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Pre-show notes:
– Click that “like” button, would you? I know it doesn’t seem like it matters, but it helps a lot. Consider us Grantland developmental. If I get enough likes, they’ll let me write 60 paragraphs about how I remember the Macho Man.
– Here’s a link to this week’s episode.
– Follow us on Twitter @withleather, follow me personally @MrBrandonStroud and like us on Facebook.
– You still suck, Corey Graves.
Please click through to enjoy the Best and Worst of WWE NXT for October 16, 2013.
![[avatar]](https://profilecdn-woven.netdna-ssl.com/photo/1245/profile)
Don’t ever ask for NXT to overstay it’s welcome, Brandon. That’s how we got three-hour Raws.
I agree. This episode had at least one exciting person in each match (Neville, Breeze, all the Divas, and Zayn). A perfectly fine, 1 hour episode.
I still don’t see the appeal of Vacant Stare Sasha Banks, or why people like Summer Rae so much when they’re so down on Kelly Kelly and Marrrryse all the time – they’re basically the same except Summer can do a submission. Paige and Emma though… <3
@ pedro
I’m with you on sasha (although I see the potential in her to become better (unlike many of the ones on the main roster)).
but summer rae is by FAR a better character and a more charismatic and entertaining girl than maryse. kelly kelly shouldn’t even be in that comparrision…
Pedro, watch Sasha’s title shot vs Paige a few weeks ago or her match with Bailey. That’s why we like Sasha. She can’t emote for shit but her wrestling programming is way better than Eva Marie’s.
For Summer Rae, what themosayat said. If you’re that good on character, I’m more than willing to wait on your wrestling (which is improving).
Summer’s character is literally NOTHING I haven’t seen before. If anything, I’d say her wrestling is what sets her apart (still a lot of screaming and hair Irish whips, but her submission looks genuinely painful and girl can throw a clothesline.)
Next to Paige and Emma and even Bayley, though (genuinely innovative female characters who put nuances into their tropes to make them feel like full-rounded people) she seems like an unwelcome intrusion from RAW. At least to me.
Also, I saw a set of leaked early NXT promos and there was a tall girl with a Russian accent there (who was terrible BTW.) Who’s that? Excuse newbieness…
“Now we just get an endless series of moments where Breeze does something heelish, gets cheered for it, Parker responds as a fired-up babyface and gets booed for it.”
This and Bo Dallas with the turnbuckle is the most I’ve ever felt like a smark. I (and I assume others here) am totally fine with guys I like, specifically better heels, winning by obvious cheating, but as soon as a guy I don’t like, usually the lame preferred face of the powers that be, does the same thing I decry it.
Matches like the Divas tag (which at NXT is something you look forward to) here are the reasons why I don’t worry about the future of the Divas division. When all the girls on NXT are called up, there will be a revolution and chicks like most of the Total Divas won’t be able to survive it.
Brie Bella, in a move that I attribute 25% to her boyfriend and 75% to the Bellas having uncanny business sense, is actually getting ahead of the curve by learning how to be a competent wrestler, which isn’t something I thought I would ever say about a Bella ever.
God knows what happens to her sister.
I still don’t say that about either Bella. I honestly don’t get what others are seeing when someone says Brie’s gotten better. She was never (at least since last year’s rumble) that bad, and she continues to be as mediocre as she’s ever been now. Plus, regardless, her acting is and always will be awful (always a bad character).
Total Divas being popular doesn’t really surprise me, since the E! audience will watch just about anything, but it’s disturbing how Creative thinks that people will instantly care about someone because they’ve been on TV in a more “real” sense. Just…the audience is not automatically set to the lowest-common denominator! We’re not! We aren’t going to root for someone who’s been boring and terrible for years just because she’s legit-engaged to the top face of the company! NO ONE THINKS THIS. It’s maddening.
Stephanie (as lead Creative) just has this incredibly out-of-touch view of what the audience thinks they want, and it’s becoming increasingly disturbing how much/long she’s going to push this wrong train.
Stephanie, like her daddy, “doesn’t give a damn what you think”. I wouldn’t be surprised if Total Divas/the Brie push was her idea and she doesn’t want them to be a failure (in any way) like Sin Cara was for HHH.
Damn, I just wish that when something doesn’t work, they’d realize their mistakes and either try to work something different with them just like everything at NXT seems to work (Bray Wyatt, Bo Dallas, Enzo Amore, remember that guy was actually supposed to be a heel at first) or simply face that it was a failed investment and drop it before they waste even more money, time and other wrestlers more deserving of the spot.
The messed up thing that worries me though, is that as insanely amazing as Paige and Emma are, they’d come up to the main roster and would be ruined by WWE. When the higher ups decide they wanna make someone a star, they’ll push THAT person at the expense of better wrestlers. Right now they want Brie to be a superstar babyface, so theyre ramming her down our throats to make it happen. Ignore that the fans still chant for AJ…WWE wants Brie to be the star so theyre gonna force it.
thank you, guys. everyone else saying “BRIE GOT BETTER” is just making me go crazy every time I watch a match for her !
she was always at that same level. she only replaced the heels’ boring rest-holds with another dropkick from the second rope and the firey faces’ comeback clothlines.
Yeah, I’m hoping that Paige and Emma will revolutionize (or Emmalutionize, if you will) the Divas division when they finally make the main roster. That said, I also remember how Gail Kim’s two WWE runs went down, so I wouldn’t be shocked if Paige spends a lot of time putting Eva Marie over.
What, you think Nikki paid for those hooters to wrestle?
@Brad Curran: “Emmalutionise”. She’s OZ, after all.
I REALLY want weekly vignettes of Renee and Tyler Breeze going shopping together. This can be as good as Bobby Heenan touring the UK before Summerslam
Holy balls, Graves is a spitting image of Great Khali in that header.
[i.imgur.com]
and in the ring and mic otherwise.
And I shall call him Khali Graves from here on out.
Honestly, I feel like you’re slighting Khali with that comparison.
Can’t we just replace Cole, Lawler and JBL with Renee and Regal?
Absolutely loved them on commentary.
Brandon should do a parody video of the WWE App in which he and his friends show the audience how to click the like button.
that’s actually a really superb idea
1st step has to explain how you purchase a smart phone, right?
As long as Goldust stars in it.
No, you have to start with what a phone is and the magical place it came from.
the sillier it is, the better. go all the way back to giving us a brief review of humans’ first creation ! and be sure to include sandow’s “you’re welcome” at the end.
Just Burnsy miming a phone whilst Brandon Interpretive Dances and then he picks up a stone throws it in the air and HOLY SHIT 1980S CELL PHONE then he phones the Bo hotline and it’s just Danielle Matheson in a Bo Dallas wig poking a picture of the panda and then in Kanji it just says “like me, please” then BOOM! Derrick Bateman dressed up as Uncle Sam drinking Budweiser.
Actually Renee did reference 1980s cellphones in this episode, as well as how silly that phone shot was a few weeks ago…
Yeah, this week was probably the one that got Tony Dawson fired. I’ve been willing to defend him for at least TRYING out there, but he was dreadful this week. The commentary felt and sounded like Tony, Regal and Renee were speaking to each through Skype from different nebulas! The commentary almost sounded dubbed over! Tony would say something and then……..extreme awkward pause before Regal or Renee piped in. It absolutely killed any possible energy from the show.
I’m done with authority figures in wrestling. I loathe the terrible HHH/McMahon stuff on RAW, and I don’t want to see that garbage in NXT with JBL. That character arc in wrestling is done. FINISHED. It’s incredibly boring and tiresome to watch. Let wrestlers actually cut promos against each other instead having an authority figure set everything up.
The fake Zayn win wasn’t necessary at all, in fact it would have been better if it was a close match with numerous near-falls and THEN Bo did the turnbuckle move. The heat from the crowd would have been dynamite.
Having said all this, the show itself was fine and up to typical NXT standards. I just don’t like my favorite little small show being taken over, ever so slowly, with RAW/Smackdown influences.
Thanks for the column Brandon. So pumped for Bo vs Sami II, which I hope will happen very soon.
I would almost expect it to happen in exactly four weeks.
Ahhh, this show is just too damn good. If all the top guys and gals at NXT make it to RAW and WWE actually invests in them and gives them any kind of storylines (the latter lacking a bit for Wyatts lately), you’d think that there would be so much talent there that the shows would be watchable simply on the merit of their matches and the characters of people involved. I’d love it if one day, RAW and Smackdown just manage to set a standard that NXT does today. And imagine if at the same time, EVEN MORE talent arrive at developmental to enable NXT to keep up the quality as well. I know it would become my favorite era of wrestling, but there’s still WWE’s ability to fuck anything up looming ominously over it.
Someone give HHH an altered copy of The Little Engine That Could that reads “I think I can, I think I can (not bury promising talent), I think I can, I think I can”.
here, johnny, [encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com]
I’ll make a blanket out those +1’s and keep myself warm with it.
A few weeks ago, I felt like Regal was playing up his “villain” character by mocking all of Dawson’s mistakes. In this episode, however, it kept happening at the clip of four to five times a match. Called a fisherman’s suplex a snap suplex, a bulldog a DDT, german suplex a back drop, etc. He was a wrestling 40 Year Old Virgin, trying to explain what a shooting star press feels like while his poker buddies Renee and Bill laugh their asses off.
“Stay down. Have a good summer.” -what Corey Graves wrote in my yearbook
“Our friendship is OVER 9000!”- Xavier Woods
“Remember that time I photo-bombed the football team? LOL” – CJ Parker
“Sorry your summer won’t be as gorgeous as I am.” – Tyler Breeze
“I’M SO PUMPED FOR SUMMER! GET IT! I’M IN A GYM AND I WANT TO BANG SUMMER!” – Mojo Rawley
“Burn in your dirty, black summer just like the rest of the puny weaklings. xoxo” – Connor & VIctor
“BADA BOOM, realest guy in homeroom”- Enzo Amore
“Have a BO-dacious summer!” – Bo Dallas
Friendly, spoiler-free warning from the guy who was at the most recent NXT Tapings: Lower your expectations for the next four weeks.
So to RAW/SmackDown levels then? Or TNA levels?*
*shudder*
That doesn’t make me happy.
I wouldn’t go that far, it’s still NXT, the roster was just stretched a little thin. No Bo or Zayn. Lots of Graves =(
Main event in three weeks is great.
Funny, I was thinking during the Divas match that the commentary was bad enough that it would have cost Dawson his job. Glad I wasn’t the only one to think that.
And count me in on the lame way Graves executed his heel turn. Neville looked so dumb not to react to Graves BOUNCING OFF THE ROPES to attack him.
O’brian: Are we Goth?
Victor: I thought we were Steampunk!
O’brian: Huh? Back to the drawing board it is.
I hope this is what leads to the break up of their team and blood feud.
I hope it ends with them screaming “Goth! Steampunk!” at one another over and over again until they brawl so hard they turn into a ball of dust and dirt before rolling off screen.
I didn’t like Rene saying Breeze and her share clothes as they’re the same size. It kind of lessens the greatness that is Breeze.
That tag match was a dream match for me and one that you need to watch at least twice. One time with the volume on where you pay attention to Renee destroying Dawson and calling him out on his bullshit (please let this happen to Lawler on Raw), and one time where you have the commentary off and you watch the ladies wrestle. When there was 10 seconds of silence, I was a little worried it was Renne getting in trouble with how brutal she was with Dawson.
Paige needs to drop ‘the run the woman into the ropes’ move because it doesn’t look all that impactful when the ropes don’t move. Also, Summer Rae is amazing and I love her so much and I want her to leave Fandango so she can have a deadly feud with AJ.
I wish the WWE brass would really like examine what works in NXT and implement NXT’s success onto their show. The main thing would be the lack of presence of an authority figure throughout the shows. We always know who the NXT manager is, but, we don’t need to see him all the time. It’s what works and something I hope the WWE rids of at some point so we can get out of the Attitude era.
I don’t remember when (maybe on some wwe inbox episode on youtube), but I think renee and layla once said that they wait for big E to get in the shower so that they’d take his singlet and wear it (for some raisin~). so, it might be their thing or their kind of prank with the locker room ?! although I don’t know why they said it that once when she says that she doesn’t enter the men’s locker room.
“and something I hope the WWE rids of at some point so we can get out of the Attitude era.”
amen to that.
My favorite part of the Corey Graves Chop Block (Evil Version) was that the end of the match was built around Neville’s knee being hurt. There was literally no reason for him to go the chop block –> finisher route. He could have just kicked him in the knee and locked it in, or at least wait for Neville to turn around so he doesn’t make Neville look like a total moron.
Corey Graves: There is no floor
The main event was tremendous, which is not something i ever expected out of a Bo Dallas match.
Oh thank FUCK the NXT thread is up! I’ve been waiting with bated breath for it to be published so I could say my piece!
OK, so I just started watching NXT. We can’t get Hulu in the UK, so I’ve only watched what’s available on Youtube – one show and some loose matches, I still haven’t seen the majesty that is Tyler Breeze, for instance. But I HAVE seen a great match between Sami Zayn and Leo Kruger and become acquainted with two of my favourite people ever in wrestling: Emma and Enzo Amore.
Emma…well, we all know how she is. Suffice it to say I’ve been doing Emma hands and humming her theme song for the past two days. My real piece here is about how Enzo and Big Cass are WONDERFUL.
I love these guys. I LOVE them. They’re like better Santino and Kozlov, and they’ve got this Two Stupid Dogs dynamic going on, with the hyperactive two-pint loudmouth and his strong silent friend…except when Big Dog/Cass speaks, he is ALSO ARTICULATE and speaks calmly and clearly…Fantastic.
Also, the general perception among smarks is that they’re heels. I couldn’t disagree more. They’re not WWE Babyfaces ™ because their jokes and non-sequiturs are actually funny (the Cottonelle bit…priceless! Three-point-one-faw? Laugh-out-loud.) They’re not heels either, though, because the crowd hangs on their every word (and rightly so). What they are…is smarks. Nerds. Smart guys pretending to be Jersey Shore bros just so they’ll fit in and be cool and loved. They’re US. And THAT’S why everybody loves them. Will they be big? Probably not, I can’t see them breaking free of midcard hell if they get called up to RAW. But will they make our nights brighter Santino-style? Hell yeah. And if all else fails, they’ve definitely got a career in stand-up comedy…
May I also add that Renee Young should be made commentator FOREVER, and that William Regal randomly speaking Geordie in a promo was the most WTFLOLawesome moment in recent wrestling history. Wrestling humour that works. Who knew.
Bottom line is, you’re all ABSOLUTELY right about this show, and you have another mark in your little group. Now does anyone know where I can watch it outside of Hulu?
Every thursday you can find NXT on Dailymotion.
Thanks dude! Watching it (as shitty Internet allows) as we speak!
Its on Sky Sports on Thursday nights. Its normally on at stupid o’clock, though this weeks was at 11:30. They sometimes repeat it before Raw on Mondays too.
Get MediaHint and you can watch Hulu. (Trust me I’m English.)
Or Sky Sports if you don’t mind putting money in Rupert Murdoch’s pocket.
We don’t have a TV license at my house. Will look into MediaHint and somebody gave me a streaming site as well. Thanks guys.
*coughcough*torrentsites*coughcough*
Good column. Didn’t think of the JBL thing that way. Why is this the only good wrestling show? Why can’t raw suck less? Smack down is just half of raw last week and half of raw next week.
I get confused by people talking about how crappy Raw is, until I remember that I tend to watch it after it’s over and fast forward through the things that are not the Shield and Daniel Bryan. It can be pretty great that way!
Renee is wonderful. During the opening match when she says ‘I’m praying for him to make this tag right now’ with genuine concern, then lets out a heartfelt ‘YES!’ and spends the rest of the match sighing over Adrian Neville…my heart. And later Regal saying ‘c’mon Adrian lad’…wonderful. Also, OUCH at the burns they both do on Tony. “You do ask some stupid questions” with genuine contempt from Regal was as close to a shoot as you can get on air.
Also, she is a kickass analyst. It hurts to hear Tony speak platitudes RIGHT AFTER Renee used words like ‘sync’ed up’ and ‘dynamic’.
And this is only the first match…
the “you do ask some stupid questions” bit has been something that regal said to both tony and tom philips (who I personally hate WAAAAAAAY MORE than tony dawson) since NXT and FCW first fusioned together. thank god someone finally decided to do something about it !
fused*
Saved by The Bell reference! <3 If any show could get me back into wrestling…
“Ir’s Norridge! Norridge!” Oh my good God…
Zayn seriously needs to stop self-consciously glancing at the crowd every time the “OLE!” chants start. Also, people need to stop chanting that. Problem solved!
Are they seriously chanting “BO HAS COOTIES?!”
– “team up with Manik in TNA and call themselves the “Jay-Pees.””
a standing ovation from me to you right here and right now, sir.
– “A guy as fast as Neville should’ve been in the back showering by the time it connected.”
ha ha ! but joking aside, corey indeed was kinda fast enough that an injured neville wouldn’t have been able to get out of the way. although I think that the suggestion of graves waiting for adrian to turn around before attacking him from the back would’ve been better indeed.
– the things I hated about JBL’s appearance in the middle of that match were : 1. tyler breeze already won by contreversy earlier in the night. 2. (although they might’ve edited this to make it shortet ofcourse) all this fake win/reverse decision happened TOO FAST and no one really had enough time to celebrate a little before it so that the moment would sink in. this was IMPACT WRESTLING WILL CONTINUE LIVE NEXT SO JUST WATCH STING AND THE BUNCH WALKING IN THE BACK RIGHT NOW level of editing. 3. THE F*CKING REFEREE who has screwed so many times lately both on NXT and the main roster (infact, he was the one that they did that “watch the replay to see how they cheated” with cameron and naomi that time). and at the end, too, he took that turnbuckle protector and threw it away instead of putting it back on it like every other referee ever (and even the ones in the video games) always did.
BUT that “don’t make me learn your name” (and the fact that it tied the time it happened on RAW with xavier woods (even though he appeared with them on the JBL and cole show)) made me forgive and forget all that and enjoy the main event match, which none of the people in the attendance watched sitting down ! they were on their feet all the time !!! it was just fantastic.
I think Bo Dallas and CJ Parker would make a great heel (“fake face”) tag team on Raw. They debut, cut their vanilla babyface promos and lose against a bunch of heel tag teams during the beginning. And then, WWE runs an angle that Gabriel and Kidd just got pounced, and Dallas asks Maddox for a match with International Airstrike because he really looks up to them and it would be a real honor to face them.
Dallas and Parker take advantage of their injuries, win the match, and celebrate as if they got a big babyface win. They keep taking advantage of their opponents every week, and still celebrating. Once the crowd boos them, Dallas can grab the mic and say “Please don’t boo my opponents, they did the best they could. Don’t stop bo-leaving!” INSTANT HEAT.
Parker and Dallas can even win the tag titles and still keep up with their delusions. Same schtick with them not wanting to give title shots to legitimate competitors because they don’t “deserve it” yet. I bet they could make ANYONE who faces them into instant stars.
as long as we don’t see 10 dallas/parker vs 3MB matches on RAW and smackdown and main event and superstars and saturday morning slam (when it comes back) in just two weeks, I’m for it.
That sounds pretty great, especially building up a chase for one of the teams tha are almost over with the crowd (Usos, Prime Time Players). You could have an Ultimate Warrior/Honky Tonk Man kind of ending when somebody finally beat them.
Being English, Bill Regal on commentary makes me stupidly happy. His story about his first love Doris was hilarious. Him and Renee have a natural partnership already. Dawson has always been useless but they just showed how bad he truly was.
And his expression about ‘something out of a cat’s face’ or whatever, with the insinuation that everyone BUT Americans gets the joke…and him ranting about how to correctly pronounce ‘Norwich’…priceless.
As usual, my Internet crapped out about 5 minutes before the end of the show :/
I love Regal on commentary and always think he should be moved to Raw. However then I think of Regal suffering through Cole and Lawler and I’m much happier with Regal where is.
pffft, implying that Regal wouldn’t put those two dumbasses into place.
…
Ok, maybe not, I know how prone Cole and King are in just going “gurl bye” whenever somebody one ups them (JBL all the time, AJ whenever she’s on) and I gotta feeling Regal could take them over so badly due to their own awfulness, and he’d be the one getting canned.
People do know that Corey Graves/ Adrian Neville is the 2 sides of Jeff Hardy right? The flippy Offensive Side (Neville) and the boring tattoed Charisma-less American (Graves.)
Also I somehow managed to describe this whole episode to a Canadian Government Agent who’s studying in my Uni. (Keele.) Greatest thing ever.
Also, also, the irony in Dusty Rhodes being replaced just for there to be a Dusty Finish.
I do like the idea of Neville and Graves being composite Jeff Hardy, but I don’t think it’s accurate. Jeff Hardy has charisma. People care about him and the stupid things he does a great deal. And his punches are probably better than Graves’, on top of everything else.
some of the old videos that matt hardy has been reposting about his brother or just remaking with him do show you a whole another jeff hardy that is actually very entertaining and awesome.
@Brad Curran: At this point, that’s serious my hate for Corey Graves distilled into one single thing – your ENTIRE GIMMICK at this point is you showing off your stupid knuckle tattoos and yelling “Stay Down”, so you’d think you’d learn to throw a decent, realistic punch, instead of those goofy-looking, miss-your-opponent-by-a-mile overhands.
Does this mean I’ll start to like JBL? I mean, that *was* the right call, and I’m glad they didn’t try to mirror what’s going on with the WWE championship by stretching it over 3 months. Just a “No, that was horseshit, restart the match” and it’s done.
At least when Corey Graves finally gets released he can be a good dog trainer. However once the dogs learn stay and down assuming dogs can read, Corey will need to get some new tats
+Rhodes for you milady!
+Rhodes
I actually liked Tony Dawson, he always seemed great on the JBL & Cole Show.
his wwe app segments with the prime time players and brad maddox are gold. but as an announcer, really, not so much …
Please don’t complain about people spoiling NXT for you when the Facebook headline for this Best/Worst is literally “GASP, COREY GRAVES HEEL TURN.”
do you think anyone in the universe was spoiled by not seeing that Corey Graves turn without warning
You’re missing the point on the JBL thing. That restart was there to set up the fact that he did NOT restart the match after the turnbuckle shot. It makes sense.
Huh, guess i’m not the only one who realized how GOD DAMN TERRIBLE Dawson was in this episode. Brah called a corner springboard bulldog a frickin’ DDT. No wonder dude got released.
I can think of a limper heel turn than Corey Graves: [www.youtube.com]
Which then led to maybe the limpest Titantron video ever: [www.youtube.com]
The logical endgame conor and victor’s faux goth big muscles gimmick is to end up as a tag team of Danzig impersonators.
It won’t work because it’s actually Bray Wyatt who still owns the rights to Danzig references at WWE Developmental.
[www.dailymotion.com]
Am I the only one who would rather have seen Tyler Breeze and Adrian Neville compare British accents? I WANT TO SEE THAT dammit! Get out of the way, Scott Dawson, Jesus!
you’re not the only one at all, comrade (or as I prefer to refer to friends, nakama)
Sasha Banks’ butt shoulda got a Best