411’s WWE NXT Report 01.16.13

From Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida

Commentators: Tony Dawson & William Regal

Championship’s roll call: WWE Champion: CM Punk… World Champion: Alberto Del Rio… Intercontinental Champion: Wade Barrett… United States Champion: Antonio Cesaro… Tag Team Champions: Team Hell No… NXT Champion: Big E Langston… Diva’s Champion: Kaitlyn

The highlight package shows the match between Seth Rollins and Big E Langston where Big E unseated Rollins as the champion of NXT. The package shows him kicking ass until the rest of The Shield shows up beat him up. Eventually, the rest of the locker room show up to cancel them out.

Adrian Neville vs. Sakamoto:   Wow, it’s Tensai’s former worshipper; I heard he’s a-pretty good in the ring. Neville is best known as PAC in the Indies, I’ve only seen him wrestle once or twice but I’ve read he’s pretty awesome. They trade waistlocks and wristlocks; Neville uses the nip up counter to break the hold but gets popped in the mouth. He counters a potential whip with a side headlock; he uses some nice athleticism to avoid a dropdown and hits a nice satellite head scissors. Sakamoto fights back with an uppercut and knee drops for two. Tony Dawson mentions that Sakamoto’s wrestling idol is TAKA Michinoku as he applies a trapped chinlock. Neville tries to free himself but Sakamoto grounds him with another chinlock. Neville escapes with a whiplash back suplex and a pair of clotheslines. Neville gets a cross-corner whip reversed but avoids Sakamoto with a float over into a backflip and then clobbers him with an enziguri. Neville heads to the top and connects with the 630 Senton for the three… quite the finisher there.   4/10 Pretty inauspicious debut for Neville… except for the finisher. He’s a pretty impressive highflyer but save for a hew fancy flips; we’ve not seen the full potential of Neville in NXT. Looking forward to it.

Here is your winner… Adrian Neville via 630 Senton pinfall

Trent Barreta vs. Leo Kruger:   Hipster, Kassius Ohno, Kruger’s on-and-off tag partner, joins for commentary to torture William Regal. This match is also the settlement of a feud that goes back a few weeks where Kruger (allegedly) attacked Barreta. They lock up and we go into a clip from Kruger attacking Trent; back to live action they trade chops and Barreta hits a reverse elbow and knee drop. Trent with a nice Northern Lights suplex for two; he snags him in a side headlock. Regal is silent throughout the match on commentary until Ohno starts teasing him about broken ribs. Barreta hits a nice high-angle standing dropkick which gets a one count. Kruger comes back with a head-butt to the ribs and takes over; Trent keeps it interesting, avoiding a slam but getting planted with a knee to the guts. Leo hangs him on the top rope with a suplex and then drops him on his face for two. After the break (and the tagline video package from Raw 20), Kruger is working the ribs with shoulderblocks in the corner and follows that up with an inverted Derailer. He snags Trent in a single leg Boston crab; Trent tries a reversal but a clothesline puts him back down. Leo hits a gutbuster as Regal threatens to turn Ohno into a vegetable. Barreta counters a charge in the corner with a double stomp and gets two. Barreta chops away and hits a running clothesline. Barreta hits the springboard corner reverse elbow and heads to the top for a missile dropkick for two more. Trent holds his ribs as they both get to their feet. He tries the Dudebuster DDT but Kruger counters into a half Liontamer. Trent eventually makes the ropes but Kruger makes him pay with sledges to the ribs. Leo looks for a short-clothesline but Trent counters with an enziguri; he leaps out of the ring with a somersault plancha. Ohno leaves the announce position and nails Barreta trying to reenter the ring with the roaring elbow (Kruger distracted the referee). Trent is out so Kruger plants him with Kruger’s End for three. Post-match, Regal heads to the ring to rescue Barreta. After that another referee tells the original referee what happened so the decision is reversed and Barreta wins by DQ.   5/10 Good match; many people hate referee reversals because why does it not happen EVERY time a heel cheats to win. Regardless, it was a win for Barreta and still keeps the heat on Kruger and Ohno AND continues the Regal storyline, too.

Here is your winner… Trent Barreta via DQ

New NXT Champion Big E Langston heads to the ring for a victory promo. I don’t think he’s debuted on Raw yet so he’s still a babyface. He says that we are about to see a reign we’ve never seen before. He calls it the “Era of Five” but he’s interrupted by Camacho who says they have a beef. Originally it was about the money to get Hunico out of Mexico but now it’s about the gold. All of a sudden a referee appears in the ring and I guess we have a match…

Big E Langston vs. Camacho:   Nice continuum of the prior to being champion storyline here and gives Big E a potential challenger… or someone to beat up. Not sure if this is a title defense. Camacho backs him into the corner and punches and kicks away. Langston completely no-sells it and levels him with a running bear splash. Big E connects with FIVE rapid-fire kneelifts and then another bear splash. DOWN COME THE STRAPS! Here’s the Big Ending for a three… but the fans chant, “FIVE.” Post-match, Langston hits another Ending and gives the “NXT Universe” a five count. The bloodthirsty fans chant “one more time” so he obliges and Camacho takes his third Big Ending and the fans count to five.   3/10 Complete squash; I’m SHOCKED that the WWE brought him up as a heel since he’s got the fans of NXT a frenzy. I know Ryback has the large muscly man gimmick but don’t bring him up yet!

Here is your winner… Big E Langston via Big Ending pinfall

Tyson Kidd & Justin Gabriel vs. Antonio Cesaro & Damien Sandow:   This is a rather unique heel paring. Pre-match, Sandow rips the fans apart on his way to the ring; he says those that seek the admiration of idiots is an idiot. He still refers to himself as a martyr. Jim Ross is here to add to the commentary. Sandow and Kidd open up and this should be good. Damien works a hammerlock so Kidd walks through the ropes to counter; Sandow charges but gets sent onto his face with a drop-toehold. The highflyers think fancy double team but Sandow is too fresh and retreats to Cesaro for a tag. Gabriel tags as well and Cesaro hits a forearm; he punches away and whiplashes Justin onto the back of his head. Gabriel counters a corner charge with a tip-over head scissors and straight kick to the face. Kidd tags in as Cesaro tumbles to the floor; Tyson hits a running knee on the apron. Back from commercial break with Kidd firing off armdrags; Gabriel tags in and applies an armbar. Sandow forearms his way free and the Swiss Scholars exchange and Antonio applies another side headlock. He hits the ropes but Gabriel leapfrogs, counters a hiplock, Marty Jannetty style, and gets two off a backslide. Sandow provides a distraction to allow Cesaro a European uppercut to get the advantage back. Damien tags in and mauls Gabriel’s arm and then hits the Russian leg sweep. The Cubito Aequet follows for a nearfall; Cesaro tags and Sandow slams Justin for a Cesaro double stomp. Cesaro applies a front facelock and then twists it into a reverse chinlock. Gabriel tries to fight out and counters a corner charge with an elbow. He backdrops Cesaro to the floor and tries a tag but Antonio pulls Kidd off the apron to cut it off and reenters with the deadlift gutwrench to Gabriel for… Kidd breaks up the potential pinfall. Back to the chinlock until Gabriel counters with an Enigmatic Jawjacker. Cesaro tries to cut the tag off but fails and Tyson springboards in with a dropkick. Kidd lands some quick kicks and tries the Dungeon Lock but Cesaro provides a distraction; Sandow tries an O’Connor Roll with trunks but it only gets two. Kidd hits an enziguri in the ropes and tags in Gabriel. Tyson neutralizes Cesaro with a pescado as Gabriel hits an STO on Sandow. Kidd tags in and now Gabriel wipes Sandow with a top-rope moonsault into a springboard elbow drop from Tyson to get the surprising pinfall.   6.5/10 Good main event as the actual tag team got a W over a team that would have shredded either of them in singles matches, which is good because it stresses the strength of a regular tag team over a team of better individual singles wrestlers (this was taped during Cody Rhodes’ injury so Sandow is a singles wrestler). Anytime Kidd or Gabriel gets a win is okay by me.

Here are your winners… Tyson Kidd & Justin Gabriel via top-rope springboard moonsault/springboard elbow drop combo pinfall

OVERALL 6/10   “The whole is better than the sum of its parts.” Good show this week as we got to see Big E in his first match as champion, the debut of Adrian Neville and a pretty good main event tag match with surprising winners; I’ll take it as NXT continues to be a great forty-five minutes of wrestling show.

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