Short’s NXT Review: First week of the Seth Rollins’ reign, The Uso Brothers vs. The Ascension, Leo Kruger vs. Percy Watson, Richie Steamboat vs. Kassius Ohno

By Josh Short

9/6 WWE NXT on Youtube
Taped in Winter Park, Fla. At Full Sail University.

The show opened with a video package of the NXT Title match last week including Seth Rollins talking about how much the championship means to him. This lead into the opening credits...

Byron Saxton checked in and said tonight we will hear from Seth. Richie Steamboat made his entrance to no reaction until Chris Russo announced his last name. Regal checked in on commentary. Kassius Ohno made his entrance and got a good cheer from the males in the audience with. “Ohhhhnooo” chants could be heard. Saxton and Regal recalled what happened two weeks ago were Steamboat came to the aid of Jake Carter as Ohno beat the crap out of him...

1. Richie Steamboat vs. Kassius Ohno. Richie started in control with various headlock takedowns. Kassius ragged Richie face so Richie hit Ohno with several chops. Richie continued to attack Ohno in the ring corners. Richie went for an attack in the corner however Kassius hit him with a knee to the jaw. Richie hit a backdrop followed by several chops. Kassius poked Richie in the eye and begged the ref not to DQ. A short time later Kassius poked Richie in the eye again to cause a DQ...

Richie Steamboat defeated Kassius Ohno via DQ in 2:45.

After the match Kassius booted Steamboat through the ropes and dropped him onto the guardrail. Ohno yelled in anger and threw Steamboat back in the ring. Kassius hit him in the back of the head with the rolling elbow and laughed with a big smile on his face. Kassius eventually left as Regal said that Kassius had everyone’s attention on him and called him a “very warped young man”. Ricky Steamboat appeared and slid into the ring. He started shouting at the refs, asking why they didn't stop it quicker... [C]

Short’s Synopsis: I really want to like this segment but I just can’t, I think we all know I buy Ohno more than Gutteridge but even I was left unimpressed after that. Ricky coming down and selling the attack was good but the problem is the attack didn’t look like it was worthy of all that effort. Kassius has hit the rolling elbow way better in the past, he either needs to remember how he used to do it or ask Wade Barrett for some advice on hitting them.

[C] Back from the break Audrey Marie made her entrance to some good reaction from the males. Paige made her entrance to a big pop. Byron said Richie Steamboat was receiving medical attention backstage...

2. Paige vs. Audrey Marie. Both divas locked up and Audrey locked in a headlock which seemed to last for ages. They rolled around the ring for what also seemed forever. Paige knocked Audrey loopy with a sick looking forearm smash. Regal said that she had “a little Kassius Ohno spirit”. She picked her up for a clothesline and her finisher, were she DDT's Audrey after first wrapping Audrey's legs around her waist...

Paige defeated Audrey Marie in 2:42.

Backstage, Ricky Steamboat was trying to get to the trainers’ room when he spotted Ohno, who was wearing hipster glasses (the ones without glass in them). Kassius introduced himself in a polite way and tried to shake Ricky’s hand before saying he didn't think Rickie had much potential, as he just left him defenceless. Ricky tore into him, asking how he could think he was tough after attacking a man from behind after a match.

Ricky shoved him and the refs ran in to separate them. Ohno started shouting at Steamboat and started mocking him. He said such things as “The Dragon's mad!” and “What you gonna do, arm drag me?”. Ohno asked if Steamboat wanted his career ended twice. They cut to hyping a Seth Rollins interview later in the show and Saxton also hyped a Brodus Clay match and a match between The Usos vs. The Ascension...

Short’s Synopsis: That match was basically rolling around until Paige hit her forearm, clothesline and DDT. On the positive side Paige has a big following, including yours truly of course, and a unique look for a diva which I really think will help her in the future. Oh and will Saxton please stop calling Paige’s hometown “Nor-Wich”, I know it’s spelt like that but Regal’s corrected Saxton several times saying it’s actually pronounced “Nor-ich” and yet he still says it wrong. Even my girlfriend, who hates wrestling, laughed at Regal then. I loved the backstage segment with Ohno and Ricky. Ohno was funny, he came off very heelish and just downright like a twat which is obviously good. Like Gutteridge I’m not completely sold on the intellectual with a mean streak gimmick, however I do feel he can do well with it in time. Perhaps a bipolar gimmick could work for him?

Percy Watson made his entrance to a decent reaction as both commentators, especially Regal put him over. Leo Kruger came out with cargo trousers on and a big smile on his face. He got no reaction. Regal said that Kruger was asked to leave South Africa by Nelson Mandela himself, as he was the biggest poacher in the country. That’s almost as ridiculous as the story of how Hunico and Camacho met.

3. Percy Watson vs. Leo Kruger. Saxton said Kruger returned to South Africa recently, and came back a different man. He sat in the middle of the ring before hitting Watson with his awesome snap suplex. He then attacked Percy with vicious strikes. Percy came back with his own strikes and two beautiful dropkicks. Percy eventually hit the Showtime Splash for a two. Kruger reversed an Irish whip and dropped Watson onto the ropes neck first. He then hit a great looking modified neckbreaker for the win...

Leo Kruger defeated Percy Watson in 2:54.

Saxton once again plugged the Rollins speech and the Usos vs. Ascension tag match...
A video package for the Uso’s aired, they said they aim to strike fear into the hearts of their opponents...

Short’s Synopsis: Awesome. That was just awesome. Kruger looked tough, vicious and just plain scary at times. I like the transition into this character. In Kruger’s first vignette aspects of this character were shown and then a couple of weeks ago his promo was clearly designed to set this change up. Kruger can work a matt based style well but I prefer this character much more. It’s a different take on your stereotypical crazy wrestler and Kruger sells it brilliantly. Great work.

[C] Back from the break Brodus Clay made his full entrance to a big pop as JR checked in on commentary...

4. Brodus Clay vs. Ryan Collins. Ryan Collins wasn’t even introduced. Brodus pushed Ryan around and jigged. He hit the Sheee-plex followed quickly by his big splash finisher...

Brodus Clay defeated Ryan Collins in 0:41.

They did the usual post match routine with Brodus and Cameron and Naomi dancing with the kids. They cut to a segment from last week’s show were the Ascension attacked The Uso's. The Ascension made their entrance to a decent reaction with plenty of cheers from the women. The Uso’s made their entrance to a good pop.

5. The Uso's vs. The Ascension. Both teams went at it right from the bell. The Uso's threw their opponents out of the ring and then prevented them from getting back in. They cut to commercial ...[C]

[C] Back from the break The Usos were still in control by making quick tags. They hit their double elbow before Connor O'Brian eventually hit a clothesline to take control. They did their repeated double stomp in the corner on Jimmy Uso. They locked in several rest holds including a bow backbreaker. Nice. The rest holds really began to drag and the crowd went dead. Jimmy eventually landed a boot out of the corner and got the hot tag to Jay. The hot tag got no reaction. Sigh.

Jay worked the usual Uso comeback offence. He hit a super kick and went to the top rope. Jimmy took O'Brian out on the outside with a suicide dive, but this allowed Cameron to recover and hit the ropes to make Jay fall of the ropes. Cameron landed a huge running jawbreaker for the pin...

The Ascension defeated The Uso's in 9:26.

Short’s Synopsis: That match just plain sucked. I always try to find something positive in a character but The Ascension in that match just bored me. The amount of rest holds they used was ridiculous and I just wanted the Uso’s to make their comeback so that I knew the match would soon be over. If The Ascension want to be taken seriously as vicious superstars then they really need to stop using so many rest holds because it just doesn’t make them look vicious at all. They already have the over the top theatrics against them and if they stick to rest holds their going to make people not want to watch them. They at least need to back to their old offence or watch Leo Kruger’s match from this episode. As the Uso’s they bring a hell of a lot of energy and excitement to their matches and I hope they get pushed in the up and coming tag division.

After the match the commentators hyped Seth’s interview...
A Night of Champions video aired...
JR stood in the ring and introduced Seth Rollins who came out topless to a decent pop. The commentators sold his gimmick of being an outsider. In the ring Rollins put an NXT t-shirt on. JR asked how he overcame his back injury during the match to win. Rollins said there was always going to be something he had to overcome. He said Mahal called him a born loser, just like people had been calling him a born loser throughout his life. He said from that point on, there was no stopping him

JR said Rollins has gone from being the hunter to the hunted. Rollins said if there isn’t a bulls eye on his head, he’ll paint one on there. He'll take on all comers, but eventually, everyone will be blacked out. JR congratulated him, and this ended NXT...

Short’s Synopsis: What a waste of time. Rollins was comfortable on the mic and I liked what he said, especially the painting a bulls eye on his own head line, but the segment didn’t do anything other than introduce Seth as the new champion. There was no hook for next week’s show.

I didn’t enjoy this week’s NXT, it just didn’t work. I like that The Ascension and The Uso’s had their rubber match, even though the match sucked, and I liked the segment with Kassius Ohno and Ricky Steamboat but the rest was just filler. Couldn’t they have just made the Brodus Clay match a dark match and put some vignettes that told us more about different superstars instead?

Thanks for taking time out to read my review of this week’s NXT. If you have any questions or just fancy a chat about anything; especially NXT and wrestling in general follow me on twitter @JoshTubeShort. Cheers.