411’s WWE NXT Report 04.25.13

From Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida

Commentators: Tom Phillips & William Regal

Championship’s roll call: WWE Champion: John Cena… World Champion: Dolph Ziggler… Intercontinental Champion: Wade Barrett… United States Champion: Kofi Kingston… Tag Team Champions: Team Hell No… NXT Champion: Big E Langston… NXT Tag Team Champions: Adrian Neville & Oliver Grey… Diva’s Champion: Kaitlyn

This is a special edition of NXT called “Champion’s Edition” or something like that. GM Dusty Rhodes introduces us to “Clash of the Champions” edition of NXT.

WWE United States Championship Antonio Cesaro vs. Adrian Neville:   Only problem here is that Cesaro has already lost the title to Kofi Kingston so he is clearly winning (or getting DQed); a little ticker scrolls across the ring noting that same fact (taped prior to Cesaro losing the title). Antonio grabs the mic and says “hey” a few times harkening back to ROH. He adds that he is going to be champion for a long time. This should be a good match. Neville gets a quick rollup for two. Cesaro (or should I say Claudio Castagnoli) then takes him down and spins around his back and does the “heyyyyy” taunt again from Ring of Honor. Neville gets an inside cradle for two more. Cesaro gets boot in and clamps on another side headlock. I think this was taped prior to the yodeling too, thank God. Cesaro grounds Neville with a side headlock; he holds it for a while until Neville breaks free and gets a nice satellite head scissors. Cesaro hits the floor as Adrian nips up. Neville gives chase to Cesaro since he’s taking forever getting back in; they run the ropes and Neville gets a nice wheelbarrow cradle, for two. He smacks Cesaro with a nice dropkick and tries a monkey flip out of the corner; Cesaro counters with a Stungun off the post as we head to break. We return with Cesaro holding a front cravat; Neville tries a sunset flip and then a backslide, both of which fails to get a pinfall. Cesaro charges in the corner and meets a boot; Neville come off the second ropes and is caught in a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker upon landing. Cesaro pounds away and applies another cravat. Neville tries to escape so Cesaro cinches it into a chinlock. He rocks Neville back and forth for leverage; eventually Neville escapes and sends Cesaro to the floor. Antonio takes a swipe at him there but he leaps up and kicks Cesaro square in the face. Neville lands a spectacular floating springboard moonsault on the floor. Back in the ring, Neville goes up again for a springboard missile dropkick followed by a standing Shooting Star Press. Cesaro tries a backdrop but Neville turns it into a nasty looking leaping Frankensteiner cradle and gets a nearfall. Cesaro goes “on instinct” and gets a knee in; Neville bounces around and gets a moonsault tornado DDT. Wow. My fingers hurt. He drags Cesaro over to another corner and I know what he’s thinking… but Cesaro shakes the ropes. William Regal puts it so eloquently British by saying, “that’s Rogered his custard.” Cesaro charges and hits a wicked European uppercut knocking him silly; he picks Neville off the ropes into the Gotch Style Neutralizer for the pinfall.   8/10 Excellent match, which I figured it would be. These two let it all hang out and it worked. Cesaro reverted back into Claudio Castagnoli for one night on NXT. Fantastic match. The only fault of this show is, I’ve seen Raw this past week, so all of the Champions (save foe the NXT Champ) still all have their titles, so we know the results.

Here is your winner… Antonio Cesaro via Neutralizer pinfall

WWE Diva’s Championship Kaitlyn vs. AJ Lee:   Normally, I enjoy divas matches in NXT but here is Kaitlyn. She offers a handshake so AJ slaps her. Kaitlyn uses her power to toss AJ all around the ring but misses a charge and posts her shoulder. AJ goes to work on it and applies a Fujiwara armbar. She then goes for a back hammer and turns it into the Cattle Mutilation version. She smiles away at the referee and then gets a single-arm DDT. She continues to dominate until Kaitlyn kicks her way back; she hits some clotheslines and an elbow to the face. AJ gets a dropkick and heads to the top with a crossbody block. Kaitlyn rolls through and turns it into her own hammerlock. She turns it into a reverse DDT but gets two. She looks for the spear but AJ sidesteps her and Kaitlyn tumbles to the floor; Lee lets her get back in on her own (at seven) and AJ mimics her boyfriend with a sleeper hold. AJ hits a Shining Wizard and gets two. She gets mad and mauls Kaitlyn on the mat; she pushes AJ off and nails a spear for the pinfall.   4/10 Actually much better than I thought it was going to be; AJ is a good worker and pulled a decent match out of Kaitlyn.

Here is your winner… Kaitlyn via spear pinfall

NXT Championship Big E Langston vs. Brad Maddox:   I love Big E’s theme here, it’s so much better than his new Generic Rap Theme #3 on Raw. I’m surprised that AJ Lee isn’t in Langston’s corner for this match, she’s in the building. Maddox announces himself on his way to the ring. Brad feigns a handshake so Langston backdrops him; he tries a whip but Langston blocks and runs over him with a clothesline. The Big Ending finishes promptly. The fans goad Langston into giving him a few more Endings for some five counts. Maddox rolls to the floor to save himself but Langston grabs him and tosses him back into the ring for another Big Ending and five count.   2.5/10 Squash but that’s how they are moving on Langston, especially on NXT, since he’s the champ. Maddox is just a jobber so feeding him to Langston is not a bad thing. The fans really dig the five count.

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

Tony Dawson is with Bo Dallas who is excited to face Wade Barrett. He runs through a few classic IC Champions and he is going for the gold tonight.

WWE Intercontinental Championship Wade Barrett vs. Bo Dallas:   Bo finally gets his title match after he upset Barrett way back on the Raw after the Royal Rumble. Wow the NXT fans DO NOT like Dallas, chanting “no more Bo” at him. They lock up and Barrett forces him into the corner; Dallas comes back and floors Wade with one punch. Barrett is a bit bewildered at that. He comes back and pounds away on Dallas; the fans have completely turned on Dallas and openly chant for Barrett. Bo hits a shoulderblock and then avoids Barrett’s big boot with a schoolboy, for two. He gets a rolling German for another two. Dallas with a nice dropkick as Barrett heads to the floor for a breather. Back from commercial, with Dallas nailing a knee to the arm and shoulder of Barrett; Wade gets a back elbow in, knocking Dallas back into the ropes, and then pulls his arm back, whiplashing him in the ropes, for a bump that defies physics. I mean the direction he fell does not make sense in terms of how he pulled him. It looked cool but Dallas looks out of it. He may have fallen awkwardly but Wade boots him in the face and gets two. I guess he’s okay. Barrett props him on the buckles and punches his kidney; he adds a running field goal kick, knocking Bo to the floor. Back in the ring, Barrett applies a double armlock. Dallas tries to power free but Wade savate kicks him right in the sternum. A pump-handle slam gets two. Barrett chokes him in the ropes and aggressively knees him several times; a big boot sends Bo to the floor again. Wade lets him fester there for a while and then pulls him back in via the hair and vertical suplex, but Bo kicks out again. Barrett applies a double chinlock but Dallas fights back again and gets a boot up in the corner; Wade charges again and Dallas drop-toeholds him into the buckles. Bo begins comeback mode with clotheslines and a flying forearm, for two. Barrett somehow manages to get another pump-handle slam but Bo turns it into a reverse DDT, which only gets him two. Wade looks for the Bull Hammer; Dallas ducks but gets snagged in the Winds of Change for a nearfall. Barrett loads up the Bull Hammer again but misses and Dallas scores with the springboard bulldog out of the corner but Barrett kicks out again. He hoists Dallas up in Wasteland but Dallas manages to slip free and heads up to the top. He leaps right into the Bull Hammer to get the pinfall for Barrett.   6/10 I have not been a big Bo Dallas supporter and thought he is rather generic and boring, I did not think that many people agreed with me but judging by this crowd many more people do. Despite that and the fans solidly behind Barrett, these two managed to put on a great main event. It was not the spectacle that the opening match was but a solid hard-hitting battle between two midcarders (in the WWE and NXT respectively).

Here is your winner… Wade Barrett via Bull Hammer pinfall

OVERALL 7/10   A very in-ring heavy edition of NXT that we have here; Clash of the Champions night was a good night of matches. All of the matches here were good to excellent. The only drawback was knowing that this was taped, we know who the champions all are, and so the endings were not in question (except the NXT title match, well… never mind). Anyway, good show with great in the ring action; normally I gripe about the NXT wrestlers not being featured but in this case they all looked good against their WWE counterparts.

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