The SmarK Rant for WWE NXT – 11.28.12
Taped from Orlando, FL
Your hosts are Jim Ross & Tom Phillips
Daniel Bryan joins us, returning to NXT as the tag team champions after growing an impressive beard in the ensuing years, and he demands that no one in the arena chants “Yes” or calls him a Goatface because he’s a very handsome man. So then Kane interrupts and he also considers himself the tag team champions and they get into a juvenile but hilarious argument about it.
Trent Baretta v. Leo Kruger
The announcers are still unsure about who attacked Trent last week, despite Leo literally sitting there and cackling about it. Kruger is still working his shit out at this point, not quite into the “Kraven the Hunter” tribute that he eventually became. He’s more of a generic crazy guy. Trent beats on him with chops to start and goes to the top, but Kruger brings him down on the taped ribs. Kruger beats on him as I note that they’re still using the pink rope from the annual Komen grift, so this was obviously still from the October tapings. Kruger goes to an abdominal stretch while laughing maniacally and then suplexes Trent on the top rope and follows with a corner clothesline. He goes up for a missile dropkick, but Trent dropkicks him on the way down for two. The replay has a weird audio glitch where they don’t mute the commentary, so we get Tom having to talk over JR’s original voiceover. And then Kruger finishes with his neckbreaker deal, which is called “The Kruger-End” in a cringe bit of wordplay, at 5:00. Mostly a squash for Kruger. **
Xavier Woods v. Memo Montenegro
Woods was full on funkified at this point, still trying to find his gimmick as the announcers talk about how he loves FUNK and concerts. Woods works a chinlock to start and sends him into the corner to set up the Honor Roll clothesline to finish at 2:15. I don’t see “wacky dancing guy” getting Woods over on the main roster. *.
Audrey Marie v. Emma
Oh yeah, Audrey Marie! Instant thumbs up. This is the debut for Emma, and they trade takedowns as Tom notes that we need to be concerned about how “green” Emma is. HE’S SHOOTING! INSIDER LINGO! Audrey gets a bodyscissors and rolls Emma around the ring for two, but Emma cradles for two while JR notes that it’s tragic that both ladies are missing their last names. Emma with a backslide for two, but Audrey finishes with a powerslam at 2:45. Audrey was looking like she was trying to be Cowgirl Mickie James as a heel. Didn’t work as well as her previous babyface persona I’ll forgive it. Match was not much but they were trying. *1/2
Meanwhile, Roman Reigns is supposed to do a backstage interview, but he sends a press release delaying it until a later date because he’s busy with his PR team planning out future influencer opportunities.
Michael Cole joins us with some Sinatra-esque crooner music in order to moderate a face to face segment between Seth Rollins and Jinder Mahal. Jinder does his usual generic promo about how he’s destined to be a champion and he’ll humble Jinder in TWO WEEKS when they meet for the title. Jinder calls him a loser, but Seth does the fired up plucky babyface promo and he wants the match RIGHT NOW. Michael notes that this is neither the time nor the place for a wrestling match and instead questions why Jinder is even getting a rematch after he already lost, and this prompts Jinder to attack Seth and put him in the dreaded camel clutch until referees pull him off. JR actually has to say with a straight face “There’s no escape from the camel clutch that I’ve ever seen!” COME ON. I remain very curious how they handle the jarring character change in Seth Rollins once they actually get to the title match, though.
WWE tag team title: Kane & Daniel Bryan v. Johnny Curtis & Michael McGillicutty
I have no idea how we ended up with these two goofs getting a tag team title match when I don’t think they’ve ever tagged before. But then Jim Ross actually EXPLAINS it, noting that Curtis won a tag team title opportunity as a part of the original NXT show and just never cashed it in, and is doing so now. Fair enough. Tell Hell No is of course crazy over, and Bryan works the arm on McGillicutty and refuses to tag in Kane. Over to Curtis, so Kane tags himself in and then snubs Bryan. Kane clotheslines McGillicutty to the floor and Bryan adds a running knee out there after making a blind tag to bring himself in. Back in the ring, McGillicutty slugs away on Bryan to take over as they try to get “Mr. Intensity” over as a nickname for him. Yeah that’s not gonna happen. Curtis with an atomic drop and clothesline and he goes to a surfboard. Over to Michael for a dropkick, and Curtis comes in with a chinlock, but Bryan fights back with a clothesline for a double down. Hot tag Kane and he runs wild with the usual stuff, but Bryan tags himself in while Kane sets up for the chokeslam. Bryan gets rolled up by Curtis for two, but Kane tries to chokeslam his own partner, and Bryan escapes that and taps out McGillicutty with the No-Lock at 7:00 instead. A totally serviceable tag match. **1/2.
And we finish with Team Hell No hugging out their issues once again to end the show.
A fun little show, although even in 2012 no one was taking Jinder seriously as any kind of threat to even a developmental league championship.