Before we get into any discussion of this week's broadcast of NXT, we absolutely have to discuss the situation surrounding Tommaso Ciampa. Ciampa has, in the last two years, turned into the greatest heel in all of WWE, after turning on Johnny Gargano at TakeOver Chicago 2017, breaking up #DIY and beating down everyone's most beloved babyface. He initially was the mega heel with nuclear levels of heat that would come out to the audience at Full Sail with no theme music and just got heat just by being there. That's actually beyond nuclear heat; that's the heat of a thousand burning suns. He was the heel you loved to hate. But once he started his epic rivalry with Johnny that tore the houses down at three different TakeOvers, starting with TakeOver New Orleans 2018, he started becoming the heel you hated to love. But all that followed and every great match he was involved in, you still have to remember from time to time that there's a real human being under there. And yes, when he went away for the first time and came back with those evil, evil crutches because he needed surgery to repair his torn ACL, it was enough to just have him stand there and get all that heat, but with a much more severe injury to his neck that is going to require anterior cervical fusion surgery, and while this isn't an extremely risky surgery, the recovery is a lot less certain for a return to WWE as it is for an ACL issue. I wish all the best to Tommaso Whitney and his loved ones for a safe recovery and an extra wish for him to return to WWE competition as quickly as possible. From a more pragmatic storyline point of view, this is really going to force some major changes for Johnny as far as character and story. Was he going to turn on Ciampa? Who will he face at TakeOver New York for the vacated NXT Championship? Obviously we'll find out, but not this week, because this week in an extended episode, it's all about the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic!
The show opened with a video package reminding us about all of the competitors that are in the Dusty Classic: Moustache Mountain, Forgotten Sons, Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch, Aleister Black and Ricochet, The Street Profits, Fabian Aichner and Marcel Barthel, The Undisputed Era and the reunion of #DIY. This show was going to have all of Round One of the Dusty Classic, hence the 20 extra minutes.
The first matchup was Aleister and Ricochet vs Aichner and Barthel, and I don't know if it's their official tag team name, but commentary kept calling them The European Union, so we'll go with that. And since they already knew that our babyfaces were going to be kicking ass on Raw and Smackdown over the last couple weeks, this match had to be less about them and more about the heels, and that's where this match really shined in making Aichner and Barthel look as strong as possible. Aichner had some of the more impressive moves like a fantastic springboard tornado DDT, and they've been doing this in NXT UK, but their double-team move while their opponent is in the Tree of Woe is pretty fucking cool. Ultimately, Aleister hit Black Mass on Aichner for the win. This was a really terrific match, because it didn't make Aichner and Barthel look weak and it made Ricochet and Black's team-up look very cohesive. These are two pairs of guys who have really solid chemistry with each other and it was an excellent showcase for The European Union.
Then we got a video recap of last episode's fantastic match between powerhouses Keith Lee and Dominik Dijakovic and the double count-out, and then we got a clip of Lee at the PC working out in a ring with Danny Burch and Drew Gulak when Dijakovic came in spoiling for a fight with Lee right there. Cooler heads prevailed, and that match is going to be in two weeks; I'm still hoping that's going to be the grudge match for TakeOver New York, and that their next match will also end with some kind of schmozz so they can carry this heat into TakeOver.
Next match was between The Forgotten Sons vs Oney Lorcan and Burch. While not being the best match of the night, this told a very simple story; Lorcan's back had a lot of damage dealt to it by Blake and Cutler, and it was hard to carry any momentum once Burch got back in the ring. We had some good double-team action on both sides and some really good drama once Oney got his steam back. But Blake and Cutler hit their double-team finisher on Lorcan for the pinfall. I have to say that, like Aichner and Barthel, this was the best Forgotten Sons have looked. Their chemistry with each other looked very solid, and I was happy to not see Jaxson Ryker get involved at all. This was definitely a solid match for both teams, and it's another example of how to book a match correctly.
Next up, we got a visit from Velveteen Dream who climbed up onto the commentary table and cut a promo reminding everyone that he was the new North American champ. But he was interrupted by the King of Bros himself, Matt Riddle, who just "came out to say 'hi'" and to congratulate Dream on his title victory, but he added that he wanted to take a closer look at the title and he was wondering to himself how it would look around his waist instead. Dream retorted that he wasn't Riddle's bro, and snapped his fingers for a spotlight, and said that the spotlight (both figurative and literal, apparently) was always on him. This is a match I really want to see at TakeOver New York, and it's again more Booking 101. Wrestler A has a title; Wrestler B wants the title. It doesn't always have to get super-complicated. As far as a real feud, I'm sure that Velveteen will play a more heelish persona in order to heat this rivalry up since I don't see Riddle as a heel yet, if at all.
We then got another backstage segment with Io Shirai and Kairi Sane sitting together talking about Io's rivalry with Bianca Belair. Io points out that Bianca didn't pin Shayna Baszler, but Io did, and Kairi believes in Io enough to support her taking on Shayna, and that Io is Japan's best. Most importantly, Io believes in herself, and she will face Shayna at TakeOver NY. So yeah, I'm all for that. I'm very interested to see how they book the match between Belair and Shirai that doesn't make Belair look weak, and I'm hoping to see some more character work from Belair as well, since Io is already over as hell.
Next match was Street Profits vs Moustache Mountain. MM is such a natural babyface team that Ford and Dawkins had to show a much more aggressive side than they have and essentially fight heel in this contest, and they did that. If this match showed us anything, it showed us two things: first is that Tyler Bate is almost impossibly strong. His movements and feats of strength are out of this world for a guy his size. And the second is that Montez Ford can fucking fly. That dude has springs for legs, because he cleared the top rope to catch Trent Seven on the outside by about four feet, and he must have almost hit his fucking head on the ceiling going for his frog splash (which came off a tag from the wrong corner, but whatever), which Bate was able to kick out of. There was a moment where Seven and Ford had a scream-off that really had me smiling ear-to-ear. But MM was able to hit Dawkins with a top-rope double-team finisher that, per Nigel's call, was "bowling shoe ugly", but it got them the win. This one was a bit of a shocker to me, since Seven and Bate clearly have their own thing going on in NXT UK, so it was just surprising to see them go over Street Profits, who really could have benefited from the win more than the babyface Brits. And Profits would have faced Forgotten Sons in the next round, a team they already have a solid rivalry with, so this was a good match, but the booking for the finish was really confounding to me.
And to finish up the night, we had O'Reilly and Fish from Undisputed Era vs Gargano and Ciampa. UE came out first, and then both Johnny and Tommaso came out to their own entrance music, but while the two of them stood on the ramp, the old #DIY entrance music hit! Yay! And if you thought that this was going to be the match of the night, well... you were right. Johnny spend a lot of time getting the hell kicked out of him as Fish and O'Reilly hit a series of strong double-team moves and isolating him well. Ciampa got back in and eventually hit a Tower of London and a Blue Thunder Bomb on his Undisputed Era opponents. The action was fast and furious for most of the match, and there were some great moments between these two teams, but it is also still pretty weird to see Ciampa fighting babyface to Undisputed Era's heels. There was an awesome back-and-forth between Gargano and Kyle as well, as they kept rebounding off each other's shots to try to lay the other one out. The moment that made me cringe though was when Fish hit a top-rope Michinoku Driver on Ciampa; it wasn't so much that Tommaso landed badly, but it probably didn't help his neck at all. But Ciampa fought back and hit a draping DDT on O'Reilly followed by a picture-perfect slingshot DDT by Johnny, but O'Reilly kicked out, but it was still only a matter of time at this point. And #DIY hit Meet in the Middle on Kyle for the win. There's still a lot of subtle character work going on here, particularly with Johnny and how his eyes rarely left Ciampa's NXT Championship belt, and I'm just so sad that this story is unlikely to play out at NXT. Both of these guys have been so incredibly committed to this story and their character work for the last two years and have created a rivalry that I can truly say stacks up against pretty much any rivalry in the history of WWE, and to have it all come crashing down due to injury is just a goddamn tragedy.
So tomorrow night, you'll get my Hopes and Predictions column for Fastlane, and my usual live reaction blog on Sunday night for the aforementioned PPV, and of course, next week's recaps of Raw, Smackdown and NXT, so keep it tuned in here for more!
Until next time, kids...
The show opened with a video package reminding us about all of the competitors that are in the Dusty Classic: Moustache Mountain, Forgotten Sons, Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch, Aleister Black and Ricochet, The Street Profits, Fabian Aichner and Marcel Barthel, The Undisputed Era and the reunion of #DIY. This show was going to have all of Round One of the Dusty Classic, hence the 20 extra minutes.
The first matchup was Aleister and Ricochet vs Aichner and Barthel, and I don't know if it's their official tag team name, but commentary kept calling them The European Union, so we'll go with that. And since they already knew that our babyfaces were going to be kicking ass on Raw and Smackdown over the last couple weeks, this match had to be less about them and more about the heels, and that's where this match really shined in making Aichner and Barthel look as strong as possible. Aichner had some of the more impressive moves like a fantastic springboard tornado DDT, and they've been doing this in NXT UK, but their double-team move while their opponent is in the Tree of Woe is pretty fucking cool. Ultimately, Aleister hit Black Mass on Aichner for the win. This was a really terrific match, because it didn't make Aichner and Barthel look weak and it made Ricochet and Black's team-up look very cohesive. These are two pairs of guys who have really solid chemistry with each other and it was an excellent showcase for The European Union.
Then we got a video recap of last episode's fantastic match between powerhouses Keith Lee and Dominik Dijakovic and the double count-out, and then we got a clip of Lee at the PC working out in a ring with Danny Burch and Drew Gulak when Dijakovic came in spoiling for a fight with Lee right there. Cooler heads prevailed, and that match is going to be in two weeks; I'm still hoping that's going to be the grudge match for TakeOver New York, and that their next match will also end with some kind of schmozz so they can carry this heat into TakeOver.
Next match was between The Forgotten Sons vs Oney Lorcan and Burch. While not being the best match of the night, this told a very simple story; Lorcan's back had a lot of damage dealt to it by Blake and Cutler, and it was hard to carry any momentum once Burch got back in the ring. We had some good double-team action on both sides and some really good drama once Oney got his steam back. But Blake and Cutler hit their double-team finisher on Lorcan for the pinfall. I have to say that, like Aichner and Barthel, this was the best Forgotten Sons have looked. Their chemistry with each other looked very solid, and I was happy to not see Jaxson Ryker get involved at all. This was definitely a solid match for both teams, and it's another example of how to book a match correctly.
Next up, we got a visit from Velveteen Dream who climbed up onto the commentary table and cut a promo reminding everyone that he was the new North American champ. But he was interrupted by the King of Bros himself, Matt Riddle, who just "came out to say 'hi'" and to congratulate Dream on his title victory, but he added that he wanted to take a closer look at the title and he was wondering to himself how it would look around his waist instead. Dream retorted that he wasn't Riddle's bro, and snapped his fingers for a spotlight, and said that the spotlight (both figurative and literal, apparently) was always on him. This is a match I really want to see at TakeOver New York, and it's again more Booking 101. Wrestler A has a title; Wrestler B wants the title. It doesn't always have to get super-complicated. As far as a real feud, I'm sure that Velveteen will play a more heelish persona in order to heat this rivalry up since I don't see Riddle as a heel yet, if at all.
We then got another backstage segment with Io Shirai and Kairi Sane sitting together talking about Io's rivalry with Bianca Belair. Io points out that Bianca didn't pin Shayna Baszler, but Io did, and Kairi believes in Io enough to support her taking on Shayna, and that Io is Japan's best. Most importantly, Io believes in herself, and she will face Shayna at TakeOver NY. So yeah, I'm all for that. I'm very interested to see how they book the match between Belair and Shirai that doesn't make Belair look weak, and I'm hoping to see some more character work from Belair as well, since Io is already over as hell.
Next match was Street Profits vs Moustache Mountain. MM is such a natural babyface team that Ford and Dawkins had to show a much more aggressive side than they have and essentially fight heel in this contest, and they did that. If this match showed us anything, it showed us two things: first is that Tyler Bate is almost impossibly strong. His movements and feats of strength are out of this world for a guy his size. And the second is that Montez Ford can fucking fly. That dude has springs for legs, because he cleared the top rope to catch Trent Seven on the outside by about four feet, and he must have almost hit his fucking head on the ceiling going for his frog splash (which came off a tag from the wrong corner, but whatever), which Bate was able to kick out of. There was a moment where Seven and Ford had a scream-off that really had me smiling ear-to-ear. But MM was able to hit Dawkins with a top-rope double-team finisher that, per Nigel's call, was "bowling shoe ugly", but it got them the win. This one was a bit of a shocker to me, since Seven and Bate clearly have their own thing going on in NXT UK, so it was just surprising to see them go over Street Profits, who really could have benefited from the win more than the babyface Brits. And Profits would have faced Forgotten Sons in the next round, a team they already have a solid rivalry with, so this was a good match, but the booking for the finish was really confounding to me.
And to finish up the night, we had O'Reilly and Fish from Undisputed Era vs Gargano and Ciampa. UE came out first, and then both Johnny and Tommaso came out to their own entrance music, but while the two of them stood on the ramp, the old #DIY entrance music hit! Yay! And if you thought that this was going to be the match of the night, well... you were right. Johnny spend a lot of time getting the hell kicked out of him as Fish and O'Reilly hit a series of strong double-team moves and isolating him well. Ciampa got back in and eventually hit a Tower of London and a Blue Thunder Bomb on his Undisputed Era opponents. The action was fast and furious for most of the match, and there were some great moments between these two teams, but it is also still pretty weird to see Ciampa fighting babyface to Undisputed Era's heels. There was an awesome back-and-forth between Gargano and Kyle as well, as they kept rebounding off each other's shots to try to lay the other one out. The moment that made me cringe though was when Fish hit a top-rope Michinoku Driver on Ciampa; it wasn't so much that Tommaso landed badly, but it probably didn't help his neck at all. But Ciampa fought back and hit a draping DDT on O'Reilly followed by a picture-perfect slingshot DDT by Johnny, but O'Reilly kicked out, but it was still only a matter of time at this point. And #DIY hit Meet in the Middle on Kyle for the win. There's still a lot of subtle character work going on here, particularly with Johnny and how his eyes rarely left Ciampa's NXT Championship belt, and I'm just so sad that this story is unlikely to play out at NXT. Both of these guys have been so incredibly committed to this story and their character work for the last two years and have created a rivalry that I can truly say stacks up against pretty much any rivalry in the history of WWE, and to have it all come crashing down due to injury is just a goddamn tragedy.
So tomorrow night, you'll get my Hopes and Predictions column for Fastlane, and my usual live reaction blog on Sunday night for the aforementioned PPV, and of course, next week's recaps of Raw, Smackdown and NXT, so keep it tuned in here for more!
Until next time, kids...
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