On the Marc Review: WWE NXT 10.17.12

From Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida

Commentators: Byron Saxton & William Regal

Championship’s roll call: WWE Champion: CM Punk… World Champion: Sheamus… Intercontinental Champion: The Miz… United States Champion: Antonio Cesaro… Tag Team Champions: Team Hell No… NXT Champion: Seth Rollins… Diva’s Champion: Eve Torres

Alex Riley vs. Jinder Mahal:   Wow, WWE Superstars comes to NXT. This was taped just prior to the formation of The 3MB so Mahal is still generic Indian aristocratic heel. William Regal is the first commentator to address the fact that people explode for him despite being a jobber. This is the first time we’ve seen Jinder since he lost in the finals of the NXT title tourney. Regal calls the USA chanting crowd “xenophobes.” They lock up and Mahal yells at him. Mahal latches in a waistlock and takes him down with an armdrag. A-Ry nips up and armdrags Mahal down into an armbar. They battle in an armlock; Jinder retreats to the ropes and sneaks in an elbow. Mahal keeps Riley down with a shoulderblock; he hits the ropes but runs into a dropkick. Riley pounds away on the ropes with a ten-punch; Mahal slips free but charges into a savate kick from the second rope and then a leaping shoulderblock, for two. Riley tries to speed the match up again but gets caught with a knee to the guts. Jinder takes over suplexing Riley into the top rope; he follows up with a series of rope-assisted knee drops. He applies a seated abs stretch. Riley quickly hiptosses free; he begins the comeback with clotheslines and tries the spinebuster but Mahal sidesteps. He hits the ropes but Alex surprises him with a rolling schoolboy and gets… three? Post-match, Mahal lays Riley out with a high knee and humbles him in the Camel Clutch. 4/10 Well that was abrupt; Riley wins battle but Mahal wins the war. Mahal got his heat back after a fluke loss, not that he was oozing heat to begin with but at this point he’ll take what he can get.

Here is your winner… Alex Riley @ about 7:00 via rolling schoolboy pinfall.

Trent Barreta vs. Jake Carter:   Both guys are sans entrance; this match came about after Carter struck out with an unnamed diva and Barreta made fun of him. William Regal gets his favorite dig on Vader saying that Carter got his looks from his mother. Carter hits a shoulderblock and they trade waistlocks and headlocks. Barreta hits an elbow to the face to counter a whip and gets a headlock takeover. Carter gets a few nearfalls and they run the ropes again. Barreta tries a high crossbody block but Carter moves and Trent meets the ropes face first in a nasty bump. Jake gets a nearfall and then backdrops Barreta; the commentators say Carter Time a few times as he pounds away in the corner à la his daddy. A hard hammer-toss in the opposite corner floors poor Trent again as the audio on my feed runs off the video so the sounds are off by about three seconds. I hate that. Carter applies a neck crank and slips into a chinlock. He drops a knee and gets two; back to the chinlock. Barreta rises up and breaks the hold with a back suplex. Barreta stings Carter with a chop and hits a nice step-up enziguri. He hits a running semi-springboard elbow in the corner and hits the ropes to follow up but gets upended with a clothesline. Carter gets two. Jake stays on Barreta and props him on the top rope; Trent elbows free and hits the Whisper in the Wind for two. Barreta misses the Gobstopper Knee and Carter capitalizes with a nice belly-to-belly overhead suplex for a nearfall. Carter pounds away for two more. Jake points to the imaginary wristwatch signaling “Carter Time.” He tosses Trent into the ropes but whatever move Jake was going for was ducked and Barreta scores with the Gobstopper Knee for three. 6.5/10 Good match; this is probably the first time in WWE history that Trent Barreta has won two matches in a row. He works a great match and should shine in NXT.

Here is your winner… Trent Barreta @ about 6:40 via Gobstopper Knee pinfall.

Brandon Traven vs. Damien Sandow:   Sandow rips the crowd for being lazy; he ponders of George Washington would have appreciated the way society has turned. You’re welcome. They lock up and Sandow hits a fireman’s carry takeover; he applies an armbar as William Regal explains the intricacies in Sandow’s kneepads. Traven reverses the armlock so Sandow rolls free; they continue the wrestling hold 101 class until Sandow tries a hiplock and it is countered; Brandon balls his fist, predicating a Sandow retreat into the ropes. Damien takes over with a headlock and maintains it. Traven frees himself but gets clobbered with a shoulderblock. Sandow goes to run the ropes again but Traven drops down; Damien counters by stopping short and stomping his back. He drops a knee and slaps the back of his head. He chokes the poor jobber in the ropes and bows to the crowd. Brandon fires back and tries a dropkick but misses when Sandow holds the ropes; he chokes and pummels the kid on the mat. A BOOTLACE EYE RAKE makes Eddie Guerrero smile somewhere. He slaps on a chinlock and wears him down; he tees off with head-butts and a rear chinlock and CRANKS back on it. Traven makes a mini-comeback and hits a sunset flip and dropkick. He misses a knee drop and the rapid-fire knees follow. The Russian leg sweep and Cubito Aequet set up Terminus and The Thinker pinfall. 2.5/10 This went on a bit long for a squash. Sandow gets the win as expected. Not bad, just long and a bit tedious.

Here is your winner… Damien Sandow @ about 7:00 via Terminus pinfall.

Richie Steamboat & The Usos vs. Kassius Ohno & The Ascension:   Here’s a good way to get a couple of feuds into one show: a six-man tag, which seems to have been lost on Raw and SmackDown of late. Jim Ross joins for main event commentary. Steamboat doesn’t even wait for the Usos to finish their entrance before charging into the ring for a huge six man brawl. After the break, we join the match in progress with the Usos doubling up on Cameron; Jey hits a deep armdrag and bars it up. Steamboat tags in and flies off the top; Cameron counters with a whiplash move and takes over. Here comes Ohno and… tags right out as soon as Steamboat gets any type of advantage. Ascension looks at him like “the hell?” Conor O’Brian, the most misspelled name in wrestling, tags in; Jey Uso tags as well. He growls at the Samoan and pounds him down into goo. He makes the mistake of trying a head-butt, which predicates a dance and right hands. O’Brian comes back with a unique full nelson drop; no lift up and slam, just dropped straight down. He snags him in a body scissors and shimmies him back into the corner and hits a legdrop. He maintains his lead with more body scissors and brings Cameron back in for a commercial break; we return with O’Brian booting Jey back into the ring for Cameron to elbow drop him. Kassius tags in and hits a nasty looking low dropkick; Ohno heads to his cravat and segues into a front chancery. A near tag for the babyfaces leads to a Conor tag and a head twist move. Jey gets a desperation fireman’s carry cradle for two; O’Brian goes for the rolling side headlocks and tags in Cameron. He chokes him in the ropes; Jey fires back with a backslide for two. The hot tag fails again and a hammer-toss into the wrong part of town puts Jey in a much worse state. The three of them triple team and quick tag on poor Uso. Jimmy runs in out of desperation and draws the ref over briefly; Jey shows life and flurries over to a tag attempt again. Jey gets a sunset rollup and FINALLY tags. Steamboat and Ohno both get tags; Kassius does not have a chance as he hits clotheslines and a backdrop. A straight superkick draws Ascension into the ring; the Usos wipe them with stereo clotheslines to the floor. Speaking of stereo moves the Usos then clobber them with two pescados. Richie plans on leaping as well but Ohno catches him with the Roaring Elbow from the apron knocking him out for the pinfall. 5.5/10 Not bad but really long heat sequence; actually it was the ENTIRE match. The flow was: opening brawl, Jey gets ass kicked, tag made, highspot, Roaring Elbow, match over. I don’t even think Jimmy tagged in legally.

Here are your winners… Kassius Ohno & The Ascension @ about 14:15 (broadcast) via Roaring Elbow pinfall.

OVERALL 5/10 Not as good as previous shows but still highly fun to watch; as mentioned before this show still has a unique feel to it. An Indy show with a WWE twist. They are learning the style but still have some Indy left in them, which lead to a fun show. The six-man REALLY needed to deliver to get this show above average, I felt it didn’t as it could have given the talent involved, and the show suffered for it.

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