The SmarK Rant for WWE NXT – 09.18.13
Taped from Orlando, FL
Your hosts are Tom Phillips & Alex Riley
I was gonna take a shot at ROH Death by Dishonor because it was free and all, but the stream died on me for minutes at a time and was basically unwatchable when it was working. Even at free, NO BUYS.
Sami Zayn v. Curt Hawkins
I’m starting to wonder which of the Edgeheads got the worst deal after the split. Zayn tries some mat wrestling, but Hawkins slugs out of it and Sami takes him down with armdrags instead. Sami slugs away in the corner and gets two off a clothesline, and a crucifix rollup gets two. Zayn with the chinlock, but Hawkins slams him and drops an elbow for two. And we hit the chinlock. Zayn elbows him down for two, but heads to the apron and gets sent into the ringpost as a result. And we take a break with that exciting cliffhanger. Back with another chinlock, and this is a thing that is happening very frequently in this match. Zayn fights up and they clothesline each other, and Zayn comes back with a crossbody for two. Hawkins hits him with a Pele kick and gets two, and an Impaler DDT gets two. Sami fights up and the excitement is so exciting that my Hulu stream nearly pulls an ROH, but they fight through the buffering and Hawkins slaps him around. This gets Zayn all fired up and hits the big boot into the tornado DDT to finish it at 17:00. This was…long. ** Not Zayn’s most thrilling hour.
Aiden English v. Michael Cuellari
Aiden actually sings his own classical Broadway theme on the way to the ring, and he’s damn good! English squashes the shit out of him and finishes with a neckbreaker at 1:28. And then we get the encore. This gimmick is MONEY.
Meanwhile, Bo Dallas is still skeptical about Sami Zayn’s credibility as a challenger.
Conor O’Brien, Rick Victor, Tyler Breeze & Leo Kruger v. Adrian Neville, CJ Parker, Xavier Woods & Corey Graves
The babyface side works Kruger over for a bit, before Graves gets caught in the wrong corner and beat up, and the crowd wants to see Tyler Breeze. Instead we get Xavier Woods, who hits Kruger with the Honor Roll before the heels bail to regroup. The babyfaces follow with dives and we take a break. Back with Victor hitting Woods with a spinebuster for two and Woods is the face-in-peril. And finally Breeze comes in for the HUGE babyface pop, gets one cheapshot, and tags out again, shaking his hand in pain. Awesome. The crowd agrees. Woods tries to fight out of a Kruger sleeper while the crowd is totally preoccupied with Breeze, so he tags in again and goes to work. And of course Woods gets one shot and Breeze tags out again. So great to see someone firmly embracing the prissy heel role. Breeze tags in again and gets suplexed, allowing CJ Parker to come in off the hot tag. Parker is the last person I would want as my hot tag man. Conor quickly destroys him and it’s BONZO GONZO, and with Parker near death now it’s time for Tyler Breeze to ascend to glory. He only gets two, sadly. And now Parker comes back and the other heels walk out on poor Tyler, leaving him to get HIT IN THE FACE! Repeatedly! Neville puts him out his misery with the shooting star press at 18:00 or so. That was so, SO fun. *** I’m of course a sucker for good tag matches and old school goofiness and this had both.
The Pulse
Although the opener was dull as dishwater, the rest was great fun, and thankfully last week was an aberration.
