(SPOILERS AHEAD)
Dana Brooke and Emma vs Sasha Banks and Charlotte
To the surprise of no one, Charlotte came out to be Sasha Banks’ tag team partner! Of course, Charlotte wanted a favour in return. It was an average tag team match which was slightly more exciting than the main event tag team match for the number one contendership to the NXT Tag Team Titles. Dana Brooke stinks up the ring whenever she got the tag, but the in-ring ability of Banks and Charlotte covered it up, for the most part. Surprisingly, Banks and Charlotte got the victory with the greatest of ease. Banks made Brooke tap out to the Bank Statement in a matter of seconds. So much for the rebirth of the NXT Women’s division!
WINNERS: Sasha Banks and Charlotte
VERDICT: 6/10. It’s always good to see Charlotte and Banks in the ring, even better as a tag team! But Brooke is a suitable opponent for no one!
POST-MATCH: Charlotte revealed that her favour was a shot at Banks’ NXT Women’s Championship. Banks accepted! So on next week’s episode of NXT, we will see Banks vs Charlotte! Yeah baby!
SEGMENT: Bayley vowed not only to batter Emma, but win the NXT Women’s Championship after she recovers from her broken hand.
Kevin Owens (c) vs Finn Balor (NXT Championship from ‘The Beast in the East’ Live Special)
The Match of the Year Contender was shown on NXT in an abbreviated form, which robbed the match of its flow and brilliance. If they weren’t going to show the great match in its entirety, why show it at all? We saw the opening few minutes of the contest and the closing minutes of the contest. Why not just show a highlight reel of the match? You need to watch this match on the ‘Beast in the East’ special itself. What a match! Even better than their first collision back in March, this was a back and forth war in Japan. Japan and Owens brought out the best in Balor, who showed that he was much more than a man of dropkicks (although he still used a lot of them!). Balor brought out his Prince Devitt finishers for the Japanese crowd, and Owens brought a few new moves to his repertoire, such as a rolling senton from the middle rope. Owens’ brutal sleeper suplex on Balor perfectly fit in the neck-wasting style of Japanese wrestling. It’s just a shame the presentation on NXT botched the match!
WINNER: Finn Balor (and New NXT Champion!)
VERDICT: 5/10 for the presentation, but 9/10 for the match itself! The NXT version ruined the match. Watch the original for one of the matches of the year!
SEGMENT: Jason Jordan finally accepted Chad Gable as his tag team partner in the resolution of a fun storyline. I sense a lot of chemistry as a tag team!
SEGMENT: Solomon Crowe made his return…and made me realise that I had forgotten about him. He called himself NXT’s ‘resident little monster,’ which is one of the worst nicknames for a wrestler I’ve heard in a while. It doesn’t sound intimidating in the least!
Marcus Louis vs Solomon Crowe
Quite a boring match with an obvious outcome. Would Crowe lose in his return match? No! Crowe still hasn’t impressed me in the ring (or out of it, come to that matter). Marcus Louis is a dispensable NXT wrestler who knows the basics and little else. Crowe won by submission with the Crowebar after being battered for most of the short match. Yawn!
WINNER: Solomon Crowe
VERDICT: 3/10. Just dull!
SEGMENT: A look at ‘behind the scenes’ after Balor’s victory in Japan. Cesaro and Neville congratulated Balor on his victory. John Cena appeared out of nowhere and shook Balor’s hand. A short interview with Balor revealed that he still needs a lot of work on the mike. I can only focus on his huge intakes of breath before each word he utters!
The Vaudevillains vs Enzo Amore and Colin Cassady (Number One Contender’s Match for the NXT Tag Team Championship)
So, The Vaudevillains have won two matches after their return to NXT and earned the right to a number one contender’s match to the NXT Tag Team Titles? Oh, right! Whilst their matches are always decent, I think their gimmick prevents them from having a great tag team match. Even if they were capable of having a great match, Amore and Cassady aren’t the team to bring that out of them. Amore and Cassady may be entertaining, but they are nothing more than that. It was a decent bout that failed to ascend to anything more than that. Just as the match hit its stride, it was over. What a shame.
WINNERS: The Vaudevillains
VERDICT: 5/10. Average!
OVERALL VERDICT: 5/10. A perfectly average night of NXT. Two decent matches couldn’t make up for the fact that the Balor vs Owens match from ‘The Beast in the East’ Special was disembowelled. Just watch the original broadcast! Match of the Year contender!
(Click here for my review of WWE NXT Episode 285)
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