It's NXT time again and the question is now how will they build to Takeover Phoenix? Who are they going to show off tonight? Who's going to look the best tonight? Some questions were answered and some still remained, and that's how you build suspense, people.
To kick it off, they started with The Street Profits (who are the current EVOLVE Tag champs) against The Metro Brothers. This was truly back to form for the Profits who looked dominant but also were having a shitload of fun as well. The back-and-forth between Angelo Dawkins and Montez Ford was just so entertaining to watch. It wasn't a great showing for the jobbers (which it's usually pretty standard in NXT to have the jobbers look pretty weak when they're competing against faces whereas the face jobbers tend to look a lot better; more on this later), but they did their job as Ford his a sky-high frog splash for the win. As they were celebrating, The Forgotten Sons came out to blindside the winners and laid waste to them as the numbers game became too much for them. I'm totally fine with this booking for right now. And as time moves on, they'll find a proper place for both of these teams. I'm not feeling Forgotten Sons really at all, but NXT tends to do a pretty good job of changing my mind.
Then we got a promo from Bianca Belair, who has certainly stepped up her promo game, as she threw shade at Shayna Baszler. Of course, since it's been a while since we've seen Baszler on the show, so she made an appearance flanked by Jessamyn Duke and Marina Shafir. And then we had a great war of words between The EST and The Queen of Spades. It ended with Belair throwing a quick slap to Shayna and ducking out of the ring. It's no secret that I love Baszler's persona, but frankly I was a little confused as to why she would let Belair get away with that, particularly with Duke and Shafir by her side, but it happened, it made Belair look tough as hell, and it was a good promo to get you hyped for their match at Takeover.
Then we got Dominik Dijakovic against Adrian Jaoude. Again, Jaoude was jobbing out to Dijakovic, so he got the time to look good against the massive Dominik and used a lot of Brazilian Jujitsu-style takedowns and kicks to try and fight off the big man, but Dijakovic eventually got in the offense he needed to hit his finisher, which, as I stated in my column about his first match, looks a lot like a sort of inverted G.T.S. and it is possibly called the Feast Your Eyes, unless that's just his catchphrase. Anyway, this certainly didn't give Dijakovic the rub that he needs to become a star in NXT but this is only his second appearance, and he'll start to get more of a push, I'm sure, once they start sending some of the top guys up.
Then we got my man Johnny Takeover in a singles match against enhancement talent Humberto Carillo in a one-on-one and this was definitely match of the night. Carillo really held his own against Johnny who supposedly selected the luchador because of his similar style to that of Ricochet. Needless to say, Carillo ended up looking like a potential main-eventer in his match-up against Johnny where had a great mix of speed and agility as he hit some really terrific moves on Gargano, but as the match progressed, Gargano simply took over and hit him with the slingshot DDT for the win. It was a tremendously fun match, but where it all coalesces for me is that Johnny is still playing his character to perfection. He's playing it up as full babyface and that actually makes his heel persona even more contemptible. He still thinks he's the real hero of his story and that's almost always what makes a compelling villain. But also equally important, he's looking for ways to make the newer talent look good, and that's why Johnny Wrestling will always get the cheers from me.
Then we got, well... to be honest, kind of a weird one with Keith Lee taking on Kassius Ohno to avenge longtime friend Matt Riddle, who was kayfabed into not being medically cleared to compete after Ohno's sneak attack on him. With two gigantic men like Ohno and Lee in the ring, you'd expect this to tear the house down, but just when Lee was beginning to build some momentum after Ohno's sustained assault, a ref bump occurred and Ohno hit Lee with a low blow and then the rolling elbow for the dirty win. Riddle shot from backstage to try to lay Ohno out, but Ohno escaped before that could happen. I know that this is where they're putting the capital "H" on Ohno's heel turn (because what's a good bad guy heel turn without a low blow at some point), but my question becomes where are they taking Ohno? Is it going to be easier to have him be the guy who gives the fresh faces the rub as a heel? Well, I've always enjoyed face vs face confrontations where we either get a hug-it-out or a heel turn, so I don't know if making Ohno the big guy heel is the best option as far as where he stands in the NXT pecking order, but we'll just have to see how this one works out. I just don't know who's going to face him next; Riddle or Lee? Maybe we'll find out at Takeover.
Now, there's something that I'm curious about in regards to Takeover and I don't know who might be able to answer this question for me, but here it is: I know that Takeover has matches that aren't on the main card, but when do those matches occur? I would have to assume that the occur after the show, which is kind of weird, but whatever works. How can these undercard matches possibly follow the matches in pretty much any given Takeover event? I only ask because I'm going to my first one, and I'm understandably curious.
Anyway, that's it for this week in WWE, but that won't be it for the week, as the premiere of WOW will occur on Friday on AXS and will continue every week directly after New Japan, and I'm fucking psyched. I'm looking for more women's wrestling, and it'll be really interesting to see what WOW is capable of doing so look out for that column likely on Saturday afternoon or evening.
Until next time, kids...
To kick it off, they started with The Street Profits (who are the current EVOLVE Tag champs) against The Metro Brothers. This was truly back to form for the Profits who looked dominant but also were having a shitload of fun as well. The back-and-forth between Angelo Dawkins and Montez Ford was just so entertaining to watch. It wasn't a great showing for the jobbers (which it's usually pretty standard in NXT to have the jobbers look pretty weak when they're competing against faces whereas the face jobbers tend to look a lot better; more on this later), but they did their job as Ford his a sky-high frog splash for the win. As they were celebrating, The Forgotten Sons came out to blindside the winners and laid waste to them as the numbers game became too much for them. I'm totally fine with this booking for right now. And as time moves on, they'll find a proper place for both of these teams. I'm not feeling Forgotten Sons really at all, but NXT tends to do a pretty good job of changing my mind.
Then we got a promo from Bianca Belair, who has certainly stepped up her promo game, as she threw shade at Shayna Baszler. Of course, since it's been a while since we've seen Baszler on the show, so she made an appearance flanked by Jessamyn Duke and Marina Shafir. And then we had a great war of words between The EST and The Queen of Spades. It ended with Belair throwing a quick slap to Shayna and ducking out of the ring. It's no secret that I love Baszler's persona, but frankly I was a little confused as to why she would let Belair get away with that, particularly with Duke and Shafir by her side, but it happened, it made Belair look tough as hell, and it was a good promo to get you hyped for their match at Takeover.
Then we got Dominik Dijakovic against Adrian Jaoude. Again, Jaoude was jobbing out to Dijakovic, so he got the time to look good against the massive Dominik and used a lot of Brazilian Jujitsu-style takedowns and kicks to try and fight off the big man, but Dijakovic eventually got in the offense he needed to hit his finisher, which, as I stated in my column about his first match, looks a lot like a sort of inverted G.T.S. and it is possibly called the Feast Your Eyes, unless that's just his catchphrase. Anyway, this certainly didn't give Dijakovic the rub that he needs to become a star in NXT but this is only his second appearance, and he'll start to get more of a push, I'm sure, once they start sending some of the top guys up.
Then we got my man Johnny Takeover in a singles match against enhancement talent Humberto Carillo in a one-on-one and this was definitely match of the night. Carillo really held his own against Johnny who supposedly selected the luchador because of his similar style to that of Ricochet. Needless to say, Carillo ended up looking like a potential main-eventer in his match-up against Johnny where had a great mix of speed and agility as he hit some really terrific moves on Gargano, but as the match progressed, Gargano simply took over and hit him with the slingshot DDT for the win. It was a tremendously fun match, but where it all coalesces for me is that Johnny is still playing his character to perfection. He's playing it up as full babyface and that actually makes his heel persona even more contemptible. He still thinks he's the real hero of his story and that's almost always what makes a compelling villain. But also equally important, he's looking for ways to make the newer talent look good, and that's why Johnny Wrestling will always get the cheers from me.
Then we got, well... to be honest, kind of a weird one with Keith Lee taking on Kassius Ohno to avenge longtime friend Matt Riddle, who was kayfabed into not being medically cleared to compete after Ohno's sneak attack on him. With two gigantic men like Ohno and Lee in the ring, you'd expect this to tear the house down, but just when Lee was beginning to build some momentum after Ohno's sustained assault, a ref bump occurred and Ohno hit Lee with a low blow and then the rolling elbow for the dirty win. Riddle shot from backstage to try to lay Ohno out, but Ohno escaped before that could happen. I know that this is where they're putting the capital "H" on Ohno's heel turn (because what's a good bad guy heel turn without a low blow at some point), but my question becomes where are they taking Ohno? Is it going to be easier to have him be the guy who gives the fresh faces the rub as a heel? Well, I've always enjoyed face vs face confrontations where we either get a hug-it-out or a heel turn, so I don't know if making Ohno the big guy heel is the best option as far as where he stands in the NXT pecking order, but we'll just have to see how this one works out. I just don't know who's going to face him next; Riddle or Lee? Maybe we'll find out at Takeover.
Now, there's something that I'm curious about in regards to Takeover and I don't know who might be able to answer this question for me, but here it is: I know that Takeover has matches that aren't on the main card, but when do those matches occur? I would have to assume that the occur after the show, which is kind of weird, but whatever works. How can these undercard matches possibly follow the matches in pretty much any given Takeover event? I only ask because I'm going to my first one, and I'm understandably curious.
Anyway, that's it for this week in WWE, but that won't be it for the week, as the premiere of WOW will occur on Friday on AXS and will continue every week directly after New Japan, and I'm fucking psyched. I'm looking for more women's wrestling, and it'll be really interesting to see what WOW is capable of doing so look out for that column likely on Saturday afternoon or evening.
Until next time, kids...
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