Original Airdate: Wednesday, July 17th, 2013
Full Sail University
Winter Park, Florida
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Triple Threat #1 Contender Match For The NXT Championship
Leo Kruger vs. Antonio Cesaro vs. Sami Zayn
I am counting down the days until Zayn gets his proper entrance music. Cesaro quickly goes after Zayn, but it doesn't work out as Zayn is able to take care of both opponents early on. Cesaro gets some knees in, but Kruger comes from behind and dumps him to the floor. Zayn sends Kruger off the ropes, but Cesaro grabs him and pulls him to the floor. Zayn then hits a somersault dive over the top rope. After a commercial break, Cesaro catches a leaping Zayn and counters it into a backbreaker. Cesaro hits a double suplex on both men as a reminder how freaky strong he is. Zayn gets a couple of close calls, one off of a pop up hurricanrana into a pin on Cesaro. Cesaro hits a Neutralizer on Zayn, but Kruger comes in and throws Cesaro out of the ring and steals the victory. Not every triple threat has to end this way. This was pretty good overall, but I would have preferred to have just seen Cesaro and Zayn.
Match Rating: ***(out of 5)
Corey Graves approaches Adrian Neville. He says that he isn't looking for a friend, he's looking for a tag team partner.
Scott Dawson vs. Bo Dallas
Sylvester Lefort comes out to introduce Scott Dawson. Both men get a little bit of offense in to start things off. Dawson gets in a clothesline and quickly hits series of moves. Bo fights back with some running forearms and a knee lift. Dallas hits the bulldog and not his best belly-to-belly suplex and gets the victory. Well, that sure made Dawson look like a geek. After the match Leo Kruger attacks him from behind and rubs his goatee on the NXT Championship as the crowd thanks him.
Match Rating: 1/2*
We get an Ascension vignette telling us that they will rise again.
Bayley vs. Charlotte
Ric Flair comes out first to introduce his daughter for her debut match here on NXT. Charlotte looks and carries herself very differently than the 2020 version we all know. Bayley is playing up the fangirl gimmick here. Charlotte quickly shows off her athletic ability early on, but Bayley is holding her own. We get lots of nearfalls and then Ric throws off his jacket for basically no reason. Bayley hits an overhead suplex. Charlotte flips out of a Irish whip and hits Natural Selection for the victory. That was all you could ask out of a 2 minute debut for Charlotte. Bayley made sense as a pick from a storyline point of view, but it obviously made her continue to be an enhancement talent.
Match Rating: 1/2*
Sheamus is backstage and he will competing next week. He doesn't know who, so that means someone is going to attack him from behind and it's the Wyatt Family. This is NXT's favorite way to set up a match.
Tyler Breeze is backstage and this is the debut of his Zoolander gimmick. He won't let the camera see his face. Next week is when we will get to see the debut of gorgeous.
NXT Tag Team Championship Match
Adrian Neville & Corey Graves vs. The Wyatt Family
Graves and Luke Harper start things off. Graves pulls Haper out of the ring and hits him with a series of right hands. Back in the ring, he pulls Harper to his corner and they hit a dropkick variation of Poetry In Motion. Neville hits some fast paced offense, but Graves gets hit with a big boot to the face. The Wyatt's cut the ring in half and use their hoss offense. Graves tries to fight back, but Harper hits an impressive dropkick. Graves kicks out of a pin attempt after a spinning Rock Bottom. Graves avoids a charging Harper and makes the tag. Neville explodes and hits a springboard moonsault on both men right in front of Bray Wyatt. Neville then hits a second rope moonsault corkscrew (I'm making moves up), but Harper makes the save. Bray trips up Neville on the top rope. Out comes Sheamus and he attacks Bray and is cheering on the challengers. Neville goes up top, hits the Red Arrow and we have new champions. That was a good match, as all four men looked motivated here. The Sheamus spot came off nicely as well. NXT's arrow is definitely pointing up.
Match Rating: ***1/4
Well, that was a good episode of wrestling. A good opener and a memorable main event are usually enough for a thumbs up, but this one also has the historical significance of Charlotte making her debut as well.
Overall Rating: 70%
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