WWE NXT Review - October 16, 2014

Tyson Kidd confronts Sami Zayn in the ring.

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Baron Corbin def. Elias Sampson

What's there to analyze about a six-second squash? What I can say, though, is that Corbin is massively over with the audience. His recent vignettes indicate he's a heel, but if that was the plan at first, I hope they abandoned it after hearing the reactions he's been receiving. He's competed in the same squash matches for the last month, so it's still hard to say what he's capable of in the ring until we see him take part in a competitive contest.


Tyson Kidd Interrupted Sami Zayn

Zayn and Kidd are two of the brightest stars in NXT right now and their interaction in this segment was highly entertaining. Both provided great mic work that set the stage for their main event match nicely. Their history alone would have been enough to warrant a match between them, but I really liked the effort put into making it mean something via this segment.

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Marcus Louis attacks his partner Sylvester Lefort.

NXT Tag Team Champions The Lucha Dragons def. Wesley Blake and Buddy Murphy (Non-title)

They weren't given much time, but they certainly made the most of the time they were allotted by having a fun tag match. You can never expect anything less than that when it comes to The Lucha Dragons, but Blake and Murphy showed signs of improvement here. I'm fine with the duo of Blake and Murphy for the time being, but Murphy has a good look, has some untapped potential and should break off on his own at some point.


NXT Women's Champion Charlotte def. Becky Lynch (Non-title)

Similar to last week, Charlotte and Lynch delivered another very nice matchup. For the few minutes they had, there was some solid back-and-forth from the two and Lynch again had an impressive outing against Charlotte. I've complained in the past about Lynch being relegated to being an enhancement talent, but it looks like her losses may come into play if her post-match encounter with Sasha Banks was any indication.


Enzo Amore and Colin Cassady vs. Les Legionnaires Went to a No Contest

As expected, the match was completely forgettable, but I'll be damned if Amore and Cassady aren't one of the most entertaining and over acts in NXT right now. They're so fluent on the mic that the lack of excitement during their matches doesn't even matter. I wasn't sure what to make of the dissension between Sylvestor Lefort and Marcus Louis, and I honestly couldn't care less if this leads to a breakup of the two or not.


Carmella def. Leva Bates

The match lasted all of a minute, so it was hard to get a feel of how good Carmella is in the ring. Has the audience been exposed to the vignettes with Amore, Cassady and Carmella? It didn't seem like they were all that familiar with Carmella when she came out, but I did have to laugh at how they chanted "Let's Go Blue Pants" at Bates. Camerlla might have some work to do when it comes to her in-ring work, but her allegiance with Amore and Cassady will make up for it for now.


Sami Zayn def. Tyson Kidd

As two of the best in-ring wrestlers in NXT, Kidd and Zayn had a very good match for it only being less than ten minutes long. They could have easily gone longer, but with every match on this show being so short, I was glad they were given a bit more time to do their thing than the rest. The action was entertaining and it was a nice rebound win for Zayn following his loss to Titus O'Neil last week. His chase for the NXT Championship should be a fun one and I look forward to his clashes with Adrian Neville down the line.


Overall Show

Personally, I like when there's less matches because it means that each of them gets more time and focus, as six matches (along with a talking segment) on an hour-long show feels like overkill to me. That said, everything featured on this episode served a purpose and the electric energy from the crowd made the show more enjoyable than it probably would have been if they were dead (like last week). There's a lot to be excited about in NXT right now and the next live special on December 11 will surely be here before we all know it.

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