NXT, my sweet sweet mistress of the WWE world. You give me so much more than I could ever get with the main roster, but when you hurt me, you make it so much more painful than the main roster ever could.
Let me preface this by stating that this faux-erotic preamble is in no way a real indictment of this week's episodes, but more of how I'm down for Adam Cole being the NXT Champion, but not yet over the sting of him beating Johnny Gargano for said title. I'm still... angry. And that's as much a credit to a heel champ like Cole and his Undisputed Era cronies running the joint as it is a real issue with a currently directionless Gargano, and this episode didn't really do his journey any justice. But it did loads for others, and we can slowly see how the scene is going to be shaping up in the near future.
Finally back at Full Sail, Cole bragging on his victory and how Undisputed Era is going to become so powerful that they'll be able to defy everyone from the fans to William Regal to Triple H is a great heel promo, and props have to be given to Cole for going all in on being a real shitheel and never trying to play it in-between. There was only one match I ever saw where Cole wasn't fighting heel and that was his Royal Rumble Axxess match against Shane Thorne, but even there, he didn't really give too many hints that he was fighting babyface either. We know that in real life, Adam Cole is a really good dude. He makes time for his fans, he has fun with the other talent backstage, but he's still committed to maintaining the kayfabe for the audience. And he and Kyle O'Reilly, Bobby Fish and Roderick Strong are committed, and even the new show opening that apparently Kyle put together himself (bless that kid) showed a complete disdain for everyone else in the locker room. But there was some resistance to their presumptive leadership of NXT, and that was personified in Velveteen Dream, Tyler Breeze, and Matt Riddle. Of course this would lead to a three-on-three tag match for the main event. But before that, there were two matches that needed to happen in order to give more direction for the future.
First off was the re-debut ofPunishment Martinez Damian Priest who is now a dude who loves nightlife, wealth and the ladies. It seems like they're trying to create a hybrid of EC3 and Kona Reeves, and while EC3 was definitely over at some point in NXT, that's never been the case for Reeves who is still struggling to get over as a heel. He was taking on Raul Mendoza, who is already starting to get over with the crowd because he can do some really impressive stuff and picked up what I believe was his first win on NXT TV about a month ago against Riddick Moss who came back after some time with a new and awesome gimmick. The main problem with this match was that Mendoza ended up looking more interesting than Priest, who just looked like a relatively generic big man. I just wasn't impressed with Priest which is surprising because when he debut in NXT as Punishment Martinez, I remember him being pretty fun to watch. And if anything, with a name like Damian Priest, it seems like they should play up some kind of, well for lack or a better term, supernatural or pseudo-religious angle. He could be the evil version of Aleister Black. Alas and alack, he's not but will have more chances to prove some worth in the future.
We also had a match between Taynara Conti and Xia Li, and Conti is back to being a heel despite starting off the match with a handshake. Once she got frustrated, though, she started in with heel tactics. The most interesting thing about this match was the martial arts aspect; they're both using their own respective martial arts backgrounds and they're very different styles. This match was... okay. It wasn't great; it was definitely a good developmental match. I'm not sure how effective Li's finisher looked, but it put down Conti, and we have a reason for her to be a heel again.
As far as the main event, It was Dream, Breeze and Riddle facing off against Cole, Strong and Fish, and yeah, it was fucking great. The in-ring story of the faces not being on the same page while UE was pulling out just about everything in their bag of tricks really worked. And with Strong picking up the win by pinning Dream with End of Heartache, that's going to build a great case as to Strong taking on Dream for the North American title, and that's a good trajectory for Strong since Fish is apparently all nicely healed up and ready to continue teaming with O'Reilly. I have a lot of issues with them going really old-school and putting all the gold on Undisputed Era in 2019, but again, this might be something that these guys and the NXT Creative department could pull off.
I'm sorry, but I have to go back to Johnny for a bit. There's a reason that Johnny Gargano is called Johnny TakeOver, and with Matt Riddle likely being the next big opponent of Cole, it doesn't exactly put Gargano in the best position. What would a TakeOver even look like at this point without his presence? But at the same time, could pulling him out of the spotlight for a little while give the other stars in NXT some good time in a TakeOver match? Keith Lee is well on his way to being super over (if he's not there already), Riddle will need another really solid matchup at a TakeOver, and now we have KUSHIDA. I can't imagine a world where Johnny would not want a shot at getting the title back, and I'm hoping we're going to get something like that soon. But the main thing here is that I don't want Gargano vs Cole to be a lesser version of Gargano vs Ciampa, and I also don't want them going back to the well and recycling storylines he's already done. I don't want him to become super frustrated by his title loss that he ends up going to the dark side again, or him growing increasingly desperate that he does another "I Quit" match. I also don't want to see him on the main roster, like, ever so that's out too. Maybe just having him on the sidelines developing another really strong story for him to latch onto will be the best plan for now. But I'm gonna miss him if that's the case.
Now we go to the Download Festival in Derby, England for NXT UK!
This was another fine episode that was more of a house show than really pushing a lot of stories forward, although there was a place setting for a future championship bout.
We started off with Kenny Williams, a performer I think is incredibly entertaining to watch, vs Kassius Ohno who is definitely making a name for himself as a solid heel in NXT UK. This was a fun match to watch, and Ohno continued a pretty good winning streak, which is something he didn't have at Full Sail for a good long while. I'm hoping for good things for Ohno, but I'm not seeing any titles in his near future. A title shot, maybe, but not any gold for him. And Williams is terrific in his tag team with Amir Jordan, but since Jordan is out with injury, we're probably not going to see Kenny for a while yet.
We also had a fun, and shockingly uninterrupted, promo from Imperium where they really leaned into the heelness of their faction. They don't give a flying fuck about entertaining us; they want to teach everyone to respect the "sport" of wrestling. With Alexander Wolfe entering their ranks now, it's going to get wild and whether or not he ends up being the solo performer while Barthel and Aichner continue to tag together and WALTER just fucks up everyone he comes into contact with. This faction could have a lot of mileage in front of them, and it'll be really interesting to see what they do together.
Next up was Gallus vs The Hunt. Again, another enjoyable match that didn't really set the world on fire but got the job done. The Hunt looked good while Coffey and Wolfgang ended up taking the win. The most interesting part of the match though was when Gallus started a post-match beatdown on The Hunt and Dave Mastiff came in to make the save. I really enjoy Mastiff and he looks like he could be a future champ, despite having some stiff competition for that spot.
The main event was a Women's Battle Royal to get the #1 Contender spot for a shot at champ Toni Storm. It had everyone from the Women's roster: Jinny, Kay Lee Ray, Xia Brookside, Isla Dawn, Jazzy Gabert, Piper Niven, Nina Samuels, Candy Floss, Killer Kelly and Rhea Ripley. Jazzy looked like a monster, Ripley looked super strong, Niven had a really good showing, and Brookside was a terrific underdog. But everything came up Kay Lee Ray as she came back into the ring after Brookside thought she had won and promptly got eliminated by Ray, making her the #1 Contender. I don't know if this is going to be the match that Storm is going to have at TakeOver: Cardiff, but I'll look forward to these two facing off. Ray is really solid and Storm could use some really strong competition in order to either keep her on top or to knock her off.
Again, not as much commentary about NXT UK because again, I'm still getting a feel for a lot of these performers and the stories they're telling, but it's all heading in the right direction!
And that is it for this week in NXT! Again, there's a new home for all things Kayfabio on Twitter and that's @jkayfabio so don't forget to follow me there! And I'll have another recap of next week's happenings, including a wrap-up of Stomping Grounds, so keep your eyes peeled!
Until next time, kids...
Let me preface this by stating that this faux-erotic preamble is in no way a real indictment of this week's episodes, but more of how I'm down for Adam Cole being the NXT Champion, but not yet over the sting of him beating Johnny Gargano for said title. I'm still... angry. And that's as much a credit to a heel champ like Cole and his Undisputed Era cronies running the joint as it is a real issue with a currently directionless Gargano, and this episode didn't really do his journey any justice. But it did loads for others, and we can slowly see how the scene is going to be shaping up in the near future.
Finally back at Full Sail, Cole bragging on his victory and how Undisputed Era is going to become so powerful that they'll be able to defy everyone from the fans to William Regal to Triple H is a great heel promo, and props have to be given to Cole for going all in on being a real shitheel and never trying to play it in-between. There was only one match I ever saw where Cole wasn't fighting heel and that was his Royal Rumble Axxess match against Shane Thorne, but even there, he didn't really give too many hints that he was fighting babyface either. We know that in real life, Adam Cole is a really good dude. He makes time for his fans, he has fun with the other talent backstage, but he's still committed to maintaining the kayfabe for the audience. And he and Kyle O'Reilly, Bobby Fish and Roderick Strong are committed, and even the new show opening that apparently Kyle put together himself (bless that kid) showed a complete disdain for everyone else in the locker room. But there was some resistance to their presumptive leadership of NXT, and that was personified in Velveteen Dream, Tyler Breeze, and Matt Riddle. Of course this would lead to a three-on-three tag match for the main event. But before that, there were two matches that needed to happen in order to give more direction for the future.
First off was the re-debut of
We also had a match between Taynara Conti and Xia Li, and Conti is back to being a heel despite starting off the match with a handshake. Once she got frustrated, though, she started in with heel tactics. The most interesting thing about this match was the martial arts aspect; they're both using their own respective martial arts backgrounds and they're very different styles. This match was... okay. It wasn't great; it was definitely a good developmental match. I'm not sure how effective Li's finisher looked, but it put down Conti, and we have a reason for her to be a heel again.
As far as the main event, It was Dream, Breeze and Riddle facing off against Cole, Strong and Fish, and yeah, it was fucking great. The in-ring story of the faces not being on the same page while UE was pulling out just about everything in their bag of tricks really worked. And with Strong picking up the win by pinning Dream with End of Heartache, that's going to build a great case as to Strong taking on Dream for the North American title, and that's a good trajectory for Strong since Fish is apparently all nicely healed up and ready to continue teaming with O'Reilly. I have a lot of issues with them going really old-school and putting all the gold on Undisputed Era in 2019, but again, this might be something that these guys and the NXT Creative department could pull off.
I'm sorry, but I have to go back to Johnny for a bit. There's a reason that Johnny Gargano is called Johnny TakeOver, and with Matt Riddle likely being the next big opponent of Cole, it doesn't exactly put Gargano in the best position. What would a TakeOver even look like at this point without his presence? But at the same time, could pulling him out of the spotlight for a little while give the other stars in NXT some good time in a TakeOver match? Keith Lee is well on his way to being super over (if he's not there already), Riddle will need another really solid matchup at a TakeOver, and now we have KUSHIDA. I can't imagine a world where Johnny would not want a shot at getting the title back, and I'm hoping we're going to get something like that soon. But the main thing here is that I don't want Gargano vs Cole to be a lesser version of Gargano vs Ciampa, and I also don't want them going back to the well and recycling storylines he's already done. I don't want him to become super frustrated by his title loss that he ends up going to the dark side again, or him growing increasingly desperate that he does another "I Quit" match. I also don't want to see him on the main roster, like, ever so that's out too. Maybe just having him on the sidelines developing another really strong story for him to latch onto will be the best plan for now. But I'm gonna miss him if that's the case.
Now we go to the Download Festival in Derby, England for NXT UK!
This was another fine episode that was more of a house show than really pushing a lot of stories forward, although there was a place setting for a future championship bout.
We started off with Kenny Williams, a performer I think is incredibly entertaining to watch, vs Kassius Ohno who is definitely making a name for himself as a solid heel in NXT UK. This was a fun match to watch, and Ohno continued a pretty good winning streak, which is something he didn't have at Full Sail for a good long while. I'm hoping for good things for Ohno, but I'm not seeing any titles in his near future. A title shot, maybe, but not any gold for him. And Williams is terrific in his tag team with Amir Jordan, but since Jordan is out with injury, we're probably not going to see Kenny for a while yet.
We also had a fun, and shockingly uninterrupted, promo from Imperium where they really leaned into the heelness of their faction. They don't give a flying fuck about entertaining us; they want to teach everyone to respect the "sport" of wrestling. With Alexander Wolfe entering their ranks now, it's going to get wild and whether or not he ends up being the solo performer while Barthel and Aichner continue to tag together and WALTER just fucks up everyone he comes into contact with. This faction could have a lot of mileage in front of them, and it'll be really interesting to see what they do together.
Next up was Gallus vs The Hunt. Again, another enjoyable match that didn't really set the world on fire but got the job done. The Hunt looked good while Coffey and Wolfgang ended up taking the win. The most interesting part of the match though was when Gallus started a post-match beatdown on The Hunt and Dave Mastiff came in to make the save. I really enjoy Mastiff and he looks like he could be a future champ, despite having some stiff competition for that spot.
The main event was a Women's Battle Royal to get the #1 Contender spot for a shot at champ Toni Storm. It had everyone from the Women's roster: Jinny, Kay Lee Ray, Xia Brookside, Isla Dawn, Jazzy Gabert, Piper Niven, Nina Samuels, Candy Floss, Killer Kelly and Rhea Ripley. Jazzy looked like a monster, Ripley looked super strong, Niven had a really good showing, and Brookside was a terrific underdog. But everything came up Kay Lee Ray as she came back into the ring after Brookside thought she had won and promptly got eliminated by Ray, making her the #1 Contender. I don't know if this is going to be the match that Storm is going to have at TakeOver: Cardiff, but I'll look forward to these two facing off. Ray is really solid and Storm could use some really strong competition in order to either keep her on top or to knock her off.
Again, not as much commentary about NXT UK because again, I'm still getting a feel for a lot of these performers and the stories they're telling, but it's all heading in the right direction!
And that is it for this week in NXT! Again, there's a new home for all things Kayfabio on Twitter and that's @jkayfabio so don't forget to follow me there! And I'll have another recap of next week's happenings, including a wrap-up of Stomping Grounds, so keep your eyes peeled!
Until next time, kids...
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