There's a lot of good stuff to get into with this week's installment of NXT, but I do have to start off by saying that if you watched NXT UK this week, you saw a lot of shots of The Manager and myself as we were ringside during that Toni Storm/Rhea Ripley promo that occurred during Royal Rumble Axxess. And I mean lots. Go watch! Anyway, let's get on with the show we're actually here to discuss, and that's the Black and Gold brand!
The show started with a match between Dominik Dijakovic and Shane Thorne, which was an interesting conceit for this match to have two heels, but as was definitely the case in the Worlds Collide tournament, Thorne (who faced Adam Cole in the first round there) is very comfortable playing an even harsher heel than the other heel he's in the ring with. This was solid work from both competitors but it's becoming more obvious that they're playing Dijakovic as the real deal as he was the one to fight from underneath for a while as Thorne started off hot. It wasn't too long before the much larger Dijakovic took control, and he started to get a pretty good response from the Full Sail audience. He hit Feast Your Eyes on Thorne for the win, and it's been pretty smooth sailing for Dominik since he got to NXT and I hope that he's going to get some promo time soon to see how that plays. Although, sometimes, playing the strong silent ass-kicker can work just as well if not better.
Then we got the ad hoc team of 205 Live-r Humberto Carrillo and Stacey Irvin Jr. about to take on Street Profits, but first, Kassius Ohno came out to express his disdain for the Full Sail audience and declared that he was going to go elsewhere where his talents would be "appreciated", and Keith Lee appeared behind him and as Ohno turned around, Lee hit Ohno with his own rolling elbow, knocking him the fuck out. Lee hilariously jaw-jacked the KO'd Knockout Artist, and then Street Profits came out to also join in mocking Ohno, getting some more laughs from me, and then headed to the ring. As far as Ohno, though, it's unknown where he's going to go. He has an advertised match against WALTER in NXT UK, so it's likely he'll go over there to start putting over incoming talent.
So we started out the night with a heel vs heel match, and then we went to a face vs face match. But Street Profits were definitely fighting with a harder edge against the other babyfaces, and there was definitely one moment where I thought that Carrillo had been badly hurt because I think it was supposed to be an rollover the shoulder to land on his feet, but either Montez Ford put him back too soon or Carrillo couldn't get the full rotation, but he landed hard on the back of his neck. The ref was in there fast to make sure he was okay, which thankfully he was, and they continued. Carrillo and Irvin got in some good offense and the Sultans of Swag made it look good. But it all came down to the Profits' much more aggressive offense, and they hit a massive double-team blockbuster on Irvin for the much-needed win. This win got them even more fired up as they fired a warning shot at War Raiders indicating they were finally coming for the NXT Tag titles. They were interrupted by Fabian Aichner and Marcel Barthel, who said that they wanted the title shot. Then Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch came out and all three teams seemed as if they were about to get into it, but then War Raiders finally made an appearance and said there should be less talking and more fighting. They headed to the ring but were blindsided by all members of The Undisputed Era and shoved them in the ring as they stood back to watch the carnage, but War Raiders mopped the floor with those other teams and stood tall while UE stood in disappointment and disbelief. First of all, this was a really solid match, but it didn't really raise the stock of Street Profits who would have benefited more from a win over a team like Burch and Lorcan or Aichner and Barthel. Second of all, the post-match brouhaha felt a little too soon for the likes of Aichner and Barthel, but that's a solid heel move. Also, I was confused why Forgotten Sons weren't involved (I guess they were...*puts on sunglasses* forgotten. YEAAAAAAAAHH!!) but that's a lot of "beef" in that ring already, and the message was really from War Raiders to Undisputed Era that they're ready for them if they want a rematch, so consider that message sent!
Then we had a bit of a weird one between newly-anointed babyface Taynara Conti and Aliyah, where Vanessa Borne came out to the ring to provide Aliyah with a distraction submission win. I appreciate that they're still concentrating on building up the talent that's still in developmental, but this was just a weird match. Aliyah looked good at the end with her locking in the Kimora and adding some head kicks to force Conti to tap out, and it's clear that Conti is really working on a MMA-type style as she did a lot of judo throws a la Ronda Rousey. But this was all just fodder for Shayna Bazsler and her Horsewomen as they came out while Borne and Aliyah were celebrating the win and decimated everyone in the ring. Shayna got on the mic and declared this being the new reality. Now, if this was the first time she'd done that, I would have been a lot more impressed, but she's come out a few times after winning or retaining the NXT Women's title and declared that she ran the Women's division in NXT, although I guess there's a new twist to it because she has Shafir and Duke to back her up. I'm thinking we're going to get a match soon with Borne and Aliyah vs Duke and Shafir so the supposed "muscle" that the Queen of Spades keeps in her back pocket can actually pick up a win, which is something that they've been unable to do since their in-ring debut. But it's time for them to find something different for Bazsler, because this promo felt really recycled and she deserves better. This is why I do have such a problem with the NXT Women's division because so often, they seem to be an afterthought and they only seem to have enough story for two of them at a time. I know the show is only an hour, but as I've been saying for a long time now, it's time for NXT to extend their run time to at least 90 minutes. There's too much talent there and not enough story.
And then came the main event, which was a match between Ricochet and Adam Cole which is supposed to help them gain momentum to get towards a rematch for the North American title, despite the fact that Velveteen Dream is already going to be using his Worlds Collide tournament win to go after said title, currently held by Johnny Gargano. The reason for having the match being a little hazy notwithstanding, wow. What. A. Match. I know I'm a little bit of a broken record here, but one of the main reasons that NXT is so much better than the main roster shows is because they know how to tell in-ring stories better than just about anyone, and the story of this match was Ricochet and a leg injury he had to sell almost from the get-go. And Cole did not let up on that leg for most of the match. He just kept inflicting pain on that leg, and of course, that hinders Ricochet's high-flying ability, and since The One and Only is one of the best in the biz at selling, he sold that injury like a champ. While this wasn't an instant classic like their first encounter was, it still made both of them look like a million bucks. Ricochet fighting from underneath the whole time, and Cole really dealing out the punishment, particularly with a pair of ushigoroshis that looked like Ricochet's head was just going to pop off his neck. But Cole made the classic Cole mistake of underestimating his opponent and this allowed Ric to hit a Falcon Arrow variant to pick up the underdog win. But on cue, Cole's UE brethren stormed the ring and laid waste to Ricochet and while Aleister Black charged in to try to make the save, it was four-on-two and Undisputed were just too many, and they finished the show standing tall over the carcasses of the babyfaces. But as far as the match itself was concerned, everything clicked. Cole and Ric are either near or at the top of their respective games and while imperfect, it still hit the right notes at the right moments. Cole will get back to some winning ways soon enough, but this was the right time to have Ricochet go over, since he had just recently lost the North American title, and needed a win to maintain some momentum, and since Cole is a perennial favorite, he honestly doesn't really need to maintain a great win-loss record to remain as over as he is with the fans.
I'm salivating to get to next week's match for the North American title between Gargano and Dream, but that's still a week away, so I guess I'm just going to have to wait. But until then, we have Elimination Chamber on Sunday, and you can read my Hopes and Predictions column that I posted Wednesday night on this very blog, and on Sunday, I intend to do another PPV "live blog" like I did for TLC. Check that one out a ways back to understand what I mean. So keep it here for almost all things WWE!
Until next time, kids...
The show started with a match between Dominik Dijakovic and Shane Thorne, which was an interesting conceit for this match to have two heels, but as was definitely the case in the Worlds Collide tournament, Thorne (who faced Adam Cole in the first round there) is very comfortable playing an even harsher heel than the other heel he's in the ring with. This was solid work from both competitors but it's becoming more obvious that they're playing Dijakovic as the real deal as he was the one to fight from underneath for a while as Thorne started off hot. It wasn't too long before the much larger Dijakovic took control, and he started to get a pretty good response from the Full Sail audience. He hit Feast Your Eyes on Thorne for the win, and it's been pretty smooth sailing for Dominik since he got to NXT and I hope that he's going to get some promo time soon to see how that plays. Although, sometimes, playing the strong silent ass-kicker can work just as well if not better.
Then we got the ad hoc team of 205 Live-r Humberto Carrillo and Stacey Irvin Jr. about to take on Street Profits, but first, Kassius Ohno came out to express his disdain for the Full Sail audience and declared that he was going to go elsewhere where his talents would be "appreciated", and Keith Lee appeared behind him and as Ohno turned around, Lee hit Ohno with his own rolling elbow, knocking him the fuck out. Lee hilariously jaw-jacked the KO'd Knockout Artist, and then Street Profits came out to also join in mocking Ohno, getting some more laughs from me, and then headed to the ring. As far as Ohno, though, it's unknown where he's going to go. He has an advertised match against WALTER in NXT UK, so it's likely he'll go over there to start putting over incoming talent.
So we started out the night with a heel vs heel match, and then we went to a face vs face match. But Street Profits were definitely fighting with a harder edge against the other babyfaces, and there was definitely one moment where I thought that Carrillo had been badly hurt because I think it was supposed to be an rollover the shoulder to land on his feet, but either Montez Ford put him back too soon or Carrillo couldn't get the full rotation, but he landed hard on the back of his neck. The ref was in there fast to make sure he was okay, which thankfully he was, and they continued. Carrillo and Irvin got in some good offense and the Sultans of Swag made it look good. But it all came down to the Profits' much more aggressive offense, and they hit a massive double-team blockbuster on Irvin for the much-needed win. This win got them even more fired up as they fired a warning shot at War Raiders indicating they were finally coming for the NXT Tag titles. They were interrupted by Fabian Aichner and Marcel Barthel, who said that they wanted the title shot. Then Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch came out and all three teams seemed as if they were about to get into it, but then War Raiders finally made an appearance and said there should be less talking and more fighting. They headed to the ring but were blindsided by all members of The Undisputed Era and shoved them in the ring as they stood back to watch the carnage, but War Raiders mopped the floor with those other teams and stood tall while UE stood in disappointment and disbelief. First of all, this was a really solid match, but it didn't really raise the stock of Street Profits who would have benefited more from a win over a team like Burch and Lorcan or Aichner and Barthel. Second of all, the post-match brouhaha felt a little too soon for the likes of Aichner and Barthel, but that's a solid heel move. Also, I was confused why Forgotten Sons weren't involved (I guess they were...*puts on sunglasses* forgotten. YEAAAAAAAAHH!!) but that's a lot of "beef" in that ring already, and the message was really from War Raiders to Undisputed Era that they're ready for them if they want a rematch, so consider that message sent!
Then we had a bit of a weird one between newly-anointed babyface Taynara Conti and Aliyah, where Vanessa Borne came out to the ring to provide Aliyah with a distraction submission win. I appreciate that they're still concentrating on building up the talent that's still in developmental, but this was just a weird match. Aliyah looked good at the end with her locking in the Kimora and adding some head kicks to force Conti to tap out, and it's clear that Conti is really working on a MMA-type style as she did a lot of judo throws a la Ronda Rousey. But this was all just fodder for Shayna Bazsler and her Horsewomen as they came out while Borne and Aliyah were celebrating the win and decimated everyone in the ring. Shayna got on the mic and declared this being the new reality. Now, if this was the first time she'd done that, I would have been a lot more impressed, but she's come out a few times after winning or retaining the NXT Women's title and declared that she ran the Women's division in NXT, although I guess there's a new twist to it because she has Shafir and Duke to back her up. I'm thinking we're going to get a match soon with Borne and Aliyah vs Duke and Shafir so the supposed "muscle" that the Queen of Spades keeps in her back pocket can actually pick up a win, which is something that they've been unable to do since their in-ring debut. But it's time for them to find something different for Bazsler, because this promo felt really recycled and she deserves better. This is why I do have such a problem with the NXT Women's division because so often, they seem to be an afterthought and they only seem to have enough story for two of them at a time. I know the show is only an hour, but as I've been saying for a long time now, it's time for NXT to extend their run time to at least 90 minutes. There's too much talent there and not enough story.
And then came the main event, which was a match between Ricochet and Adam Cole which is supposed to help them gain momentum to get towards a rematch for the North American title, despite the fact that Velveteen Dream is already going to be using his Worlds Collide tournament win to go after said title, currently held by Johnny Gargano. The reason for having the match being a little hazy notwithstanding, wow. What. A. Match. I know I'm a little bit of a broken record here, but one of the main reasons that NXT is so much better than the main roster shows is because they know how to tell in-ring stories better than just about anyone, and the story of this match was Ricochet and a leg injury he had to sell almost from the get-go. And Cole did not let up on that leg for most of the match. He just kept inflicting pain on that leg, and of course, that hinders Ricochet's high-flying ability, and since The One and Only is one of the best in the biz at selling, he sold that injury like a champ. While this wasn't an instant classic like their first encounter was, it still made both of them look like a million bucks. Ricochet fighting from underneath the whole time, and Cole really dealing out the punishment, particularly with a pair of ushigoroshis that looked like Ricochet's head was just going to pop off his neck. But Cole made the classic Cole mistake of underestimating his opponent and this allowed Ric to hit a Falcon Arrow variant to pick up the underdog win. But on cue, Cole's UE brethren stormed the ring and laid waste to Ricochet and while Aleister Black charged in to try to make the save, it was four-on-two and Undisputed were just too many, and they finished the show standing tall over the carcasses of the babyfaces. But as far as the match itself was concerned, everything clicked. Cole and Ric are either near or at the top of their respective games and while imperfect, it still hit the right notes at the right moments. Cole will get back to some winning ways soon enough, but this was the right time to have Ricochet go over, since he had just recently lost the North American title, and needed a win to maintain some momentum, and since Cole is a perennial favorite, he honestly doesn't really need to maintain a great win-loss record to remain as over as he is with the fans.
I'm salivating to get to next week's match for the North American title between Gargano and Dream, but that's still a week away, so I guess I'm just going to have to wait. But until then, we have Elimination Chamber on Sunday, and you can read my Hopes and Predictions column that I posted Wednesday night on this very blog, and on Sunday, I intend to do another PPV "live blog" like I did for TLC. Check that one out a ways back to understand what I mean. So keep it here for almost all things WWE!
Until next time, kids...
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