By Darren Gutteridge



WWE NXT on Sky Sports 3

Taped October 10 in Winter Park, Florida
 
[Q1] After titles, El Local was shown on the entrance ramp. He made his way to the ring with very quiet music, before Leo Kruger came out, choosing not to lead a "Kru" chant. I guess he’s a fully fledged heel again. Tom Phillips, Renee Young and Alex Riley are on commentary...
 
1. El Local vs. Leo Kruger. Kruger started off strong with a big spinebuster. He battered Local around the ring, building to the Slice clothesline. He threw Local with three unchained snap suplexes, rolling through the third one to lock on a double underhook hold. Local immediately tapped...
 
Leo Kruger defeated El Local in 2:09.
 
Phillips proclaimed that the old Kruger was back. Kruger started a "Kruger" chant before Phillips introduced a replay of Paige clotheslining Emma two weeks ago, followed by a replay of Emma mistakenly attacking Paige last week.
 
A WWE.com exclusive video aired of Paige and Emma arguing backstage last week. Both women said their attack was an accident, but Paige didn’t buy Emma’s excuse, and told her to get out of her face before she ripped it off. Paige left, and Emma said there was "something wrong with that girl"...
 
Gutt Reaction: I think Kruger’s time for a call up has arrived. The Cult of Full Sail like him enough where they won’t boo him, but they also aren’t cheering him heavily because of his heel tendencies.  Essentially, he’s got nothing left to do on NXT, so putting him on the main roster, where he will be booed properly, seems like a no brainer to me.
 
Sylvester Lefort entered the arena alone for the first time, counting money on his way to the ring whilst looking concerned. Phillips explained that Lefort was no longer representing Alexander Rusev. He was cut off by the mysterious woman from the past several weeks, whose name was given as Lana. She introduced Rusev in what I presume was Bulgarian...
 
2. Alexander Rusev vs. Sylvester Lefort. Lefort tried to pay off Rusev before the bell, as Rusev made some comically over the top facial expressions while breathing heavily. As the bell rang, Rusev threw Lefort to the ropes and body checked him on the rebound. Rusev then locked in the Accolade (Camel Clutch), stuffing the money in Lefort’s mouth as he tapped out...
 
Alexander Rusev defeated Sylvester Lefort in 0:14.
 
Rusev started shouting in Bulgarian before leaving up the ramp with Lana...
 
Backstage, Bayley thanked Charlotte for helping her fix her headband before letting out a "Woo!". Summer Rae and Sasha Banks walked into shot and Charlotte asked what they wanted. Rae said they wanted to apologise to Bayley for breaking her headband, so they’ve brought her a new one. Riveting.
 
Charlotte smacked Rae’s hand away as Rae patted Bayley on the head. Charlotte said she doesn’t like the pair walking around like they run the locker room. She said her and Bayley don’t need to be friends with people like them, although Bayley said they do because "they’re cool". Rae said soon, Banks will be just like her – appearing on Raw, Smackdown, PPVs, and flying around the world. She said they could really use a girl like Bayley, and while she thought about the offer to join them, she should take out "the trash". Bayley restrained Charlotte as Rae and Banks left...
 
Gutt Reaction: We truly are in the golden age of TV storytelling.
 
Luke Harper vs. the recently released Kassius Ohno was advertised for later on in the show. I’m a little surprised they didn’t blur his face out... [C]
 
[Q2] Two guys were in the ring, and Phillips gave them the jobber names of Travis Tyler and Troy McClane. As their opponents, The Ascension, made their way out, Young implied that NXT GM JBL had promised contracts to Tyler and McClane if they were to win...
 
3. The Ascension vs. Travis Tyler and Troy McClane. The Ascension isolated Tyler in their corner. Conor O’Brian hit a flapjack pretty quickly, and tagged in Rick Victor so they could put away Tyler with the Fall of Man...
 
The Ascension defeated Travis Tyler and Troy McClane in 1:38.
 
Ohno vs. Harper was advertised again...
 
Gutt Reaction: I was only interested in seeing if Troy McClane could live up to the expectations of a man whose name is a combination of Troy McClure and John McClane, and I didn’t even get that. Damn this has been a poor show so far.
 
"I don’t get hyped, I STAY hyped!" blared in the arena before Mojo Rawley came running to ring. Tye Dillinger, the artist formerly known as Gavin Spears who briefly appeared on ECW a few years ago, is his opponent...
 
4. Mojo Rawley vs. Tye Dillinger. Riley called Dillinger "strange and weird", which are similes. Does everything have to suck tonight? It was actually Dillenger who took control after the early feeling out process, taking Rawley down with a Russian leg sweep. Dillinger applied a chin lock, but Rawley battled out and managed to hit a powerslam.
 
Dillinger backed into the corner, and Rawley intimidated him with a rolling three point stance. Dillinger charged, and Rawley tackled him into the corner. Following a few corner splashes, Rawley put Dillinger down with a flying asshole, before putting him away with a running seated senton...
 
Mojo Rawley defeated Tye Dillinger in 3:23.
 
Steam shot down from the rafters as Rawley celebrated...
 
A Raw Rebound aired, showing the closing segment with HHH, Show and Stephanie. As if this episode wasn’t bad enough on it’s own...
 
Unbelievably, John Cena vs. Alberto Del Rio and CM Punk and Daniel Bryan vs. Luke Harper and Erick Rown were advertised for the WWE Live tour of UK that is currently underway. Neither of these matches took place, and this programme was supposed to air three days before the tour started, so they would have known that. That’s very, very amateurish.
 
Gutt Reaction: This was squash match length, but at least Dillinger showed some personality and skills, which will hopefully be expanded upon now he has re-debuted. I’m still not entirely sure what the IWC has against Rawley. It may be down to him being drafted in from outside of traditional channels, but he certainly seems excited and motivated. I also presume he’s a fan as his nickname was "the Iron Sheik". And weren’t all wrestlers at some point just a hopeful fan who happened to be athletic? It’s not his fault he skipped a lot of the "paying your dues" part of the Independent wrestling. It’s OK Rawley, just like in Toy Story, "You’ve got a friend in me"... Until you don’t improve and I have to write an open apology to the entire internet.
 
[Q3] A "Be a Star" video aired, featuring P Diddy, Puff Daddy, Sean "Diddy" Combes, or whatever he’s called this week...
 
Charlotte and Bayley vs. Summer Rae and Sasha Bank, and Adrian Neville vs. Corey Graves in a 2 out of 3 falls match were advertised for next week...
 
The lights went out in the arena, and the crowd popped huge for the Wyatt’s music. The pop died down when it became apparent that only Harper was there, but the crowd was shown to be swaying en masse regardless. Ohno came down for his final appearance wearing simple black trunks, without almost any of his usual "KO" attire . .
 
5. Kassius Ohno vs. Luke Harper. Ohno started off aggressively with a one legged dropkick, and really took it to Harper with punches, chops and kicks early on. Harper levelled the playing field with strikes of his own, and slowed the pace down significantly. He shot Ohno to the ropes after a while, but Ohno managed to side step him when he charged and connect with the rolling elbow. Harper fell to the outside, but didn’t go down, so Ohno hit him with a dropkick through the ropes before we cut to the final commercial... [C]
 
A World Tour report aired, again advertising matches that didn’t happen, but then driving the point home with a Wyatt promo. Now you’re just screwing with me...
 
[Q4] The two men engaged in a slug fest when we returned, which resulted in Ohno getting sent to the apron. He landed on his feet, but Harper booted him off. Ohno only just made it back into the ring to beat the 10 count. As Harper started to ground and pound, Riley said that although he doesn’t do much in the ring, everything Harper does has purpose. Is every compliment Riley gives meant to sound backhanded? Harper kept Ohno on the mat for a while, before he picked him up and ran the ropes. Unbeknownst to Harper, Ohno also ran the ropes, and managed to hit a dropkick.
 
Ohno rallied with punches and kicks again, eventually throwing Harper to the corner and hitting him with a forearm. He followed up with a neckbreaker for two, and looked for another one in the ring, but Harper threw him off and took him down with a side slam for a two count of his own. A running big boot brought a similar result for Harper, so he seemed to set up for the discus clothesline, but Ohno countered with the rolling elbow. This time Harper did go down, but he managed to kick out at two. Ohno got frustrated, and started kicking Harper on the mat, but as he ran the ropes, Harper jumped up with the discus clothesline to pick up the win...
 
Luke Harper defeated Kassius Ohno in 12:47.
 
After Harper had left, Ohno had to be helped slightly by the ref as he made his way to the back. This brought NXT to a close...
 
Gutt Reaction: The match never really clicked until the home straight. The work rate early on was at a snails pace, but it admittedly suited the feud so far. The pace picked up a little after the break, but I feel the match would have benefitted from a shorter running time, and then had a post match attack to fill out the time cut. It summed up Ohno’s NXT career in a way – slow to start, with brief flashes of great work, but overall a slight letdown.
 
This was the weakest episode of NXT for a long time. It was squash match central for the first four matches, and even the main event was lopsided in terms on control for Harper. It seems the general mediocrity in WWE right now has spread to NXT.
 
Thanks for reading. If you have any thoughts on the article, add me on Twitter - @DazatheG

RECOMMEND THIS ARTICLE: