WWE NXT Rankings & Evaluation
By George Chiverton, PWTorch NXT specialist

Latest NXT Rankings

(1) Bray Wyatt (-)
(2) Kassius Ohno (-)
(3) Paige (-)
(4) Corey Graves (+1)
(5) Bronson (-)
(6) Jake Carter (-)
(7) Big E. Langston (-)
(8) Richie Steamboat (-)
(9) Bo Dallas (-)
(10) The Ascension (-)
(11) Jason Jordon (-)
(12) Leo Kruger (-)
Waiting List - Luke Harper, Nemo Montenegro, Xavier Woods, Sasha Banks, Luke Harper, Rowan, Adrian Neville, Oliver Grey.

With Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns seemingly graduating NXT they also graduate my list. I think we all know which one they will be most proud of. With them leaving, Graves automatically moves up to fouth, but I would like to add he would have moved up anyway due to his recent superb performances.

Also, the waiting list is getting mighty long, but with promised matches from at least four members, I will be able to get a complete opinion of the competitors before giving judgment. Anyway, on with some NXT.

1/3- NXT Episode Evaluation

- Up first was Derrick Bateman and Alex Riley facing Leo Kruger and Kassius Ohno as part of the NXT Tag Title tournament. This was Bateman's first match back from a knee injury and he seemed happy to be back. Unfortunately, the match was a bit too formulaic and the hot tag's energy didn't make up for the slow, heel dominated match.

- Corey Graves came out post-match to destroy poor A-Ry's legs. This was a lot more exciting than the match. His facial acting was particularly good.

- Out came Sakamoto with a full ring entrance, suggesting he might actually wrestle. Oh, how wrong I was. Out came Mason Ryan (with the most cliched rock theme you will ever hear) to destroy his Japanese opponent. Ryan hit a huge fallaway slam, which sent Sakamoto a solid eight feet in the air. Ryan finished with a Jackhammer, which drew a "Goldberg" chant from an audible chunk of the audience. He then posed and my goodness the man's huge. Ridiculous. His hair needs a trim, though.

- Next up was Aksana vs. crowd-poppin' Paige. Full Sail erupted when her metal theme hit, and the crowd was littered with signs of support. However, Aksana gained the upper hand to start, with Paige bumping her way around the ring to make the Lithuanian look better than I thought possible. However, Paige eventually won with a Liontamer/Texas Cloverleaf hybrid to get the tap-out.

- The post-match saw Paige stumble into the female announcer Summer Rae, which seemed like a good bit of selling from Paige. Instead, an angle emerged with Rae hitting Paige and bailing. I have never seen a ring announcer twist like this before and more story with Paige is never a bad thing; she really is a star.

- Sasha Banks had an interview backstage. It was bland.

- The main event was the final of the first round matches from the Tag Team tournament with Primo and Epico taking on Michael McGillicutty and Bo Dallas. In stark contrast to the heels in the first match, Primo and Epico kept the pace high while on offense, which made the match much better as a result. McGillicutty was also strong in this match, with plenty of communication with the audience to get them on-side. As for Dallas, he came with is usual energy and zest, but unfortunately also had some characteristic botches and sloppy execution including on the finish. The crowd just isn't buying into him. If Barrett jobs to him again, I will kick off.

- Oh, I forgot to mention Tony Dawson, who was simply awful in his role of play-by-play. He took a solid 30 seconds out of the main event to discuss the Minnesota Vikings losing in the NFL wildcard game. Although I may be the only person in Europe to get what he was talking about, it had no place in the match. When he did call the matches, he was poor and seemed to say, "For the win" about 4,837 times. I may soon switch to watching on mute.

Happy happy! See you folks next week.

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