Friday, July 25, 2014

NXT and Superstars Report

Just like last week, things kicked off on NXT with a good old fashioned tag team contest. What made it really old fashioned was that it was a squash against two jobbers for the NXT Tag Team Champions, The Ascension. This was fine for what it was supposed to be, but with the tag team division steadily improving on NXT, The Ascension need this to keep them busy. However, until I see them against real competition, I won't truly be impressed by them. They do look rather imposing though.


The number one contender for the NXT Championship, Tyler Breeze, returned to action from his career threatening hand modeling injury. Let me just say, that this was a brilliant spin for his character on a broken finger. Just so perfectly done. Anyway, he would face my least favorite superstar on NXT, Mojo Rawley. After winning squash matches nearly every weekly and winning at ArRival, he was beaten down by Rusev at TakeOver and has been featured less and less. Tonight, he might have hit his bottom as Prince Pretty bested him in less than a minute with the Beauty Shot. I love Breeze and how he lives and breathes the character, but he is in dire need of a better finisher.


NXT Women's Championship was on the line next and once again, the NXT Divas get time to shine. Summer Rae and Charlotte had a relatively long match and the storyline of the BFFs imploding. This wasn't on the level of some other NXT Divas matches as I still don't believe Charlotte is that great yet and Summer is not on Natalya's level to help carry the match along. It even got some "boring" chants, which I think were a bit unfair. Charlotte retained the gold with the "Bow Down to the Queen".


As I stated earlier, the tag team division continues to rise on NXT. The tremendous Vaudevillains interrupted Kalisto during a backstage promo last week so he challenged them for tonight as he'd get a partner. He picked Sin Cara. So maybe Kalisto doesn't know much of the WWE roster. However, we were treated to a good bout as the Vaudevillains are entertaining as hell as Kalisto stole the show. Sin Cara looked so bland next to his brand of lucha style offense. Kalisto won for his team after a great looking shiranui.


In the NXT main event, NXT Champion Adrian Neville would face the "Bulgarian Brute" Rusev. Lana cut one of her trademark promos about Vladimir Putin before the match as well. This was an interesting clash of styles that worked pretty well. Every single time Neville tried to use his speed or flying ability, Rusev was there to knock him down and crush him. I figured we wouldn't get a clean ending to keep both guys protected, and we didn't as Tyler Breeze came down and knocked Neville off the top rope before he could hit the Red Arrow. This left Neville to be crushed by Rusev to close NXT.


Another solid edition of NXT, though not as good as last week. We move into Superstars, which opened with Heath Slater going one on one with Adam Rose, in a rematch from four weeks prior. The match itself was nothing special, but we get some actual storyline progression on Superstars! Poor Heath Slater has lost Drew McIntyre and Jinder Mahal recently, plus his tag team with Titus O'Neil, known as SLATER GATOR hasn't taken off the way he'd hope. All he had left was Hornswoggle. But, the Rosebuds picked him up and crowd surfed him. Next thing you know, he's dressed like a Rosebud and dancing, allowing Rose to hit the Party Foul on Slater and win.


In the Superstars main event, we had another rematch from a few weeks back as Alberto Del Rio faced R-Truth. Again, not a bad match, but nothing special. Alberto Del Rio doesn't seem to enjoy working Superstars and he shouldn't. This is a guy who was World Heavyweight Champion less than a year ago and he can still go as evidenced by his battle with Sheamus on Main Event recently.


All in all, fans were treated to another solid Thursday night of wrestling, which is all we can ask for. NXT continues to be my favorite show of the week and Superstars is fun since the addition of Renee Young to the commentary table.

Until next time, follow me on Twitter @the_kevstaaa

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