WWE NXT results and reactions from July 3: A Bo-larizing Figure

It's a holiday, I have no internet access at home (thanks Comcast or NBC or Xfinity or whatever the &#{@ you're calling yourselves these days) and I have been generally underwhelmed by the HuluPlus streaming show focused on WWE's developmental stars the last few weeks. So let's bring back the sort-of "live" blog!

So while I'll be pausing and toggling windows on my laptop here in an empty office (yep, your humble recapper of internet-only shows is important enough at his day job to have a set of keys!), I will bring you my reactions as I see them - with timeout for rants about the state of women's wrestling and Corey Graves' wardrobe, of course.

Away we go...

We're off to a good start, as the lovely Renee Young welcomes us to NXT.

And, we crash right back down to earth when she welcomes NXT Champion Bo Dallas as her guest. RY does a much better job of putting over Bo's delusions of grandeur here, questioning him on calling his fans "Boh-lievers" and calling him on his claims of having had a match at WrestleMania (it was at Axxess).

Antonio Cesaro interrupts, to let us now that he's working the "We the People" schtick here in Florida now, too, and that he'll be facing off with Bo for the title on tonight's show. Dallas does a good job delivering a zinger that hits a little too close to home when he introduces AC to Renee as the most irrelevant United States champion in history.

Still not sure if he's a face or a heel - especially facing a fully Zeb Colter'd Swiss tonight, but this was an improvement over last show when they just acted like he was a face getting a face reaction, when he clearly wasn't.

Alicia Fox versus Paige - NXT Women's Championship Tournament Semi-Final

No BS, as the women make it straight down to the ring and start the match. The Anti-Diva slaps on the side headlock and takes Fox down with a hip toss. Fox elbows out of the hold and then rolls out of the ring.

Alicia tries to hold Paige from behind, but takes a series of elbows to the head and is forced to release. She does dodge a corner charge by doing splits on the top rope and tries a roll-up before landing a nice kneeling sidekick to the Brit's mid-section. Then it's the suplex into a bridge pin attempt that William Regal loves so well for a two count.

The first African-American WWE Divas champ does a decent job heeling it up, working rest holds and going for the occasional pin attempt. Paige eventually uses a bridge of her own to turn a chinlock into a jaw breaker, and then goes into some rage-fueled offense of slams and knees before Fox counters with a nice drop kick.

After that fails to get three, Paige hits a kick of her own to set up the Paige-turner and advance to the finals.

Paige wins in approximately four minutes via pinfall

This was a better women's match than we've seen on NXT lately, but as usual with the Diva of Tomorrow, the finish came out of nowhere. And her finisher is not one that should end matches that way.

Andy Baker versus Conor O'Brian

Boy, I wonder how this will go.

We do learn something, though, as he is escorted by Rick Victor - who gets his name on the entrance graphic, to boot.

Baker is a Brit who kind of looks like a working class Alex Riley. He gets shoulder charged a lot, and then the rolling side headlocks. Andy gets in a couple of elbows, but those are no sold.

O'Brian ends it with a leg drop.

O'Brian wins in approximately a minute via pinfall

Graves and Adrian Neville are backstage with Young. Apparently, Kassius Ohno was injured in last week's beatdown and is out of action (I hope only in kayfabe). The duo make an appeal to Regal to join them in their war with the Wyatt Family.

Solid work by both men. Graves especially continues to impress the more he branches out from the character crutches he used early on, even if he does hit us with the STAY DOWN knuckle tattoos to close this one out.

Sylvester Lefort introduces one half of my least favorite tag team...

Scott Dawson versus Xavier Woods

Dawson has grown out his 'stache, giving him a more distinctive look. Regal mentions that X recently bought him an original 12" pressing of One Nation Under A Groove and their shared love of funk.

Woods' hair splash entrance hits Scott in the face, adding to the racial tension I was already feeling based on the looks Lefort's boy was throwing around.

Fast-paced back and forth gets this one going, with Xavier nominally in the lead due to one counts he gets off of an atomic drop and a hurricanrana.

Dawson cuts Woods' legs out from under him on the apron, causing the PhD to hit his head on the way down. Xavier makes it in just before the referee counts ten, but is slammed back into the ring by his afro. Scott goes into the villainous beatdown, but XW nerds-up and takes control to hit his Honor Roll clothesline and Lost in the Woods for the win.

Woods defeats Dawson in approximately four and a half minutes via pinfall

Wyatt Family promo that pushes the sheep gimmick and lets Bray talk about his foes urinating on themselves. In other words, it was gravy.

I want a Daniel Bryan bleacher creature, if anyone is starting on their CSS staff Christmas shopping yet.

Regal announces that he will join Neville and Graves to face the Wyatts.

Mason Ryan versus Enzo Amore (with Colin Cassady)

Enzo with another embarrassing promo about being a "certified G". He introduces Cassady as "Big Cas" and calls Ryan S-A-W-F-T (Jersey for soft, I guess). Amazingly enough, the crowd seems kind of into him, spells along with him and holds up #SAWFT signs.

The Welshman punches him in the face and pins him.

I'll give them credit, that's pretty much what I want to see happen to Amore there.

Ryan defeats Amore in approximately ten seconds via pinfall

Predicatably, Enzo says that Mason got lucky and that he can't do it twice before sending Big Cas into the ring.

Mason Ryan versus Colin Cassady

Boots and Irish whips (ironic, no?) set up a big clothesline and a modified full nelson slam.

Ryan defeats Cassady in approximately thirty seconds via pinfall

Main event time, and the challenger is out first with the Gadsden flag, as my heart breaks a little bit every time he puts his hand on his heart.

Dallas is greeted by boos and Tony Dawson finally acknowledges them, but still to only say he is a "polarizing figure". This isn't a mixed, John Cena reaction. This is a chant of "no more Bo".

Antonio Cesaro versus Bo Dallas for the NXT Championship

The crowd also chant "We the People" during the feeling out process at the match's start. I think we can officially call the Full Sail Live crowd smarks now. This does turn into dueling "No More Bo" and "Let's Go Bo" chants, with the latter in a distinctively higher pitch.

I'm not sure if it's a good or bad thing that the only part of the champ I'm interested in is his crowd reaction. But I guess it's better than nothing, which is where I was a month ago.

Cesaro grounds Dallas and works over his hands and fingers. Bo gets some momentum and hits a drop kick, but an European uppercut leads to the champ getting dumped out of the ring for a commercial break.

Back from commerical, we see the Swiss superman hit a more impressive version of Dallas' finisher while Leo Kruger makes his way down to ringside. Neither man pays him much mind, but of course, Bo's not in any position to care since he's having the stuffing beaten out of him.

Regal informs us that AC wears short boots so that he can use his shins as weapons. He even makes rest holds exciting by feinting kicks to the skull before sliding in to lock on a rear chinlock.

Bo "never gives up" and comes back to the boos of the crowd. Cesaro uses his strength to get in some more offense, but Dallas reverses a lift into a side effect for a near fall. He then goes for his rope-running bulldog, but the challenger pushes him and racks him with the top rope.

Gut wrench suplex from the middle rope! But the champ kicks out at two. Middle rope knee drop gets another near fall, and a frustrated Cesaro stalks Bo for the chinlock to set-up the Neutralizer. Dallas drops down in the hold and stacks Antonio up for two, though!

Antonio does a Dave Taylor-esque fall away slam into a bridge for a two count of his own. I'll watch the former Claudio Castignoli wrestle a sponge, I tell you. His frustration continues to show as he clubs the downed champ with elbows before he goes up top. Dallas chases him down and flips him from the top rope!

Both men struggle to get up as the ref counts. They reach their feet at seven, and Kruger takes this opportunity to jump on the apron in an attempt to grab Bo. The champ dodges a charge, causing Cesaro to hit the South African and setting up his belly-to-belly finisher to retain.

Dallas defeats Cesaro in approximately eleven minutes via pinfall

The champ's celebration now features jets of smoke to go along with the spotlight from above.

Kruger beats down the champ after the match, but Cesaro lands a European on him so that he can beat up Bo. Dallas fights back, and Leo returns to make it two-on-one.

But here comes Sami Zayn! Ole' chants as he dumps Antonio from the ring, allowing Dallas to fend off Kruger. The two shake hands and stand tall as the show ends.

So Dallas is booked as a face even though he gets an almost completely heel reaction. Interesting...

I'm going to mark out for any Antonio Cesaro match, even if this was still a lot of squashes featuring guys I'm not that interested in. I'll go C+ for a grade, and I do believe that next week is looking up already...

Hope everyone has a great holiday (or a great Thursday, if you're not 'Murican) and I look forward to reading your thoughts and reactions in the comments below.