The Glimpse:
Corey Graves will aim to explain his actions last week as he turned on Adrian Neville. The Divas are in action, as well as the NXT Tag Team Champions.
The Action:
Match 1: Emma vs Sasha Banks
Winner: Sasha Banks via pinfall
Sasha talks some trash and then we get a shoving match. Emma with a double leg and some cat fight action then a school girl for one. Emma hits an arm drag and arm bar on the mat. Sasha reverses a whip then runs herself into the turnbuckle and gets rolled up twice for near falls. Another arm drag and back to the mat. Sasha elbows out and throws Emma to the corner. Sasha keeps the pressure on and gets a one count. Emma elbows out of the corner and bounces Sasha’s head off the turnbuckle. Sasha reverses and slams Emma to the mat by her hair. A chinlock and a commercial break.
Sasha still has the chinlock on and has added a body scissors. Emma tries to roll out of it but Sasha keeps a headlock cinched in. Emma breaks free but eats a back elbow for a two count. Emma slaps Sasha across the face which sets Sasha off; she pummels Emma and goes back to the chinlock and body scissors. Emma quickly elbows out and hits clotheslines followed by the Dil-Emma in the corner. She follows with the low crossbody in the corner for a two count. Emma rolls Sasha backwards and wants the Emmalock but gets distracted by Summer Rae – Sasha manages a small package and picks up the win as Paige pulls Summer off the apron.
Paige goes to clothesline Sasha but she ducks and Emma gets nailed. Emma isn’t too happy and lets Paige know it.
Bo is interviewed last week. Bo laughs off the “controversy” and says that he’s taking a “well deserved” vacation. The sh*t eating grin bit is getting a bit heavy.
Corey Graves comes out (in a suit) to explain his actions last week. Neville pounces on him immediately (in his wrestling gear) and beats him all the way to the ring. Graves is such a rocker and such a punk, it really makes no sense for him to come out in a suit. How do they not think of this stuff in the bank?
Match 2: Casey Maron & Tommy Taylor vs The Ascension (NXT Tag Team Champions)
Winners: The Ascension via pinfall
Do the Tag Team Champions really need to perform a squash match?
O’Brian throws Maron to his corner then squashes him and tags in Victor. Victor lands chops and a slam then tags O’Brian back in who runs over Maron with shoulders. Victor back in and he keeps Maron grounded. Victor takes Taylor to the floor with a knee and brings O’Brian in for the old double hip toss, catch, slam. Their version of Total Elimination is apparently known as The Fall of Man now. It’s more than enough for the win.
Sami Zayn’s turn for an interview from last week. He’s not happy about JBL’s double standards.
JBL is interviewed by Renee Young. JBL says Zayn is making excuses. He continues that Zayn should learn some respect, then he can be “brought back”. No Sami Zayn is definitely not what’s best for business.
Match 3: CJ Parker vs Alexander Rusev
Winner: Alexander Rusev via submission
Parker still has Tyler Breeze’s phone apparently. No board with Parker’s name on it; guess that gimmick is dead. No Dawson or LeFort either.
Rusev pounds on Parker to start then drops a headbutt on him. Rusev with a body attack in the ropes. Parker eats all of Rusev into the corner, then he settles into the Accolade for the quick tap out. There’s a random blonde walking around the ring. She seems happy about Rusev then walks away. Rusev pays no attention to her.
Breeze comes in during the commercial and KOs Parker with The Beauty Shot (his spinning heel kick) and takes a dreadlock as collateral for his phone, I guess. The Beauty Shot is a terrible name. His gimmick is being “gorgeous”; why not The Glamour Shot, which is an actual phrase?
Match 4: Corey Graves vs Adrian Neville
Winner: Corey Graves via submission
So Corey Graves is basically back to the guy he was when he started in NXT. Nothing is mentioned about how Neville jumped Graves half an hour ago. Was this match slated before that or as a result? Who cares, lets watch PAC.
Bell rings and Neville blasts Graves with a front dropkick. Graves bails to the apron and gets helped to the floor by a dropkick. Neville follows with a corkscrew dive and lands on his feet. Neville with a pin for two. Graves begs off and Neville kicks him in the chest. Neville counters an attack on his leg and hits another kick for a two count…
Have to interject here – On commentary, they’re talking about Graves saying that the clean cut guy in a suit we saw earlier tonight is the “real Corey Graves”. The grunge thing is an act he put on while he teamed with Neville. This boggles the mind. So when he debuted as this guy to “Stand out” he got all these view-affirming tattoos as cover? He planned to turn on Graves before he teamed with him? Before he started wrestling? Not to mention he’s still in the same punk gear with the same punk hair style. This is terribly executed.
Graves forces Neville into the corner and lands a huge knee breaker to the mat. Graves drops forearms and fists on Neville then drags him to the middle of the ring for a leg snap. Neville kicks out at only one and tries to kick his way out a beatdown but Graves grounds him. Graves his a knee breaker and a fist drop for a one count. Graves locks in a better leg hold than his own finisher to wear down the leg of the flyer. Neville eats a headbutt and drops to the mat. Neville counters another knee breaker into a sunset flip but Graves quickly goes to the leg again. Graves goes back to the leg lock and Neville elbows his way out. Forearms from Neville even things out a bit and he heads to the top rope, albeit slowly. Neville tries to jump over Graves but his leg causes him an issue, and although he counters a rollup, he ends up in Lucky 13 and has to tap out.
Graves chases down Neville and puts Lucky 13 on again on the floor.
The Reaction:
Kind of boring. Most of this one was rest holds to be fair. Ultimately it wasn’t about the match, but the aftermath. Even when this is the plan it doesn’t mean people should sandbag the match, whether it be the bookers or the performers.
A squash match. These are not needed at this point – Ascension are well established as “guys who beat the hell out of everyone”.
A squash match (again). This entire match existed only for random blonde woman to walk around the ring and “observe” Rusev. So JBL is mad at Zayn but he has no issue with a random person lapping the ring and checking stuff out? These are the logic gaps that make you go “ok I can’t suspend my disbelief” here.
Graves turns on the guy and then beats him pretty much clean in the follow up? There’s an indication that this program will continue for a while until Neville gets a win or two back. Maybe a blowoff in the form of a 2 out of 3 or something like that. I have to say, I really disagree with the angle of saying that Graves is a clean cut guy and the grunge thing is an act to stand out. Considering the tattoos, the hair style, etc (all things the man brings to the wrestling world with him), you’re making a focus of NXT out to be a poser. If it afforded him some psychological advantage (See: Dustin Rhodes/Runnels and the Goldust persona) you could make a very strong case. He wrestles the same regardless of whether he’s a face or heel and whether he’s a suit or a punk. This is only week one of this concept, so I’ll let it play out a bit but I’m definitely down on it at the outset.
The Preview:
CJ Parker takes on Tyler Breeze. It’s phone vs dreadlock next week. Plus Paige takes on Summer Rae in a non-title match.
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!
