The Best And Worst Of WWE NXT 10/18/17: That’s What You Get

Previously on the Best and Worst of WWE NXT: Kairi Sane dropped an elbow, Velveteen Dream dropped an elbow, and I dropped an elbow a bunch of Bad Religion references.

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And now, the Best and Worst of WWE NXT for October 18, 2017.

Worst: Here We Go Again

For the second straight week, NXT opens with a triple threat match between three female superstars competing for a spot in the fatal four-way at TakeOver: WarGames in November, and for the second straight week, there really wasn’t a lot of doubt in which woman was going to advance. This was the first time we’ve seen Ember Moon competing since she lost to Asuka at TakeOver: Brooklyn III, so the odds of her losing this match were slim — though the false finish of Ruby Riot injuring her ankle on that dive to the outside, allowing Sonya Deville to lock in her ankle lock finisher was nice.

The ending sequence, in which Ember climbs to the top rope and hits the Eclipse on Sonya as she’s mid-ankle lock application, probably looked a lot better on paper than it did in reality. There wasn’t a whole lot of contact on the finish, and Sonya’s body was so rigid from the submission hold that she didn’t sell the move nearly enough.

But that’s not why I’m Worsting this segment (even though, just like last week, I felt the match was lacking a spark); my real Worst is because once again, Ember Moon is back in the title picture, and I’m having PTSD flashbacks to every single one of her failures at TakeOvers this year, from losing to Asuka in Orlando to not even being on the card in Chicago to losing to Asuka again in Brooklyn.

So either she wins in Houston only because her top competition is no longer there, thus cheapening her accomplishment, or she loses in Houston and her character has officially become the ultimate bridesmaid. I mean, if you challenge for a belt for practically an entire year and never win, what’s the point?

Best: Still Into You

All the heart-eye emojis in the world aren’t enough to explain just how good Peyton Royce and Billie Kay are in NXT right now. I will sincerely miss getting to write about them when they get called up to Raw or (more likely) Smackdown. Never stop being the Australian version of LayCool, ladies.

Best: Let The Flames Begin

The Aleister Black/Velveteen Dream storyline continues to be the best part of NXT weekly TV, hands down. When Dream came down to ringside during Ali’s match with Raul Mendoza, I presumed he was going to interfere again, maybe finally laying hands on Black. Instead, he grabbed the dude’s vest and did a reverse-Chippendale’s dance with it to provide maximum in-ring confusion.

The result not only was Mendoza getting to shine a hell of a lot (his flip over the top rope was dope as hell), but we also got some A-plus character work from Black. He was clearly agitated in the ring, making his Black Mass extra brutal, and when he sat in the middle of the ring after the pin, he didn’t look nearly as centered as he usually does — Dream actually has him a little shook.

Then, the pièce de résistance: As Dream leaves the arena — with Ali’s vest, no less! — Black breaks his concentration for a split second and throws a quick glance up the ramp. It’s the first real dent in his psychological armor, and it was executed to perfection. Now, to see how Ali reacts. Something tells me this fire is about to get out of control.

Best/Worst: Hard Times

First, the positive: The first half of this Drew MacIntyre promo was exquisite. Even though I was irked that he was talking about his NXT championship and didn’t actually have the belt with him (seriously, what the f*ck), the story he told about losing his gig with WWE just four days after moving into a house with his girlfriend and having to tell his loved ones he lost his dream job felt as close to 100 percent truth as pro wrestling can get. His delivery was natural and the moral of his story — essentially a John Cena-esque “never give up” mantra — was universal.

And then Zelina Vega walks in and commandeers the interview with quite possibly the most continuity-shattering line in NXT history: “I was watching this interview on my phone.” Okay, first off, it has long since been established that NXT is not aired live, given how WWE’s own social media accounts will post major taping spoilers before the rest of the internet has a chance. (How do you think we all know that the next TakeOver is called WarGames?) But somehow, we’re supposed to believe that, for this one segment, it is somehow being broadcast live and inserted into a taped show, and Zelina is watching the whole episode on her phone including this portion.

IT MAKES NO SENSE. This is the same woman who wandered off through a random fire door two weeks ago. Maybe she’s a time traveler. I have no idea. But this simple bit of continuity failure pulls me out of the show and throws me into a full-on nerd rage. Argh.

The worst part is this is clearly a one-take thing, because Drew ends up totally repeating himself with the “I’ll face anyone, anytime, anywhere, just go to Regal and ask for a match” bit, even after Zelina has refuted him and told him to go to Regal himself to demand the match. Dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb.

Worst: Brick By Boring Brick

What are we doing with either of these guys? The announce team hypes Cezar Bononi as a massive prospect, saying he already has one upset on the books and is down to “six or seven percent body fat,” according to Nigel McGuinness, and we’re running him against Kassius Ohno, who seemingly has no direction, no storyline and no real reason to win. And then he wins. And that’s that. Wrestling for the sake of wrestling, I suppose.

Best: Crushcrushcrush

First off: I absolutely cannot get over how goofy Kyle O’Reilly looks when he walks out. Like, is he trying out Daniel Bryan’s new wrestling style or something? Really, all of the Undisputed Era is kind of goofy. It feels like they’re trying to set them up as a modern-day nWo, given how they’re all “invading” NXT from a rival promotion, but they haven’t actually done anything of real consequence yet, besides nip at people’s heels when they’re not looking.

This six-man tag didn’t do a ton for me until SAnitY decided to kill their opponents (Killian Dain’s Samoan drop/fallaway slam combo was legitimately too sweet) and also themselves (Eric Young’s dive to the outside where he pretty much faceplanted onto the walkway made me cringe).

But the good news is the Authors Of Pain are back, and are looking to crush everyone in their paths! We haven’t seen them in so long that I forgot how massive Motorola and Razr are, and just how much I missed their hossy faces. And boy oh boy, do they make everyone in the Undisputed Era look tiny as hell. I’m not gonna go full-on “vanilla midgets” here, but there are a lot of undersized guys in NXT right now, so it’s nice to see some big ol’ dudes who are ready to wreck sh*t at a moment’s notice.

Next Week: We get a 16-woman battle royal to determine the final participant in the NXT Women’s Championship Fatal Four-Way. #anyonebutaliyah