BARON CORBIN VS. RHYNO

  So I planned for a short Christmas break. That somehow turned into me taking the rest of the year off. NXT has my back though, with the three next matches I need to review following a nice pattern for Monday through to Wednesday. Meaning in January we will have Mayhem Monday (looking at a Hoss Battle, no matter how good or bad, Tag Team Tuesday and Women's Wednesday, two self-explanatory themes. Normally I would have a Throwback Thursday and Flashback Friday looking at the first decade of the Wrestlemania era, and from 1999 - 2007 respectively. However the fourth day of the year means only one thing on the wrestling calendar, Wrestle Kingdom takes the focus to finish this reboot week off. On to this year's first review. Baron Corbin facing off against veteran WWE brawler Rhyno in Corbin's first proper TakeOver match against an experienced hand, which is something I guess.

  Rhyno enters the match first, he called out Baron Corbin last Wednesday on NXT (Episode # on WWE Network) and that resulted in a pull-apart brawl where Rhyno Gored some innocents. Baron Corbin enters and they just stare at each other from across the ring. INTENSITY! Rhyno's wearing an NXT vest that has the slogan “The Future is Now” which I find pretty funny for a 20-year veteran.

BARON CORBIN VS. RHYNO

NXT TAKEOVER: UNSTOPPABLE - 20^th May 2015

A collar-elbow tie up starts this off, and the intensity instantly drops. They reach a stalemate and decide to go from a different angle. Rhyno grabs a side headlock but Corbin sends him across the ring, Rhyno charges back hitting Corbin with a shoulder tackle. Corbin is in first, kicking Rhyno in the midsection and he sends Rhyno across the ring. Rhyno grabs the top rope to stop his momentum so Corbin charges. Rhyno sends Corbin out to the floor and you can tell he's pissed off. Rhyno meets Corbin in the ring with a boot to the gut and Corbin isn't sure whether to go out to the floor or not, so he awkwardly drapes over the ropes. Rhyno sends Corbin out to the floor properly with a clothesline and follows him out. Rhyno beats Corbin around ringside before sending him back in the ring. The fans are split between these two now, Rhyno blocks a right hand and hits one of his own. Corbin reverses an irish whip into the corner but Rhyno catches him with an elbow. Rhyno perches on the top turnbuckle but Corbin shoves him all the way down to the floor!

Baron Corbin goes on the attack outside, sending Rhyno's skull into the ring apron. Baron Corbin drives Rhyno's kidneys into the apron too before sending him back into the ring. The fans have decided Corbin sucks now since he shoved a 40-year old man 20 feet to the floor, but Corey Graves lets us know he doesn't care. Corbin sends Rhyno into the corner as we see a replay of Rhyno taking a tumble a minute ago. Corbin sends Rhyno all the way back, driving his kidneys into the middle turnbuckle. Rhyno drops to the mat and Corbin covers but only gets 2. Corbin hits some mounted rights but lets Rhyno get to his feet and misses a running splash. Rhyno hits a pair of right hands with no effect before Corbin sends him into the corner. Corbin hits Rhyno with whatever he can before the referee drags him away. Corbin goes back to Rhyno in the corner but the referee brings him away again. Corbin has to avoid disqualification right now. He brings Rhyno out of the corner and slams his head into the mat. Rhyno crawls to the ropes, but Corbin got a running start to slide to the outside and hits Rhyno with an open palm strike.

Corbin gets back in the ring to cover but only gets 2. Corbin applies a cobra clutch on the mat, as Rhyno's on his knees. Rhyno fights to his feet and out of the hold but Corbin knees him in the gut so Rhyno can't get anything going. Rhyno stops himself hitting the turnbuckles but turns around, colliding with Corbin. They're both down and the referee starts counting, the start stirring and they get to their feet at 8. Rhyno rocks Corbin with a right hand, he blocks the reply before hitting a second. Rhyno strings some rights together before sending Baron Corbin across the ring. Rhyno knocks him down with a back elbow, and Corbin stands up into a clothesline. Rhyno sends Corbin into a corner, following with a running shoulder tackle. Baron Corbin headbutts his way out of a belly to belly suplex, dropping Rhyno to one knee. Corbin hits a running right hand but goes back once too often running into a spinebuster. Rhyno covers but only gets a nearfall. The fans chant for a Gore as Rhyno gets to his feet, he ducks a wild swing, barely hitting a belly to belly suplex. Rhyno gets in position for the Gore but Corbin is that second quicker with a sick lariat! Baron Corbin puts a stamp on the match with an End of Days and covers for 1, 2, 3.

WINNER: BARON CORBIN

This was a good use of Rhyno and is more of what I wanted the Corbin/Dempsy match to be back at TakeOver: Rival. I just feel as if they really held back on the match because of their role on the show (for Corbin, have a decent-length respectable match on a TakeOver show, for Rhyno... Help do that. That and a few sloppy moments put a dampener on the match for me but the end picked up a bit of the slack for that. WORKRATE: 1.5/5 PERSONAL ENJOYMENT 2.25/5 OVERALL: 3.75/10

Baron Corbin celebrates in the ring after we see replays of the spinebuster and End of Days. We cut to the commentary table where Rich Brennan takes us to last week's Raw, where Kevin Owens declined John Cena's open challenge, hit him with a cheap shot and pop-up powerbomb and stepped on the WWE United States Championship.