Monday, February 28, 2022

NXT 7-10-14 Review

Original Airdate: Thursday, July 10th, 2014
Full Sail University
Winter Park, Florida

Follow me on Twitter: @WorkTheNetwork2

NXT Women's Championship #1 Contender's Match
Bayley vs. Summer Rae

It's always a good way to start off the show with a match that has both a story and a purpose. Bayley has a little fun with Summer to start. Summer battles back, but Bayley catches a kick and slams Summer face-first into the mat. The crowd starts the "Bayley's gonna hug you" chant, which I think is the first time we have heard that. Bayley hits a Spear into the corner and a reverse elbow. Summer battles back with a spin kick into the mid-section, but Bayley kicks out. Bayley hits a second rope reverse elbow and goes for the Bayley-To-Belly, but Summer reverses it and hits the Summer Crush for the victory. Things got a little sloppy there down the stretch, but it was entertaining enough. Summer will now take on Charlotte. 

Match Rating: *3/4

We see highlights of Tyson Kidd attacking Sami Zayn and Neville making the save. They show an interview from last week with Neville and Zayn. Zayn says he should have seen that coming with Kidd, but he was surprised Justin Gabriel was brainwashed so easily. We now go to live with Gabriel and Kidd. Gabriel said he made the choice not to be a loser. 

Sin Cara vs. Wesley Blake

Cara dumps Blake over the top rope and quickly hits a dive before throwing him back in the ring. It's kind of amazing how long this character lasted despite never getting over with the crowd. They try to pretend that Blake has a chance here, but Cara hits a kick to the head and then a senton for the victory. This was just a squash.

Match Rating: 1/2*

Natalya confronts Tyson about his interview and how he threw Natalya under the bus. Tyson tells her that if she wants, she can hang out backstage from now on. 

Summer Rae is backstage with Sasha Banks and they have a snippy conversation about how Sasha will want to be her friend after she becomes NXT Women's Champion. 

CJ Parker is in the ring and calls out Xavier Woods. Parker apologizes for what he said, but Woods isn't buying it. Parker says that he wants to offer peace and he suggests that Woods accept it. Woods doesn't shake his hand, but puts a peace sign in his face. Woods turns away and Parker hits him with a kick to the back of the head. Woods just talked about his PhD, but then he turns his back on someone. 

We get a Vaudevillains vignette with them doing the silent video treatment. 

We then get an Ascension hype video. 

Bull Dempsey vs. Angelo Dawkins

If you're doing a squash match, the guy who is getting squashed shouldn't look more impressive than the featured guy. I'm not sure why they would pick a guy who looks as impressive as Dawkins here. Bull clubs away on Dawkins and then squashes him in the corner. He hits the Bulldozer and that's all. He continues to not look overly impressive. He gets on the mic and says that he's the wrecking ball and he won't stop until he's NXT Champion. He then makes more constipated faces. 

Match Rating: 1/4*

Sami Zayn interviews Adrian Neville to ask why he rescued him last week. Neville says that he'll always have Sami's back. 

Sami Zayn & Adrian Neville vs. Justin Gabriel & Tyson Kidd

Natalya does come out with Kidd. Neville hits a nice crossbody off the second rope and they continue to work on Kidd. Kidd backs Zayn in his corner and Zayn tries to fight his way out. It leads to Zayn getting dumped over the top rope into the commercial break. After the break, Kidd nails Zayn with a series of forearms. Gabriel puts Zayn in the tree of woe and Kidd hits him with a group of kicks. Gabriel then hits a sliding dropkick into the face of Zayn. They then hit a double kick to the head for a 2 count. Zayn hits a hot tag to Neville and he hits a cluster of kicks to Gabriel. He hits the standing moonsault for a 2 count. Neville hits a pop up sit down powerbomb for another nearfall. Kidd tags in and goes for a springboard move, but Neville hits a dropkick on it. Neville climbs up to the top rope, but Gabriel distracts him and Kidd dropkicks the ropes to knock Neville off. Kidd hits the springboard elbow drop, but Zayn barely breaks up the pin attempt. Neville dives through the ropes to hit Gabriel and Zayn hits a top rope crossbody on Kidd in the ring for another 2 count. Zayn hits a back body drop on Kidd out to the floor. Zayn hits a senton over the top rope and knocks out all three men. Kidd is selling a knee injury in the ring. Natalya is checking on him on the apron. Zayn hits a punch on Kidd, which sends him into the ropes, knocking Natalya off the apron. Kidd and Zayn both check and Kidd pretends to walk out of the ring and then rolls up Zayn for the victory. Kidd then walks out with a confused Natalya. This was a very good main event that had a quicker pace than a lot of NXT matches up to this point. I thought Kidd in particular looked very good here. 

Match Rating: ***1/2

This episode had a nice flow to it and a very good main event. It was entertaining, even if nothing of importance really happened prior to the tag match. This show continues to gain momentum.

Overall Rating: 68%

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