411’s WWE NXT Report 10.25.12

From Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida

Commentators: Tony Luftman & William Regal

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

Earlier in the day, Heath Slater meets GM Dusty Rhodes in his office and asks for a title shot. Vickie Guerrero also shows up and promotes Slater? NXT is a parallel universe. He gives Slater a non-title match with Seth Rollins and if he wins, he’ll get his title match.

“Funkasaurus” Brodus Clay (w/Cameron & Naomi) vs. Camacho:   I was wondering where Hunico and Camacho are; William Regal mentions that Hunico isn’t there because he got “a little in trouble.” They lock up and Camacho gets tossed aside and Clay jiggles. Camacho tries again but meats a pair of bodyslams; he retreats to the apron and Clay meets him there and hiplocks him back in. Brodus pummels him in the corner and tries a jiggly ten-punch but Camacho pulls him off the buckles and takes over. Camacho hits a standing dropkick and drops a leg to the back of his head; he locks in a trapezius claw and pounds away. My Clay has fallen down the ladder, normally he would have squashed Camacho by now; here he misses an avalanche and gets Samoan dropped. Camacho sells the back. The kickout sends him all of the way to the floor. He gets distracted by the Funkadactyls; he tries to dance with them pissing off Clay. Camacho rushes back into the ring and tries to come in off the top but lands right on the head-butt. Brodus hits the Schuplex and Splat for the pinfall. 3/10 Extended Clay squash match; Camacho got in a lot of O for a normal squash so I think Clay has definitely slid down the ladder in the WWE.

Here is your winner… Brodus Clay @ about 6:15 via Splat pinfall.

Trent Barreta vs. Kassius Ohno:   Everyone is wearing green here. The commentators say that Richie Steamboat is on the injured list and Ohno put him there. Ohno takes Barreta down but Trent reverses into a hammerlock. Barreta grabs an O’Connor Roll and gets two; he takes Kassius over with an armdrag. Ohno powers Barreta down and sweeps him back to the mat. Kassius takes over in the corner with chops and knee-chokes him in the corner. He screams “where’s Trent?” at him. Barreta grabs the ropes to avoid the big boot and nails a Frankensteiner. He follows up with a clothesline to the floor. Trent launches himself with a somersault plancha whipping the crowd up into a’ frenzy. Ohno recovers slightly and pushes Barreta into the ring apron and tosses him back in for a nearfall. Ohno takes over and drops knees to the back of Trent’s head; Kassius applies a cravat and holds it. Barreta spins free and tries the Dudebuster DDT, Ohno blocks, so he changes strategy to a sunset flip; Ohno grabs the ropes and stretches his shin across Barreta’s throat. He hits a running low dropkick for two. The commentators mention one of Ohno’s mentors, the late Mitsuharu Misawa, which I’m surprised. Back to the cravat for Ohno. Trent frees himself and tosses Ohno off of him; he fires up with chops and a Pelé Kick for two. He tries the springboard reverse elbow in the corner but meets a European uppercut. Ohno gets really aggressive with the stomps for two. All of a sudden, Richie Steamboat runs down to the ring and tosses a towel into Ohno’s face… and Marty Jannetty pins Shawn Michaels to win the Intercontinental Championship! Oh, wait, wrong decade. Ohno stumbles around for a moment struggling with the towel on his face like Frank Drebin and turns right into a Gobstopper Knee for the three count. 5.5/10 Trent remains undefeated since returning from injury, which I find somewhat surprising. Ohno has been rather pedestrian since he entered the WWE world from ROH and Japan; he has not impressed me. I know he can because I’ve seen him do it live in person in Edison (New Jersey) back in 2007. The Steamboat/Ohno feud will continue.

Here is your winner… Kassius Ohno @ about 7:40 via Gobstopper Knee pinfall.

Layla & Alicia Fox vs. Paige & Audrey Marie:   The commentators build this as WWE versus NXT. Not sure who the babyface and heels are; Paige is really popular in the NXT arena so I guess they are the de facto babyface. Paige and Foxy start off; they jockey for position in the ropes and Paige scores with a medium height dropkick and a unique rolling cover, for two. Alicia catches her with a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker. Paige kicks her in the face and monkey flips her into a pair of tags. Layla dances around and they lock up; he gets a headlock. Marie comes back with a couple of foot sweeps but gets a boot caught; she manages to toss the former Divas champion down with a Winnig Throw. Layla gets a unique cover but misses the Nasty Kick; she rebounds with a savate kick and gets two. William Regal notes that this may be first time there are two English divas in the ring at the same time. Fox gets a tag and hits a short-clothesline. She pulls her by the hair a few times into the buckles; Alicia hits her nice Northern Lights suplex, for two. Fox muscles her down into a reverse chinlock. She tries a suplex and they reverse each other a few times and Fox kicks her right into her corner for a tag. Paige runs in and… Layla takes her head off with a clothesline. That may have been the first time the wrestler getting worked over made the tag but the opposing wrestler’s tag was the hot one. Layla hits the bouncing crossbody. Layla and Alicia have a heel miscommunication and Fox gets booted off the apron. Paige begins a screaming comeback and tries RamPaige but Marie blind tags. Paige is none too pleased as Audrey tries a cocky cover. Layla reverses it into a crucifix cover for three. Post-match, Paige yells at Marie. 5/10 Not too bad but awfully short for a tag match, diva or otherwise. The WWE divas get the win over the NXT “rookies.”

Here are your winners… Layla & Alicia Fox @ about 7:10 via crucifix pinfall.

Lincoln Brodrick vs. Bronson:   I’m not sure who Bronson is but he looks like Ivan Koloff or Mad Dog Vachon. Bronson pounds Brodrick down and then mauls him in the corner. He yells at the poor jobber and hits a short clothesline; Lincoln fights back but he gets takes out with an STO. Bronson locks in a heel hook for the submission.

Here is your winner… Brodrick @ about 1:10 via heel hook submission.

In the back Kassius Ohno throws a fit over his loss.

Antonio Cesaro heads to the ring for some promo time. As the US Champion, he is the champion of all of us. From the way he dresses, to the way he dominates in the ring, he takes the US title higher than any American could. He quotes John F. Kennedy asking what we can all do for our United Stated champion. He asks everyone to stand up for the National Anthem. The crowd stands but it’s a SWERVE as he plays the Nation Anthem of Switzerland! Apparently, Tyson Kidd’s music sounds exactly the same. Oh, wait it is Kidd coming out for a retort. Kidd makes fun of Cesaro’s man-purse. Tyson wants a shot at the US title on NXT. Cesaro yells at him in Swiss. Kidd slaps him and dropkicks him to the floor. 5.5/10 Not a bad little promo there and it also makes a little WWE feud here in NXT. Perhaps Cesaro will defend his title in an NXT ring.

Seth Rollins vs. Heath Slater (w/Vickie Guerrero):   Slater has traded his band for a female backup (I know this was taped before the formation of The 3MB); Vickie is busy fraternizing with Superstars. Jim Ross has replaced Tony Luftman on commentary. They lock up and Slater nails a shoulderblock and some air guitar follows. William Regal’s brilliant analysis of Slater is that he is annoying. I actually have been pleasantly entertained by Heath in recent months starting from the “Inverted Legend Killer” gimmick leading up to Raw 1000 and then formation of the 3MB… BABY! Slater hits an armdrag and over celebrates again. He tosses Rollins into the corner but he comes back with a float-over out of the corner and a pair of leapfrogs into a chop. Woo! Salter tries a boot but Rollins catches it so he retreats to the ropes. He gets some advice from Vickie, which is “go get ‘em!” That’s some insightful coaching, there. Slater obliges and gets his boot caught again; this time Heath cannot make the ropes and Rollins back-heel trips him. He hits a shoulderblock and follows with an armdrag; Rollins dropkicks Slater to the floor. He looks for a dive but Slater runs away. Vickie gives some more “get ‘em!” advice and Slater winds up eating a baseball slide; they standoff while Slater sits in the aisle with Guerrero screeching at him. Back from commercial break, they are both running the ropes and collide in a double crossbody spot. It was a good one too. Both wrestlers down. They exchange blows; it takes the crowd a while to catch on to what they are trying to do. Eventually, they get it and start the “boo/yay” spot. It goes on for a while until Rollins hits a running dropkick. He begins a comeback with some clotheslines, yup he’s ready for the WWE; Slater pitches him onto the apron so Seth hits a pendulum kick. Yeah, he’s definitely ready for the WWE. Rollins backdrops him to the floor. There’s the topé. Back in the ring, a springboard knee to the side of the head, which gets two. Slater kicks him in the gut and nails the E Minor… for two. Wow, that’s his finisher, champions can do that. Slater is frustrated as he stomps and drops knees. He looks for a powerbomb but Rollins flips over and hits an enziguri. Rollins nails a Shiranui and gets three. 6/10 Pretty good match for the main event; Rollins gets a win over a legit WWE Superstar and also busts out a new finisher. I like this new direction of heavyweight champions and challengers having more than one finisher to beat opponents with. Better bands are ahead for Slater and Rollins is a good champion moving forward.

Here is your winner… Seth Rollins @ about 7:00 via Shiranui pinfall.

OVERALL 5.5/10 What’s with all of the main foster WWE guys (and gals) on NXT this week? Slater, Clay, Layla, Alicia Fox, Antonio Cesaro, Tyson Kidd… plus other normally main roster guys like Camacho and Trent Barreta; leaves little space on this show for the actual NXT roster members. I have no problem with Camacho, Kidd or Barreta on this show, gives them a chance to shine. I don’t even mind a possible US title match between Kidd and Cesaro on this show either. But geez, leave the main roster wrestlers on the main roster; this show felt like a longer version of WWE Superstars.

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