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THE SPECIALISTS
CHIVERTON'S NXT SCOUTING REPORT: Weekly Evaluation of WWE Developmental, plus Network Era Rankings #2

Mar 21, 2014 - 12:25:44 AM
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NXT Rankings & Evaluation
By George Chiverton, PWTorch NXT specialist


Rankings at the end!

3/13 NXT Evaluation

- The first match of the night was Paige against Sasha Banks. Getting Paige out early is a good plan for me, re-enforcing her image and name with people new to NXT. Of note, Tensai was on commentary going by Jason Albert apparently signaling a transition out of the ring. Or to a stock broker.

Banks had Charlotte and stick Summer Rae with her, while Paige was trying to sell her new merch. The did a spot at the start of the match where Sasha messed with Paige’s shirt before Paige took it back and started beating the heck out of Sasha. Her offense really is unique for a WWE Diva in its masculinity and hard-hitting nature. Banks got control after Paige’s early burst, before Paige backed her into a corner and threw some big elbows. Clotheslines followed a big dropkick before Paige transitioned slowly into her modified Scorpion Deathlock (the most wrestling-sounding move of all-time) for the tap-out win.

Charlotte instigated the standard post-match attack before Natalya made the save. The match was simple: Paige looked great while Banks held up her end of the deal admirably. It was a perfectly good match which put over the champion, so no complaints from me.

- They replayed Corey Graves’s promos and eventual loss to Sami Zayn last week before going to the back where Sami was being interviewed. He said he’d addressed whatever issues Graves had with him and if he has any others he knows where to find him. Again, simple but effective match reaction to give a sense that matches have consequences hence making them more important.

- They showed a photo montage of Mojo Rawley’s win at ArRival (making that show look like a big PPV) before going to the back where Mojo was half cutting a promo, half getting hype. He was perfectly entertaining, but rather unnervingly never looked straight into camera and instead looked at the floor. Eye contact is so important. In not doing so, Rawley really didn’t connect in the way he was intending. It came off all wrong and it’s another sign of Mojo being green to the practices of professional wrestling.

- The Ascension made their awesome entrance for another jobbers match. I’ve got no problem with that as they essentially re-debuted with this much improved gimmick at ArRival and are now establishing some base level support. After controlling Jobber #1, Travis Taylor, for a period, Jobber #2, Bishop, managed to get a shot away on Viktor. Bishop took his chance to wrap Viktor's arm up in the corner, which had the crowd chanting ‘You F----- Up,’ showing that they fully invest in the idea that even attempting to compete and angering the Ascension is a really bad idea.

That led to a big clothesline from Viktor, who looked cross and tagged in Konor, who hit some big splashes and an awesome tag move where Konor whipped Tayler into Viktor coming off the top with a knee. The Fall of Man was then good for the win. Tayler took a beaut of a back bump to sell the move and actually looked good in his role. As for The Ascension, they got a win and looked great doing it.

- There was then an ad for later in the night where Xavier Woods would be facing Alexander Rusev. This will be important later as the most balled up segment in the world happened. For now remember the planned match is Woods vs. Rusev.

- Up next was Mason Ryan against dumb cowboy-hat-wearing Wesley Blake. He’s going for the cowboy, good luck with that. This was a Mason Ryan match that went the length that a Mason Ryan match really shouldn’t. I honestly thought half-way through they might pull the switch and have Blake win. Instead, his offense was just there for the sake of it. Mason shouldn’t have left his feet if they are trying to build him as a monster (there’s nothing else he could be built as) and the additional 3-4 minutes were both dull and made Mason look weak against a jobber.

- Backstage, Devin Taylor was with the excessively kooky Bayley. She’s literally more agitating than pollen. Banks and Charlotte interrupted both looking as fresh as daisies. They clearly forgot that Banks had a match early in the night and that is pretty inexcusable. They said mean things before Bayley took the Summer Rae head and said some things that weren’t funny.

The BFFs were about to be bullies and not stars before Natalya came in and confronted them. Charlotte ran her down before putting down her ‘drunk-dialing her boss’ on Total Divas (I know literally nothing about this). Natalya then reminded Charlotte of Bret beating Flair for the title, which led to a face-off. So, what? Is Natalya just following the BFFs to foil their plots to bully? Man, what a star. Sigh.

- Out next was Xavier Woods, who had his game face on showing he was keen on getting revenge against Rusev for his attack at ArRival. This was the match that was supposed to happen and the match that had been advertised. Just remember that. Xavier looked intense and this translated very well to the audience. Then out came Tyler Breeze making a full entrance. The announcer said, ‘And his opponent,’ before giving Breeze an introduction.

Breeze got on the microphone and said that he wanted revenge against Rusev before asking Woods to leave the ring. At this point I didn’t know who was facing who and neither did the announcers. Was Breeze asking to take the match against Rusev? Was he asking Woods to purposefully lose a match against him which was about to start? Who knows?

Russian from Lana before Rusev's banging theme brought out the big man. In the ring, Breeze then attacked Woods from behind leaving him injured. Woods agreed to start the original match with Rusev and it was on. Essentially the ring announcer messed up, but it really messed with the segment.

Rusev had early control with only a brief comeback from Woods. After one slightly botched Samoan Drop, Rusev’s spinning rock bottom-esque finisher and then then the Accolade Camel Clutch gave Rusev the win. I don’t know why they felt the need to protect Woods here as Rusev is clearly positioned above him at this point. Plus the faffing about at the start of the match left everyone disconnected from what was going on. Just a mess.

- Neville was backstage with Devin Taylor. Here’s to hoping that the BFFs don’t try and be bullies again. She led with ‘So Adrian, your title defense against Bo is in two weeks.' Two weeks? That’s it? I was expecting at least four weeks to rebuild Bo up to make him look credible, but two weeks just makes it so apparent that Neville’s going to win that no one is going to benefit. Before Neville could speak, Bo made the interruption, talked up his Bo-lievers before running down Neville’s looks. Neville slapped him and then Tom Phillips chimed over as Bo walked off. Why the hell did Bo walk off? Why is no one talking about that slap? This should have got physical and the slap should mean more than just the end of the segment.

- The main event was Colin Cassidy (interesting) against Bo. Why not have Bo get in a scuffle with Neville and then come into this match looking angry? And why is there 10 minutes+ left of this show? Let’s remember the last time Cassidy in the ring he was effectively losing alongside Enzo Amore to Mason Ryan. Any credible number one contender should be beating this guy in a couple of minutes.

Cassidy took early control with his size before Bo tried to be sly by rolling out. Cassidy won a brief encounter with a delayed bodyslam and a series of elbow drops. The audience chanted ‘sloppy jalopy’ playing up to Cassidy’s Jersey Shore character. Of note Colin was pretty amusing with his audience interaction, but there’s something a bit stiff and awkward about his ring work which has me apprehensive. He’s definitely making progress, though. Bo’s character seems to have really lost something in losing the title and he may need to just refresh himself and re-direct a bit. Bo settled into a cravat for a very long time after some sustained offence. Colin eventually fought out with knees. As he went for a clothesline, Bo followed him a la Ted DiBiase and hit a clothesline to stay in control. The clock ticks on…

A ‘boring’ chant broke out, which Bo smiled and waved at while he slowly hit a series of elbows and a clothesline again getting him a two. A ‘Let’s go Cass’ chant broke out, which led to Cassidy whipping Bo hard into the corner. He started his comeback and got in his fist pumping S-A-W-F-T SAWWFT followed by a big clubbing blow to the back of the neck. A big boot was only good for two, though. Bo then raked the eyes which eventually lead to an impaler DDT for the win.

This was far too long of a match to give Bo any credibility leading to his re-match in just two weeks. Colin hasn’t been established as a credible opponent by any means and why he was protected from a short match makes no sense. Even though he’s tall, he’s pretty lanky and hence Bo doesn’t even benefit from the size win. Why not switch Mason Ryan and Colin Cassidy on the card if that’s what you’re going for?

- A frustrating show of two halves with Booking 101 dictating a logical first half of the show leading to an illogical mess taking the wind out the sails. Planning and learning lines could have meant the avoiding of both Banks apparently not having a match and the whole who’s facing who saga.

- Let's address some rankings and it’s time for some hot-shotting...

NXT Network Era Rankings #2

(1) Sami Zayn
(2) Corey Graves
(3) Adrian Neville
(4) Paige
(5) Bo Dallas
(6) Emma
(7) Tyler Breeze
(8) Charlotte
(9) The Ascension (+2)
(10) Mojo Rawley (-1)
(11) Colin Cassidy (-1)
(12) Aiden English
(13) C.J. Parker

- The Ascension have been around as a tag team for a while now and with their new gimmick they look comfortable and awesome. It's only jobbers at the moment, but they’ve got the Ryback aspect to them at the moment where seeing them run through a team is a bit of fun. Viktor is the better wrestler of the two being a technician and a high flyer when he needs to be while Konor is impressive with his size and speed. There are issues with pacing but they seem to finally be going in a positive direction and a lot of people seeing them for the first time have been suggesting a call up. I’m a bit more hesitant, but I could see them breaking into my legendary top 5, and that’s the real goal for them right?

- As for Sasha Banks who is certainly on a waiting list, I think I need to see her a bit more. She seems to be blending in a bit at the moment and hence distinguishing her from Summer Rae and the eve- growing Charlotte (both in star power and height) is tricky to do off the back of a promo and a match. She’s got potential, though.

That’ll do for this week chaps. Leave us a comment and I’ll definitely get back to you or drop us a tweet @PWChiverton and I’ll probably get back to you. Many thanks for reading!


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