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

Latest Rankings

(1) Sami Zayn
(2) Charlotte (NXT Women’s champion)
(3) Adrian Neville (NXT champion)
(4) Tyler Breeze
(5) Tyson Kidd
(6) The Ascension
(7) The Vaudevillians
(8) Lucha Dragons (NXT Tag champions)
(9) Bayley
(10) Enzo Amore
(11) Alexa Bliss
(12) Sasha Banks
(13) Colin Cassady
(14) Becky Lynch
(15) Bull Dempsey
(16) The Legionnaires
(17) C.J. Parker
(18) Mojo Rawley

10/2 NXT Episode Analysis

- Bayley was first out for her match with Charlotte for the women’s title. Byron Saxton announced Championship week on NXT with this match as well as the NXT Title being defended. Charlotte then came out, owning the room, before making her way to the ring. Formal ring announcements were politely handled by both Bayley and Charlotte.

The two skirmished early with Bayley going for a series of pinning attempts just as she had at “Takeover." It should be noted the crowd seemed exhausted after two hours of NXT taping prior to this. Who knows how low energy they will be next week.

Bayley and Charlotte seemed on equal footing, with Byron pointing out she learned from “Takeover“ and was doing a good job to stay on her feet. That was until Charlotte saw a chance to take out the knee of Bayley. She then settled into a painful-looking hold where she bent Bayley’s knee all over the place.

On the other side of the break the announcers sold massive concern over the state of Bayley. Charlotte then locked in the Figure Four Leglock a la daddy, although unfortunately she used the wrong legs meaning the knee she had been working on was not the one which was put under pressure from the maneuver. Little details like this just need cleaning up for Charlotte. Bayley managed to roll over and turn the tables on Charlotte, which began a comeback. She dodged a knee drop and a corner attack and began striking for the hills. She then went to the top and hit a diving uppercut for a close two count.

Charlotte then slipped out the back of a bodyslam attempt and sat out into a neckbreaker to set up Natural Selection, which she botched, for the win. The match deserved more time and was missing a little shine, but Charlotte came off as dominant while Bayley was still sympathetic. Charlotte raised Bayley’s hand after the match and hugged her. They shook hands and Charlotte then posed with the title.

- The Ascension were on the way to the ring with Viktor being the man who would be in action against Hideo Itami. I’m still not a big fan of the name, but hey that’s probably because KENTA is just so awesome. He made his way to the ring, showing no fear, but was jumped before the bell by both Konnor and Viktor. Some members of the audience chanted for the Lucha Dragons who were nowhere to be seen. Eventually a load of refs came down. (Take a drink chaps! It’s Draaaaaaaaaaake Younger!) The refs shouted protest while doing bugger all to actually intervene as The Ascension hit a side slam, double axe handle combination. Itami sold a concussion in the ring as the refs tended to him, randomly raising their hands every now and then for no apparent reason. One of them needed to take the lead here.

- Camera phone footage took us to Carmella (not Cassandra as she has been known), Big Cass, and Enzo Amore, who were at the Performance Center after hours. Enzo joked about while locking up before taking advantage of being in close proximity to flirt to the point of being creepy. Carmella decided she’d had enough and hit a big dropkick to send Amore to the outside. Amore asked if that just happened before imploring Cassady not to post it. Again a funny bit from these three.

- Baron Corbin and his wolf vest was out to face Troy McClane. What a guy. The announcers wondered if Baron’s expression would change as the dude killed Troy with ‘The End of Days.' That was that and Baron wandered off.

- Sylvester Lefort and Marcus Louis were addressing a camera backstage and challenged the Jersey boys to a match. Revenge!

- Black and white NXT meant it was at long last time for another Vaudevillains appearance. They had new music which just didn’t fit even a little bit compared to their old jam. They also had a new shirt which although looked awesome, wearing it kind of ruined their look. Anyways, they would be facing the blue chipper team of Tye Dillinger and Jason Jordan. Both are premier athletes although they have lacked charisma in the past.

The announcers acknowledged the Lucha Dragons needed new challengers now as the Vaudevillains hit some charming old school offense before Gotch was caught by Dillinger. The two teams continued to go back and forth before Aiden English hit a swinging neckbreaker on Jordan. Aiden was tripped into the second rope though, which allowed Dillinger to come in, roll down his knee pad and strike English silly. He then bowed to Gotch, mocking the throwback. Full Sail didn’t like this but English was able to make the hot tag. Gotch cleared house and dispatched airplane spins left and right, before tagging in English to hit a beautiful swanton bomb off the second rope.

- At ringside, Titus O’Neil sat down front row next to the entrance ramp, as the dude next to him went wild.

- Backstage, Hideo Itami was being tended to by a trainer before Funaki came in. Funaki rejected a handshake in favour of a hug before the two chatted in fairly decent English about Itami’s beef with The Ascension. Funaki said he had Itami’s back against them. Me thinks Funaki is going to get beaten up pretty soon.

- Tyson Kidd was out for the main event against Neville for the title. Kidd appears to have turned some heads in WWE, with his match against Jack Swagger being one of the better parts of Raw this past Monday. Titus was shown again on camera indicating he had a role to play. Formal ring introductions saw Neville get a very temperate reaction. Wait a minute… Drink! Drake Younger is your referee.

Titus got a chant early on as the two in the ring stalled and struggled to get an upper hand. They continued to go back and forth with neither man really gaining an advantage. The announcers discussed that Natalya wasn’t in the building. Is Titus a hired hand? We’ll see. Neville punted Kidd in the face going into the break.

Back from said break, Kidd hit a standing snapmare neckbreaker, which looked really nasty and won him a two count. Kidd went to the top but a quick enziguiri allowed Neville to go for a superplex. Kidd reversed into a sunset flip powerbomb but Neville flipped out and landed on his feet. Having found that next gear, Neville hit a hesitation dropkick on Kidd in the corner before scooping him up for an absolutely brutal sit out powerbomb. That was a very close two count. Full Sail woke up at last which is a massive credit to these two.

Neville went to the top and went for a Shooting Star Pressm but landed on his feet as Kidd moved out of the way. A few shenanigans later and Kidd had the Sharpshooter locked in, pretty much in the middle of the ring. Neville crawled a long way before eventually making it to the ropes. He sent Kidd to the outside and went for a dive only to be cut off with an elbow. Kidd had the same idea and went for a dive onto Neville but was smashed with an enziguiri.

Titus then smashed Neville into the ring ramp as the announcers protested Titus getting involved in a championship match. Suddenly out of nowhere Sami Zayn’s boot came into frame and utterly destroyed poor Titus’s face. Sami stood off and allowed the match to continue. Neville then just beat the ten count. Kidd, who apparently has never seen Neville wrestle, perched the Geordie on the top rope. Yeah you know the rest right? He won with the Red Arrow shortly after.

Post-match, Neville posed with the title before locking eyes with Zayn, who pointed at Titus before giving a semi sarcastic salute as if to say you’re welcome, a little gratitude might be nice. The ring announcer announced that Kidd had no more NXT title opportunities to close out the show. Poor Kidd.

This was a solid main event, although it certainly wasn’t helped by an exhausted crowd. The Zayn/Neville dynamic is the most engaging thing at NXT at the moment and Neville walking the line between face and heel is really setting up for a big pay-off by Neville to heel it up big style. How heelish you (probably) ask? I’m thinking you pay-off this storyline with two matches. Firstly a match between the two for the title where Neville low-blows Zayn in a big way to retain before a second blow-off match where Zayn finally gets his hands on the gold. Titus has a role to play here, too, although they have to pay off this feud now and putting another object in Zayn’s way may be pushing people’s patience a little too far. Who knows, though? I trust NXT to get things right so I’m excited to see where they go in the coming weeks.

As for the week as a whole it was again a good offering which carried stuff forward. The criticism is perhaps that considering two titles were defended, the show still felt like it was simply a service episode and the memorable elements arguably came from the Vaudevillains, the Jersey crew, and Baron Corbin. The biggest factor was probably Full Sail just not being that interested three hours in. WWE should really consider cutting taping times in half as four hours of TV at a time just seems too much at the moment. Otherwise, consider me a happy bloke.

Thank you very much for reading and I will hopefully see you next week. Oh and if you see Drake Younger at any point this week then you’d better have a drink on my behalf.

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