NXT taping at Full Sail University, Winter Park, Fla., 2/21/13
(Forgive me, I missed some jobbers’ names)
The usual full house, though it was not an advance sellout despite the advertised Orton vs. Sandow main event.
Garrett Dylan and Jake Carter (Jesse White, son of Vader) d. Axl Keegan and Travis Tyler
Adrian Neville (Pac) and Oliver Grey, the tag champs, were
announced to face a pair of jobbers, but Neville came out alone—he said
he had lost touch with Grey earlier that day, but he would wrestle a
handicap match. Midway through, the Wyatt Family (Bray Wyatt, Luke
Harper and Erick Rowan) dragged the limp carcass of Grey out onto the
ramp, then left. This match was a showcase for Neville, who won with his
corkscrew shooting star press, then went to tend to Grey.
Leo Kruger d. Yoshi Tatsu with an arm submission. After the
victory, Kruger went back to do more damage to the arm, but Justin
Gabriel chased him off.
Cameron, Naomi and Sasha Banks d. Aksana, Alicia Fox and Audrey
Marie. Match was fun when Naomi was in, bad to OK the rest of the time.
Conor O’Brian d. Bo Dallas and Corey Graves in a 3-way match to
become the No. 1 contender for Big E Langston’s NXT title. A good
match...O’Brian was booked strong with his power moves. Bray Wyatt was
at ringside “scouting.” The finish came when Dallas had Graves pinned.
Wyatt pulled Graves out of the ring, then hit Dallas, who turned around
into a finisher from O’Brian.
Mason Ryan d. a jobber with the torture rack. Ryan continues to look like a miracle of modern chemistry.
Kassius Ohno d. Derrick Bateman. Hot little match. Ohno went back
for seconds on Bateman after the bell, which brought William Regal down
from the broadcast position. Regal punched Ohno, who bailed, then Regal
looked conflicted about what he had just done. This got over huge.
Summer Rae d. Emma. This was a train wreck. Paige (with whom Summer is feuding) came out afterward.
Bo Dallas d. Bray Wyatt. A surprisingly competitive match—they obviously have big plans for Wyatt and his crew here.
Leo Kruger d. Justin Gabriel. This dragged in spots....a little long for this spot on the card.
Regal came to the ring for a promo. He said that he was almost 45
years old, was about to celebrate the 30th anniversary of his in-ring
debut, had been all over the world and lived out his dreams, but he’s
had some regrets, and he wanted to call Ohno out to apologize. Ohno put
over Regal’s early career. He mentioned that he and C.M. Punk had once
traveled halfway across the country to see Regal and work with him, and
said Regal was an inspiration and mentor to him as a young
wrestler...but now Regal is a shell of his former self. He never really
grabbed the brass ring, lost sight of the fire and villainy that made
him special, and now he’s content to sit behind a desk collecting a
paycheck and become a nameless lackey who will always be best known for
puckering up and kissing Vince McMahon’s...and then Regal laid him out
with one punch. Regal again looked conflicted, but angry. This was a
wonderful promo on both sides.
Paige d. Bayley. A short match—Paige is, as ever, beloved by the
Full Sail crowd, but they were a little burned out by the last segment
and ready for the main event. Summer Rae came out for a staredown with
Paige.
Luke Harper d. Adrian Neville. A Harper-style power match. The
other members of the Wyatt family interfered freely, which led to
Neville hitting an Asai moonsault (top rope, I believe) onto all three
men. It ended with Grey and Dallas coming down to even the score, which
seemed to set up a six-man down the road.
Ring announcer Byron Saxton then introduced what he called a
“Tribute to WrestleMania” segment. Jim Ross came out to commentate, then
Saxton introduced Howard Finkel, who got over huge and was the ring
announcer for the rest of the night. Finkel said that the road to
WrestleMania went through Full Sail. He announced that the next Winter
Park taping would be March 21, including an appearance by Chris Jericho.
And then....that was it. No other “tribute,” whatever that meant. Odd.
Kaitlyn d. Natalya in a Divas title match. Long, good match with
super heat...Natalya locked in the sharpshooter and had the crowd
believing, but Kaitlyn made the ropes. After Kaitlyn won, she and
Natalya shook hands and posed together.
Brodus Clay d. masked luchador El Local (I know Ricardo Rodriguez
has worked this gimmick before; not sure if this was him—it wasn’t
Generico) in a quick squash.
Randy Orton d. Damien Sandow in about 11 minutes with the RKO. Good
Raw-level match. Orton was as much of a “pump up the crowd” babyface as
I’ve seen him be in a long time, and seemed to be having a ball.
Afterward, he spent 10-15 minutes signing every autograph and taking
every picture, sending the crowd home happy.
A really fun show in spite of no real blowaway matches. No
Generico, no Langston, no Shield (despite the fact that a preshow video
ended with the words “The Shield owns NXT”.) Looks like for next time
we’ll have Regal-Ohno, Langston-O’Brian, and Wyatt Family vs.
Dallas-Grey-Neville in what could be a loaded show.
Thanks, y’all. Keep up the good work.
Jay Reddick
Maitland, Fla.
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