WWE NXT Review - September 18, 2013

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Sami Zayn def. Curt Hawkins

I liked how the commentators made mention of the fact that it was Hawkins who Zayn defeated in his debut match a few months back. Alex Riley said how that he had something to prove by beating Zayn, which also slightly portrayed him as the underdog. Both competitors are excellent wrestlers, but I never imagined their match would receive as much time as it did and provide such exhilarating action. It was a hard-fought victory for Zayn, despite the fact that Bo Dallas said later on that it was rather irrelevant since he could remember the last time Hawins won a match. Hawkins is highly underrated and I would love to see him actually utilized on the main roster. As for Zayn, he is main roster bound following his feud with Bo Dallas, who he hopefully beats for the NXT Championship sooner rather than later.


Aiden English def. Michael Cuellari

I have been watching NXT on a regular basis for only a few months now, but wasn't English utilized as an enhancement talent up until this point? I never really saw much in the guy until just recently when I saw a video with him cutting one of the best promos I've heard in a long while. He didn't cut one of those promos on this show, but his singing gimmick won him over with the crowd. There are many aspects of his character that are Damien Sandow-esque, but if they can tweak his gimmick just a bit, then he might have a bright future in NXT. His finish looked vicious and he is already garnering good reactions from the crowd after only one match.

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CJ Parker, Xavier Woods and NXT Tag Team Champions Corey Graves and Adrian Neville def. Tyler Breeze, Leo Kruger and The Ascension

Multi-man matches aren't held too often nowadays, but they are great for furthering feuds and featuring chaotic action. That was what this match was all about, as everyone was able to get into the action and hit their signature spots toward the end. The true highlight of the bout was Breeze constantly tagging in and out of the match for brief periods of time, which got a chuckle out of the audience as well as myself. It played nicely into the finish, too, with the heels abandoning Breeze and forcing him to take the finishers of the faces. I still believe the heels should have gone over here to put heat on them, but you can't complain about getting a lengthy, solid main event matchup.


Overall Show

Although this week's show wasn't jam-packed with star-studded matches and segments, I really enjoyed the three-match format. The opening match and the main event were extremely entertaining and took up most of the show. The squash match in the middle served as a nice buffer and was a good way of introducing English's new character. The announcement from NXT Champion Bo Dallas was hyped for next week's episode as well. All in all, this was a highly enjoyable edition of NXT that flew by quicker than usual.