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THE SPECIALISTS
CHIVERTON'S NXT SCOUTING REPORT: Latest Evaluation of WWE prospects, plus play along with the Drake Younger hashtag

Oct 24, 2014 - 12:05:52 AM
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WWE NXT Rankings & Evaluation
By George Chiverton, PWTorch NXT specialist


Latest Network Era Rankings

(1) Sami Zayn
(2) Charlotte (NXT Women’s champion)
(3) Adrian Neville (NXT champion)
(4) Tyler Breeze
(5) Tyson Kidd
(6) The Ascension
(7) The Vaudevillians
(8) Lucha Dragons (NXT Tag champions)
(9) Bayley
(10) Enzo Amore
(11) Alexa Bliss
(12) Sasha Banks
(13) Colin Cassady
(14) Becky Lynch
(15) Bull Dempsey
(16) The Legionnaires
(17) C.J. Parker
(18) Mojo Rawley

10/16 Episode Analysis

- A new taping session will hopefully equal a fresh and hot Full Sail tonight. The pop for one Mr. Baron Corbin would suggest this to be true. I wonder how long his opponent will last. Given he didn’t get a name plate, I’ll say less than a minute. Erm, well, that’s one way of putting it. This match took six seconds if that. And there he goes up the ramp. Baron looks to be a player.

- An ad told us that Carmella will be debuting tonight. Also, Enzo Amore and Colin Cassady would be facing The Legionnaires. I’m okay with this.

- Sami Zayn came out to some raucous Oles before pausing to milk the reaction. He noted his ‘fair and square loss’ to Titus O’Neil before getting serious. He said he’s sick of losing and he is better than that. Now was time for him to refocus, get fired up, and win the one thing that has eluded him: the NXT championship. Hoorah! A path for Zayn to the title is established.

Cue step one on that path as Tyson Kidd came out and delivered a script running down Zayn. Zayn asked if Kidd had Nattie’s permission to be out here. The crowd chanted, "You Got Served," to which Sami did a little dance. He then ran down Kidd, mentioning Total Divas amongst the standard but fun stuff. NXT’s version of 8 Mile continued with Kidd saying he would rather be on Total Divas than be a total loser. Zing, I guess? Kidd then brought up Zayn messing up big opportunities. He closed aggressively with ‘You are the most pathetic person I have met in my entire life.’

Sami told Kidd to focus on the now and said this was the beginning of the road to redemption. That road would, and you guessed it, start with beating Kidd tonight. He then patronisingly told Kidd to go backstage and find Tyler Breeze, so he could borrow his mobile phone (he used the word cell, but I refuse) to call Natty and check that was all right. Kidd wondered why Breeze would have Natalya’s number before saying he had to make some calls but he was otherwise down for the match. The main event was set after a decent enough segment ,if a little over-scripted.

- Hey, the Lucha Dragons! I remember them. They were set to face Buddy Murphy and Wesley Blake, who had matching outfits, suggesting they may be about for a bit. Let’s see how they do. Byron Saxton confirmed Murphy and Blake were called Team Thick. Well, I am not touching that one with a barge pole.

Sin Cara stayed a step ahead of Blake with speed and monkey flips and general flips and other Sin Cara things. Murphy showed off some power and managed to catch Cara off the springboard before just about managing to throw him over into a deadlift suplex. Although this was impressive, and he recovered well to execute the spot, I’ve definitely seen people do that more confidently.

Team Girth kept control until Sin Cara tagged in Kalisto, who turned supa-lucha and made me dizzy. After a minute of rapid brilliance, he abruptly tagged in Cara, before pressing onto Murphy on the outside. Cara then sat Blake onto the top rope before hitting a Glory Roll Bomb, I think? It was rough-looking for Blake whatever it was. It was also good for the three and a nice boost for the Lucha Dragons.

- Becky Lynch was up against Charlotte in the next match. Lynch had the child dizzy on Sunny-D thing going again while Charlotte was the full embodiment of a champion. The two mixed things up with some British wrestling to start, trading control over arms before then moving to the legs. They continued with this technical trading offense before a nasty backbreaker from Charlotte finally put her on top. Nice start to proceedings.

Becky got locked into a figure-four headlock before Becky got an opening. She came repeatedly with clotheslines and some off beat leg drops. She only got two at the conclusion of her offense, and then missed with an attempted suplex, only to be suplexed by the larger Charlotte. Charlotte, off a two count, charged Lynch in the corner only to take a reverse calf kick for another nearfall.

Just like that, though, Charlotte reversed into a neckbreaker, which conveniently left Becky liable to the Natural Selection. A three count confirmed the inevitable. A good showing for Lynch, but there is something really awkward about her. She can wrestle, with the technical British stuff at the start of the match being particularly nice, but she is just a bit goofy. There is nothing wrong with goofy, but when you’re presented as the new Lita, it just doesn’t gel well. Charlotte was the consummate champion as per.

- Enzo Amore and Colin Cassady’s frigging awesome music hit to announce the human caffeine pills were here to get stuff going. They did there spiel with the whole audience chanting along and they seemed to just feed off it. These guys are really on a roll right now and their confidence is great.

The Legionnaires’s funk theme hit to signify either their entrance or a '70s adult film had just started. Fortunately it was their entrance, and Marcus Louis was wearing his wig again. Sylvester Lefort started with Big Cass, but rapidly thought better of it and tagged out. Unfortunately on the way in Lefort grabbed the wig off of Louis, who proceeded to hulk up looking like an angry orc before turning on Lefort and beating him up. The audience was thrilled chanting ‘Oui! Oui! Oui!’ while the Jersey Boys couldn’t believe their luck. Louis took it to the ramp, while Renee Young recapped that Lefort deserved it for abandoning his teammate at Redemption. That’s why Renee is excellent.

Louis had his fill before wandering to the back. Lefort looked severely shaken up and needed the assistance of several refs to get to his feet. This was good in general, but Lefort needing help made him come off as a little bit of a sympathetic character, which took the edge off Louis’s big turn. Louis is certainly more suited to be a heel, so there are a lot of questions still to be answered. Still a memorable moment for the Legionnaires, and over the coming weeks this will be a nice storyline to follow.

- Colin Cassady took over proceedings in the ring and said he could set up another match. He then asked the person in ‘BLUW PAYANTS’ to come to the ring. A young lady indeed wearing blue pants obliged and made her way to the ring, playing along with Cass all the way who gave her a ring introduction as ‘Blue Pants.' Enzo then handled the entrance of Carmella with Cass chiming in with ‘Bad-a-bing. Hottest chick in the ring.' Her Iggy Azelea inspired theme hit and she was 100 percent sass all the way to the ring.

Blue Pants’s general cheery attitude was immediately more over than Carmella, who just came across all wrong for a face. This was made ever apparent when a ‘Let’s Go Blue Pants’ chant held steam at the start of the match. After some strikes and aggression, Carmella had her unique submission finisher locked in and that was that.

This was a so-so introduction with 10/10 for the Jersey Boys but Carmella seems too naturally heelish at this point. Whereas Enzo and Cass are so Jersey it’s essentially a farce. She just seems like a moody Jersey Shore member and I can’t see that character being in a face role for any span of time.

- Backstage, Becky Lynch, in her gorgeous Northern Irish accent, told Sasha Banks that she didn’t approve of her actions towards Bayley. Banks had an attitude before saying that, unlike Lynch, she would do whatever it took to get to the top. She then made an exit leaving Lynch apparently having an existential crisis. This was a very bland and clichéd exchange as you may have guessed from the buzzwords above. Banks was particularly cut and paste and everyone needs to loosen up and bit and throw some colour into their promos.

- Zayn and Kidd’s main event was up next. This felt like a slightly tired match-up at this point and although they will always put on a good match, hopefully this will be the last we see of these two in a ring for a while. Kidd took the Sami Zayn top off he was wearing and threw it at Zayn who was chilling in the corner. Zayn looked at him as if to say ‘Really?’ before giving it to a fan. The two locked up and…WAIT! Oh guys, you’ve guessed it… Drake Younger! Now he is going by Drake Wuertz. And, given the kids love their hashtags these days (I mean, that’s what Raw teaches me), why not make it official? #Drink4Drake is now a thing. I’m making it a thing. Oh, and having just tweeted it, Drake favourited it. It’s definitely a thing.

Horrendous tangent aside, Zayn and Kidd continued to tangle before Sami grabbed Tyson’s jacket from ringside and threw it at him in a response to earlier. These two really know how to weave that little bit of extra narrative into matches to make them just that little bit more interesting. Kidd looked fired up from that while Sami maintained eye contact. A ‘Nattie’s jacket’ chant broke out which wound Kidd up more before they locked up with a second elbow and collar tie. Zayn got the better of the following exchange and again they broke and squared off. The match stalling showing the two being evenly matched would be all be fine if they were working with another 20, even 15 minutes, but by my count the two had about seven. A slow start isn’t therefore ideal.

Another exchange saw Sami’s beautiful armdrags maintain his control and send Kidd to the outside. Zayn then teased a big dive, but Kidd moved, so Zayn Arabian Pressed the top rope and landed in a pose mid ring to boisterous applause and chants. Kidd looked frustrated while Zayn sat on the second rope to invite him in. Tyson considered, but eventually stalled enough to draw Zayn out of the ring. He then hopped onto the apron and punted Zayn in the face. Time for a break.

That was nice. Back in the ring Kidd had Zayn in a chinlock but Sami had soon worked his way out hitting a cross-body off the top for a close two count. Both men get to their feet and Kidd tried to hit the ropes only to have his tights snagged by Zayn who pulled him back into a blue thunder bomb for another two count. Another exchange followed but this time it was Kidd who took the advantage with a spinning fisherman’s neckbreaker for a two count of his own. Kidd got to his feet first and sprung Sharpshooter attempt, but Zayn kicked him off.

Kidd bounced off the ropes, jumped over Zayn, who was going for a monkey flip, and caught Sami’s feet. Kidd then stood up and locked in the Sharpshooter. Drake went crazy (maybe over doing it a little for a ref) until eventually Zayn made it to the rope. Zayn was draped over the bottom rope, which caused Kidd to try to vault over the top rope with a leg drop. Zayn moved, though, which gave him time to recuperate in the corner. When Kidd came charging in, Zayn caught him, hit a capture suplex into the turnbuckle, and set up for the helluva kick. He hit it clean and that was good for three.

These two will always put on a good main event, but with an extra five minutes this could have been a memorable one. Having said that, this is another feather in the cap for both men and Sami is conclusively back on-track after his loss against Titus last week.

- Well, that was a solid episode of NXT for sure. There was plenty of re-enforcement for the likes of Charlotte, Baron Corbin, and the Lucha Dragons, while new storylines with the Legionnaires and the debut of Carmella will keep things fresh. Zayn finally having his sights square on the title sets up a gauntlet run manned by the likes of Tyler Breeze and Titus before he finally reaches the promised land of going one on one with Neville. Yummy yummy.

That will about do it for this week’s NXT review by yours truly. I will check #Drink4Drake in the week so feel free to tweet how much you hate me through that. I really wouldn’t blame you at this point. Otherwise, I’ll see you next week and I hope you have a good one.


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