October 14, 2015 NXT: Tyler Breeze Overcomes

A 1 / 2.3 CHANCE OF WINNING

Expecting a good show the week after a TakeOver? Well, too fucking bad buddy. It's all mediocre throughout, with the most impressive part of the show being, depending on where your heart lies, a good promo from Alexa Bliss, or an even better, very short, backstage promo from the Perfect 10. Clearly my heart is with Mr. Dillinger here, as he is, a perfect guy.

A BAYLEY PROMO IN WHICH ALEXA BLISS INTERFERES

I think if we all get over apologising and defending our favourites we can all agree that Bayley's strong suit has never and probably never will be on the microphone. Obviously her "strong suit" is wrestling, but you know what I mean. At least she gets her point across and it's, err, child-friendly, because I'm fairly sure that's what her character is all about. Actually I'm entirely sure. As long as she puts on good matches, people who aren't a fan of the character shouldn't care about it. It works for her and it serves a purpose.

Alexa's promo, however, was actually impressive. I knew she wasn't exactly bad at talking but I'd never seen her do anything to write home about, and it's one of the two or three real highlights of this weeks episode. Going from the clean-cut look as if she's turning face, straight into all-out heel. It was pretty well done. I don't think anyone really fell for it but it was a testament to her acting at least.

Not gonna look forward to Bayley vs. Bliss though. Unless Bliss magically becomes a LOT better in the ring. I guess she's the one that deserves the chance the most though.

A FINN BALOR / SAMOA JOE PROMO IN WHICH REGAL DECIMATES JOE

Nothing worthwhile here at all. I guess Regal "asserting dominance" over talent was alright (and I never realised how tall he is... unless that was some kind of ~WRESTLING BACKSTAGE TRICK~ with the phonebook or whatever), and Joe saying 'with all due respect' to Regal to follow up with him demanding Regal listen to what he has to say was hilariously bad. But overall just a pointless backstage promo to make Finn even more cookie-cutter and make people know there's a battle royale. Cool.

BACKSTAGE PROMOS BY DILLINGER, CREWS AND RHYNO

Weird. What a trio. A jobber, the next big thing, and a worldwide known jobber. What was the point of that? I have a weird feeling that they recorded a bunch of promos and only aired the best three. But that'd make no sense because I am positive Enzo & Cass could put on a better one than Crews and Rhyno. Dillinger's was great for how short it was however, definitely worth being there. Too bad this was just another match for him to do nothing at all in. Keep impressing on house shows and carrying Finn Balor to a good match, Tye. I believe in you.

I'll throw in that Corbin one too. Nothing impressive or bad.

THE VAUDEVILLAINS vs. SAWYER FULTON & ANGELO DAWKINS

After going through about three or four different character and aesthetic changes, it looks like Fulton has finally found one that can stick and he can make look great. That is, if he does a couple of things. If I could, I would suggest getting his arm tattoo touched up so it's more visible and less... cliche; growing some chest hair and maybe putting on about another 10lbs primarily of muscle. Then he'd look like a legitimate badass.

As for the match, what immediately struck me was how Fulton got right in Aiden English' face while Dawkins was pandering to the crowd. Or taunting. I don't know which but it set an interesting contrast that was displayed in a promo post-match.

Absolutely nothing out of the ordinary happened in this match with the Vaudevillains. They did their usual thing, English doing his offensive shtick then getting beaten up for the hot tag to Simon who clears house into a tag team finish. They do it well, but it's going to wear thin quite soon if that's consistent.

Dawkins is fucking non-existent in almost every match though. His offence is nothing special and I'd argue he's one of the most pointless talents in NXT at this point. And I don't understand his stirring-the-pot(?) mannerism. Is it some American thing, or some Gridiron thing?

But if they split him and Fulton I'd love to see Fulton get a Corbin-esque push. He's alright in the ring, is a tall guy, and should get a singles opportunity before they try to release talent that might also involve him.

Bringing back that "freak" Fulton character would be the WORST thing by the way. I believe they are though, because commentary mentioned his 'needles in the boots' thing like they used to before putting him in the Shoot Nation group.

A MECHANICS DASH AND DAWSON BACKSTAGE PROMO ABOUT JAMOKES

RIP Devin Taylor.

Wow, Dash Wilder sounds a lot different than what I thought he would. I can't believe I didn't notice it. Maybe he wasn't talking AGGRESSIVELY in this promo so it wasn't coming off as a burly fella, but just himself, which is very... normal.

Great promo though. Easily the best part of the show, but not the most worth watching, because we should all know by now that Dawson is a good promo so it's nothing unusual for him to be entertaining in a backstage segment (yet again).

EVIE vs. NIA JAX

GOTDAMN a wrestler from New Zealand? Sign her immediately.

Did Full Sail boo her because they thought it was Eva with a slightly different name or something?

Nia FATS.

Obligatory music saying she's "not like most girls" because she's not a thin, fit, short to average height woman like literally every other female in the WWE right now.

Bad lock up. Bad obviously intentional lack of selling on the clothesline. Bad bearhug. Bad throw into turnbuckle. Okay hip bump in the corner. Bad hip attack. Nonsensical waste of ten seconds before that average finish.

But she's good, because she's a woman, right, typical NXT fan?

She is literally the same as Corbin was only a couple of months ago, when he was getting booed. And Corbin just put on a very respectable match at Respect, but he is STILL getting booed. But Nia Jax, a woman, who sucks, comes out, and gets cheered, and a good reception from the average fan. At least when Corbin debuted he had a really cool finisher. Nia Jax just has badly hidden rolls of fat and is a woman that's the only physical difference.

THE... 23...? MAN BATTLE ROYALE

Well this match was in shambles. I'd rather see a match with only ten or fifteen guys who have even a semblance of a shot at winning than see over twenty guys with absolutely no chance. Even though it was down to basically one of four guys, all of which were the last guys in the ring, it would've been nice to just not include guys who haven't won on TV before, like Elias Samson, even though I think he's a solid talent.

The MVP of the match in my opinion... Murphy. Obviously a short battle royale is going to be of pretty bad quality, but there's always at least one guy who looks better than the rest and that one guy was Murphy. For one reason and one reason only, and that was the way he came back into the ring every time he almost got thrown out. It was never something blatantly long, or blatantly close, but it was always fast. Nothing to make people get out of their seats for - even though they wouldn't because he's a heel and people don't like him apparently - but in the confines of kayfabe, the exact way you want to get back in the ring.

As for the rest of it, well, all of it, was completely skippable. The final four being Breeze, who gets eliminated by Joe, who then gets eliminated by a sour Breeze, leaving Corbin and Crews to face off, where lo and behold, the new guy from the independent scene wins. But, it's not really that bad, and I'll take this time to explain why.

The last four guys in this match were the only ones who would've been a logical choice to face Balor for the championship either on TV or at the next TakeOver.

Samoa Joe had already been teased enough as it is, and there would've been no reason for this match to even happen if he was going to be the contender anyway.

Baron Corbin just lost to Balor in a tag team match, which makes it look like Balor would easily overcome Corbin in a singles match - like he has in the past if I'm not mistaken?

Tyler Breeze is going through this now completely intentional losing streak where he gets kayfabe bad booking and feels cheated for it, taking it out on others.

Apollo Crews is basically the only singles wrestler other than these three guys who has had both wins in singles competition and would've had nothing else to do, seeing as he just beat Breeze, Breeze needs to face someone else, and that someone else would have to be a successful singles wrestler, and the only one that isn't champion or Crews, who he just lost to, is Joe.

Ultimately it's sensible. And I personally have my assumptions about how Crews' character is going to go, which I'm not going to reveal in case WWE IS MONITORING MY BLOG AND CHANGING THINGS BECAUSE I DON'T LIKE THEM!

Or... Just because I don't feel like it.


As for Breeze, it seems that him jobbing to guys was just what he was told to do for the first half or three-quarters of the last year and a bit, and for the last quarter or half, it has been a completely intentional tool to get him over as an underdog again. Which is wonderful, because Breeze needs another shot despite having lost his entire fucking character along the way - which is, as we all know, the only reason he still had a job at that point - and this is a good way to do it. Even if it is recycling yet another "I can't win big matches" underdog story.