The Best And Worst Of WWE NXT 3/30/16: Next To Virgil

Previously on the Best and Worst of WWE NXT: We continued our cripplingly slow march to NXT TakeOver: Dallas. We’re almost there, I swear.

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And now, the Best and Worst of WWE NXT for March 30, 2016.

Best: Tag Team Warmups

So this week’s show is the final episode from the batch of tapings that started in like, 1985. It’s the final show before TakeOver: Dallas (and WrestleMania weekend), so it’s a very “go-home Smackdown” sort of episode. A lot of video packages, a lot of TakeOver hype, and a few squash matches.

The best of these, in my opinion, are the tag team matches that serve as “warmups” for the NXT Tag Team Championship match at TakeOver. They’re so symmetrical that WWE Fan Nation put them in the same clip. In the first, American Alpha throw around John Skyler and Corey Hollis. It’s probably the best Skyler and Hollis have looked as enhancement talent, but that could be due to the fact that Jason Jordan can seemingly throw them into the sun. The Grand Amplitude looks better than ever here. Usually it’s like, “here, let me hand you this guy.” On this episode, it’s like they threw a dude down an elevator shaft.

In the second, The Revival take on Steve Cutler and Tucker Knight. This one’s built around the idea that The Revival can make any match their match, and that being outsized by their opponents isn’t a big deal. Jason Jordan’s a deceptively gigantic guy, so having Dawson and Wilder outsmart a 300-pounder in Tucker Knight and just kinda lure him into a trap before finishing him off is what we needed to see. American Alpha have all the talent and momentum in the world, but they’re unproven on the big stage, and The Revival’s all about formulating a gameplan and executing. Both matches feature the other team watching backstage monitors in the classic “shoulder-first” style.

I still think the only call at TakeOver is to have American Alpha take the gold, but I like that they’ve taken the time to show us exactly why either team could win.

Best: Baron Corbin Forever

If Baron Corbin wasn’t your favorite part of this episode, you weren’t paying attention.

Early in the night he gets one of those “didn’t even have to use my Special” squash victories over Michael Cuellari, aka Ring of Honor’s Q.T. Marshall. Later, he spits hot fire in a promo against Austin Aries in which he says Aries can ride the fame of his NXT TakeOver: Dallas loss into a convention appearance beside Virgil. Baron Corbin is straight-up telling Aries that being sad at a WrestleCon is his ultimate destiny. That’s savage.

If you’re wondering, Virgil has already responded:

All I want now is for Virgil to interfere on behalf of Austin Aries, and for Baron Corbin to tell him to go back to Ring of Honor.

Worst: Elias Samson’s Sing-Threats, Or
Best: Corey Graves Whenever Elias Samson’s On Screen

Just read the closed captioning, man. Corey Graves is never better than when he actually dislikes something.

Apollo Crews runs the Worst People In NXT gauntlet by wrestling Alex Riley, then being threatened by Elias Samson. I feel so bad for Crews because I like him a lot, and I don’t want to keep associating him with the very very bottom of the card. I’m guessing he’ll become a more important character when this next talent call-up happens — he’s a perfect foil for Samoa Joe, after all — but even if that doesn’t happen, I don’t want to only see him like this. It’s sorta what happened with Solomon Crowe. Crowe had a great upside, and then all we really saw him do was bad rebound splashes against CJ Parker. Crews is can’t-miss, though, so I know he’ll be fine.

Elias Samson, though. He’s not quite good enough at music to walk, play guitar, sing and be threatening at the same time. This probably would’ve worked a lot better if they’d just cut to him playing guitar on a stool on the stage or something. The awkward aftermath of having to watch him very slowly walk away was kinda brutal. NXT can make me love pretty much anybody — I never thought Baron Corbin would be my favorite guy on the show, for example — but I’m extremely ready to be done with Phase 1 of the Drifter experiment.

Best: Getting Hype For Nakamura

I don’t want to gloss over the video packages too much. The Bayley vs. Asuka recap is great, and Shinsuke Nakamura gets two separate segments: an interview with Sami Zayn where he (in that humble but confident Sami Zayn kind of way) says Nak’s not going to show up and make a reputation on his back, and a highlight video featuring Nak kneeing a bunch of people into oblivion. It’s a nice one-two punch.

I think my favorite part is them talking to AJ Styles, who just a few months ago was tearing it up with Nakamura in New Japan. I think having people we like say, “this guy’s the best,” goes a long way. Also, we got a “YeaaOh!!” on WWE TV. This is gonna be so awesome, you guys.

Best: Samoa Joe vs. Bull Dempsey Goes How You’d Expect It To

This week’s main is Samoa Joe bodying Bull Dempsey, choking him out, then continuing to choke him out to make a point. This is officially the last appearance of Bull Dempsey, unless the month after WrestleMania is just shows from this set of tapings. I’m kidding, but at this point I’m starting to think they taped the entire next year of programming. Lucha Underground season 3’s gonna be on TV before NXT’s caught up.

But yeah, Joe kills the last of a dying breed (sorry, breed) until Finn Bálor shows up and throws hands (and feet) with him. The brawl is GREAT, too, highlighted by two big moments: Finn getting tossed over the announce table into Corey Graves, and Finn retaliating by jumping off the table back onto Joe. We’re calling that a Finn-omental Forearm, update your mental documents accordingly.

It’s been hard to get hype (or stay hype, I guess) for TakeOver: Dallas through three months of very safe programming, but the good news is that we finally made it. The TakeOver card is RIDICULOUS, and there’s a 0% chance that it’ll disappoint. At least three of the marquee matches are layups and we get to see American Alpha become the tag champs, and even with Elias Samson on the card I can’t think of a better way to start Mania weekend.

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