EMMA defeated SUMMER RAE to advance to the finals of the NXT Women’s Title Tournament.
Rae controlled most of the match, using her long legs for leverage in submissions and mixing in a big suplex. Summer isn’t the greatest wrestler, but she really, really GETS her character and pulls it off every second she’s in the ring. Emma, though, really has a connection with most of these fans and they’ve really gotten behind her character, chanting with her, dancing along with her. I don’t know how well Emma’s character would translate to Raw, but I hope it does. Emma finally gets a chance to shine, and is able to drop toe hold Summer into the corner and hit a cross body as Rae’s still in the corner. Emma gets the win after trading near falls on roll ups with Summer. Summer’s not a very good sport though, and jumps her after the match, until Paige made the save. Paige and Emma stare each other down, foreshadowing their title match in two weeks.
Bayley’s backstage with Dusty Rhodes, who she adorably calls “Mr. American Dream” and marvels over how shiny his Hall of Fame ring is. She’s also wearing a cat tank top. I would just like to say I would marry Bayley and play robots with her every day. She basically has a conniption fit when Ric Flair walks into the frame with his daughter, Charlotte. Bayley volunteers to wrestle Charlotte in her NXT debut next week, and then, after a request from Bayley, The Nature Boy gives her a series of Woos, which led to her trying her own, much to Dusty’s chagrin.
LEO KRUGER defeated SAMI ZAYN.
Holy shit, what a match. I’ve found Kruger more interesting as a character as compared to a wrestler, but he fuckin’ brought it this week. These two allowed the match to escalate, going from chain wrestling early on, before ratcheting up the goodness. The crowd’s way into Zayn, chanting “Ole” at him, which baffled Brad Maddox. Maddox was surprisingly tolerable this week, although I’m hoping with him becoming GM on Raw and Regal wrestling this week, that Regal’s back in the booth for good, because he’s so good. There was this really great spot where Kruger ducked out of the ring, but was playing possum, so when Zayn went for a dive, Leo caught him with an elbow as he started to go through the ropes. If Kruger would up the stakes with a great spinebuster, Zayn would counter back with a spinning Dangan Bomb. Kruger finally hits a big superplex, and then locks on the GC3 for the tap out. Go out of your way to track down this match.
Renee Young is backstage with Adrian Neville, Corey Graves, and William Regal, in preparation for tonight’s main event. Neville and Graves are immediately outclassed the second Regal opens his mouth. He hits on Renee, talks about breaking a doctor’s fingers for slapping his behind when he was born, makes fun of Neville, and then uses Corey Graves’s “stay down” catchphrase far better than Graves ever will. It’s not a knock on Neville or Graves, but when Regal opens his mouth, awesome is going to come out.
ENZO AMORE and COLIN CASSADY defeated MASON RYAN in a handicap match.
Enzo calls what happened last week “pure man-ure”, that Ryan is “sawft”, and that tonight, 1+1=3.14, because it’s time for Ryan to eat his pie. This match was bad. It was basically structured like a three way dance. In a show full of greatness, this turd stood out worse than it would on a less awesome week. Big Cass gets the win when Mason goes for one of his bodyslams, which is one of his three moves, but Amore clips his knee.
Dusty Rhodes is backstage, and announces a number one contender’s match to the NXT Title next week in a three way match. Sami Zayn vs. Leo Kruger vs. Antonio Cesaro. Hell yeah, sign me up.
THE WYATT FAMILY defeated WILLIAM REGAL, COREY GRAVES, and ADRIAN NEVILLE.
Bray Wyatt’s heart bleeds for for Regal, Graves and Neville. Every week they fight and they fight, just for their foolish pride. In time they will realize that tonight was their doom. Wyatt is so awesome, and his Raw debut was pretty great, chants excepted. A Kane program sounds good to me. Regal played ringleader for the faces, including distracting the referee while Luke Harper got double teamed. It was kind of a fun play on their typical roles in this feud. All three Wyatt Family members have really good chemistry from working together… even Rowan, who’s the weakest in the ring, can really play off the other guys in the ring and fill his role well. Neville plays the face in peril, as the Wyatts go to work on him. There was a great hope spot where it looked like Neville was going to get through, he goes for a crucifix on Bray, but Wyatt just drops him on his back. Neville gets some hope, then finally gets the hot tag to Regal. Regal overwhelms Luke with strikes and an exploder suplex. Rowan interferes, but Graves sends him over the top with a cross body, and Neville hits a big dive, taking both out. This allows Wyatt to get tagged in, hit the Sister Abagail on a weakened Regal, and get the pin. This match, while it definitely was good, could have used more time with the story they were telling. Most of the match was Neville selling for the Family.
Overall, this was a really great episode. Even with a terrible segment in the handicap match, everything else was good, with an amazing Bayley promo and a well going out of your way for match between Kruger and Zayn.
