The Best And Worst Of WWE NXT 1/20/16: Alpha Dogs

Previously on the Best and Worst of NXT: Last week’s show was all about establishing new #1 contenders. An in-ring confrontation between Samoa Joe, Baron Corbin and a returning Sami Zayn got William Regal in “triple threat” mode, and this week follows up on that. There was also a battle royal to name a new #1 contender to Bayley’s NXT Women’s Championship, which was (surprisingly) won by her best friend Carmella.

If you missed this week’s episode, you can watch it here. If you’d like to read our older columns (and/or keep up with the latest NXT news, like them trademarking “no way Jose”), click over here. With Spandex is on Twitter, so follow it, and like us on Facebook. You can also follow me on Twitter.

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Please scroll through for the Best and Worst of WWE NXT for Jan. 20, 2016. So sick.

Best: Let’s Go Ahead And Talk About American Alpha

I keep trying to figure out what makes me like Chad Gable and Jason Jordan so much. Like, it’s easy to just say it’s because they’re good at wrestling. They’re really good at wrestling. Gable can turn a wristlock reversal into something with the emotional gravity of a sonogram, and Jason Jordan’s overhead belly-to-belly where he gets them upside down and totally vertical before he’s even falling backwards is a thing of beauty. But yo, there are a lot of people who are good at wrestling. Johnny Gargano is good at wrestling, but I’m not making squee noises every time he springs off the bottom rope into something.

They’re like … puppies. I think that’s it. They’re really happy to be here, they’ve got an infectious enthusiasm, and they look like they’ve found the only other people in the world that could understand them. The longstanding joke that isn’t even really a joke (and certainly isn’t used in the pejorative) is that they’re f*cking, and that’s certainly validated by all the creepy “say my name” stuff and the palpable sexual chemistry, but no, I think they’re just puppies. The feeling I get when I see them is the same one I get when I’m walking down the street and somebody walks by with a pug puppy. Pure, unadulterated happiness.

This week, we get a segment where they accidentally name themselves “American Alpha,” which is great. This should be their catchphrase. I don’t think he was on the Japanese show, anyway. I also like that Jordan is now knowingly performing his part of the “ready, willing and Gable” catchphrase in a way that makes Chad constantly, temporarily doubt their friendship. It’s amazing how far “seeming like you’re happy to be here” can take you in wrestling.

Best: And While We’re On The Topic, Alexa Bliss’ Face

This isn’t the first time I’ve said it, but nobody in wrestling right now has facial expressions better than Alexa Bliss. She’s so expressive, and can believably go from “I’m going to kill you by staring at you with disappointment” to hyperspecific micro-emotions like “what you’ve said is accurate and positive, so I’ll acknowledge it, but I’m still finishing my sentence.” Bliss says more in a squish of the face than Finn Bálor could say in 15 minutes.

Worst: Move Forward With Either Of These Guys, Please And Thank You

I’ll get to the three matches that tentpole the episode, but here’s Apollo Crews and Tye Dillinger again.

NXT helps me understand how my sh*tty high-school art teacher felt. Growing up, I was always the “artist” kid. I could draw really well, paint, sculpt, whatever. It came naturally to me. When I got to high school, my art teacher (who never lived up to the awesomeness of his name: “Mr. Thrasher”) picked up on this. When he’d give assignments, I’d do mine in one sitting and just kill it, and everyone else would spend a week or two procrastinating or half-assing everything and turning in garbage. He’d give them A’s for effort, then give me an A-minus (or the dreaded B+) because he “knew I could do better.” The idea was that he knew I had talent, so he wanted to push me and motivate me and make me work harder. It frustrated me, because I knew I was being held to higher standards than everyone else just because I was gifted, and it made me feel alienated and taken advantage of. It made me want to try less, and I ended up finishing my work faster so I could do everyone else’s projects, too. I guess I don’t handle motivation well. Who knew a control freak who can’t handle criticism would end up a blogger?

NXT is me. WWE Proper can fill three hours with garbage and I’ll be like, “it was a pretty good episode because they spent 2 minutes out of 180 doing a funeral for a trombone, which was sort of funny!” With NXT, they can produce top-shelf episode after top shelf-episode, but if they repeat themselves even slightly I freak out and hold them to ridiculous standards. “You could do better, NXT! Why is Apollo Crews fighting Tye Dillinger again? Are you never doing anything with Dillinger? Can Crews only fight one of three opponents? Are you never changing Tye’s music back to the better, older one? Speaking of ‘better older,’ why are we doing Sami Zayn vs. Adam Rose again? We’ve seen that. It wasn’t great the first time. Sami’s back, why not give us some fresh match-ups?” Triple H(‘s intern) is probably somewhere reading this thinking, “goddammit, Stroud, we’re doing a thing and we’re better than anything else you watch, chill out.”

But yeah, we did Crews vs. Dillinger again so we could do Crews vs. Finn again. Eh?

Best: Consistent Character Interactions

Okay, back to the unrelentingly positive.

One of the things I like most about NXT is that I know who the characters are, and I can realistically guess how they’d react to stuff. The backstage interview with Carmella and Bayley is great, because it ties together a bunch of character relationships, and everything makes sense. First of all, we further the idea that Bayley and Carmella are best friends. If you don’t follow them on social media (or watch Breaking Ground), you might not know. I like the idea that Bayley, someone who tried to make friends with her peers and got treated badly by every single one of them en route to gruelingly earning their respect, would find a “best friend” off-screen, and that it would be someone who isn’t really on her level. She’s the Natalya in the Natalya/Bayley dynamic now, but Bayley’s not being a jerk. She’s being the change she wants to see in the world, if you will. Carmella earned a title shot fair and square, so they’ve got a match coming up. Watch when Carmella mentions it. Bayley clutches the title belt closer to her and turns away. That’s a beautiful, understated character moment.

The Mechanics show up to give “Carms” (their nickname for Carmella) sh*t, because that’s what they do. They hate Enzo and Cass and Enzo and Cass aren’t here to hear the response to last week’s promo, so Dawson and Wilder just give it to her. They also make sure to remind the viewing audience that one day soon, American Alpha will descend up them with great vengeance and furious anger. Carmella gets hot about it, but Bayley calms her down, because Bayley.

Best: The Women’s Tag

That leads into a tag-team match: “Baymella” (who should really be called “Carley,” if only for the Carly Rae Jepsen jokes) vs. Alexa Bliss and Emma, with Dana Brooke in their corner. It’s the best part of the show, I think, if only for the incredible amount of sh*t Dana Brooke talks the entire match. I think my favorite part is when she gets caught up on the apron and starts yelling, “I’M NOT DOING NOTHING!” The announce team corrects her grammar, because I’d rather hang out with Dana Brooke than Corey Graves and Tom Phillips.

The characters and motivations all stay consistent. Emma and Alexa are a team, but they don’t really like each other. Dana is a hot mess. Bayley is kinda-sorta the NXT Women’s Division’s John Cena, so she does most of the work for her team and takes a beating. Carmella spends most of the match on the apron, but when she finally tags in she has something to prove. Her offense looks better, her timing is better, she’s fired up, and she’s got a swank transition into her leg scissors submission. She looks like Bayley’s Young Girl, but like a Young Girl who’s ready to give her vet a test.

I love that dynamic. I said it before, but I love the story of Bayley having to have a championship match with someone who actually IS her friend, who isn’t going to turn on her at the last second, and who respects her. That’s a story we’ve never told with Bayley on top. There are so many Bayley stories to tell while the current crop of NXT Women get comfortable and start maxing out their potential, and you know what? You can already see them getting there. Emma is dope as hell, Dana is hilarious, Alexa’s the best actress on the show and even Carmella’s putting it together.

Best: Building A Triple Threat

Finally, the rest of the show.

Next week we’ve got a triple threat match to name a new #1 contender. It’ll be Sami Zayn vs. Samoa Joe vs. Baron Corbin. This week, we set that up by giving each of those men a match that doesn’t necessarily challenge them, but gives them enough to make them look like the top three superstars in the company. I don’t think this could’ve been put together any better.

Sami Zayn opens the show against Adam Rose. It’s a safe match, which is probably a good idea while Sami gets re-acclimatized to Full Sail and WWE TV. Not that Sami needs it, but it’s there. The crowd never really believes he’s in danger — you can always tell when the “ole” chants are just there because Full Sail doesn’t do the indies comeback slow clap — and he’s able to put Rose away with his secondary finish, the Koji Clutch. In fact, both Zayn and Corbin’s matches end with secondary moves. Joe’s does, too, if you consider the Muscle Buster his primary finish and the Clutch his Special Plus Direction.

Baron Corbin gets a match against the debuting Rich Swann, which is brilliant. Corbin hates little guys and independent stars, and Swann is both. Corbin has kinda-sorta gotten absurdly good, and he’s at his best when he’s wrestling someone small. Remember him spinning Chad Gable around? Swann gets to look like a future star here without doing a hell of a lot, and Corbin gets to power him up so hard it makes Swann do 450 splashes onto nothing. I want to see this rematch a year from now. Corbin wins with the Deep Six instead of the End of Days, which again is a nice touch.

Joe wrestles Johnny Gargano. Gargano gets a pre-match promo where he sounds like a wrestler cutting a promo (“I’ll never back down! I’ll never give up! Pause. Between. Words!”), but Joe’s in control of him for almost all of it. Like Corbin, Joe’s at his best when he can use his size and speed to dominate smaller guys. Small guys are supposed to have the speed advantage, and Joe’s weird fat guy quickness has always made him special. That’s what I love about him being in NXT and being motivated and healthy … he got that back. He’s no longer sluggish. His offense pops. He does that corner enzuigiri on one motion, like he used to. Gargano tries to springboard off the bottom rope and Joe just knees him in the face and chokes him out, because Samoa Joe is the f*cking greatest right now.

I’m really excited to see how this ties together in the triple threat. I want to see how believable the nearfalls on the Clutch, Koji Clutch and Deep Six Play since the crowd just saw them end matches. NXT is at its best when it creates a universe where anything can happen, and where everything that happens makes sense.

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