After a good amount of energy and time spent on reporting and reading about the Draft, I feel a break from the topic is in order. And a break we shall have, in the form of an NXT Redemption recap. Let’s get it started, ladies and gents.
Theme song, crowd shot of the Greensboro, NC crowd (hey, my old college town), and our attentions to Matt Stryker and Maryse in the middle of the ring. They introduce our NXT rookies with their respective pros.
1.Byron Saxton (4 points)
2.Titus O’Neil (13 points)
3.Jacob Novak (2 points)
4.Lucky Cannon (0 points)
5.Darren Young (7 points)
6.Conor O’Brian (0 points)
Titus O’Neil gets a hell of a pop coming in. This challenge, “How well do you know your pro?â€, is worth 4 points. After a bunch of nonsense and horrible game show music, Jacob Novak wins. Hooray.
Commercial.
Titus O’Neil vs. Darren Young
We recap Chavo baiting Young to a losing match to the plucking midget.
O’Neil is ready to get it started, but Young wants a piece of ‘Swoggle. I’m guessing in less of a Perez way. Wait, ‘Swoggle pulls on Young’s tights to distract him. I stand corrected. O’Neil throws Young to the corner, token offense, then throws him to the mat. A shoulderblock and bodyslam later, O’Neil gets a nearfall. O’Neil connects with a back elbow and knocks Young on the apron. Then, he clotheslines him to the outside. O’Neil attempts a flying axe handle from the apron, but gets caught with a punch to the mid-section. Young gets some aggressive token offense before leaving O’Neil on the outside of the ring. Titus makes his way inside only to get clobbered some more. Young follows with some European uppercuts. Short arm clothesline and Young gets a nearfall. Young gets a chinlock until O’Neil eventually fights back and hits a sidewalk slam for a nearfall. O’Neil hits a few European uppercuts, but gets caught with a right from Young. Young then hits a snapmare and follows with a figure-four, Nice touch. Young attempts to use the ropes for more leverage, looks to Chavo for some help, but doesn’t get it. He lets go to yell at Chavo for not helping, who in turn yells back for breaking the hold. Young turns around and eats a Sky High….ahem, I mean Clash of the Titus for the pin.
Winner: Titus O’Neil via pinfall
Commercial.
Huh. Apparently, there’s a digital addition of WWE Magazine featuring cleanly-shaved ‘Taker on the cover. He seems a lot less threatening as cleanly-shaved ‘Taker. Watch for the action figure at your local K-Mart.
We’re back to JTG and Jacob Novak. I’m digging this mini-feud Novak is having with William Regal. Novak seems to have found a feud to start building his character, and honestly, anything with Regal in it usually gets my approval. Except for Eugene.
JTG grabs the mic and introduces Novak with all his aliases. Novak badmouths Regal, saying his career is just getting started and Regal’s is over. Regal grabs the mic, says he’s on the wrong side of 40, been his own worst enemy for years, but he’s not about to let a Muppet like Novak talk to him like that. Regal takes off his coat and is about to walk in the ring when Novak says it’s not going to happen because he already has a “real†match. Novak makes the challenge with Regal for next week.
JTG/Jacob Novak vs. Vladimir Kozlov/Conor O’Brian
Kozlov and Novak start with a lock-up. Novak pushes Kozlov into the corner and pushes him. Oh no, he didn’t!. Kozlov responds with a belly to belly and a nearfall. Kozlov gets a headlock takedown and a tag. Double shoulderblock on Novak, who rolls out of the ring.
Commercial.
We’re back to JTG getting a nearfall on O’Brian. JTG gets some double-underhook knee thrusts. He whips O’Brian, but eats a kick. O’Brian hits a clothesline and rams JTG’s head into the corner. Mounted punches in the corner, and O’Brian then right hands Novak off of the apron. JTG takes advantage and hits a flying clothesline on O’Brian. Nearfall for JTG. O’Brian is brought to the corner and Novak tagged in. Novak gets in token offense before tagging JTG back in. JTG gets in a boot choke and shoulderthrusts. He tags Novak in and they hit a double suplex for a nearfall. Novak hits a few elbows, then gets a hammerlock on O’Brian. Novak hits some shoulderthrusts before dropping an elbow. He stomps away on O’Brian and then drops some knees. O’Brian gets whipped, but hits a DDT on Novak. Kozlov gets the hot tag and hits token offense. Kozlov hits some headbutts before hitting a running powerslam for a pinfall attempt broken up by JTG. Kozlov tosses JTG outside of the ring before tagging in O’Brian, who….eats a boot and gets pinned?
Winner: Jacob Novak/JTG via pinfall
That was rather anti-climatic. On the plus side, we’ll see Regal in the ring next week.
Commercial.
Raw Rebound time. And we recap the draft. It’s amazing how much more impactful the supplemental draft was than the one from Raw. I’m interested in the dynamic between Miz and Del Rio. Something worth look forward to.
Backstage antics with Yoshi and Maryse. Apparently, the purse Yoshi bought Maryse is stolen. They speculate that is was Lucky. Yoshi meets up with Byron and asks where Lucky is. Byron says he has a match with Lucky next and is a bit displeased that Yoshi is spending so much time on Maryse and not enough time on him. See, Yoshi? This is what Mormons have to go through.
Commercial.
The Rock. I’m sorry, I can’t help but mark out for this upcoming Monday.
Byron Saxton vs. Lucky Cannon
As Lucky gets introduced, he goes over to Maryse and cries innocence when it comes to purse snatching. Cannon gets in the ring and we start with him shoving Saxton, who takes it personally and hits several rights before whipping, kicking, and Russian leg sweeping for a nearfall. They both roll outside of the ring, where Cannon gains the advantage with a few apron head slams. They both roll back in the ring and Cannon hits a boot on Saxton for a nearfall. Cannon gets a leg-scissors on Saxton, who eventually gets to the ropes. Cannon chokes Saxton on the second rope. Cannon then hits a hard whip on Saxton to the corner. He hits a leg drop and locks in a chinlock. Saxton fights back and rolls out of the lock. He then hits a modified jawbreaker before hitting several running forearms. Flying clothesline by Saxton leads to a nearfall. A rollup by Saxton leads to another nearfall. Saxton hits a modified bulldog/armbreaker for a nearfall. Tyson Kidd distracts Saxton, but gets knocked down by Yoshi for his troubles. Cannon takes advantage of this, lays out Saxton, then baseball slides onto Yoshi. Cannon tries to explain himself to Maryse again, but gets chased in the ring by Yoshi. Yoshi starts pummeling Cannon, leading Saxton to get DQ’d.
Winner: Lucky Cannon via DQ
Saxton realizes what happens and hits his finisher on Yoshi. He turns around and eats Lucky Cannon’s finisher. I’m really amazed the the dimension of storytelling in this angle of the show alone.
What a captivating season this has become.
Catch this week’s Kue’s Korner where yours truly goes through the week’s most standout moments from a story and character perspective. Oh, and that thing called the Draft too.
Adieu.
