411’s WWE NXT Report 07.11.13

From Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida

Commentators: Tom Phillips & Brad Maddox

Championship’s roll call: WWE Champion: John Cena… World Champion: Alberto Del Rio… Intercontinental Champion: Curtis Axel… United States Champion: Dean Ambrose… Tag Team Champions: The Shield… NXT Champion: Bo Dallas… NXT Tag Team Champions: The Wyatt Family… Diva’s Champion: AJ Lee

Emma vs. Summer Rae NXT Women’s Championship tournament, semi-final:   Winner gets Paige in the finals. Summer pushes Emma around at the bell and tosses into the buckles, for a nearfall. She stomps on her hair and pulls back9 on it; Rae screams a lot at her and then lands a nice suplex. A spinning cross-armbreaker follows. Emma powers her over onto her back and gets a nearfall but Rae pushes her back down into the hold. Emma shoves free and gets two; Summer fires back with a dropkick and settles into a chinlock. Emma manages to slither under the ropes in the corner and slide under Summer’s legs into a cradle for a nearfall. She drop-toeholds her into the buckles and hits the low-angle sliding crossbody for two. Rae fires back and gets a sunset; they go through a series of nearfalls… until Emma sneaks in a three count! Post-match, Summer blindsides Emma and beats her down until Paige makes the save. She and Emma have a brief staredown before Paige takes her leave to allow Emma to celebrate.   6.5/10 I never saw a match end on one of those cradle counter sequences; they usually just do that to pop the crowd. Pretty good match with a surprising ending as the WWE has gone popular versus popular in the finals of this tourney. Should be a good match next week; this is one of the reasons I enjoy NXT so much: the ending s are not always so predictable.

Here is your winner… Emma via cradle pinfall

Dusty Rhodes is with Bayley who is completely star struck; he asks her why she hugged Alicia Fox during their match a few weeks ago. She’s just happy to be in the WWE and of all people who should walk in but the NAICH! Bayley almost poops herself in the presence of Ric Flair. He has another diva with him, Charlotte Flair (his daughter), who is making her debut soon. Bayley wants to be her first opponent; luck is wished and she leaves. Bayley asks Flair for a “woo!” and the Naich responds as only he can.

Sami Zayn vs. Leo Kruger:   I just noticed Sami Zayn’s Twitter handle is “@ILikeSamiZayn,” which is awesome. This should be a fun match; I like both of these guys. The fans chant “Sami” to Leo shouts “Kruger” at them. Zayn goes for a Majestral right off the bat, for two. Lock up number two sees Kruger work over the arm and Zayn utilizing an Owen Hart-like counter to break free. The olé chants start. Kruger works a side headlock and shoulder tackle. He hits the ropes and Sami fires back with a series of Generic Luchadore armdrags. He gets the ten punches in the corner but Kruger counters number ten with a Manhattan drop; Leo hits the ropes but runs afoul of a leg lariat. Kruger heads to the floor so Zayn looks for a dive but Leo punches him as he is coming through the ropes and we head to break. We roll on with Kruger getting some reverse shoulderblocks in the corner (Zayn is facing the crowd and Leo is shoving his shoulder into his back). Leo with a nice snap-suplex for a lateral press nearfall; he works a hammerlock and drops some knees to the back. He continues to bend the arm back into awkward positions and keeps his knee on the back of Zayn’s head. He chucks him into the ropes but Sami floats over; they hit the ropes and Kruger plants him with an Anderson Drop spinebuster, for a close nearfall. Kruger settles onto the second rope but misses the driving elbow. Both men down. Zayn is up first and fires up with clotheslines. He hits a press-dropkick for two. Zayn hits a nice springing crossbody off the second rope; he charges in the corner but hits a pair of knees. He tosses Sami into the post shoulder-first and locks in a Fujiwara armbar but Zayn (eventually) makes the ropes. Kruger thinks hammerlock slam but Zayn slips free into a spinout bomb… for two. There are some REALLY close nearfalls in this match. He heads up top but Kruger meets him there with a top-rope superplex. Here is an incident where they could conceivably both stay down for the ten count but Kruger gets up first and pulls some hair out, firing himself up. He plants Zayn with a single-arm DDT and locks in the GC3 for the submission.   7/10 Excellent match; this back-and-forth match makes both men look really good: Leo in the win and Zayn in the loss. There are good television matches and the WWE seems to be excelling in them of late; complain about storylines all you want there has been some good wrestling on television of late. Here is another one. Kruger’s whole stratagem is to work the arm for that GC3 submission (inverted keylock) so his offense may appear slow and boring but it fits the deranged poacher/hunter character and makes sense.

Here is your winner… Leo Kruger via GC3 submission

Renee Young talks with William Regal, Adrian Neville and Corey Graves. Neville says next week he and Graves are taking the tag titles. Graves says tonight his fists do the talking; Regal recites a story of when he was born and breaking the doctor’s fingers and head-butting him after he slapped his bottom. He cuts part of his promo with a Newcastle accent and then notes Graves’ knuckles and tells the Wyatt Family to bloody stay down.

Mason Ryan vs. Enzo Amore & Colin Cassady two-n-one handicap:   At least Enzo makes these humdrum Ryan squashes a little entertaining as he acts like an obnoxious New Jerseyan. Being from Jersey I must make this public service announcement that we do not all act like this. He complains about the cheapshot last week but now Ryan has a problem as he has to face both of them. One plus one and a half meatheads equal 3.14… time to eat your pi. This is a no tag handicap match. Ryan, of course, obliterates everyone in sight until Big Cass manages to take over and the both of them clubber away. Ryan nails them both with a running clothesline. Ryan hits a corner clothesline to Cassady; Enzo tries a crossbody but gets caught. Colin recovers and hits a big boot to floor Ryan with Enzo on top… for two. Cassady keeps on Ryan and they double up on him again. He lifts up Cassady for a powerslam but Enzo chopblocks him and Cassady falls on top and they get the pinfall!   4.5/10 This is another example of how NXT throws a monkey wrench in everyone’s gears. If you held a gun to my head, I would say Ryan dispatches with both of them in under a minute, but that was not the result. This keeps this amusing feud going, gives Ryan something to do and will get Enzo over really quick with these fans. The match was not good at all but as a storytelling tool, it was great.

Here are your winners… Enzo Amore & Colin Cassady via tandem chopblock/fall atop pinfall

Dusty Rhodes books a triple threat for next week to determine the true number one contender between Sami Zayn, Antonio Cesaro and Leo Kruger.

Here comes the Wyatt Family! Rowan has his sheep mask on. Pre-match, Bray Wyatt’s heart bleeds for William Regal. He says in time everyone will know he’s a wolf among sheep (I guess that is what Erick’s mask signifies).

William Regal, Adrian Neville & Corey Graves vs. The Wyatt Family:   This match was brought on by the chaos at the end of the show a few weeks back. Rowan and Neville open the contest and the usual bigman/little man battle ensues: Rowan tries to toss Neville around but Adrian uses his speed to confound him. Neville forces Rowan back into the corner for a tag to Regal and some forearms to the face. The three of them sequester Rowan in their corner but he uses his size to take over on Graves. Harper tags in and the Family does the same thing on the opposite side until a Graves dropkick gets the babyfaces the advantage. Corey locks in a figure-four head scissors in the ropes. Regal tags in for some naughty offense. Harper is seated in the ropes so Regal kicks back on him like a horse kicking back. Neville tags in and does the same thing Regal did (while Regal distracts the referee). Harper retreats to the floor and everyone regroups as we head off to break. We return with the Wyatts in control. Neville flips off the top however and takes over with a one-footed dropkick. Bray gets a cheap shot in from the apron and tags in to beat the crap out of Adrian. I just watched a show about the Manson Family on H2 recently and the similarities between the two are eerie. Harper comes in and bulldozes Neville with a shoulderblock and yanks him around by the hair. Rowan comes in and gets a big bodyslam for two; the beating continues with short-arm kneelifts in the ropes and a pump-handle backbreaker, which nets a two count. Rowan with a reverse standing half crab which segues into some elbows to the back of the head; Wyatt himself tags in and works him over but misses the running splash in the corner. He tries to lock in a crucifix but Wyatt falls back with all of his weight for a nearfall. The tag is made to Harper and the pounding ensues. Neville keeps fighting back but can’t quite make the tag; Harper eventually settles into a chinlock to slow Neville down. He tries a vertical suplex but Neville slips free and rolls him up for two. He tosses Adrian to the apron and he eventually makes the tag to Regal. William is in and pummels Harper with his forearm shivers and knees. An exploder suplex and some more knees keeps Harper back; the battle in a front facelock and Regal gets the Knee Trembler but Rowan runs in and we have total chaos. Neville runs in and takes a few out with a flipping plancha. Unfortunately, Regal is left alone with Harper and Wyatt. Bray tags and they battle over a chokehold but Wyatt wins the battle with Sister Abigail for the pinfall over Regal.   6/10 Very good main event this week; six-man chaos is always fun since there can be a fresh man in there essentially all of the time. The Family continues to roll all of the way to Raw. I feel their debut could have been a bit more impactful but beating on Kane is a good start. They will get over really quick especially after Bray starts cutting his promos live.

Here are your winners… The Wyatt Family via Sister Abigail pinfall

OVERALL 7.5/10   This has been one of the most entertaining shows in a long while; not that these shows are bad by any stretch of the imagination, this one was just much better. Good show this week.

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