NXT Rankings & Evaluation
By George Chiverton, PWTorch NXT specialist

Latest Network Era 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

10/23 Episode Analysis

- The Ascension’s hard hitting theme started events as the ready for TV team made their way to the ring. The announcing team recapped their beat down of Hideo Itami and Funaki before posing a question around Itami’s potential response. Their opponents, Tye Dillinger and Jason Jordan, also received a full entrance. It’s a nice touch, as given they are about to be squashed, the entrance at least gets their characters over to the audience.

Jordan started out with Viktor and despite showing some power early, Jordan eventually lost control and Konnor was in to dish out punishment. Of note here the Ascension are still hugely over as popular faces with the Full Sail Crowd which means that poor Itami has a job on his hands getting a reaction against them. The Lucha Dragons managed it, though, so I’m sure Hideo will, too.

Tye Dillinger eventually managed to save Jason Jordan from further punishment by tagging in. Unfortunately he walked into a flapjack which led, inevitably, to the Fall of Man for the Ascension win.

After the match Hideo’s music hit. Itami, on his own, hit the ring looking for retribution. Although he was fired up, within ten seconds he got beaten up due to the superior numbers. Byron Saxton, fulfilling his heel colour commentator role, pointed out Hideo was stupid rather than brave to get involved against The Ascension. Jason Albert attempted to make the save saying he was emotional following the battering of Funaki the week before, but it still was a pretty evident fact that Hideo seemed like an idiot to try and get revenge in these circumstances.

On the other hand, The Ascension simply handled business in a badass way. Itami jumping in meant any punishment they dished out wouldn’t seem disproportionate. Much better booking would have been The Ascension bailing and avoiding the fight.

Anyway Hideo took a Fall of Man and the Ascension made their exit with Konnor saying ‘If you know what’s good for you, you’ll go home.' Not a fan of the booking here at all, but, hey, it’s not long until this feud gets an injection of life from one Mr. Finn Balor...

- There was an ad for the Main Event of the evening which would be an NXT Title match for Adrian Neville against Titus O’Neil. A title match? Really? I’m all for letting O’Neil against Neville after beating Zayn, but putting the title on the line cheapens the championship. Every title match should be a big deal and Titus being given an opportunity so flippantly and without promotion is not a move I’m a fan of.

- C.J. Parker made his entrance to absolutely zero reaction. A panning shot of the audience epitomised the word disinterest. I feel for the guy, but he really needs to shake things up or he may be facing the chop. Tyler Breeze then made his way to the ring. Heel vs heel? Great booking! Jason Albert said CJ was stepping in for an injured Mojo Rawley, who had his shoulder messed up by Breeze a couple of weeks previous.

Things opened up at a good pace, with a triangle dropkick from Breeze setting the tone. C.J. took advantage of a referee lecturing for Breeze to blindside ‘Prince Pretty’. As he hit offense, an angry-looking Mojo slowly made his way to ringside making it very apparent his shoulder was an issue. Breeze took control and hit some offense, including a beautiful Frankensteiner, keeping one eye on Rawley at all times. This eventually culminated in Breeze ducking under a kick from C.J., only to hit a Beauty Shot of his own for the win. Rawley kept mad-dogging (If you don’t know what this is Google it but I advise you to keep safe search on), Breeze all the way up the ramp. Tyler threw in a cheeky mock of Rawley’s injury before confidently walking to the back. What an odd segment. Is Breeze face now? Who knows?

- Backstage, Titus O’Neil owned an interview with Renee Young. He promised to become the NXT champion and all that, but in an entertaining way. All good here.

- Baron Corbin’s wicked video package aired again.

- The Vaudevillains were in action next. Their new theme threw off the Full Sail audience as Jason Albert indicated the Vaudevillains had turned heel on commentary. Really? They haven’t done anything heelish yet? Is it just their music? They were to face Buddy Murphy and Blake Rodgers, who lost to the Lucha Dragons last week. Team Thick in the house.

Aiden English and Murphy tangled to start before Gotch came in and hit some entertaining and slightly comical tangent offence. You can’t do that as a heel. It’s like a shoe without a wheel in it: it just isn’t heely (what a reference) enough.

Team Thick began to gain some traction and hit some tag offense of their own. Gotch eventually managed to take the fight to his corner, which allowed English to get into the action. He worked over the left shoulder of Murphy before tagging in Gotch to continue. The crowd got behind a hot tag for but a quick tag into English cut this off. Wait, I wrote too soon, as in came Blake Rodgers on the hot tag. His excitement got the better of him, though, as Simon Gotch blind-tagged into the match, Rodgers tried a roll-up and English pushed him off into an uppercut from Gotch. Gotch then hit a European uppercut onto the back of Rodgers’s head into a nasty-looking neckbreaker from English. This was good for the pin and the win. Weird direction for The Vaudevillains.

- Bayley made her entrance to a decent response. There were a lot of signs for her in the audience showing that her slow rise to the top is almost complete. She was facing Sasha Banks. Banks’s aggression eventually gave way to Bayley, who came back with plenty of fire and spunk. This included a lovely lucha arm drag from the second rope. Bayley found herself on the outside having tossed Banks back in. As she made her way in, Banks hit a viscous kick, slamming Bayley’s head against the bottom turnbuckle. I do enjoy the way Banks uses the ring. Banks continued to dominate including running off two ropes only to slap Bayley in the face. Bayley kept heeling it up with chokes and hair pulls before Bayley slammed her into the corner and came at her with full steam. This included a second-rope reverse elbow for a close two count. Bayley went for a bodyslam, but suddenly Banks slipped out the back and hit her backstabber/crossface combination finisher. Bayley fought it for a while, clearly not wanting to give up, before eventually tapping. Huge win for Banks and a really good match from these two.

After the match, Banks decided to continue the beat down until Becky Lynch came sprinting down to the ring to protect Bayley. Banks made her retreat as Bayley and Lynch looked on. OH MY! Becky blindsided Bayley with a clothesline before making her way up the ramp with Banks. Nice heel turn which I didn’t see coming.

- Backstage, Carmella was on her phone before Enzo and big Cass came into frame. ‘As you well know I’m a G, but what you might not know is that I’m 4G. Cus I’m well connected.’ As chat up lines go this was a gem from Amore. Amore said he’s been talking to NXT GM William Regal and he got a match for Carmella against Emma. Carmella looked disinterested before rejecting a hug with Amore. ‘Where’s my sugar?’ he asked before Cass cut in with ‘In your tea with Regal, bro.’ Another good comedy bit from this trio, but Carmella is still coming across all wrong. Me thinks she is going to get booed against Emma.

- Main event time with Titus O’Neil coming out first looking like a main event player. Neville was then out and was solidly over still with Full Sail. Formal introductions were handled by Byron Saxton. Titus, despite having a major home field advantage, was booed while Neville got a good cheer. The size difference between the two was pretty incredible.

They didn’t quite have the right pacing to start with both competitors looking like they were going through some pre-planned motions rather than trying to beat the other in a wrestling match. This slowed the pace right down and had the audience a bit hushed. Neville kept going for headlocks which repeatedly allowed Titus to hoist him up and power out. Momentum really shifted when just this happened and Titus sat Adrian on the top rope. When the ref broke it up, Titus shoved Adrian all the way to the floor in a nasty looking crash.

Titus rolled him back into the ring and got a two count going into an ad break. Sheamus brogue-kicked bullying, and back from that thrill ride, Titus was man-handling Adrian, who sold like a champ. There was one moment where after some rib breakers, Titus threw Neville aside and sent him absolutely flying. Titus then locked in a big bear hug, which rallied Full Sail around Adrian. Neville tried to elbow his way out but Titus simply clamped back in. That was until he eventually got bored waiting for a tap, and tossed the Geordie once again.

Titus patronisingly taunted Neville only to walk into a series of big strikes. Titus tried to take back the initiative by charging Neville in the corner but Neville got the boot up and went for a springboard something only to go right over a ducking Titus and land on his feet. He then charged the ropes but rebounded right into a big boot from Titus. A two count later, Titus was again in control in the corner beating down on Neville. The ref backed him away and when he came back he walked into a huge slap from Neville. As Titus angrily charged back in, Neville got two boots up to kick him in the face. Up to the top, Red Arrow and a win for Neville was in the bag.

This was a good David vs. Goliath match, but at some points Titus did look a bit lost in general. His match with Zayn remains his best in NXT.

Neville was celebrating on the ramp as "Ole's" broke out. The camera pulled back to reveal Zayn on the stage next to Neville. Zayn, with a mic, congratulated Neville before saying he was on a mission for Neville's NXT Title. He asked the champ for a response to the apparent challenge. Neville said confidently ‘any time any place.' Zayn said he should enjoy the title as he won’t have it much longer.

Neville was about to walk out, but then he cut back to say he wasn’t too worried as ‘We all know that you [Sami] can’t win the big one.' He then patted Sami on the shoulder before walking out. The show closed on Sami looking a bit mugged off. Mmmmm… storyline development.

- OVERALL: That was a pretty good episode of NXT although the booking in the first half of the show was generally flawed. Heel vs. Heel, new faces getting crushed due to stupidity, and a miscast Vaudevillians confusing the audience. Let’s hope that things get sorted on the way to NXT’s next live special, "Takeover: Evolution," on December 11, which is shaping up to be very excellent, especially the main event.

Banks vs. Charlotte is also a match which could be built over the coming weeks, and with Lynch in the mix, could be a solid second main event on the card. I actually fancy BFFs v.2 to take a win. Call me crazy, but, hey. Anyways, that’s about it for it this week. After the runaway not success of #Drink4Drake I’ll keep checking it on Twitter in case anyone has any questions or comments but otherwise I’d really enjoy you reading me again next week. I feel some shuffles in the rankings may occur. What a hook, eh?

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