Finn Balor does battle with “The Man Beast” Rhyno, The Vaudevillains are back and we got a cool announcement by William Regal – it’s this week’s NXT!
Show opened with a video package highlighting Kevin Owens’ win over John Cena at the Elimination Chamber event. Did a great job of putting how big the win was.
1. Tyler Breeze vs. Adam Rose
First match of the evening saw Prince Pretty take on the Adam Rose, the man who can’t even catch a break in NXT. Crowd chanted for Leo Kruger which was pretty funny. This was quite a pretty boring match that somehow managed to go through a commercial break. The heel vs. heel dynamic didn’t help the match either. Not sure where the Rose character is going now as he looks like he’s past the point of caring, but still comes out to his happy, smiley music. Very odd. Breeze won with a Beauty Shot out of nowhere. Pretty nothing match that went way too long.
Backstage, Soloman Crowe was hanging out in the interview area and was then upset he had to do an interview. Hmmm. He said that his loss to Owens last week was not a good thing, but promised he would be back in the ring with the NXT Champion at some point.
We had a Dana Brooke video package which detailed her trip to the Arnold Classic in Brazil. They are clearly very high on Brooke.
A robot with a microphone was at the top of the stage and brought out another robot with red hair that goes by the name of Eva Marie. She was booed heavily by the crowd and it caused her to lose her robotic train of thought. She tried to cut her scripted promo, but the crowd reaction kept throwing her off her game and she just sounded even more robotic. She said that she wants to be part of the NXT women’s division and compete with the best. Why they decided to do this in front of a live crowd is baffling.
They had hyped a big announcement by William Regal, which ended up being the fakest looking press conference you’ve ever seen. He announced that the Tokyo show on July 4th will be streamed live on the WWE Network and will feature an NXT championship match between Kevin Owens and Finn Balor. That’s now twice Balor is getting his title shot on a house show event.
2. Carmella (w/ Enzo and Cass) vs. Alexa Bliss (w/ Blake and Murphy)
The heat-leach Carmella came out with the most over tag team in NXT to take on the newly heel Alexa Bliss, who came out with the tag champs to their music. RIP Sparkle Glitter music. These two had a very sloppy match prior to the last Takeover event, and this one was much better now they have clear face/heel characters. It still wasn’t great though. Still seems bizarre that the bitchy loud-mouth with the bad attitude is the babyface. Bliss is so much better as a heel and she took most of the match. Carmella made a spectacularly lousy comeback, but was rolled up with a handful of ropes by Bliss for the win. Bliss celebrated with the champs on the entrance ramp. A nothing match.
Backstage, Rhyno cut a promo on Finn Balor about their upcoming match. He said he was going to go through Balor and then focus his attentions on becoming the NXT Champion. Good luck buddy.
We had a video update on Sami Zayn which showed him going in for shoulder surgery.
3. Vaudevillains vs. Jason Jordan and Marcus Louie
YES! The Vaudevillains are back in action, and they’re taking on the new team of Jason Jordan and the returning Marcus Louie. We’ve not seen Louie since his feud with Tyler Breeze never happened. Last week, Jordan said he had a new tag team partner, and it was surprising to see who he picked. Louie is playing a horror movie character which is pretty goofy. But credit where credit is due, he is giving the role his all and was constantly making Sloth from Goonies-like screaming sounds during the match. He took control of the match and outpowered the Gentleman Grapplers, but the Vaudevillains made a comeback and won with Whirling Dervish. A very basic WWE tag match, but there was nothing wrong with it. Jordan looked annoyed at the end of the match so it looks like he’s going through a gimmick where he can’t find the right tag partner.
We got a Sasha Banks video package to highlight just how AWESOME she is.
Following the video package, the commentators said they “just caught up” with Finn Balor and then cut to a clearly pre-taped sit down interview where he hyped the match. Hardly “just catching up” with him. It was a good promo though, but would have made more sense if it was done by Devin backstage.
4. Rhyno vs. Finn Balor
Our main event between Rhyno and Finn Balor got “ECW” chants. In 2015. Rhyno played the heel during the match and even mocked Balor’s entrance at one point for some cheap heat. Rhyno took most of the match and out-muscled Balor. Even when Balor did a dive to the outside, we came back from commercial to find Rhyno in control. They got some time and delivered a fairly decent match. Finish came when Balor went the Coup De Grace but missed, leading to Rhyno missing a Gore and Balor rolling him up for the win. Two rolls up on this show. At least this one was clean. Balor celebrated after the match on the entrance ramp, but was Gore’d out of his boots by Rhyno out of nowhere. It looked awesome and Balor took it like a champ. Rhyno is now a heel, I guess.
Another good show from NXT with some half decent matches, but nothing going out of your way to see. Nothing was really built to for next week either, so I guess we’ll see what happens then. But hey, at least Alexa Bliss was great.
Luke Owen is the Deputy Editor of Flickering Myth and the host of the Flickering Myth Podcast. You can follow him on Twitter @LukeWritesStuff.
