WWE NXT & Main Event Review: Why Antonio Cesaro Is On An Upswing Going Down
Just a few days away from Detroit and the Night of Champions, WWE made quite the stop on the Main Event and NXT. Was it the gold standard for the company or did they come up a little short? Let's talk about that. We're going to switch things up this week, beginning with NXT. NXT begins with the Certified Gees Colin Cassidy and Enzo Amore coming out to a loud reaction. Enzo talks about his recent problems with Sylvester LeFort's new legionnaire Alexander Rusev and Scott Dawson. LeFort comes out and insults the Italian imitators with his charges Capt. Roughneck Scott Dawson and the Hungarian warrior Alexander Rusev. The tag match itself was awkward as the two teams really didn't gel well. Heel versus heel really doesn't work all that well. The crowd was definitely behind Certified Gees of Amore and Cassidy. There was definitely a miscommunication on the finish as Rusev and Dawson were going for the Hart Dynasty version of the Hart Attack and the referee DQ'd the tag team for taking more than five seconds. We know that is the rule, but it never gets enforced. They tell the referees to treat the matches like a shoot so if guys screw up, it's their fault. This definitely screwed up a lot. I imagine this will get rectified in the next coming weeks. We come back and the smarmy WWE NXT champion Bo Dallas comes out to cut a promo in the ring. Dallas says appreciative of all his fans on social media. Bo explains his actions from last week interfering in Sami Zayn's match with Jack Swagger. He says that he was trying to support his friend because he feels Sami needs a mentor. Bo continues to say that Zayn is a good guy his friend and whenever he wants a match he'll have it. Dallas says, but not for the title he has to earn it. But when he is ready, he'll be glad to give him a chance. He says that his fans to not stop Bolieving. Great promo. Love the fans chanting Pocahontas at the young long-haired NXT champion. They really have found what makes a character and the performer You took a guys weakness and made it a positive accentuating his cheesiness and over-the-top delivery and really made something out of almost nothing. Not sure if will translate to the main roster. But I guess we'll see soon enough as Dallas and Zayn were a team together on the house show loop this past weekend against the Real Americans. We go backstage and René Young is with the very free loving, CJ Parker, who talks about his rivalry with the very vein Tyler Breeze. Parker says that they are to very different people. He says it all started out with some photo love. But Tyler's to focus on the external and his personal self while Parker on the inner self. CJ says there is a major conflict there. Tyler Breeze attacks Parker from behind beating him down and taking a snapshot on the prone body of CJ for exiting the camera phone focusing on his face. Next up, we have the match that has been building for the last two weeks with Sasha Banks and NXT champion Paige. Overall great match, even may better by William Regal on commentary. The two women really did a great job mixing the anti-diva and her physical style with Sasha and her more quick style. Banks really utilized the ground game in the match. For the first part the NXT champion dominated until Sasha did a schoolgirl banging her opponent's head on the top turnbuckle. Sasha and then took control but Paige came out on top . Banks is devastated, the champion tries to be a sportswoman but Sasha will have nothing of it. As Paige is getting ready to leave Sasha attacks her from behind, nailing her with a straitjacket neckbreaker. Come back from commercial and we find Sasha Banks on her phone backstage. Summer Rae comes in and says she knew she had that rage in her. She asks how that felt and Sasha replies awesome thanking Summer for her advice the last few weeks. The two hug with Summer having an evil smile on her face. So it would appear that Sasha will become her little underling. And I'm okay with that. It will give Sasha more TV experience and give a new aspect to a previous one-sided character. The main event this week saw Xavier Woods try to exact some level of revenge from Leo Kruger following last week's attack. The match itself was good, probably the best Xavier has had in quite some time. I did have a problem with his dancing at the beginning of his entrance. Wouldn't you be more pissed off that this guy attacked you last week? To be fair, things did get serious when woods got into the ring but it is the little things that make the difference. Kruger runs for the first few minutes even doing and I'm a little teapot dance on the outside. And then begins to slowly work on the arm in hopes of getting the GC3 submission on Woods. The arm is worked on for quite some time and to Xavier's credit sells it for the entire match. The two have some really great sequences in this contest, the most notable a reversal of The Honor Roll from Xavier into one hell of a spinebuster. I did find the finish a little bizarre after all that work on the arm Xavier hits is sequence of moves, The Honor Roll clothesline and out of the Woods to get the victory. Is this the beginning of the feud, a push for Xavier Woods, where does this put you going forward? I guess we'll find out next week on the show. Move on to this week's Main Event, coming from the great white north of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. We begin the night with Antonio Cesaro who got back in the singles swing of things with Kofi Kingston in a great match. This was probably the best Kofi Kingston match since his return a few weeks ago. He was pulling out some very interesting spots. Great stuff. Cesaro brought out the big swing again this time doing it for thirty-seven seconds. I don't understand why he doesn't get dizzy doing that move. But it's definitely fun to watch. In the end though after some really great sequences Kofi Kingston hits the Trouble in Paradise for the win. It's interesting that the Real Americans are being portrayed as such a week unit heading into Night of Champions and the tag Team Turmoil Contest. Seems like Antonio has found a way that even if he loses he still remembered fondly for something. If you are wondering about Jack Swagger's absence from this week's television. It is probably due to his recent DUI charges preventing him from crossing the border. They said on commentary that the reason was that he didn't want to be in a country like Canada. The only problem with that is why are your partner your mentor there ? After a video package recapping the Paul Heyman-CM Punk Saga, we go to tag team action as it' s the battle of acronyms as the PTP takes on 3MB as Tons of Funk join Josh Matthews on commentary. First of all let me say that I think Sweet T and Brodus Clay did a great job getting over the importance of this match on Sunday and making every team credible putting them over for their strengths. The bad part other than some goofiness with the Miz is not many people will actually watch Main Event. So I don't know how much good it will do. The match itself has a nice back-and-forth as Slater attempts to do shenanigans and gets tossed to the outside in front of Brodus and Tensai. This leads Jinder Mahal to get distracted leading to Titus O'Neill hitting Clash of the Titus for the win. We see a Daniel Bryan-Randy Orton package for Night of Champions. And finally, we wrap up the night with a match between R-Truth and Big E Langston. Overall, a nothing match, Truth gets in a little bit up offense, but Langston overpowers him hitting The Big Ending for the win. They make it very clear on commentary that Langston is no longer associating himself with AJ Lee. So it should be interesting to see where that character goes without his Black Widow buddy by his side. I would highly recommend check out the Kingston-Cesaro match for Main Event. The tag team match with the PTP and 3MB is also worth a look. On the NXT centered things, Paige and Sasha is a must and Xavier Woods and Leo Kruger is great if you have some extra time. Until next week