Two blogs in one day *gasp*, this'll be a regular occurrence come the new year when Impact is on Fridays meaning I'll be doing two blogs a day on most Saturdays- but lets be honest, you can't do much on Saturdays anyway so that won't be much of an issue.
Onto the NXT Special, which is what I'm going to call it from now on just because I still have no idea what the "#" for the event was. The three NXT specials we had prior to this one had set such a high standard you came into this one expecting the moon, but did it live up to its billing?
Kevin Owens v CJ Parker
For once a botch actually enhanced the match, at least in my opinion. Owens being bloodied like he was made him look like a "wrestler" and not a "sports entertainer". The match was really good, and it was a good way to debut Owens' moveset to a larger audience- and it made him look really dangerous to anyone. I'm hoping the powerbomb won't be his finisher going forward, although the Package Piledriver probably isn't an option for the WWE. This match proved one thing to almost everyone, blood can enhance a match. The blood made him look like a complete badass for his babyface debut, and made him look great- and the fact he immediately sold it to the hard camera rather than doing what Orton would probably have done and flipped made it look even better.
Lucha Dragons v The Vaudevillains- NXT Tag Team Title Match
I don't watch NXT every week, I simply don't have the time- that said I do know who the Vaudevillains are; and I had to laugh at the fact the fact they were more over than the Luchas last night. I've never been a fan of masked tag teams, and with my limited knowledge of the NXT Product I'd have had the Vaudevillians win the match and let Kalisto go solo. Perhaps due to the nature of their offence some of the Luchas moves looked a bit sloppy, but that can be forgiven because both of the guys are sublime athletes- as are the Vaudevillians. I'd hope that the Luchas soon break up, because Kalisto in singles matches against people like Balor, Neville, Zayn, Owens would be amazing.
Baron Corbin v Tye Dillinger
The match started... aaaaaaaaaand it finished.
Hideo Itami & Finn Balor v The Ascension
Firstly, that entrance was one of the most surreal I've seen in a long time- and was absolutely great. I'm hoping they save the paint for special events, or when he needs to tap into his "dark side" as the commentators put over last night. It wasn't quite Wrestle Kingdom 8 good, but not many entrances can top that anyway. The entrance alone elevated the match, and got the crowd firmly involved from the start. I had to laugh at the crowd popping the way they did for an attempted GTS from Itami. It feels like a disservice to say this match was good, because with the men involved did anybody expect anything different? Finn as the hot tag was a good move, because of Itamis stature he can take the beating- and put the heat on the opponents a lot better. Also because of the paint Balor taking most of the beating would have made his gimmick look week, and him coming out as the aggressive hot tag shielded him to an extent. You have to assume The Ascension will be on the main roster soon, and as I'll discuss in my TLC Prediction Blog coming out on Sunday- I think they'll have a huge impact.
Charlotte v Sasha Banks- NXT Womens Title Match
This now makes all of the Top 3 Womens matches of the year from NXT, quite a reflection on both the Main Roster Divas and the Division they're building in NXT. The fact Charlotte has now been in two of the three is also a great reflection on her, and is perhaps proof talent is sexually transmitted WOO. The thing I liked about the match was, they told a great story. In the time they had which wasn't infinitely more than the time the standard Divas segment gets, they managed to get the crowd fully involved with the match and pack a lot of content into the match. As I've said- I'm not fully involved with the NXT Product week-in, week-out; but as far as I can tell Becky Lynch wasn't banned from ringside which would've been a good way to get heat on Sasha to put her over as a heel. The Charlotte wins was nailed on (at least in my book) after the conference call with HHH saying they'll have the audience "forget" about Charlottes loss on RAW before she has her full main roster debut. However, this by no means left Sasha looking weak and they could easily continue this feud- as it would appear they're going to do judging by the tweets Sasha put out after the match.
Sami Zayn v Adrian Neville- NXT Title Match
Wow. Its rare in this day and age a crowd completely buys in to a guy the way they have with Zayn, in terms of sample size with the crowd I'd argue he's Daniel Bryan over within the NXT Universe. The vignettes they aired before the match were great, and set the story up perfectly. I also liked the filming of both men going through the curtain, and if thats a symptom of the "reality era" HHH is trying to implement I'm all for it. The match itself was close to perfection, as with the vignettes they told a great story- the numerous near falls which came about because of Zayns morals were great and the crowds involvement in the match helped tell the story. A lot of the focus will on Zayn and Owens after the match, but you also have to credit Neville for his role in the match, he played his "win at all cost" type character to perfection in the match- and although it doesn't seem he's going to go full heel (at least not yet) he's shown he can play that role really well. As with the Balor/Itami v Ascension match is almost seems like a disservice to praise the match because with both guys involved a good-great match is almost a given. Everything was played to perfection in the match, although I thought the ending was a bit abrupt given the way the match had shaped up prior- and I thought we'd have had both guys kick out of at least one finisher a piece. If you were following my timeline during the Main Event last night you'll know that I called the Owens heel turn before he'd even come out. A Roughly 10 Minute celebration after a match had me even more suspicious, however despite the fact I called it- I have to credit the production team for selling the celebration as the end; copyright disclaimer was even displayed in the bottom left corner and they dragged the celebration out right to the last second. After the Neville rematch which'll presumably be on one of the coming episodes of NXT a fully fledged Owens v Zayn feud is something which'll get everyone excited, especially my friend Mark.
The last hour of this special I would argue was the best hour of WRESTLING this year, I'm by no means saying it was perfect but in terms of WRESTLING in its art form this was absolutely great.
I'd also like to briefly mention Graves having to retire, he was someone who I really liked when I was watching NXT regularly- specifically after he turned on Neville when they lost the Tag Titles I thought he was one of the more compelling characters in the company at the time. However, when someones hurt they're hurt- and I'm happy he's prioritised his health over a possible in-ring return.
Thanks for reading as always, if you've taken one thing from this NXT special is that the genius of Sam now extends to Thursdays- well, the genius of Sam is everyday.
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