of tights) to win it.

Devin Taylor introduces Tyler Breeze, then Breeze corrects her.  Breeze has nothing to say – He just wanted to appear on camera.  Fits the gimmick and only ate up 20 seconds of screen time, so that’s fine.

Quick summary video of Paige’s Raw debut and Divas Title victory.  Paige knows that holding both titles makes her a target on both shows and that’s why she’s not going to become complacent.  Bit of cockiness out of Paige – She’s supposed to be tough, but there’s a line between confidence and heel cockiness.

Match 2:  Camacho vs Oliver Grey

Winner:   Camacho via pinfall

Grey is making his return since his injury months ago.

Quick waistlocks that Camacho fights out of, only to eat an arm drag and dropkick.  Camacho answers with a big back elbow off the ropes and stomps in the corner.  Camacho follows with a running powerslam for two.  Grey breaks free and strikes away at Camacho who begs for more then delivers a huge Samoan Drop to win it quickly.

Bo Dallas admits that Occupy NXT wasn’t the best idea since the Bo-Lievers are law abiding citizens.  The Bo Movement is still in effect.  Starting to get the slightest bit old here.

Match 3:  The Ascension (NXT Tag Team Champions) vs Wesley Blake & Cal Bishop

Winners:  The Ascension via pinfall

The Ascension has apparently continued the “open challenge” concept that started with the Wolves months ago.  Apparently that translates to “Jobber Gauntlet”.

Blake gets tossed all over the place by Konnor then Viktor chops the bejeesus out of him on the floor.  Konnor tags back in and boots Blake in the corner.  The crowd loves Konnor’s “YAH” on his boots and backs him up like back in the McGillicutty “SHAH” days.  Quick Ascension tags to eliminate Bishop off the apron and hit Fall of Man on Blake.

Devin (in a change of clothes – Great production, guys) talks to the BFFs minus Summer Rae.  Charlotte runs down Sasha’s recent losses and says they have a tag match against Emma and a partner of her choosing next week.  Already teasing dissension in this group?

Match 4:  CJ Parker vs The Great Khali.

Winner:  The Great Khali via pinfall

CJ is angry now and mad at the public for shunning him and wants to save the environment but he still spins like a moron when he makes his entrance like a happy go lucky hippie.  Yeesh.  CJ lies in bed and wonders how the Earth would fare without the NXT Universe.  Apparently this would eliminate all of the environmental issues throughout the world.  Parker wants to know how he can be booed standing for such important things.  Khali interrupts.  Bad to worse.

Parker chops Khali and gets gingerly shoved for it.  Khali hits the loudest frying pan chop I’ve ever heard in my life then follows it up with the NEW loudest frying pan chop I’ve ever heard.  Khali tosses Parker to the floor and gives chase, but Parker drapes Khali’s knee over the rope (softly) then goes to work on him in the ring.  Parker gloats then gets tossed away, followed by dropkicking Khali.  He gets chopped out of midair, runs into a boot, eats clotheslines and then takes the Punjabi Plunge.

Emma responds to the BFF’s challenge – Has she found her partner?  She doesn’t even seem to know.

Match 5:  Jason Jordan & Tye Dillinger vs Sawyer Fulton & Baron Corbin

Winners:  Jason Jordan & Tye Dillinger via pinfall

Random new team of two guys with matching tights vs random team of two other guys.

Good double team work from Jordan and Dillinger to keep pressure on Corbin.  Dillinger with a quick go behind only to eat a huge lariat for two.  Fulton with some unique offense – Clotheslining Dillinger onto his own knee then some funky standing splashes.  Corbin tags back in for a delayed vertical suplex and a two count.  Chinlock mid-ring then a scoop slam from Corbin.  Corbin wants a dive from the second rope but ends up getting countered – Jordan and Fulton both tag in and Jordan unleashes with back body drops and dropkicks.  Shoulder in the corner and a double team elevated DDT wins it for Jordan and Dillinger.

Match 6:  Brodus Clay vs Adrian Neville (NXT Champion)

Winner:  Adrian Neville via countout

Clay shoves Neville to the mat which enrages him, throwing kicks at the much bigger man’s legs.  Neville tries a sleeper but Clay throws him off his back.  Neville dives at Clay after going over in the corner but gets caught in midair and given a T-Bone suplex.  Clay gets a two count and follows with elbow drops.  Clay delivers a Heart Punch then applies a nerve hold (old school day today?) on the champ.  Clay drops his rump on Neville’s chest after bouncing off the middle rope for two.  Brodus wants a powerbomb but Neville slips away to the corner.  Brodus lays his foot into the neck of Neville then stands on his ribcage.  Snapmare and a double nerve hold before Neville fights up and lands a jaw breaker.  Another powerbomb attempt but Neville slips out and takes aim at the knee of Clay.  Rope hung enziguiri from the apron knocks Clay to his knees then he takes a springboard forearm.  Neville tries to drag Clay to the corner but can barely move him.  Neville feints a 450 and rolls out of it, but runs right into a headbutt.  The Champ rolls to the floor and Clay gives chase, delivering a scoop slam.  Clay tries a splash from the ring steps to the floor but whiffs, allowing Neville to sneak back in the ring and beat the 10 count.

Clay rages and looks to get in the ring but gets dropkicked back to the floor.

The Reaction:

Cass has improved a lot since we first saw him but this match wasn’t much of a showcase for him.  This will serve as more of a reigniting of the Cass/English rivalry which will be good for both of them in the long run, especially with more NXT talent heading up to the main roster.  Typical cheap heel win to rev up rivalry.

That might be Camacho’s first singles win on NXT that I can think of.  Odd to see someone re-debut and get effectively squashed with strikes not phasing the opponent.  Camacho moves on to Adam Rose, as that seems to be the plan.

I think these guys have the squash formula down.  Now we need to know what happens in a 10 minute match.  We know at five minutes they dump Davey Richards on his head, so ten must be devastating.  They need real opponents and soon.

Khali beats an NXT guy.  Nobody wins.

Great tag match – Figured Jordan/Dillinger would win this one, what with the new team with matching tights and all.  Corbin is a solid talent (rare in these former NFL guys on NXT) and Fulton has a look to him.  Double team DDT is simple enough to work as a tag finisher.

Neville wins it, so Clay doesn’t get his title shot.  But what did we see here?  A small champion booked to get his ass beat for 95% of a match.  That’s typical WWE, and it might be foreboding for our WWE World Heavyweight Champion as well.  I’d wager that next week Neville is going to get powerbombed by Clay before or after a match.  Basic booking, but not necessarily bad.  Sometimes predictability is ok.

The Preview:

The BFF’s take on Emma and a partner, plus Sami Zayn teams with the Usos to take on Graves and The Ascension.

The Shill:

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