NXT Show Winter Haven Armory, FL 9/28

[jackknight]

Finally got around to my first NXT show since moving to Florida last year. Figured I'd share some pics of the event. Really haven't watch NXT on tv at all. So I apologize in advance for not knowing who everyone is.

Mason Ryan is indeed a big bitch.


The show stealer Aiden English. Definitely the most entertaining act of the night.


This chick reminds me of Gail Kim's attitude and in-ring style.


Bailey was definitely the funnest member of the roster with her constant high fiving of the crowd.


Hot older chick (as dubbed by the guy next to me) didn't want a high five however.


This guy's gimmick was fun. He never stopped looking at his phone during his whole promo. Hoping he checks for his texts during his matches. (wouldn't know being he didn't have one)


Neither did Sami Zayne. Nice guy when I met him though.


Another big guy. Looks like Hercules. His manager was funny. He didn't like us telling Hercules what to do.


This match I call Fake Edge (Colin Cassidy I think) vs. Fake Jeff Hardy.


This one goes out to Jeff. It's Yoshi "F'in" Tatsu! Poor guy gets to watch the matches peeking through a curtain. lol.


The Divas take over the ring and throw some shirts.


Hey! It's the Varsity Club! Fun team, but that other guy needs to lose the black tights and get a singlet.


Here they are performing the Dosey Doe on a guy I'll dub "Most Boring Performer of the Night."


Leo Kruger is awesome.


His opponent Aaron Neville (if I remember right) is skilled at missing splashes.


Which leads to Kruger choking a bitch out.


Millions of Dollas! Millions of Dollas! Yawn.


Ascension is pretty cool tag-team. Big guy is surprisingly fast.


Airplane spin!



They played keep away with CJ Parker most of the match.


Which ended in this. Goodbye Parker.

[Captain Charisma]

Aye, I'm all about a tag team main event! Looks like a fun show. So I take it Winter Haven Armory is like a "B" stop on the NXT circuit? None of the main roster guys worked, no Regal interview segment, did you get to see Sir William at all?

The M-N-M text-checker gimmick is money. As long as guy owns it like Fandango, the gimmick is a good one. I've heard lots of good stuff about Ascension, but all from pro-WWE bloggers who wouldn't tell me if they sucked ass. You know I love my tag team wrestling. The big guy has a great look. Reminds me of Mordecai/Se7en/Kevin Thorne, poor guy, they desperately tried to get him and Taker going, but something was missing.

Even through the pictures Krueger looked the most ready, Neville is a former champ, so I'm a little surprised that wasn't the main. Krueger's finish is awesome looking. Want to say he's been around the longest as well. Much like Bryan Danielson's initial hurdle was talking, Zayne has the wrestling part down pat. How was he on the stick Jack? Jim Ross was talking about Generico "leapfrogging" guys in NXT.

Poor Yoshi. That goes back to a friendly argument Jack and I were having about being Yoshi Tatsu vs. going to TNA. I had no clue that a guy like Yoshi or Curt Hawkins weren't getting any work. They don't get to work joint house shwos, and they aren't working NXT?! You said you got to talk to Zayne, what about the other guys?

Thanks for the pics Jack! Tell us what a 5 Star match would be on the JackKnight scale and then rate the bouts homey! Don't pussy foot it! LOL

[jackknight]

Thoughts for this show. First match was Aiden English vs. Mason Ryan. We watched an NXT show before we left and I saw English on it. So was already a fan, but he wasn't supposed to be there. Lucked out though and he comes out second. Does the singing gimmick which is apparently a new thing. And talks like a moustache twirling villain that ties women to railroad tracks complete with mwahaha laugh. lol. Solid match between him and Mason with a lot of offense from both. As expected Mason won. Boooo!

Next I think was the divas match. Blonde chick moves sort of like Kim, has that pissy attitude too. Bailey comes out all bubbly. I think her character is based off the girl from Wreck It Ralph if you've seen it. She hits a move and constantly leaves the ring to high five the audience. It was fun. Good ring work from both and Bailey wins. Probably the only face I liked all night.

Then I think cell phone guy comes out. Him we saw on the NXT show too. But no wrestling there either as he was in a tag match and never got tagged in. Like to take self pics of himself that he calls "selfies" and claimed that he was inviting someone into the ring to take one with him. But Sami Zayne interrupted and called him out on not picking anybody. That according to cell phone man is because we were all "ughs." And god help him he was right. There was some real scary people out of the non-capacity crowd of 50 people. lol. Zayne then challenged him to a match which he didn't accept. Bo Dallas then came out and has this lame constant smiling heel gimmick. Sami challenges him to a Title match (cause Dallas is the current Champ) but his dumb ass refuses too.

Next match out was Hercules w/ Randy Savage against Jobber # 2. Jobber # 2 was second most unentertaining guy of the night. Hercules relied on power moves and prayed on his prayer mat before the match. He's a throw back to Hercules Hernandez and other big dumb guy types. Was fun to watch him beat the hell out of Jobber # 2. Who lost of course. We kept yelling at him to kill him, and Randy Savage with his thick Turkish accent told us not to tell him what to do. That's his job!

Up next was the Varsity Club vs. Dorky Black Guy & Dumb Tattoo White Guy. Thinking the VC may've been called the All-Star Squad. They really worked their gimmick. And were pretty funny. They should have matching singlets however, because the cool guy black tights on the second guy don't fit the gimmick. They were pretty good in the ring. And nearly got into a fight which was a pretty cool spot with both their opponents and the fans chanting "Fight! Fight! Fight!" DBG and DTWG were both pretty lame and didn't impress. I'd give Tattoo guy the Most Boring Talent of the Night award. Nothing about him really stood out.

Then there was Krueger vs. Neville. Neville is supposedly a big deal in NXT. There were some signs for him and he was one of the guys this woman who stalks NXT was going on and on about outside before the show. He didn't impress me though. His biggest asset seemed to be able to miss high spots off the top rope. Leo "The Bathroom Break" Krueger was much better in the ring. We had some fun cheering on the obvious heel as he beat the hell out of Neville. And his moves all looked painful, including his finisher which he unexpectedly won the match with.

Before this we called him the South African Bathroom Break guy because the last two live shows we were at when he was there; I ended up being off taking a leak and would hear his thick South African accent through the wall. His timing was off this time.

Fake Edge vs. Jeff Hardy happened somewhere on the card. After the Hercules match according to my match. Guess I forgot them. Other than looking like said superstars (think Edge's name is Cassidy) they were pretty forgettable though. Oddly enough Jeff hit the spear on Edge. WTF?! And Edge talks in a really phony Brooklyn accent. Jeff was the more impressive of the two. Used a lot of moves to punish Edge's legs with the ropes.

The Main Event saw the Ascension dominate poor CJ Parker in their corner 75% of the match. Which drove the aforementioned NXT stalker nuts because CJ is her number 1 obsession apparently. Lucky him. Ascension have a great look imo and both stood out in the ring. The big guy moved a hell of a lot better than expected. And their finisher looked pretty brutal, though hard to describe. Maybe I'll get a better look at it next show. CJ's partner Jordan took a pretty brutal bump into the barricade in front of us. Probably the biggest oh shit spot of the night. As for Parker, his airplane spin was about as cool as Cesaros though he plays up being dizzy afterward. The Ascension definitely deserved to keep their belts.

And the superstar cameo of the night goes to Yoshi Tatsu! In a "where the hell is he?" update poor Yoshi Tatsu poked his head out of the curtain and watched two matches. They really need to give that guy more matches. I think I've seen him twice since I began watching in 2009.

[Captain Charisma]

Awesome breakdown Jack. I would like to see a running account of any shows you go to. Really liking Ascension more and more, saw a video online. If they still had a split tag division I would say to bring them on to Smackdown, but the Shield being around kills any real momentum they can build. Now's the time to build babyface tag teams, not hot heel tandems.

Really like the interaction from the Randy Savage manager as well. He has earned himself a sign on your next visit to the shows I would think, lol. Good stuff bud.