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| NXT Live - Venice, FL - March 25, 2016 | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Mar 25 2016, 08:53 PM (554 Views) | |
| Scrooge McSuck | Mar 25 2016, 08:53 PM Post #1 |
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I'll get you next time, toilet!
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NXT Live from the Venice Community Center in, you guessed it, Venice, FL. I’m really terrible about guessing attendance, but judging by a simple scan, I’d say between 350-450 people. Only a handful of seats empty where we sat, and maybe the last row or too, as well. There was a bit of a rumble on Twitter about a "rowdy" crowd, but I think it was people being too sensitive, as I don't recall anything in our section that hurt the experience except kids who wouldn't shut up, but they're kids. Side Note: WWE’s website should be shamed for false advertisement. Of the 8 names listed, only Finn Balor, Carmella, and Apollo Crews made an appearance. Not there? Samoa Joe. Enzo and Cass. Baron Corbin. Bayley. That’s too much talent at the top of the card to not be there. I did enjoy the unadvertised appearances of the Vaudevillians, Asuka, and Emma, but that’s not a fair enough trade-off. - Tom Phillips and newbie Andrea DiMarco (I guess she did work for Fox Sports Florida?) took turns hyping the crowd and doing ring announcing. Usually I don’t make a comment about ring announcing, but for the third match, oh boy… 1. Josh Woods def. Alexander Wolfe. Woods was introduced from Florida, so he was the default baby-face without knowing his opponent, and then we got an evil German, minus any obscene taunting, so he was easily cast as the villain. Not much in regards to flashy offense, with Wolfe controlling most of the way with striking and chinlocks. Unremarkable, but better than expected from two guys who I don't think are on TV. Woods looks like someone who might have MMA experience, based on his attire. *1/2 2. King Constantine def. Blake (with Murphy at ringside, no Alexa Bliss, sadly). Constantine looks to be about 6’7” or so and all muscle, so he will naturally be billed as 6’10” if he ever makes it to TV. When he was introduced from Siberia, I honestly expected him to play heel. I don’t think the guy broke a sweat, as Blake spent most of the match bumping around like a pinball, except for about a minute of offense that was just restholds. Constantine won with a Chokeslam into a Back Breaker. * 3. Patrick Clark and Kenneth Crawford def. Sunny Dhinsa and Gzim Selmani in a standard tag team match. Sunny and Gzim cut the ring off well and the comeback by the babyfaces was energetic, especially Clark and his athleticism. I mentioned something about this earlier, and I think someone should’ve had DiMarco rehearse the names a bit more, as she completely butchered the heel teams names, and she just kind of stuttered on Crawford. It took a lot of research on the lesser known NXT roster for me to figure out the names of everyone but Patrick Clark. ** 4. Alex Riley def. The Drifter, Elias Sampson in another match that was just “there.” Sampson made his way to the ring via a side entrance and “sang” a song running down Venice for being a dump. He has a point. Riley has mostly been used as a heel on TV since his return, but got to play babyface here, and the crowd seemed split 50/50, at least for the ones who reacted to either of them. I missed Corey Graves’ commentary while watching Sampson constantly grab headlocks. Riley surprisingly went over clean with a top rope elbow drop. *1/2 5. Carmella def. Emma in a match that was a tale of two levels of ability. Carmella has the entrance and pre-match promo stuff down perfectly, but holy cow, is her offense so pathetic to watch, ESPECIALLY her punches after the Thesz Press. Carmella made up for Sampson by sucking up to the crowd declaring herself the Queen of Venice for tonight. Emma dominated most of the match, using hair pulls to keep Carmella in check and lots of hard kicks. Only signature spot Emma pulled out was the formerly-known Emma-mite Sandwich. As usual, Carmella’s victory was a fluke roll-up counter. *1/2 - Tom Phillips brought out the MALE Tough Enough Winner, Bronson Mathews (Joshua Bredi), who cut a heel promo on a crowd who gave him a mild level of Eva Marie heat. He basically just did Sampsons promo, minus the singing. The low point calling the fans "Sad Boys." Way to earn that 250K. I hope he didn't pay someone to come up with that insult. 6. Apollo Crews def. Riddick Moss in the best match of the night at this point, but that isn’t high praise. Moss played to the crowd a lot, mostly for his feminine hair-style, and for doing this whacky power-walk/strut thing that just got annoying. Crews flashed his athleticism, doing nip ups and somersaults, but did a bit too much selling considering how big of a push he was getting up until 2 months ago. Crews won with his twisting throw into a Powerbomb. **1/2 7. Asuka def. Billy Kay in a very physical match. Billy Kay’s gimmick appears to be a wanna-be stripper. Maybe Vince McMahon finally discovered Showgirls? Its nice to see them slowly work some of the former cannon fodder into a bigger role in the promotion. When Asuka's music played instead of Bayley, I was a bit bummed, but then figured Asuka was a suitable replacement. Asuka’s strikes were impressive, and Billy Kay kept up well in trying to not look out of her element. I swear, some of her strikes had to have stung, as you can hear fists making contact across the back with a solid thump. Asuka won with the Crossface Chickenwing. **1/2 8. Finn Balor and the Hype Bros (Zack Ryder and Mojo Rawley) def. The Vaudevillains (Aiden English and Simon Gotch) and Tye Dillinger in a Six-Man Tag that served as our Main Event. If not for Balor showing up as advertised, I would've been PISSED not seeing him, Joe, or Enzo and Cass. I’m not ashamed to say I marked out for Balor’s entrance. The first few minutes was Mojo just acting like a goof, psyching out the opponents. All three faces took turns beating up the opposition until Zack Ryder got to play the face-in-peril. Cute spot saw English and Gotch do their squats to work the arm of Ryder, and Dillinger demanding a tag so he can get “10”. He does the corner punches, but gets stopped at 9 because the Vaudevillains disapproved of the crowd chanting along. Balor got the hot tag and cleaned house. Mojo hit his discuss clothesline and Ryder hit a Broski Boot to clear the ring of the Vaudevillains, and Balor finished off Dillinger with the 1916 (his newly named brain buster). Fun and energetic match to close out the show (a show with babyfaces going 8 for 8). ***1/4 The wrestling wasn't the best, but everything had its place on the show, and the undercard definitely breezed by. I would've liked maybe a bit more of a balanced use of the higher level talent, like switching Asuka to fighting Emma instead of wasting Asuka on what was going to be an obvious victory/quasi-squash, and maybe bring in someone for Crews with a little more TV cred (maybe give him the Drifter, since they have a TV angle to work from). Show started at 7:30 and finished exactly at 10, with a 20-minute intermission, so it was well paced and nothing dragged long nor felt like it was rushed on time. Only real surprise is the heels doing the job in every match. |
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12:06 PM Jul 11