NXT 1-14-15 Review

Original Airdate: Wednesday, January 14th, 2015
Full Sail University
Winter Park, Florida

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Tyson Kidd vs. Finn Balor

NXT is on Wednesday nights now. Big running dropkick right away from Balor to start. Kidd baits Balor outside the ring and then drives him into the guardrail. Back in the ring, Kidd hits a neckbreaker into the commercial break. When we come back, Kidd puts Balor in the tree of woe and gets some shots to the midsection before knocking him off. Balor is able to sneak in a Pele kick and follows it up with a boot to the face. He hits a Slingblade and then an enzuigiri. Balor hits a senton dive to the floor, but gets hit with a kick from a desperate Kidd. Kidd hits a springboard elbow drop, but Balor kicks out at 2. Kidd slaps on the Sharpshooter in the middle of the ring, but Balor is able to drag himself to the bottom rope. Balor now battles back and hits the Coup de Grace for the victory. That finish was a little out of nowhere, as it felt like they had to cut out the final minute of the match. The rest of match was well wrestled. 

Match Rating: ***

They show a highlight package of Sami Zayn and Adrian Neville ahead of the rematch tonight. 

Bull Dempsey says that we should expect to see Baron Corbin lying on his back tonight. 

Baron Corbin vs. Bull Dempsey

This is a brawl, as you would expect. Just because it's a brawl, doesn't mean it's intriguing though. Bull flattens Baron, but then misses with the top rope headbutt. Baron hits End Of Days and that's all. Well, I have to say that I didn't expect that. I mean obviously Baron was higher on their list of guys, but I figured we'd just get the generic double countout or DQ here. 

Match Rating: 1/2*

Becky Lynch & Sasha Banks vs. Natalya & Charlotte

Natalya unleashes some forearms on Becky before hitting stereo baseball slides to the outside with Charlotte. They then hit a dual delayed vertical suplex for a 2 count. Natalya seems excited to be wrestling here tonight. Sasha fights back and hits double knees on a horizontal Natalya in the corner. Charlotte gets an early hot tag and hits a neckbreaker. Sasha comes back with one of her own after a double team with Becky and that's enough for the victory? It seems like they could have done a better quick victory than a neckbreaker. She did hold the tights, but it still felt a little out of left field. The action was good for the short match we got.

Match Rating: **1/4

NXT Championship Match
Adrian Neville vs. Sami Zayn

They shake before the match and it looks like they are going to get some time tonight. We get a pretty even start to the match, with each guys trading some quick sets of moves. Sami says he's sorry and hits Neville with a forearm to the head. Neville fights back now too and it leads to a dive to the outside into the commercial break. When we come back, Zayn hits a top rope crossbody for a 2 count. Neville comes back with a fantastic hurricanrana. Sami comes right back and hits the best move that never wins a match, the Blue Thunder Bomb. Sami hits two German suplexes and on the third attempt, Neville lands on his feet, goes for a cartwheel and gets caught on Zayn's shoulders. He counters that with another hurricanrana and now Zayn is continuing his injury angle. The action spills outside and Zayn goes for the dive through the ropes into the DDT, but Neville greets him with a kick to the head. Zayn moves out of the way for the Red Arrow and we get a lot of quick action leading to the Helluva Kick and the victory for Zayn. The whole injury portion kind of felt out of place since it didn't really factor into anything else. This was another very good match from these two, not that you would expect anything less. 

Match Rating: ***3/4

After the match and recap, Kevin Owens is out and he hits the pop up powerbomb on Zayn before stepping on his face. He kicks the belt at Zayn and heads to the back as we go off the air. 

This was a really strong episode of NXT and one of the better ones that I can remember. The action was all very good and it helped move along some of the main storylines. Thumbs up here. 

Overall Rating: 80%