NXT 7-25-12 Review

Original Airdate: Wednesday, July 25th, 2012
Full Sail University
Winter Garden, Florida

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Bo Dallas & Derrick Bateman vs. Michael McGillicutty & Johnny Curtis
Future B Team members squaring off here. William Regal likes Bo Dallas more than pretty much anyone. This very much looks like a developmental match. Lots of timing issues and a very basic story being told. Curtis gets the pin somewhat out of nowhere. That was pretty blah. After the match Bo Dallas looks to be blaming Bateman, but it ends there.

Match Rating: 3/4*

Antonio Cesaro vs. Alex Riley
Cesaro's old music sucked. Him with Askana really was not a fit either. And oh yeah, he used to play rugby. It's pretty amazing he was able to overcome a lot of crap, but given how talented he is, it's not that surprising. Pretty basic match here, as Riley was never really too exciting of a competitor. Aksana ends up distracting Riley and Cesaro hits the Neutralizer for the pinfall.

Match Rating: *1/2

Kassius Ohno is backstage and gives a decent introductory promo. Drew McIntrye looks like he is 18 and is also backstage. McIntyre is sick of everyone talking about Seth Rollins.

Natalya vs. Sofia Cortez
Cortez is a good worker and Natalya has always been one of the best. Natalya is heel here, even spanking Cortez. They were having a good little match and then Natalya rolls out and gets herself counted out. Then after the bell rings, she attacks Cortez and puts her in the Sharpshooter. I haven't seen a voluntary countout in awhile.

Match Rating: *3/4

They show a highlight package of Raw 1000 and man, do I miss CM Punk.

The Ascension vs. Dante Dash & Garrett Dylan
I really don't know why they changed the Ascension's entrance from this version. This version of the team is also much better. This was obviously just a squash, but it's obvious that they were behind this team.

Match Rating: 1/4*

Seth Rollins vs. Drew McIntyre
Seth Rollins is on such a different level compared to the other NXT roster that it's not even funny. The crowd is pretty silent for him though. McIntyre's look is much improved since this time. Rollins is hitting a lot of his current offense and the crowd just isn't into it, which blows my mind. After some good back and forth action, McIntyre hits a double underhook DDT for the win. Very solid match where both guys looked good.

Match Rating: **3/4

That was a good show for what they were trying to accomplish, particularly because the talent they featured was entertaining. I'm looking forward to hopefully seeing some longer matches and guys like Sami Zayn to come along and spark this show a little.

Overall Rating: 55%