Thursday, August 16, 2012

8/15/12 NXT

Ratings:
Jinder Mahal vs. Richie Steamboat: *1/2

Scotty 2 Hotty vs. Heath Slater: *1/4

Jimmy Uso & Jey Uso vs. Conor O'Brian & Kenneth Cameron: *1/2

Seth Rollins vs. Michael McGillicutty: **1/2
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Reviews/Thoughts:
Two semifinal Gold Rush Tournament matches on this week's episode, as we continue to see who will become the first NXT champ.

Jinder takes on Richie Steamboat to start the show. Very good chain wrestling in this one, but damn, the crowd largely doesn't care. Steamboat misses the missile dropkick and Jinder wins it with the camel clutch.

Heath Slater's on NXT now. Oh, so he's facing yet another WWE Legend. Scotty 2 Hotty returns for a night! Why not, they're in his hometown (Orlando). The guy's 42, according to Wikipedia, but still looks pretty damn good. S2H with the Worm for three.All we needed was one of those fancy hats and some facial hair to really bring back vintage S2H.

Ascension in action next against the Usos. Really like that "pack mentality" and team beatdowns in the Ascension corner Real good double-team moves. Jey Uso gets the hot tag. Ascension in trouble. Usos look to get the win, but O'Brian knocks Jey Uso off the top. WTF, THAT CAUSES A DQ?! Makes zero sense, since this was a tag match and such interference happens very often in front of the ref. Ascension beats down Jimmy Uso post-match.

Hunico explains he was sick when Dalton and Jordan beat him and Camacho.

Raquel Diaz talks in the mirror for her backstage segment. Nice horrible outfit and tattoo.

Rollins and McGillicutty in the second semifinal match. Another pretty short match here. Finally, a good back-and-forth encounter. Ropes looked a bit looser than normal here; MM almost slipped when doing one of the big corner spots with Rollins near the end. Nice finish. Rollins with the Buckle Bomb and Blackout stomp for three.

Mahal and Rollins meet at ringside to close the show. They'll be the two guys in the finals. Rollins gets the upper hand on the message-sending tonight.

Money should be on Seth Rollins to take the title. He's the up-and-coming star, and NXT needs to keep the focus on pushing the very new talent. Jinder's fine for what he brings to the table, but Rollins is the more exciting star that will give the title more appeal in the early going.

Meanwhile, HHH is still high on McGillicutty; apparently we'll see a repackaging in the future. Hopefully they'll give the Hennig name back. It's something they should have done from the start.

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