Thursday, January 31, 2013

1/30/13 NXT

Kassius Ohno & Leo Kruger vs. Alex Riley & Derrick Bateman: The show begins with another first-round match in the NXT Tag Team Tournament. A-Ry and Bateman are back from injury. Bateman/Kruger and A-Ry/Ohno pair off for mat wrestling to begin the match. Poor A-Ry has a good physique and great ring music, but just hasn't been able to break out of midcard. Bateman's knee worked over for several minutes. Ohno and Kruger isolate Bateman very well. A-Ry with the hot tag and he goes to town on Ohno. Ohno cranks on A-Ry's neck in a modified reverse chinlock, twisting the neck hard. A-Ry taps. Lengthy match here. **1/4

Tag tournament brackets shown. Ohno/Kruger face Neville/Grey in the semis. We'll see Bo Dallas and Michael McGillicutty take on Primo and Epico later in the show; winner of that match faces the Wyatt Family in the second semi.

Corey Graves picks the bones and puts his 13th Step submission on A-Ry. Could be a possible feud.

Mason Ryan vs. Sakamoto: Mason Ryan returns to TV and the guy looks even more jacked than before. Taka Michinoku trained Sakamoto, but damn, Sakamoto took a big beating. Takes about two minutes for Mason to get the win. Mason Ryan's finisher is the Jackhammer and some faint "GOLDBERG" chants can be heard. N/A

Paige vs. Aksana: I love that Paige is over with the NXT crowd. Frankly, I can see how getting called up to the "main roster" would hurt her, as divas don't get much time on RAW or Smackdown. Aksana gets good offense in this one, targeting Paige's back. Paige gets a submission win this week, using a modified cloverleaf. Kinda reminds me of Jericho's old Lion Tamer. Match was maybe three minutes. 3/4*

Summer Rae is the female ring announcer we've been hearing all these weeks (generally used if Byron Saxton isn't announcing). She gets in the ring and knocks Paige down from behind. YES! Unexpected. Summer has wrestled several matches in the old Florida Championship Wrestling "minor leagues" of WWE.

Sasha Banks cuts the "it's been my dream to wrestle in WWE" promo. She gets some Valentine's Day card from a secret admirer. How cute.

Bo Dallas & Michael McGillicutty vs. Primo & Epico: Epico has ditched the corn rows, but Primo still has the crew cut. Faces with good tag wrestling here. MM isolated for a bit, then they do the double KO spot to allow Bo to get the hot tag. Primo with some type of hammerlock-leg sweep DDT that looked pretty cool. Unfortunately, only two. Bo gets in that snap modified powerslam for three. Bo has just gotten called up to the main roster, so I'm assuming the Wyatt Family beats Bo and MM in the next round. **1/2

Decent show this week, bookended with two nice tag matches.

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