WWE NXT results and reactions from December 11: Is this it

We're straight to ring action this week, as Byron Saxton has completed whatever physical and mental treatment was required following his latest menacing from Antonio Cesaro and is back to ring announcing.

The Ascension (c) vs. Hunico & Camacho

• The titles are on the line this time. We know because the graphics tell us so.
• Camacho starts off against Rick Victor. Still no sign of the name changes we were promised, or much of a back story for the champs. Alex Riley and Tom Phillips do refer us to an article on WWE.com about the symbol on their tights (an article I couldn't find, by the by, but it didn't sound that interesting anyway). Victor chops away at the challenger until his black t-shirt gets shredded, and then starts in with the slams.
• The Tongan playing a Latino gangbanger has slams of his own, and uses one to get a tag. A-Ry and William Regal bicker a bit, which is more interesting than the disjointed action in the ring. Rick lands a knee and goes for a pin that fails, but takes us to commercial.
• Conor O'Brian stomps and rest holds for a bit, and Regal continues to pretty much be the only member of any of their announce groupings worth a damn when he points out that all of the teams who have fallen to The Ascension went on to break up not long after. That's an interesting wrinkle. And probably the last we'll hear of it.
• Hunico seems to walk through his time as face-in-peril, but comes to life with an impressive looking counter where he lifts and plants RV by one leg out of a roll-up. Camacho gets the hot tag and throws O'Brian around like a rag doll, going against everything they've presented about the big man to date.
• His offense is pretty good, though, with a spinning neckbreaker, back suplex, leg drop sequence leading to a cover that gets broken up by Victor. Hunico takes him out for interfering, but the distraction lets O'Brian dodge a move and hit his full nelson slam. Camacho manages to get to his corner, but Rick pulls his partner away and takes a tag himself so the champs can perform their finisher and retain.

The Ascension defeats Hunico & Camacho in approximately eight and a half minutes via pinfall to retain their Tag Team championships when Rick Victor pins Camacho

Lana is out to introduce her man in Russian, as the Chris Hero parade of shame Kassius Ohno farewell tour continues.

Kassius Ohno vs. Alexander Rusev

• Mostly a show of strength from the Bulgarian, with some psychology thrown in concerning Ohno's injured back. We're told that Rusev did that damage when he jumped KO before his match with Tyler Breeze a couple of weeks back.
• I'm not a huge fan of the apparently standard spot where Alexander lifts his man, grabs the top rope and knees him in the gut while he's pinned to the rope. A much better move is the quick scoop onto his shoulders for a Samoan drop that he devastates Kassius with here.
• Ohno manages to get a rolling elbow off a whip, then a roll-up and a boot to the face both get two counts. But when he runs the ropes, Rusev leaps at him with a big splash and locks in the Accolade. Since the move targets his damaged back, he's forced to tap.

Rusev defeats Ohno in approximately three minutes via submission

The Brute will not release the hold until his blonde lady friend tells him to, which could be an interesting wrinkle to their fairly nondescript relationship.

Natalya is walking backstage, and finds Bayley sitting alone on a bench. :-( She gives her a bit of a pep talk, in the course of which she reveals that she'll be her partner for tonight's women's tag. I thought that was supposed to be more of a "mystery partner" type deal, but whatevs. Decent segment where B gets a little inappropriate in her display of affection, but mostly shows how much more natural the developmental roster member on camera than the "reality" show star.

Recap of Cesaro and Saxton from last week, followed by a cut away to a serious looking Regal saying that if Antonio has a problem with him, there's no need to take it out on Byron.

Bayley & Natalya vs. The Beautiful Fierce Females

• Sasha Banks starts against Bayley, but when she tries to trash talk the main roster star, B jumps her from behind and grounds her.
• Bunch of tags in a sequence where the faces double suplex, The Boss, then Natty drops Summer Rae with a drop toe hold so they can do the same to her. One more round of toe hold, this time from Bayley to Banks, before Sasha eventually turns the tide with her patented cat fight slaps after catching a kick from B and spinning her into the ropes.
• Summer comes in to stretch her legs, but a nice show of strength from Bayley allows her to swing Banks down and get a tag. The former Divas champ gets to show off with a snap suplex, sit-out slam, discus clothesline into the Sharpshooter. Summer breaks that up, knocking Nat's head into a turnbuckle.
• Bayley gets a tag while dumping The First Lady for her interference. But Sasha is still the legal combatant, and she connects with a Hangman's Neckbreaker variant that Phillips calls Bankrupt as our heroine loses again.

The BFFs defeat Bayley & Natalya in approximately three and a half minutes via pinfall when Sasha Banks pins Bayley

Bayley apologizes to her newest friend while the Beautiful Fierce Females celebrate by taunting the crowd from the stage.

Leo Kruger speaks about his quest to become a Real American (I wonder if this is tied into the Adam Page gimmick change that I am so not excited about? If it gets him and his Spinebuster onto my television, I guess I'll live) and apologizes that he has to hurt Sami Zayn to get there.

Scott Dawson vs. Mojo Rawley

• Slyvester Lefort introduces his "money-making machine". The crowd is hyped for Mojo.
• So, after Rawley slides through the ring and high-fives the crowd during his entrance, his matches consist of a couple of minutes of him getting worked over and his opponent using rest holds. I presume this is because he's blown up from the entrance, and I have no idea how the schtick leads to anything other than matches like this one. I guess he's gonna get over on the catch phrase alone, which, you know, is something.
• Dawson, or Captain Roughneck according to Phillips, looks appropriately vicious for the two minutes or so that he gets to drive. But after Mojo dodges a charge, he hits a splash and then a couple of moves with his ass and that's it.

Mojo Rawley defeats Scott Dawson in approximately three minutes via pinfall

After the bell, Lefort distracts the Hyped Man and Dawson attacks from behind. I guess we were supposed to get more of this, but Scott is rehabbing an ACL, so we'll have to watch somebody else hug Rawley for a while.

Sami Zayn vs. Leo Kruger

• Zayn is in with a flurry of strikes to start, but Kruger grabs him for DAT SPINEBUSTER early. The South African kicks him out of the ring and beats him up on the floor for a while. You don't see guys get slammed on the concrete in NXT that much, so that was kind of cool. He goes for covers a couple of times, but only gets two.
• Riley is anti-Sami Zayn here after he was pro-Mojo Rawley in the last match. I kind of miss the days where talked about Boston College and hanging with Miz.
• Sami gets control with a drop kick off a rope run. Top rope crossbody gets him a near fall, but he tries to climb them again for the Tornado DDT, Kruger disrupts his balance and racks him. The hunter pulls him back to the mat, lands his Slice clothesline and pins him.
• That's it? I knew it wasn't going to be that long from the time remaining, but they still had a few more minutes in the show. Sami seems to be getting the "ego reduction" treatment of late.

Leo Kruger defeats Sami Zayn in approximately four and a half minutes via pinfall

The villain tries for another clothesline after his hand has been raised, but The Likeable One ducks under it. Kruger goes for the ramp, but Zayn lands on him with a suicide somersault and referees pull them apart as we fade to black.

That was a dud. The best match was the women's tag, and even that was three minutes long. The tag scene is a mess, and the match quality has fallen off, too. It's not good when your developmental program needs Antonio Cesaro on it to have a great match and liven up the storytelling.

Grade: C- (and I was probably too generous last week)

What did you all think?