Another week of a lot of NXT fun has come and gone, and since we're closing in on another TakeOver coming somewhat soon, some matches have already been made and others are starting to take shape. In the UK, we're closing in on Dunne/Walter II, and the field is opening up for new talent to come in and step up, so as usual, it's a really exciting time to be a fan of the NXT brand!
So let's dive into NXT and see if there was anything that didn't really work.
As I've stated a number of times, the biggest issue that NXT has is in the Women's division. They tend to get some serious tunnel vision when it comes to that division and the main focus always seems to be whoever is going to be a contender for the title and rarely do we get some actual enhancement talent. This week we had Vanessa Borne with Aliyah vs Jessie, and it was okay, but it didn't further any stories other than proving something we already know and that's that Vanessa and Aliyah are villains. Give me a post-match promo calling someone out. Give me something more. If you can't give me a good match, give me a good story.
When I cover the main roster shows, there's always a swirl area that blends stuff that had elements of both good and bad, but with NXT, that's very very seldom the situation, so let's move on to the stuff that worked!
When the Viking Raiders came in to kick off the show and said they were so busy kicking ass on the main roster and since no team in NXT could beat them, they would be relinquishing their tag titles. Street Profits came in and said that they could indeed beatRowe and Hansen Erik and Ivar, and Mr. Regal made the match for the main event. I love Street Profits so much and think that they're going to be big stars in the near future, and Viking Raiders, despite the awful names they've been given since coming to WWE, have really captured my heart since TakeOver Phoenix, and their interplay in this opening promo was just genuinely fun. Of course, after the drive-by beatdown by The Forgotten Sons last week, we knew they were going to interject themselves. We'll get back to this in a bit, but I just wanted to praise Angelo Dawkins for poking fun at how many times Viking Raiders have had their names changed in the last month. That was indeed a laugh out loud moment.
I popped like a motherfucker when Keith Lee returned. I was so happy to see him back in action. I prefer them leaving him time to fully heal up before getting back in the ring, and he definitely showed up to work. It's unfortunate that now that Lee's back that Dominik Dijakovic is now on the shelf. So when both these guys are back at 100%, they're going to have a hell of a match. Watching Lee conduct the crowd chants was just so much fun. Beating Cesar Bononi isn't much of a feat, but at least this wasn't a straight-up squash, and I know that I've had a lot to say about how tired I am of powerbombs, but the Spirit Bomb is a thing of beauty. It's a badass finisher, and Lee makes it look good. So I'm here all day for Keith Lee.
The bit where Cole, Fish and O'Reilly were complaining about Roddy only to have Roddy come up like an obedient puppy with a bloody flip-flop indicating that the Matt Riddle problem had been "taken care of" was another indicator that someone's being worked here, whether it's us or Cole, and that again is one of the huge benefits of solid storytelling that NXT can pull off. A lot of questions are still up in the air within Undisputed Era and I'm dying to find out what happens next.
The interactions between Bianca Belair and Mia Yim are incredibly solid. They're doing their damnedest to keep heat on their feud, and it's working. I'm really looking forward to seeing them going at it again.
And once again, we got another look at Kushida as he took on Kona Reeves, and it's so fucking pleasing that they're not trying to really turn Kushida into a total WWE-style performer. He's keeping the spirit of his New Japan work alive and well here in NXT, and that makes me really happy. I will say that I don't think the Hoverboard Lock is that great of a submission finisher, but the rest of his work is so solid that it really doesn't matter a whole lot. Personally, I'm really hoping that someday in the not-too-distant future that Finn Balor, Ricochet and Kushida all face off together as a bunch of former Best of the Super Jr's triple-threat, even if it's just at a house show. Also the appearance of Drew Gulak was awesome, because that's a match I would totally pop for. I kinda hope that Drew would come to NXT full time, because the Cruiserweight division has certainly given us some fun matches, but I think that talent could be better served elsewhere.
And the main event wasn't everything I'd hoped it would be, but it absolutely served its purpose of giving a bunch of tag teams something to fight over at what I'm assuming will be a TakeOver match. And it was made official on Thursday that the titles were indeed vacated so that leaves Forgotten Sons, Street Profits and Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch something to fight over. And again, Montez Ford was the highlight of the evening as he not only showed that he's amazingly athletic, but hilariously funny when he's caught in a scary situation and he bulges out his eyes and lets out that high-pitched scream. It's so over-the-top silly that it just makes me deliriously happy to see and hear. This wouldn't work with anyone else right now. Street Profits have been so heavily underlooked in the tag division on NXT and this is their time to shine. Again, I'm still nowhere near to being close to giving a single shit about Forgotten Sons, and I admire the pluck of Lorcan and Burch, but I'm not just not quite there for those two.
And with two title matches already confirmed for TakeOver XXV, those being a rematch for the NXT Championship between Johnny Champion and Adam Cole as well as for the NXT Women's title between Shayna Baszler and Io Shirai, I'm predicting that we're going to see a triple threat for the now-vacant tag titles as well.
Now let's travel across the water to talk about NXT UK!
There was a lot of fun stuff that happened here along with a debut of the apparent next big thing in the UK in Ilja Dragunov, the red contact-wearing madman who wrestles a lot like how one would imagine the Tazmanian Devil from Looney Tunes would wrestle. He debuted against perennial debut jobber (and nearly translucent-skinned) Jack Starz, and Dragunov was just a total psycho. He was really fun to watch and had some really devastating power moves. The Moscow Torpedo, which is essentially like a spear combined with a twisting European uppercut, is a fun finisher. It'll be fun to watch his progress through the ranks there.
But Dragunov was not the only performer to debut this week in the UK as Killer Kelly and Xia Brookside were having something of a somewhat sporting match, and then in the middle of it, Jinny appeared and motioned toward the stage, and Jazzy Gabert appeared. Some people might recognize Gabert from the first Mae Young Classic, and she's a real powerhouse and pretty damn fun to watch. Kelly made a hasty retreat and Gabert came out to the ring and destroyed little Xia. This duo is going to be a pair to watch in the coming weeks and months.
Also on the women's side, since they were still in Glasgow, Piper Niven got a big pop as she came out to face the cocky Jamie Hayter, and Niven kicked the cockiness right out of Hayter. I do have to say that Niven has a really beautiful Michinoku Driver. And she's just a lot of fun to watch, so she's definitely worth keeping an eye on.
And then we had two more qualifying matches for spots for the Fatal 4-Way match to determine the #1 Contender spot for the UK title... you know, I still can't get over that they're having a tournament just to determine who's going to get into a Fatal 4-Way and those performers are still just going to be fighting it out to get a #1 Contender spot to face whoever has the title after next week's rematch between Pete Dunne and champ Walter (it'll be Walter). That's so cool to me, and I don't want to be a broken record about this, but this is the kind of booking that we need more of on the main roster. We had Jordan Devlin vs Ligero and then Dave Mastiff vs Wolfgang. Devlin and Ligero was naturally a much more dynamic match as they both have really strong acrobatic moves, although I do prefer Ligero in the Union Jack luchador mask than the weird colors he was wearing this week. They had a really hard-fought battle, but in the end, Devlin came out on top, and that was the right call because Devlin is one of those really good heels that should be always hovering around the title picture. The match between Mastiff and Wolfgang was basically like if two bowling balls went to war. They threw each other all over the ring, and despite the solid match, the loss that Wolfgang suffered didn't quite go over well with the Glaswegian crowd, but that's what happens when you're in a match with a hometown favorite even if the hometown guy is a heel.
So UK is still going through some growing pains for me because I'm not fully invested in a lot of the stories, but when the stories that they have going really work, I get all the way into it. There's so much that the main roster could learn from the NXT brands.
So that's it for this week! If you didn't see my Hopes and Predictions column for Money in the Bank tomorrow, please give that a look as well! Is there anything I didn't go over that you want more of? You can let me know here in the comments section, or find me on Twitter @donnelly92274 for more of the world of wrestling and all the other weird shit I'm into! I'd normally do a live blog while watching a PPV, but that's not in the cards for the forecasted future because I work Sundays and it's hard enough to get my normal columns put out as I had previously set forth because of my stupid new work schedule. So that's a thing we're not seeing this time around. But I'm still looking to get you my regularly scheduled Raw and Smackdown recaps on or around Wednesday of each week and NXT/NXT UK recaps on the weekends, so keep an eye out!
Until next time, kids...
So let's dive into NXT and see if there was anything that didn't really work.
As I've stated a number of times, the biggest issue that NXT has is in the Women's division. They tend to get some serious tunnel vision when it comes to that division and the main focus always seems to be whoever is going to be a contender for the title and rarely do we get some actual enhancement talent. This week we had Vanessa Borne with Aliyah vs Jessie, and it was okay, but it didn't further any stories other than proving something we already know and that's that Vanessa and Aliyah are villains. Give me a post-match promo calling someone out. Give me something more. If you can't give me a good match, give me a good story.
When I cover the main roster shows, there's always a swirl area that blends stuff that had elements of both good and bad, but with NXT, that's very very seldom the situation, so let's move on to the stuff that worked!
When the Viking Raiders came in to kick off the show and said they were so busy kicking ass on the main roster and since no team in NXT could beat them, they would be relinquishing their tag titles. Street Profits came in and said that they could indeed beat
I popped like a motherfucker when Keith Lee returned. I was so happy to see him back in action. I prefer them leaving him time to fully heal up before getting back in the ring, and he definitely showed up to work. It's unfortunate that now that Lee's back that Dominik Dijakovic is now on the shelf. So when both these guys are back at 100%, they're going to have a hell of a match. Watching Lee conduct the crowd chants was just so much fun. Beating Cesar Bononi isn't much of a feat, but at least this wasn't a straight-up squash, and I know that I've had a lot to say about how tired I am of powerbombs, but the Spirit Bomb is a thing of beauty. It's a badass finisher, and Lee makes it look good. So I'm here all day for Keith Lee.
The bit where Cole, Fish and O'Reilly were complaining about Roddy only to have Roddy come up like an obedient puppy with a bloody flip-flop indicating that the Matt Riddle problem had been "taken care of" was another indicator that someone's being worked here, whether it's us or Cole, and that again is one of the huge benefits of solid storytelling that NXT can pull off. A lot of questions are still up in the air within Undisputed Era and I'm dying to find out what happens next.
The interactions between Bianca Belair and Mia Yim are incredibly solid. They're doing their damnedest to keep heat on their feud, and it's working. I'm really looking forward to seeing them going at it again.
And once again, we got another look at Kushida as he took on Kona Reeves, and it's so fucking pleasing that they're not trying to really turn Kushida into a total WWE-style performer. He's keeping the spirit of his New Japan work alive and well here in NXT, and that makes me really happy. I will say that I don't think the Hoverboard Lock is that great of a submission finisher, but the rest of his work is so solid that it really doesn't matter a whole lot. Personally, I'm really hoping that someday in the not-too-distant future that Finn Balor, Ricochet and Kushida all face off together as a bunch of former Best of the Super Jr's triple-threat, even if it's just at a house show. Also the appearance of Drew Gulak was awesome, because that's a match I would totally pop for. I kinda hope that Drew would come to NXT full time, because the Cruiserweight division has certainly given us some fun matches, but I think that talent could be better served elsewhere.
And the main event wasn't everything I'd hoped it would be, but it absolutely served its purpose of giving a bunch of tag teams something to fight over at what I'm assuming will be a TakeOver match. And it was made official on Thursday that the titles were indeed vacated so that leaves Forgotten Sons, Street Profits and Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch something to fight over. And again, Montez Ford was the highlight of the evening as he not only showed that he's amazingly athletic, but hilariously funny when he's caught in a scary situation and he bulges out his eyes and lets out that high-pitched scream. It's so over-the-top silly that it just makes me deliriously happy to see and hear. This wouldn't work with anyone else right now. Street Profits have been so heavily underlooked in the tag division on NXT and this is their time to shine. Again, I'm still nowhere near to being close to giving a single shit about Forgotten Sons, and I admire the pluck of Lorcan and Burch, but I'm not just not quite there for those two.
And with two title matches already confirmed for TakeOver XXV, those being a rematch for the NXT Championship between Johnny Champion and Adam Cole as well as for the NXT Women's title between Shayna Baszler and Io Shirai, I'm predicting that we're going to see a triple threat for the now-vacant tag titles as well.
Now let's travel across the water to talk about NXT UK!
There was a lot of fun stuff that happened here along with a debut of the apparent next big thing in the UK in Ilja Dragunov, the red contact-wearing madman who wrestles a lot like how one would imagine the Tazmanian Devil from Looney Tunes would wrestle. He debuted against perennial debut jobber (and nearly translucent-skinned) Jack Starz, and Dragunov was just a total psycho. He was really fun to watch and had some really devastating power moves. The Moscow Torpedo, which is essentially like a spear combined with a twisting European uppercut, is a fun finisher. It'll be fun to watch his progress through the ranks there.
But Dragunov was not the only performer to debut this week in the UK as Killer Kelly and Xia Brookside were having something of a somewhat sporting match, and then in the middle of it, Jinny appeared and motioned toward the stage, and Jazzy Gabert appeared. Some people might recognize Gabert from the first Mae Young Classic, and she's a real powerhouse and pretty damn fun to watch. Kelly made a hasty retreat and Gabert came out to the ring and destroyed little Xia. This duo is going to be a pair to watch in the coming weeks and months.
Also on the women's side, since they were still in Glasgow, Piper Niven got a big pop as she came out to face the cocky Jamie Hayter, and Niven kicked the cockiness right out of Hayter. I do have to say that Niven has a really beautiful Michinoku Driver. And she's just a lot of fun to watch, so she's definitely worth keeping an eye on.
And then we had two more qualifying matches for spots for the Fatal 4-Way match to determine the #1 Contender spot for the UK title... you know, I still can't get over that they're having a tournament just to determine who's going to get into a Fatal 4-Way and those performers are still just going to be fighting it out to get a #1 Contender spot to face whoever has the title after next week's rematch between Pete Dunne and champ Walter (it'll be Walter). That's so cool to me, and I don't want to be a broken record about this, but this is the kind of booking that we need more of on the main roster. We had Jordan Devlin vs Ligero and then Dave Mastiff vs Wolfgang. Devlin and Ligero was naturally a much more dynamic match as they both have really strong acrobatic moves, although I do prefer Ligero in the Union Jack luchador mask than the weird colors he was wearing this week. They had a really hard-fought battle, but in the end, Devlin came out on top, and that was the right call because Devlin is one of those really good heels that should be always hovering around the title picture. The match between Mastiff and Wolfgang was basically like if two bowling balls went to war. They threw each other all over the ring, and despite the solid match, the loss that Wolfgang suffered didn't quite go over well with the Glaswegian crowd, but that's what happens when you're in a match with a hometown favorite even if the hometown guy is a heel.
So UK is still going through some growing pains for me because I'm not fully invested in a lot of the stories, but when the stories that they have going really work, I get all the way into it. There's so much that the main roster could learn from the NXT brands.
So that's it for this week! If you didn't see my Hopes and Predictions column for Money in the Bank tomorrow, please give that a look as well! Is there anything I didn't go over that you want more of? You can let me know here in the comments section, or find me on Twitter @donnelly92274 for more of the world of wrestling and all the other weird shit I'm into! I'd normally do a live blog while watching a PPV, but that's not in the cards for the forecasted future because I work Sundays and it's hard enough to get my normal columns put out as I had previously set forth because of my stupid new work schedule. So that's a thing we're not seeing this time around. But I'm still looking to get you my regularly scheduled Raw and Smackdown recaps on or around Wednesday of each week and NXT/NXT UK recaps on the weekends, so keep an eye out!
Until next time, kids...
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