NXT has a pretty good formula of four matches per show (the other WWE hour long shows such as Superstars and Main Event average only two or three) and when they don't have a divas match it seems to flow a lot better. I'm still not sold on any of the WWE divas on the main roster or in NXT currently so it's hard to sit through their matches. It's not that the women themselves are bad so much as the fact that WWE has seemingly given up on the division and it's going to take a lot of work to bring it back to good.
Our first match saw Alex Riley defeat Jinder Mahal. This is interesting because Jinder Mahal is currently gone from WWE (which I am none too sad about) and Alex Riley does commentary for NXT but is also currently campaigning his way back into the ring. Who would have thought that of these two the one still with the company would be the same one who was once paired with The Miz? This wasn't a bad match but it wasn't great. Jinder Mahal really reminded me of Muhammad Hassan and that just sends me through the motions of how WWE feels the need to have at least one token roster member for most every race other than white. (Hideo Itami is thus the new Asian because of Yoshi Tatsu's departure. That's right, Itami could become the next Funaki) A-Ry has just never really clicked with me and I'm kind of surprised he hasn't been future endeavored, even though Jinder Mahal really had no direction in WWE anyway.
After a run in last week, Trent Barreta defeated Jake Carter in the second match. The Son of Vader really looks like Jack Swagger in the face. He'd actually probably get over better in WWE if he was repackaged and brought back with more of a Vader look to him and he was called "Son of Vader". Maybe WWE is just waiting for that opportunity? This was an interesting match if only because these two superstars are no longer in WWE but both- in my opinion- most certainly should be. Trent Barreta has a better deal now on the indies than he did in WWE, so I'm fine with all of that, but really, who dropped the ball on Jake Carter? Why isn't the Son of Vader a bigger star right now??
Following a promo, Damien Sandow defeated NXT jobber Brandon Traven who does not go on to become anyone currently in WWE or NXT so, yeah, he must just be a jobber. Okay, I just did a quick google search and apparently Brandon Traven was signed to NXT so he might become a regular jobber I see. He did, however, get released back in earlier 2013 along with Percy Watson, so the fact that he's being lumped together with Percy Watson does him no favors with me. This was basically a way to get Damien Sandow over before bringing him to the main roster, or maybe he was on the main roster at the time and was just making a special appearance, I don't know. But this was a filler match.
The main event had Richie Steamboat teaming with The Usos to take on Kassius Ohno and The Ascension. Interesting notes are that Bram is still one half of The Ascension and The Usos had matching corn rows. Jim Ross sat in on commentary and kept calling them simply "Uso" or "the Uso" because he couldn't tell them apart. I'd like to say this was a great match but it kind of sucked. It made me realize why tag team wrestling became so awful and stale, especially in WWE. One of the Usos (I don't care enough to remember which one) was basically worked over by the heel trio the entire match before finally getting the hot tag. And I mean, isn't that what so much of tag team wrestling used to be, but then it became overdone and so even seeing it in 2012 is kind of sad. You have six talented men in the match, half of which would end up on the WWE main roster (Congrats on finally getting that call up, Konnor!), and all you can do is a basic formula for a tag match that we've seen way too many times before. I know NXT is going to get better, so I just feel like I need to sit through this nonsense now to make the eventual payoff that much sweeter.
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