NXT - ARRIVAL

[Dylan Waco]

Very good show over all. I have detailed thoughts on the entire enterprise but it's going to take me a few minutes to gather my thoughts.

[Steenalized]

Try to refresh

I did. Many, many times.

[Johnny Sorrow]

I had Tyler Breeze repeat through the Woods / Russian guy stuff then perfect after that, granted I was watching on my Android phone. They should blame all difficulties on Solomon Burke and his laptop of chaos.

[Tim Evans]

Solomon Crowe Johnny..

 

I went to the show but round up having to watch it outside since Full Sail sold too many tickets and about 200 people that bought tickets couldn't go in. It was a total mess outside with people getting angry and asking for refunds. At first, the officials didn't want to give refunds but they finally did after some people left. Best thing of the night was meeting Mojo Rawley and Enzo Amore's awesome silver shoes. Oh and Cesaro/Zayn was pretty damn great too.

[Exposer]

Cesaro-Zayn - Very good match that was hurt by some terrible spots. I didn't like Zayn doing power spots on a bad leg all that much but he kept that to a minimum. I liked that he banged his leg to get the blood flowing before his running kick to the corner. I didn't like Zayn kicking out of a big move and immediately getting a near fall off of a roll up. Finally, I hated the one count. That shit was absolutely terrible. The KO tease was great but Sami's comeback should have been more unexpected. Like, Cesaro should have gone for another stomp to the head but Sami kicks him in the face instead while on the ground. I don't know. The punching exchanges after a KO tease were annoying. I loved everything else. The leg work was awesome. It surprised me at first because I expected these guys to go fast like their previous matches. I loved the build to the giant swing and Neutralizer. Zayn's desperate attempt to escape the swing mid-swing was awesome. My favorite spots of the match were Cesaro countering the flying tornado DDT around the ring post with his uppercut, and then the finish where he crushes Zayn with the roaring uppercut. There was too much bad stuff here but it was still very good.

 

Paige-Emma - Really solid match. I liked the aggression and Emma pulling out some sick work over Paige's back. That submission sequence was cool. The sit out powerbomb was a great spot followed by the great kick out after the Paige Turner. The finish was awesome. That hold was wacky. These two impress me. They are pretty talented.

 

Neville-Dallas - Dallas was pretty good when he was beating the shit out of Neville. I thought he pussed out on some of the "big" ladder spots. Neville's apron bump was nasty. The Red Arrow or whatever on the ladder was insane. The finish was awkward but the closing moments of the show were cool. Fun match.

 

The rest of the stuff was either fun, middling, or bad. HHH and HBK were both comical and not in a good way. HHH starting out the show was hilarious and sad. I thought it was cool Cena was there. Too Cool was a fun nostalgia deal although the Ascension sucked. The squash match was alright and Rusev beat guys up which was fun. Steph's "I never lost it" line was really funny. Really fun show overall.

[PeteF3]

Some thoughts from a guy so out of the loop it's not funny...

 

Cesaro vs. Zayn - I'll have to watch Shield vs. Wyatts when EC is available, but this is the best match I've seen this year (nobody ask me how many of this year's matches I've seen). A lot of the stuff Exposer hated I actually liked--including that 1-count--or at least wasn't bothered by. Once Zayn's leg got taken away he mostly limited himself to kicks with the good leg. This combined big vs. little and established star vs. up-and-comer, probably my two favorite styles of match, and they executed both styles perfectly.

 

CJ Parker vs. Mojo Rawley - Parker was treated as a jobber here but I actually like the gimmick a lot and think it could go places. Some sort of running John Tenta tribute throughout the show, as we opened with his old Earthquake entrance music and Rawley's taken his finisher. Rawley's gimmick is sort of Sledgehammer of Plot-ish in that late-'80s WWF style--he's HYPER because the announcers say so ad nauseum--but he's charismatic and athletic enough to go places.

 

Too Cool vs. The Ascension - Shitty. Too Cool looked in great shape, which was good to see, and with the Network launch I get why they were here. But yeah, the Ascension blow. I like the concept of a 2010's Road Warriors, but these guys aren't it, or at least the small guy isn't. And God, "Konor" and "Viktor" are horrible names. Either give them last names or straight-up gimmick monikers. Actually "The Scalpel" and "The Bludgeon" would work about 250% better if they were just called that.

 

Paige vs. Emma - Paige has been watching her joshi matches, as she's got that screaming/crying style down pat. Actually the promo videos to set this up worked perfectly, because she specifically pointed out how she "didn't cry." Not as much heat as with the other matches but this was solidly worked. I really liked how the announcers put over how well these two knew each other and how they had each other's moves scouted, forcing both ladies to bust out completely new shit, with Paige's new shit working better.

 

Alexander Rusev...I could use a lot more Lana in my life, actually.

 

Neville vs. Dallas - "Fun" just about caps this. This was almost hyped to be another ladder match classic and it just wasn't--just a solid, decent match with some good spots, some slow spots, and not really anywhere close to the opener.

 

A few middling complaints aside--the Ascension, the presence of Stephanie McMahon, the spectacularly, brick-through-the-screen annoying presence of HBK, the stupid zooming camera--this was awesome and needs to be on my weekly radar. The matches were good, and the video intros and commentary (all three guys) were legitimately *great.* Everything was laid out for anyone to get what was going on, even if they'd lapsed into a coma during the Attitude Era.

[Johnny Sorrow]

HHH and Steph both were putting over the show and the talent, and HBK put over how dangerous ladder matches are by showing what can happen to someone who did too many.

[W2BTD]

Zayn vs Cesaro - LOVED this. The pacing here was fantastic, and they told a multi match story which is something I always love (reminded me of the great KENTA/Nakajima feud of 2009, the recent vintage gold standard of multi match psychology). Everything was executed flawlessly. I am a sucker for the "underdog/lower ranked guy fighting to the death" style of match, so this was obviously right up my alley. And boy did Zayn fight to the DEATH. Absolutely loved the well placed one count spot, late match strike exchange, and out of nowhere fighting spirit style throws and near fall teases. The closing stretch of Cesaro screaming at Zayn to JUST DIE and finally killing him to finish him off was just great. Really just a perfect match. Could easily go five on this, but if I have to think about it then it probably isn't perfect. But this will likely be a strong MOTY contender for me unless the year is beyond great like it was last year. ****3/4

 

Paige vs Emma - Best women's match i've seen since the Gail Kim/Taryn Terrell bouts in TNA. They'd never get this kind of time on RAW. I liked this a lot and it held up on a rewatch. Paige is very talented. Emma gets the most out of her abilities and these two just gel together. ****

 

Neville vs Dallas - Didn't like this at all. Neville barely did any flying in what should have been a real stunt show/showcase in front of a bunch of fresh eyes. Dallas missed a huge opportunity to have a break out performance, and was his usual ho-hum "just a guy" mediocre self. If Neville is following marching orders I can't blame him, but this is not the same Pac who improved tenfold in Dragon Gate and was on the cusp of being elite when he left. And he hasn't been that guy in a while. The finish was super flat, and this was probably the most dull ladder match i've seen in recent memory. Maybe ever. **3/4

 

The rest of the show was the usual borderline laughable NXT junk, from the goofy dated gimmick tag champs, Mojo Rawley who I think is the shits as a big aggressive guy with his softer than bread offense, and other assorted WWE Performance Center assembly line type create-a-wrestlers. And Too Cool is one of my most hated acts of all time, so that instantly made me cranky.

[PeteF3]

HHH and Steph both were putting over the show and the talent, and HBK put over how dangerous ladder matches are by showing what can happen to someone who did too many.

Too many ladder matches can turn you into a slob using a cloyingly self-deprecating poor-man's Bill Cosby routine to get yourself over and hawk your DVD.

 

Maybe Steph did put over the show. I had to mute her when her spiel ran long.

[southofheavy]

I wasn't able to watch this live because I was at work, so I didn't have any problems watching it. Replay is working just fine. I just finished the Cesaro/Zayn match, and I thought it was awesome. I think I enjoyed the 2/3 falls match more, but I'll just lay out the stuff I like about this match while it's fresh in mind.

 

1. The European Uppercut counter to the DDT through the bottom rope was cool.

2. Sami Zayn's sell of the Giant Swing is a straight up work of art.

3. That one-count off the pop-up uppercut was totally okay by me, because Cesaro didn't catch him flush.

4. That Koji Clutch into the Stretch Muffler reversal was fucking awesome.

 

Even though Zayn caught a whupping in this match, I still thought that he might pull it off. There's room for another match.

 

And the way Zayn gets the win? Turnbuckle Brainbuster.

 

I dug the match a whole lot, but it's below the Shield/Wyatt's six man for me.

 

Seconding the commentary being absolutely lights out during this match.

 

I'ma just put it out there: Between the Shield, Daniel Bryan, Cesaro, the Uso's, the Golddust fountain of youth run, and the Network, I haven't been this stoked on wrasslin' since I was a youngin'.

[cm funk]

Definitely a fun time to be a wrestling fan

 

I understood Cesaro winning because he's being primed for (and in the midst of) a huge push on WWE tv right now. And Zayn "got his respect"

 

I think they could bring Zayn up, reference the NXT series, and if Zayn beat him in his debut would be an instant star

[MikeCampbell]

I think they could bring Zayn up, reference the NXT series, and if Zayn beat him in his debut would be an instant star

 

I could dig that. Zayn upsets Cesaro and Zeb and Swagger blow their tops at him, which triggers the babyface turn and him and Zayn as buddies. Sort of like Razor and Kid back in the day.

[dexstar]

I thought that was a really fun event, and enjoyed the subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) positioning of NXT as an alternative to the main shows (and much more subliminally, Impact) that starts with the oddly formatted show name; ArRIVAL.

 

Match wise, it definitely felt like with Cesaro/Zayn and Paige/Emma that the participants were doing some of live dress rehearsal for what I've seen you guys call the "Forced Epic" style of WWE main events, with all the "stay down!" and respect spots. I think that took away from both matches, since you had them both running similar storylines and including very similar spots at some points. In a vacuum I think I'd like both bouts better but within the show it felt overdone. No comments on Dallas/Neville since my stream died a little bit into it after degrading to giant pixels instead of people, but Neville definitely has a little bit of a Euro RVD feel to him, which I don't think is all bad. They even did the pre-match locker room splits warmup camera shot with him.

 

You get the sense that HHH, particularly, is pretty proud of what they have going on down there and I don't blame him, they've really created a great atmosphere (even though the Full Sail crowd gets a bit too self aware and self important at times) for the show and I think it's going to be hilarious when the minor league WWE show on a paid digital network starts challenging Impact for most people watching over the next year. Assuming people can get over the (unsurprising) technical issues of the stream, I'd guess that NXT made quite a few new fans tonight.

 

I can't praise the commentary team enough, such a breath of fresh air from the Monday night crew. I also really liked the preshow dynamic that was setup like College Gameday with the outdoor set and sign holding crowd.

 

The real negatives for me were few, but man, I am not a fan of the Ascension. Does anyone think they have much of a shot of actually getting over on the main roster? It seems so ... forced.

[cm funk]

I like the Ascension. Seem to be in the minority on this board. I definitely think they can get over on the main roster

[dexstar]

I like the Ascension. Seem to be in the minority on this board. I definitely think they can get over on the main roster

 

Do you have any specific matches to check out? I'll admit to only having seen them three times - this show, and a couple squashes on the recent episodes of NXT I have been catching up on. I'm normally a fan of gimmick'ed up tag teams (I'm a Demolition fan ...) so I was into their entrance but underwhelmed by the in-ring portion. Do they have any reasoning behind the gladiator garb or is it just something they wear?

[cm funk]

Not any specific matches, no, I just like the gimmick and the push they've gotten in NXT.

[hammerva]

When I see the Ascension, I think of Kronik. A team that was really cool and fun to watch in WCW that was insanely exposed as an awful team when they went to the WWE. I have a feeling that is going to happen with them. Although I think Viktor is a much better worker than people give him credit

[stomperspc]

I thought it was a fun show and hope they make the NXT specials a semi-regular occurrence. The idea of doing a special one once a quarter (which they have mentioned as a possibility) seems like the perfect amount. Anything more would be too much given the talent they have there now. That was evidenced by tonight's show largely being filler outside of the three promoted matches.

 

Cesaro/Zayne was good but not in the top tier of 2014 matches so far for me. Felt like they could,have chopped off about five minutes without losing anything and they likely would have benefited from a tighter a match. The big spots (uppercut on Zayne's between the ropes dive, top rope hurricanrana, Zayne's dive, ect.) were all great. I am not a big fan of the "kickout at one" spot mainly because it seems so unnecessary. They would have gotten the same reaction had he kicked out at two and then did his fired up new-say-die routine.

 

The ladder match was good and better than I expected. It felt like a big match. For that matter, so did Paige/Emma. The hype video for the woman's match was really well done and something they could do more often on the main shows. Main event was one of the more crisply-executed ladder matches I've seen in a while which is a real credit to both guys. They also avoided the slow ladder-climbing stuff and I really liked Bo scrambling to get up the ladder two seconds before the finish. Usually there is a battle up top before the finish or the other guy is nowhere to be seen, which made the way they handled the ending stick outl.

 

I am not overly concerned about the two glitches in the stream. The big thing for me is that when the stream was working for 95% of the show, there was zero buffering and zero quality issues. I have been an MLB.tv subscriber for years and while overall they do a fantastic job, you do oncee in a while run into some issues with buffering and having to settle for a lower quality picture. The fact that WWE was able to pull of a great looking stream of a live event with the feed only going out (shortly) twice is impressive. I am confident that there won't be any major issues with WrestleMania.

[shoe]

Count me in as a guy who enjoyed the show. I was talking with Johnny Sorrow and he said it had a real Clash of Champions feel to it . I totally agree. The Cesaro/Zayn match was really good. Cesaro is a stud in the ring. Zayn has really strong facials. I thought their were a couple of why did u do that moments , but overall excellent stuff. Paige /Emma was good and that finish looked painful. The ladder match was solid . I really like Bo's gimmick. Though the crowd really killed this one for me. Their reaction really made it hard to distinguish who the heel and face was. I know who it was by the pre match package though.

[JoshEngleman]

Count me in as a guy who enjoyed the show. I was talking with Johnny Sorrow and he said it had a real Clash of Champions feel to it . I totally agree. The Cesaro/Zayn match was really good. Cesaro is a stud in the ring. Zayn has really strong facials. I thought their were a couple of why did u do that moments , but overall excellent stuff. Paige /Emma was good and that finish looked painful. The ladder match was solid . I really like Bo's gimmick. Though the crowd really killed this one for me. Their reaction really made it hard to distinguish who the heel and face was. I know who it was by the pre match package though.

 

I think I'm in a very small majority minority with this, but I despise Zayn's facials. I can't stand him because of it.

Edited February 28, 2014 by JoshEngleman

[C.S.]

I think I'm in a very small majority minority with this, but I despise Zayn's facials. I can't stand him because of it.

 

Wasn't he in a mask for most of his career? Even if you could see his mouth, facials would have probably been far less important for him in that situation. I'm guessing it's something he's only now really learning how to do - unlike most other wrestlers, who have to work on that from their rookie year onward.

 

Cesaro/Zayne was good but not in the top tier of 2014 matches so far for me. Felt like they could,have chopped off about five minutes without losing anything and they likely would have benefited from a tighter a match.

 

I feel the same way. TBH, I'm a bit mystified by all of the "MOTY" reactions. Was it a very good match and probably match of the night? Yes. I certainly enjoyed it. Cesaro, especially, is awesome. But it didn't quite reach MOTY levels for me for the same reasons you pointed out.

 

I also didn't love the ladder match, but I recognize I'm probably being unfair about that. It's not right to penalize Bo Dallas and Adrian Neville because there weren't as many stupid, life-risking stunts as usual. The stunts that were there, particularly Neville's insane jump onto the ladder from the ring, were great. The failed german suplex attempt from the ladder was such a tease though, but I understand why they wouldn't go through with such an insane spot. Ultimately, I think what the match really needed was five more minutes, with Cesaro/Zayn going five less minutes. I wonder if HBK's long, rambling, pointless speech cut into their time? Having HBK there was a cool moment and I understand the significance, but his speech was the shits.

 

Emma vs. Paige was fantastic, but unfortunately, we never get that kind of women's match from the actual WWE.

 

All in all, technical issues aside, it was an awesome show. I'm definitely hooked on NXT now, and I'm a BO-liever. Character-wise, no one in NXT is better than Bo. I fully expect him to get called up to the main roster after WrestleMania.

[W2BTD]

Match wise, it definitely felt like with Cesaro/Zayn and Paige/Emma that the participants were doing some of live dress rehearsal for what I've seen you guys call the "Forced Epic" style of WWE main events, with all the "stay down!" and respect spots.

 

Couldn't disagree more with this. I thought the Zayn/Cesaro match was nothing like your typical WWE style main event. For me it felt more like a modern New Japan style match or even something they would have done five years ago in ROH. Which is part of the reason I thought it was so good, it was such a departure from the norm. It highlighted the strengths of each man, especially Zayn's high level emotional selling, which is to me what made him possibly the best wrestler in the world before he ever step foot in WWE. He conveys underdog emotion better than anybody on the planet, and this match was Exhibit.A of the great stuff he was doing in a million different places before he signed.

[dexstar]

 

Match wise, it definitely felt like with Cesaro/Zayn and Paige/Emma that the participants were doing some of live dress rehearsal for what I've seen you guys call the "Forced Epic" style of WWE main events, with all the "stay down!" and respect spots.

 

Couldn't disagree more with this. I thought the Zayn/Cesaro match was nothing like your typical WWE style main event. For me it felt more like a modern New Japan style match or even something they would have done five years ago in ROH. Which is part of the reason I thought it was so good, it was such a departure from the norm. It highlighted the strengths of each man, especially Zayn's high level emotional selling, which is to me what made him possibly the best wrestler in the world before he ever step foot in WWE. He conveys underdog emotion better than anybody on the planet, and this match was Exhibit.A of the great stuff he was doing in a million different places before he signed.

 

 

Cool observation. I am super unfamiliar with New Japan so I don't have that frame of reference which probably hinders my ability to break it down. I will say I didn't necessarily mean my comment as a real negative - I thought it was overall very good and there were a ton of spots I enjoyed, including the finishing sequence with Cesaro attempting to murder Zayn repeatedly.

[DR Ackermann]

Good show! I was really surprised by Dallas/Neville. I didn't have any expectations and it turned out to be really good. I wasn't able to see the main event last night so I'm going to have to re-watch Zayn/Cesaro and see how they compare, which isn't something I thought I would be saying. The women's match was solid as well, but I hate everything about the Ascension.

[cm funk]

The failed german suplex attempt from the ladder was such a tease though, but I understand why they wouldn't go through with such an insane spot

 

Of course it was a tease

 

If Bo had actually suplexed him from that position Neville would have either broken in half on the ropes or broke his neck or they both would have died. The ladder was in the middle of the ring, nowhere for Neville to land safely, and Bo was a few steps up on the ladder and would have been pushing it out from under himself to do the throw

 

I'm not a fan of the insane bumpy indy spots like that....has anyone ever actually taken a german suplex off of a ladder from that position and ring positioning? I hope not