The Glimpse:
The number one contender to the NXT Championship will be determined tonight via a battle royal…with Big E Langston spending so much time with Dolph Ziggler and AJ on Raw and Smackdown, could his defenses be down for his own title?
The Action:
Match 1: The Wyatt Family vs Travis Tyler and Sawyer Fulton
Winners: Wyatt Family via pinfall
Harper starts it off with Tyler and bludgeons him back to the corner. Rowan tags in for a scoop slam, then another. Harper tags back in and lays chops on a prone Tyler, who escapes for a slow tag to his partner – Harper actually lets him tag Fulton in, who runs into a boot, then takes a body attack in the corner and the discus lariat for the win.
Stephanie McMahon Announcement
Mrs. McMahon-Helmsley announces that NXT will crown a Women’s Champion. Paige, Summer Rae and Emma are named specifically – Looks like we’re heading for a tournament. Pretty safe to assume Paige picks this belt up first.
Match 2: Emma vs Audrey Marie
Winner: Emma via submission
Bubbles are sprayed at Emma and she tries to poke and pop them with her dance, stumbling. So glad to see what this girl has done with such a wonky gimmick – The crowd loves it and that’s the most important litmus test. Well, if you’re an Audrey Marie fan, eat it up; this is Audrey’s last match before her newly announced release.
As the match starts, Emma queues up her music and dances her way around the ring to the dismay of Audrey Marie, who shoves her down. Audrey with a forearm and a whip to the corner, but Emma dodges to the apron and dances, then rolls Audrey up. Audrey arm wrenches Emma to the mat for two. Emma grabs Audrey’s legs and jackknifes her, but Audrey bridges out and hits a gutwrench for two. Emma is sent to the ropes but turns it around into a backslide that Audrey powers out of, only to walk Emma to the ropes to strap on the Dilemma, her version of the Tarantula. Emma dances and hits a cross body into the bottom turnbuckle. Emma slingshots Audrey flat onto her face and straps on the Emma Lock for the submission victory.
Match 3: Brandon Traven and Jake Carter vs Scott Dawson and Garret Dylan
Winners: Dawson and Dylan via pinfall
So that’s how the French Stallion debuts. Interesting to see him as a manager, but he’ll do well in the spot. Sylvester Lafort is a splendid name for this guy. Weird as hell to put him with a couple of country boys who are chugging BBQ sauce, but they’ll make this work, I’m sure.
Carter (Son of Vader) starts off with Dawson and lays in with his daddy’s style of punches, but after getting on the apron he gets dropped by Dylan face first. Dawson hits a back elbow off the ropes then a snapmare and a series of drops – leg, elbow and knee. Carter kicks out at two and Dylan tags in for a big scoop slam then mounts him for a series of right fists. Dawson is back in and boots away at the gut of Carter, then rakes him by the nose to the mat for a two count. Dawson with a chinlock and Carter begins to fight to his feet, albeit slowly. Finally, we see a jawbreaker from Carter who eventually makes a tag to Traven. Traven hits a great dropkick for a guy his size but runs into a huge lariat from Dawson, then takes a combination of a spinebuster from Dawson and a seated axe handle from Dylan.
Match 4: Derrick Bateman vs Big E Langston
Winner: Big E Langston via pinfall
Gotta say, without the big foofy hair, Derrick Bateman looks like the default CAS in a Smackdown game. Big E’s new music has finally followed him back to NXT. Rest in peace, Soljer. E seems to have added legs to his singlet. Thank you SO much.
Bateman pounces on E then hits a mule kick in the corner and pounds away at him. Bateman climbs to the middle rope to rain punches down, but E walks him to the middle of the ring and outright flings him straight up. The E train runs Bateman over then it’s the Big Ending and a pinfall. E hits his customary follow up Ending and a five count – As a face, he’s just as big a dick as Sheamus!
Match 5: NXT Championship Number One Contender’s Battle Royal
Winner: Bo Dallas
Langston joins Brad Maddox and whoever the hell else is at the booth for some commentary.
Cory Graves gets to make his entrance after everyone else is already in the ring, followed by Bray Wyatt in his butcher’s apron and scary SOB mask. Ohno is next down to the ring, showing who are the features in this battle royal. Adrian Neville heads in, followed by Bo “Please no mo'” Dallas. Mason Ryan also enters.
Langston says he’d happily fight everyone for his title. Sakamoto goes flying, followed by Briley Pierce and another few guys all tossed by big Mason Ryan. Ryan eliminates about 10 guys, ending the streak with Sami Zayn, only to be hurricanrana’d over the top rope by Adrian Neville, leaving 6 men. The five who made entrances (minus Ryan) and Conor O’Brian. O’Brian runs down Neville and Dallas in opposite corners then tries to do the same to Graves and Ohno who crack him in the jaw and toss him over. Wyatt runs up behind and quickly eliminates Ohno and Graves. Wyatt unloads on Bo in the corner, stomps on Neville and hits Dallas with an avalanche. Wyatt hits Sister Abigail on Dallas who managed to botch dancing, then gets dumped by Neville. Only Neville and Dallas remain. Dallas hangs on after a low bridge and Neville tries to pressure him off, only to almost get dropped himself the same way Wade Barrett was at the 2013 Rumble. Back into the middle of the ring and the crowd is wholeheartedly behind Neville in the exchange. Neville is back on the apron but flips his way in, only to be put on the apron again. Neville hits an enzuigiri and readies for the corkscrew shooting star (The Red Arrow?) but Bo gets his knees up. Neville somehow bounces off Dallas’ knees and still lands on his feet, but Bo tosses him to win it.
The Reaction:
Good squash for the new champs. When Harper is on the outside of the ring for Bray Wyatt matches, he tends to chant a psychotic “Yeah yeah yeah…”. He’s now doing that while in action and the NXT crowd, who tends to be very IWC-like is eating it up. This is the type of simple thing that will help him not be overshadowed as he comes to Raw with Bray Wyatt.
Everyone is digging Emma. She’s as solid in the ring as any of the main roster Divas and she’s happy to get completely into a goofy character, so she’s all in. Good bye, Audrey Marie :(
D-squared work great as a tag team, but Stallion/Lafort didn’t do much in his debut which is surprising. I figured he would be the centerpiece of the group as they debuted. More to come, I’m sure. Still expecting bigger things from Vader’s son than just being a weekly job guy.
The night of finales continues – Big E Langston just slammed Derrick Bateman straight into his future endeavors. Once again, thank you for adding legs to that singlet big man.
Pierce makes a trifecta of people eliminated from NXT tonight. Normally I’d cry a river about Sami Zayn being used as a projectile and not featured at all in a battle royal, but he’s been in NXT for all of two weeks so it’s quite alright. The first 12 or so eliminations were nothing but fodder and mostly a waste of time since it was just a conveyor belt for Mason. Wyatt didn’t need the win as he’s heading to Raw and Neville needs to reestablish himself in singles before he wins something like this. All in all nothing wrong, but not an especially exciting battle royal.
The Preview:
No word on if Bo gets his title match next week or not.
The Shill:
As always, if you like what you read here, let me know in the comments or on twitter @sbfantom. I sincerely would like to hear what people think and strike up some conversation!
