NXT Episode 219 5/1/14 Review

HHH opens the show and sounds markedly drunk as he stumbles through run on sentences, mumbling about the future, oddly touching his face and smacking his lips. Dude looks and sounds wasted, like he's most focused on standing up than what his next words will be. "And there will be...there will be a live 2...hour event. And the name...the name is...the name will be MOST appropriate...for what we have going on, down here...." Pull it together dude.

1. Tyson Kidd vs. Bo Dallas

Regal says that he was a godless heathen before Bo Dallas gave him something to BoLieve in. Though Regal also calls Kidd one of "the last journeyman wrestlers" who traveled all over the world honing his craft. I mean...you can literally say that about dozens of guys who still work American indies and Japan and Mexico. Byron Saxton is so much more palatable with Regal by his side. Regal actually feeds him things and compliments him when he makes a good point. On the main brand they literally spend the whole broadcast just waiting for him to say something they can make fun of. And this whole match was really fun. Dallas is such a completely different wrestler in NXT than he's ever been given the chance to be on the main brand. The confidence he gives off is crazy, because that hasn't been there for even one moment in WWE. All their little things looked good here, super engaging collar and elbows, really trying to bully each other around instead of going through motions. Dallas got into position nicely for Kidd's stuff and Kidd leaned into Dallas' lariats and knees. Dallas is smart using Kidd's offense against him, and hits a bulldog the old fashion way that we all miss. Crowd continues their descent into a bunch of "we're super insiders and in on the joke, this is OUR show" jackassery. Dallas has been really good at handling his spiral from champion to guy who keeps coming up short. The facials and frustration are there, looking like he's about to cry and/or upend a table.

Sasha Banks' line reading is a real step above almost anybody else in the fed. Adam Rose continues to look like the phoniest, most minor league gimmick.

2. Bayley vs. Sasha Banks

Really fun match. They had 5 minutes to do their thing and managed to work about 8 minutes of match into that 5. Not by rushing through their spots but by not wasting any time. No stalling, no chinlocks, just working to finish. Both match up nicely and do little things like hold pinfalls really snug, never looking like they're cooperatively letting the other one kick out, actually looking like *gasp* the pins are supposed to be pinning someone. Both work really nicely in the corner, I LOVE that Bayley uses a bearhug (because, of course), and I wasn't expecting the Banks win. The backstabber into a crossface is a great combo as the backstabber is so much better as part of a sequence instead of the be all end all. Sasha has kind of been portrayed as someone who always fails in big moments, whether they mean to be doing that or not, so this was good.

3. Adam Rose vs. Danny Burch

Really didn't need to see this match again as they just ran this a few weeks prior and there are so many other guys I'd rather see Martin Stone up against. The last one was a bad Rose showcase squash and this at least had some Burch offense as Burch controls a bit to start with some go behinds and a nice punch, but then we go into dogshit Rose squash mode.

4. Natalya vs. Layla

Layla!!! My favorite! I thought she got really good teaming with Michelle McCool and hadn't realized she was still in the fed at this point. Regal talks about how Layla picked up some "very vicious habits" from him. Love it. And really Layla is still really good. Her facials are better than most Divas, and she knows how to put over that she's really enjoying dishing a beating. She's also great at making it look like she's talking shit to her opponent when she's actually just calling spots. That's an underrated skill right there. The Natalya win was never really in doubt, but I was surprised that Layla took the entire match up until the sharpshooter finish.

5. Oliver Grey vs. Mojo Rawley

You know what happens here. Mojo hits some weak avalanches and a decent bombs away. For a guy clearly not ready for TV, he sure is on TV as much as anybody.

6. No DQ Match: Brodus Clay vs. Adrian Neville

I guess we needed this No DQ match? Their match a couple episodes before this was pretty bad, ending in a count out after Brodus missed a terrible looking splash off the ring steps. I'm sure we were all ready to forget about the feud that really just happened out of nowhere anyway. And then they shut my mouth by going out and having a really damn good match. It's No DQ but they don't bog it down with weapon spots, and instead let the match stipulation inform their attitude. So they aren't wrestling a rote match with the addition of a chair or table spot, but instead Neville jumps Brodus at the bell and starts stiffing him, so Brodus is fighting underneath right from the beginning, meaning once he starts shifting tides he's doing things with an exclamation point. He's kicking Neville in the ribs, he's slamming him unsafely, he plants him with a big splash off the top, big avalance in the corner, belly to belly, fat elbow drop. The guy actually looks pissed and so does Neville. That's a huge difference from their previous encounter. Clay grabs the NXT title and rushes Neville with it, but Neville sidekicks him, kicking the title right into Clay's chest and throat and leading right to the Red Arrow. I loved the abruptness of the finish, really made the first involvement of a weapon seem like a bigger deal. Really good match.

Better show this week than we've been getting, although I reallllllly want them to stop these 6 match shows. I don't need a fucking Mojo squash every damn week, don't need Adam Rose. Just give me 4 matches that run 5-10 minutes each. But I like the idea of the women's tournament and that main event was really damn satisfying.


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NXT Episode 217 4/17/14 Review

1. Colin Cassady vs. Aiden English

The world's largest Bobby Fulton! Colin Cassady was so ridiculous in that Bo Dallas match, and it's really incredible how tiny he made himself seem. So I'll give credit here since he managed to do much less of that, and really both guys worked a really fun match. Cassady actually spends most of the match in control, you know, as a giant should, and English hits real hard in his comebacks. English throws a couple nice thrust kicks to Cassady's cheek, Cassady throws nice clubbing blows and a nice big boot, English took a nice high backdrop too. When English came back Cassady DID immediately shrink down, but at least he worked this more even. English isn't much smaller than him, so it didn't look as weird as him working Spike Dudley to Bo Dallas' Mike Awesome. I liked English finding ways out of Cassady's silly spinning slam, and Regal was killer putting over English's strikes. English had these sharp knuckle point strikes to the ribs, and Regal was right there talking about the edge and extra pain that the point of the knuckles can bring when thrust in between someone's ribs. I think English's offense looks good anyway, but Regal analyzing it and driving the point home just enhances everything. I really liked this and with another minute or two could easily have added this to my NXT recommended matches list.

2. Camacho vs. Oliver Grey

Not how I was expecting this to go, with Camacho winning a 2 minute squash over the returning Grey. It makes sense that it would happen, Camacho is established despite being kind of an NXT jobber, and Grey is coming back from his ACL injury. But it's such a different approach to the norm, having a returning wrestler get dominated in his return match, that it was surprising and kind of refreshing. It fully makes sense for a guy to get dominated in his return, showing he's dealing with ring rust, showing that while his body has recovered, his ring instincts need to get back to speed. It's like when Kendrys Morales opted not to sign with a team until the 2014 season had already started, and then he spent the whole year two steps behind players who had gone through spring training. It's an approach you never see in pro wrestling, but makes so much logical sense from a presentation standpoint that I really liked it. Plus Camacho is a good hand and deserves a nice win now and then.

3. The Ascension vs. Wesley Blake & Cal Bishop

This is worked like a lot of Ascension squashes. Bishop plays the role of man standing on apron who gets knocked off by Viktor before hitting the Fall of Man, and Blake takes all of the offense. This was less violent than other Ascension squashes, and they're sort of running out of tricks.

4. CJ Parker vs. Great Khali

I had no clue Khali was still employed by WWE in 2014. And Parker goes above and beyond to make him look good, especially taking a huge clothesline over the top and then taking a big back bump on the floor. Khali was surprisingly effective here as well, and while this was kept short it actually could have been something if given more time and a couple more twists. As it was the ending was never in doubt, but it was nice seeing Parker bump around for chops, and Regal was great talking about all of the physical problems that can happen when you get clomped real hard on the head.

5. Jason Jordan & Tye Dillinger vs. Baron Corbin & Sawyer Fulton

What the fuck is a Sawyer Fulton!? I don't think I've seen any of these guys before, but Fulton instantly stands out just by looking like a complete goof. He's a taller guy with some size, but he's dressed like an anonymous backup dancer at the Tony awards. He wears flare leg dance pants with a shiny stripe down the side, little shiny Capezios, a single strap tank, horrendous bleach blonde crew cut, an anachronous barbed wire bicep tat....He just looks like an awkward man in conflict with himself. Like you'd be watching a Kristin Chenoweth number and he would stand out a bit too much from the other dancers, and in a bad way. Jordan and Dillinger are working that lazy and annoying "smiling, athletic guys" gimmick, where they do dropkicks and fist pumps and in the gym they probably push each other to do one more set of burpies bro. They are positively forgettable in their positivity. Corbin is also a big guy and I'd at least like to see more of him. The other guys? Ehhhhhh.

6. Brodus Clay vs. Adrian Neville

Not much of a match. Crowd was back in "get over" mode with silly chants the whole time, Brodus didn't look great on all his missed stuff. The match ended with Neville laid out on the floor and Brodus missing a splash off the ring steps, but he landed on his feet first on the splash and that was supposed to be what kept him down long enough for Neville's count out win. Neville was fine enough keeping Clay away with leg kicks and flippity dippity stuff but yeah this disappointed.

Man what a dud of an episode this week. They're getting into a real bad habit of cramming in more and more matches each week, which means with six matches on a one hour show you're getting a bunch of 2-4 minute matches. When I started watching the show they were doing 3-4 matches, with one match always getting a nice main event time, but all these short matches with bland workers are just dullsville. I liked English/Cassady and gladly would have done without that tag match if the English match could have gotten more time. This was just a poorly laid out show, and show layout and pacing was one of their strengths when I started watching. Six matches in 50 minutes is just too much when you have to account for entrances, backstage interviews, Network ads, etc. Horrible layout.


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Fire Fundraiser: All Star Wrestling UK 3/10/14 Review

This was a show review requested by Davey C! He said I could review as much or as little as I liked, but the show was like 75 total minutes, so a full match review didn't seem like such a crazy idea.


1. Andy Simmons vs. JD Bryant

Bryant starts the match doing a Daniel Bryan Yes! chant to get the crowd going. I assume that was the 2014 equivalent to doing a Stunner on a 1999 indie show. I had never seen either of these two before, and by the end of the match I definitely wouldn't mind seeing more. Simmons especially is a real good hand, knowing how to work slight heel to get the crowd into Bryant, working him over with real simple but real well executed things like low cut clotheslines, kicks to the stomach with no light showing, nice open hand strikes, knees to the stomach that land, drop downs that actually look like he's trying to trip up Bryant. Simmons' style seems like it could easily adapt to having a good 10 minute match with anybody. Bryant for his part is a good underdog babyface. He also throws some nice open hand strikes (including two great southpaw strikes at the beginning), takes a nice flipping spill to the floor, throws a nice dropkick and admirably sells his arm (Simmons had been working it over with a couple great kneedrops). Match ends quick without much build, but it was still satisfying. Real good start to this show.

2. David Finlay Jr. vs. Danny Boy Collins

Collins has been showing up on UK cards for seemingly a few decades now, and I love him getting on the stick before the match to tell Finlay that he's going to pay him back for every single cut, bruise and stitch he got at the hands of his father. And this match was awesome, yet threatened to be ruined by a pointless fast timekeeper time limit draw. We'll start with the good, get to the stupid, and wrap it up with a smile: I loved the match, and would have loved it more on mute. Collins is a monster in this, very much like Finlay Sr. lacing into a rookie for 10+ minutes. Everything Collins does looks great, from his strikes to his matwork to his transitions. Every little move means something, and he never rests on his laurels. A choke in the ropes looked as dangerous as any submission, and his submissions looked brutal. There were no resting chinlocks here, mister. Everything Collins locked on looked like it was strangling the life out of young Finlay. Every backbreaker looked nasty. Every arm wringer and hammerlock looked like it was stretching all of the ligaments. Collins racks up a couple quick warnings, dropping Finlay with a nasty hotshot and tossing him to the floor in dastardly fashion. Finlay gets some momentary comebacks (with Collins taking a super high backdrop during one of them) but always loses it quick due to Collins' smarts. Now the stupid kicks in: At the 12 minute mark we get a "15 minute" announcement, which means we all know this is going the full 20. 30 seconds later we get a "3 minute warning", and if there was any doubt this was going time limit, now that the clock is on 4x everybody watching realizes it. What's sad, is the home stretch was real fun. Finlay got fired up and started going crazy with nearfalls, and Collins was awesome at putting over these nearfalls and getting into position to be rolled up; running chest first hard into the buckles to get a believable 2.9, and Finlay was great at making these pinfalls look like they could actually hold a man down. But the timekeeper suddenly going into 4x mode just sucked me right out of what should have been a very exciting home stretch. We end up with a 14 minute match going the full "20 minute time limit" and I just can't help but wonder why they didn't just do a 15 minute time limit? Everybody watching this knows how to count, and everybody has an idea of how long one minute is. It's insulting and incredibly dated to expect people to fall for this kind of time clock idiocy. Collins was so damn good at making all of Finlay's potential pins mean something, and the idiot fed was trying their hardest to make nobody expect a finish. Just took the legs right out of it. BUT that is not the fault of the two men, and regardless of timeclock idiocy they had an awesome match. Shame though.

3. Dean Allmark vs. Thunder

Short (7 minutes) but solid match with Thunder as the judiciously bumping big man and Allmark as the quick little bumblebee. Allmark's dodges and feints were nice, rolling out of the way, believably sliding through the legs, and Thunder was smart about when to bump and when not to. A couple dropkicks don't take him down but one close to the ropes sends him over the top. That's just smart attention to physics. Allmark's solid dodging skills made it satisfying when Thunder would catch him with a clothesline, and we got some more smart spots of Allmark using Thunder's size against him, like catching a charging Thunder with boots before nailing a quick superkick to put him down, then a quick moonsault. Finish was well done with Allmark going back to the top, Thunder a standing duck, so he shoves the ref into the ropes which then crotches Allmark, opening him up for a superplex. With more time these two could likely have a real good match.

4. Oliver Grey vs. Justin Starr

Well I like how this started but things kind of fell apart halfway through, and we ended with just a sputter. Grey is not a guy I had seen on NXT (I...really need to catch up on NXT) but I liked him throughout this. The match started as good as the others on this card, with an engaging feeling out process and stiff shoulderblocks. Both guys really thudded into each other and I was expecting some good things. But Starr ended up being a kind of bland heel, really just kind of looking at the crowd with his arms out as his one way of getting heat. The longer the match went on the more clunky he was at getting into position for stuff, the finish run being the worst of it. We had a superkick set up by that awful teeter totter spot that HHH insists on shoehorning into every match, and Starr somehow made the bump look even sillier than HHH, just bunny hopping right into the buckle ever so daintily. Then he landed too close to the ropes after the superkick and had to shimmy a few feet away to get pinned. The really was the tale of two matches as when it was worked like a simple black trunks young boys match it worked nicely, and once they moved into bigger things it fell apart. Still wouldn't mind seeing more of Grey.

5. Jushin Liger vs. Robbie Dynamite

Well hey this was awesome. This might be the best I've seen Liger in a singles match in....shoot I can't remember the last time I saw Liger this engaged in a singles match. Something even feels different during the opening matwork as it's a lot less perfunctory than your usual match opening NJPWish stuff, with Dynamite wrenching in some armholds and Liger rotating through to an awesome grounded octopus hold. There's real struggle and scramble getting to the ropes and Dynamite was bringing out some good stuff in Liger. Dynamite fed into all of Liger's best stuff, and didn't ease up his own offense at all. He took a couple real nice bumps to the floor (especially dug a missed plancha crash and burn) and the way he flew chin first into a shotei. Liger hit a heavy somersault senton off the apron, ate knees on a frog splash, a nice rana off the top, planted Dynamite with a brainbuster. But it didn't feel like a Liger greatest hits, it felt like him integrating his known moveset to take down a liveblood challenger. Dynamite was really great throughout, providing a great base for Liger and then doing cool power moves like lifting Liger into a deadlift vertical suplex turned falcon arrow. This was just a real satisfying match with a quality build and finish. Both looked good and Dynamite is a guy I'd love to see more.


What a fun little show! Only one match I really didn't care for and even that seems like something that could be fixed. But everything had some worth to a degree, several guys I had never seen before looked incredibly polished, and now I want to see every Danny Boy Collins thing ever. That fine old man didn't miss a single step and looked like an absolute beast. I love old man Collins. He was my easy standout. But this was a fine fine show, and I'm glad Allmark seems to be regularly posting stuff from this fed. I want more.

Good request, Davey! I'm glad I was made to watch it :)


***I'm probably sounding like a skipping record at this point but I'm still trying to raise money for my friend and coworker whose home burned down, completely disappearing every single one of her possessions. The donations have slowed but no matter, I still have plenty of neat requests to fulfill and WILL be continuing to fulfill them! I'm matching EVERY contribution and will continue writing above and beyond for those who donate. You donate $1? That's awesome. Whatever you can do. This means SO MUCH to me and you all are making me so happy***

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