ARRIVAL

February 27, 2014


Antonio Cesaro . . . shows why he’s considered one of the best in the world, by tearing down the house with an old rival.

The Ascension . . . has the look and gimmick to be on the main roster, but the jury is still out on their work.

Adrian Neville . . . flies just as amazingly as ever, but looks like he still has a long way to go before he can put it all together.


ANTONIO CESARO vs. SAMI ZAYN

When someone tries to claim that going to the WWE will ‘ruin’ a wrestler who’s made a name for himself on the Indy scene, tell them to watch this match as proof of their ignorance. It mostly plays out as one would expect, but both of them are so good at what they do, that it’s still a joy to watch. Having worked three matches together already, one of them being three falls, Cesaro and Sami are already plenty familiar with each other, so their spots and exchanges are noticeably smooth and almost timed to perfection. Sami is the spunky upstart with the flashy offense that keeps the crowd excited, while Cesaro is the veteran who knows how to shut him down. Whenever Sami seems to building up some steam, Cesaro will catch him with the backbreaker or deck him with the uppercut, and send him back to square one. It’s spots like the first uppercut counter, when Sami is trying for a flying DDT, that their timing is so crucial on. They have a great counter toward the end with Sami countering a neutralizer attempt into a Yoshi tonic, complete with a Gotch-style leg clutch for a great near fall, and a bit before that Cesaro seems to counter a rana into a Ricola bomb from the top, but Sami manages to pull off the rana anyway


They also, smartly, work Sami’s injured knee into the mix, with Cesaro using his control segment to keep the pressure on. This leads to one of their best flashy counter spots, when Sami tries to turn the tables and trap Cesaro in a Koji clutch, but Cesaro escapes and traps Sami in a wicked looking stretch muffler. The only mark against the match is the goofy sequence at the end with Cesaro firing off uppercuts and Sami refusing to go down. Yes, Sami’s heart is fully on display when he won’t go down, but there are smarter ways to show that, without devaluing Cesaro’s main strike. They come back to their senses for a great finish with Sami kicking out after Swiss death, a smart play on their last match, and Cesaro kills him with a discus uppercut and quickly does the neutralizer to keep him down for good. Matches like this ought to be the template for future “WWE Superstar vs. NXT Upstart” matches, it’s just about the perfect length, both of them come out looking excellent, and while Cesaro ultimately won (as the WWE Superstar should), it’s clear that Sami is more than ready to be on WWE TV sooner rather than later. ***3/4


C.J. PARKER vs. MOJO RAWLEY

Good Lord, Mojo needs Jim Neidhart has a manager yesterday! This is far too short to tell how good either of them is, but it’s a nice showing of their characters. Mojo acts like he just chugged three Red Bulls, and Parker is the jerk heel trying to keep things slow and rain on Mojo’s parade. Their work is fine, although it’s nothing special, but it’s remarkable to see just how well Mojo moves around for being such a big guy. Regal making fun of CJ’s tree hugger gimmick, by talking about how much he loves driving his big SUV was the best thing here.


VIKTOR/KONNOR © vs. GRAND MASTER SEXAY/SCOTTY TOO HOTTY (NXT Tag Team Titles)

This isn’t anything too surprising either, it’s pretty much the same match you’d have seen from Too Cool during their heyday against the Dudleys, RTC, APA, etc. There’s an extended control segment on Sexay which leads to the hot tag. Scotty cleans house and does the worm, but then he gets cut off and the heels quickly beat him. Viktor and Konnor look competent, if nothing else, but a match like this, against a team that’s well past their prime, isn’t really the best setting to show their stuff.


PAIGE © vs. EMMA (NXT Women’s Title)

The only thing that really makes this stand out from any Diva’s match you find on WWE TV is that it gets a lot more time, but that’s not a great thing, because they don’t use it all that well. They both have good ideas up their sleeves, Paige’s early counter to Emma’s slingshot is brilliant, and Emma’s submissions are a welcome sight, but the middle portion of this tends to drag. Emma wearing down Paige’s midsection works in theory, and plays nicely into her submissions, but it doesn’t seem to have a lasting effect on the match. Paige isn’t unable to pull anything off because of the damage done, and, it doesn’t seem like Emma is coming any closer to knocking her off her throne. Like Cesaro/Zayn, they play off their prior match, with Emma kicking out of the Paige turner, and Paige has to dig down deeper to find something to put her away, but the opener leaves this in the dust in pretty much every aspect.


I can’t say as I’m all that disappointed to not see the former Consequences Creed wrestle the alleged male model. Rusev shows up and kills them both in short order. I can live with a few months of Rusev as the Gary Albright beast, wiping the mat with everyone he steps in the ring with.


BO DALLAS © vs. ADRIAN NEVILLE (NXT Heavyweight Title - Ladder Match)

This has some nice touches and smart moments from both Dallas and Neville, but, at the end of the day, it’s pretty much your typical WWE ladder match. It’s more about the spots than the story. That’s probably considered a good thing for the two wrestlers hoping to graduate NXT and move onto RAW (or in Bo’s case, return to RAW) that they can put on one of the WWE’s signature matches, in the style that they’re typically done in, but, it’s disappointing that they didn’t aim higher and try to stand out. The smart touches are great to see, such as Neville hesitating because he’s not sure whether he should climb the ladder and go for the belt, or climb the ropes for his SSP to keep Bo down. He finally makes up his mind and goes for the SSP, but it’s too late and Bo has recovered. Bo smartly hangs Neville up in the ropes before going for the ladder, finding a more clever way to keep him occupied than by using energy with a big spot. Bo also pins Neville under the ladder and tries to climb, adding his own weight to the weight of ladder to hold him down.


The problem is that those smart ideas are counterbalanced with stupid ones like barely selling after taking bumps that should be keeping them down for long stretches. Neville is the worst one in that regard, when he takes a buckle bomb, ramped up with the ladder in place and just shakes it off and stops Bo from climbing. Neville hits his twisting SSP with Bo on the ladder, which should have done him in for good, but he’s still giving chase while Neville is pulling the belt down. And, even worse is that Regal makes sure to point out that Neville landed on Bo’s legs, so that’s even more reason for him to be incapacitated. They both showed potential with their good ideas, but not so much that I’m chomping at the bit to see either of them on the big stage anytime soon.


Conclusion: I’ll give them an A for effort. Cesaro/Sami stole the show, and nothing else came close. But, this serves as a nice intro to the NXT product, and it has that special “Clash of the Champions” sort of feel to it.