WWE NXT: August 1, 2012
Previously on NXT: Seth Rollins and Drew McIntyre face off in the main event, Natalya purposely takes the countout loss to Sofia Cortez, and Big E promises to debut.
We are here again at Full Sail University, and we zoom right to our Interim General Manager Dusty Rhodes, backstage. He’s talking about gold and says that NXT needs that itself. He says the Gold Rush Tournament has eight participants and the winner becomes the first NXT Champion. Those men: Richie Steamboat, Bo Dallas, Leo Kruger, Seth Rollins, Mike McGillicutty, Drew McIntyre, Jinder Mahal and Justin Gabriel. And it starts right now.
The OG NXT Championship sits on a pedestal on stage as Richie Steamboat stares it down. Byron Saxton, William Regal and Jim Ross are on the call as Leo Kruger enters. You may recall these two having issues two weeks ago, and if you don’t they have a replay to remind you.
Leo slaps Steamboat early, drawing Steamboat into the trap of a chase around the ring. After some back-and-forth action, Kruger feigns a knee injury and draws Steamboat in again for an attack. Richie might not be the brightest or has not watched the many, many tapes of his father. Steamboat runs into a gorgeous spinebuster, and Leo gets a two count. This is a great showcase for Leo.
Steamboat counters out of a sleeper but Leo regains control. Richie does make it up top and hits a flying dropkick, but Kruger kicks out. Steamboat runs right into the sleeper again but is able to break it by reaching the ropes. Steamboat hits a slingblade on Kruger and gets the three count, advancing to the semifinals.
This was fine. It was a showcase for Leo, honestly, and made me want to see more of him than Richie. Of course, many of us know which one stuck around for longer.
We see the same Big E Langston vignette as last episode. Big E debuts next!
And back from break, here is Mr. Langston. He claps the chalk on his hands and hypes up the crowd, Byron listing off his accomplishments. His opponent, already in the ring, is Adam Mercer.
Mercer had all of fifteen matches in his career, all under the WWE umbrella. He was a FCW recruit, and this was the first of four NXT matches to his name, the only one televised. He’d face Big E twice more at live events before facing Erick Rowan at a house show and checking out of the business for good.
This does not go well for young Adam. Big E smacks Adam down with several back breakers. He spears Mercer in the corner, pulls the straps down and hits the first televised Big Ending of his NXT run, getting a quick pin. The crowd can’t help but cheer. You’ll be cheering this man a lot more over the years.
Still to come: Rollins vs McIntyre in the Gold Rush Tournament, plus Raquel Diaz faces Audrey Marie!
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Audrey Marie comes out to her twangy generic country music. This is her first match on NXT TV, though she had several years of FCW including a title run under her belt. She’ll stick around NXT for a bit, so we’ll talk about her more as her career goes on.
Out next is Raquel Diaz. Wearing a top that says, “Latinas do it better,” she says Audrey doesn’t know how to work a ramp and checks her makeup and hair in the camera. She says the Exfoliating Ugliness Tour commences now and Audrey gives an unimpressed look to the camera.
Diaz leads early, rubbing Audrey’s face into the mat. Diaz has her character DOWN and I love it. Audrey goes for a pin, Diaz bridges out. As the fans chant “you can’t wrestle,” Raquel lands a nice back press and gets the pin. These fans suck, by the way.
Raquel grabs her lipsticks and writes a “L” on Aubrey’s forehead.
Briley Pierce is backstage with Paige, who says “we’ll see” about Raquel’s Exfoliating Ugliness Tour. And, well, we won’t see.
This was the second and final NXT TV match for Raquel. She worked one more NXT house show and two FCW shows before disappearing. She’d return in 2013 after taking a leave for school, but would only have one match - a NXT house show - during that return. Later she’d say she left due to an eating disorder.
She’d return under her real name, Shaul Guerrero (yes, Eddie and Vickie’s daughter) and do some commentary and ring announcing work for ROW, WOW, Lucha Underground and AEW. She mostly dabbles in burlesque now.
Still to come: Seth and Drew! It’ll never end!
Hunico and Camacho are out next for tag action. Their opponents, already in the ring, are Mike Dalton and Jason Jordan. This is exactly what you’d expect it to be - a Hunico & Camacho squash with a few hope spots… but then it isn’t. Mike Dalton scores a rollup pin on Camacho while Jordan is holding Hunico’s legs and we celebrate. I think we’ll see more of this Dalton and Jordan duo.
Up next: Seth and Drew! For real!
But first, we get a Bo Dallas video package. I think it’s the same one from the first episode. He’s back next week.
“Broken Dreams” leads Drew to the ring. We look at last week, with McIntyre defeating Seth with a Claymore. Can he do it again tonight? Maybe. Seth bebops out to his rock ‘n roll music.
Seth rocks it early, so Drew hides under the ring. Drew pulls Seth into the ring apron and slams his arm onto the stairs. Ah, this is some 2025 Drew wrestling! Drew works the arm of Seth in the ring.
After commercials, McIntyre is stomping Seth in the corner. He points at the belt, and as we know pointing at things on WWE TV makes you stronger. After several headbutts from Drew, Seth reverses in the corner but jumps right into a backbreaker. Drew can only get two from it. Drew batters Seth in the corner. Rollins dodges a corner attack and hits the curb stomp, getting a three count and advancing to the semifinals. Drew’s hopes of winning a company’s top title are dashed again.
Next week on NXT: the other two quarterfinal matches, plus Kassius Ohno and the rare teaming of Tamina Snuka and Paige.