WWE: Looking At "The Pack Mentality of Capetown Werewolf" Editions Of Main Event And NXT
This week's editions of the WWE Main Event and NXT had many similarities. These included of all people, Justin Gabriel and multi-man featured match ups. Which one was the better show? I will let you decide. The Main Event used its format well as the show began with a Battle Royal featuring everyone on the Superstars crew competing for an IC title shot later in the episode. The current champion came Wade Barrett out and chastised all the men that were in the ring. That was until The Great Khali came out along with Hornswoggle getting his groove on with Natalya when of course the Punjabi Playboy comes out and enters the fray. Somehow, Wade is shocked by this? Barrett then goes to the back and prepares for his title defense later on in the night. The Battle Royal itself was okay considering the participants. It didn't feel like it really mattered , though. That being said one of the interesting shining stars of the match was surprisingly Alex Riley. Riley had the Shawn Michaels role in which he actually stayed in the longest. It's a shame that backstage politics really ruined his momentum from a few years ago. They did the traditional "get the big man out spot" with the other men doing everything to get out The Great Khali. After that, everything kind of went on autopilot. In the end, Justin Gabriel wins and gets a title shot after Primo gets launched over the top rope after falling prey to The Cobra and Santino. Gabriel was interviewed by Matt Striker who says he will bring the IC title back just like Kofi Kingston brought back the US title. It should be noted that massive cheers were sweetened into the crowd (very noticeable) We hear the good promo from Wade Barrett , who discusses what a failure Striker is and how his luck has not been on his site lately bringing up R-Truth be him on Monday, who by the way wasn't in the Battle Royal. Then we go to a prepared statement from Paul Heyman, who comments on CM Punk, but sidesteps it to talk about Brock Lesnar and Hunter. It's interesting to see that happen. The Gabriel -Barrett was good but nobody really cared. In the end Barrett wins to no one surprise. Let's head on down to Full Sail and talk some NXT. As we begin with the video package looking at last week's incident with The Shield. Then we see our commentary team as the returning William Regal and Tony Dawson introduce the first match as Justin Gabriel battles Leo Kruger one more time. The match itself was great as both men focused on the arm and pulled out from really great submissions even Justin Gabriel doing arm bar at one point, which I have never seen him do. Apparently the WWE announcers have a memo on discussing Gabriel juggling fire as a soundbite as it was said on both shows this week. In the end Kruger wins with what I used to call the Ivory Tower (now known as the GC3 arm lock submission) which doing my research is an African Evangelist Church. Then we see an awesome video package of all the NXT superstars at Wrestlemania Weekend. Really well done. We hear an interview from Paige , who says that Summer Rae can run all she wants, but eventually when they get in the ring again. She will destroy her. Summer then attacks her and says that she's not running now and then says respect. Not a bad segment Bailey then faces a much more coordinated Emma, who actually makes it in the ring this week. And it seems that Emma has really gotten over with the awkward dancing gimmick Regal and Dawson even getting in on the act. The match saw Bailey worked really hard. But in the end, Emma wins using a bridging reverse chin lock submission. We see the Corey Graves promo for the second week in a row as well as the Clash of the Champions next week. Yoshi Tatsu is defeated by Bray Wyatt, who hits the Sister Abigail (formerly what I called The Dance with the Devil, and in doing research is a reference to the 2009 film "Orphan"). After the match, Wyatt cut a promo warning the locker room that he'd the devourer of worlds. The family stands at ringside looking on mesmerized at the whole proceedings. I wonder what they're going to do with Wyatt? Seems like he's dropped off of television. Are the rumors true? Is he coming up to the main roster soon? And in the main event all hell breaks loose as Reigns and Ambrose cause chaos with the lumberjacks in Seth Rollins match with Corey Graves causing a no contest. Before that though those nice submission work done by both men. All in all a good episode of NXT.