NXT Weekly Rankings & Evaluation
By George Chiverton, PWTorch NXT specialist

Latest NXT Rankings

(1) Bray Wyatt (-)
(2) Kassius Ohno (-)
(3) Paige (-)
(4) Seth Rollins (-)
(5) Jake Carter (-)
(6) Richie Steamboat (-)
(7) Mike Dalton (-)
(8) Big E. Langston (-)
(9) Bo Dallas (-)
(10) The Ascension (-)
(11) Jason Jordon (-)
(12) Leo Kruger (-)
Waiting List - Bronson, Roman Reigns (?), Luke Harper, Corey Graves

11/21 WWE NXT Episode Evaluation

- The show started with Kassius Ohno threatening to destroy Trent Barreta in the main event. It was a lovely promo combining natural delivery with genuine intention. And he had awesome glasses. A good build for the main event.

- Up next was Alicia Fox vs. Paige. Hooray! Alicia's ironic gripe with Paige was that she wanted to prove Paige wasn't ready for the next level. I enjoyed that.

The match was a good one with Fox showing some new talent and playing well off the massive love the Full Sail audience had for Paige. As for Paige: She's a star. She is the best. She will be my wife. And Tony Luftman should never call any match again, as he's silly. Really dreadfully called match where he went crazy at all the wrong times. There was one moment where after a dropkick he proclaimed in a most excited manner that 'PAIGE HAS CONTROL OF THIS MATCH,' to which Jim Ross (the saving grace of the team) dryly shot back, 'That was a dropkick.' Sums things up really.

Of note, Paige picked up the win with a new finisher called the Page Turner. The move, a spinning Samoan Drop-esqe maneuver, seemed unique if not that impactful. I'm not sure Fox quite knew how to sell the move so that could have been to blame. Anyway a joy as ever to see Paige.

- Up next came Big-E Langston taking on Camacho, who was attempting to win the $5,000 bounty on Langston's head. Yeah, he was sqashed to smithereens. Two 'Big Endings' and two five counts later the segment was over. The audience absolutely ate it up. And, as a bit of fun there was no harm in it at all. The segment ended with JR saying 'If Big-E were a stock, I would buy it.'

- Backstage, Trent Barreta had been attacked. Leo Kruger was looking silly nearby placing him as a prime suspect.

- Bronson vs. Nick Rodgers was up next with Bronson destroying the Canadian youngster. Bronson is a barrel of fun, shouting and talking trash while delivering methodical and destructive offense. Bronson then finished off Nick with a huge STO followed by a figure-four/heel hook submission. The tap-out was emphatic from Rodgers implying the destruction of the move.

- 'Little laaaamb,' called out Bray Wyatt as he made the way to the stage. He looked as if he was about to compete, but then came out Luke Harper (Brodie Lee) to destroy poor Mike Dalton on Wyatt's behalf. He seemed to move with his head first before his body followed giving him an insane nature. Huge spinning sidewalk slam for the win. Harper then fell to his knees on the ramp before Wyatt injected a last dose of wisdom.

- Backstage, a promo by Seth Rollins was predictably interrupted by Jinder Mahal. Of all the beat-downs I've seen, this wasn't one of the better ones. All the questions about Rollins and his NXT status remain and WWE even had the humor to replay the first Raw attack on Rollins to fuel the concern. That's either terrible planning or the start of an angle. I'm hoping the latter.

- Out came Kassius Ohno to cut a cheeky promo asking 'Where's Trent' before demanding he should win the match by default. Dusty Rhodes wasn't a fan of this and replaced Trent with Richie 'The Salamander' Steamboat. This was a nice switcheroo due to the previous rivalry between the two men. This was a nice example of some booking that the main rosters should pay attention to.

As for the match, it didn't bring a lot new to the table, but provided another predictably strong match. The dominance was all Ohno until Steamboat built a bit of momentum towards the end. Kassius cut this off and seemed to be on the edge of picking up the win before Steamboat hit his JTG-esque finisher 'the Stingblade' for the win. If there is a planned title switch to Ohno (which would seem the logical path given Rollins's imminent departure) this finish doesn't makes sense. Perhaps a rubber match is coming, though.

- All in all, a decent show with Paige and Ohno being the highlights. Wyatt was typically impressive, too, although I'd love to see him compete in the ring soon. Perhaps this is simply a way of reintroducing him while he is still injured, though. Bronson is a match away from hitting my rankings too, with his MMA squashes showing fragments of a potentially excellent new wrestler.

That about wraps it up folks. Follow or tweet me @PWChiverton for wrestling conversation and snarky comments during live shows. If you compliment me in true Kurt Angle style I will even send you a retweet. Only joking, but, I will.

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