Previously on the Best and Worst of WWE NXT: Andrade “Cien” Almas squashed a guy, Authors Of Pain squashed two guys, and Aleister Black squashed Adam Cole’s push.
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And now, the Best and Worst of WWE NXT for December 20, 2017. (Don’t) try this at home.
Worst: Losing Days
In case you needed another reminder as to how different the NXT Universe is when compared to Raw and Smackdown, realize that virtually nothing happened on either of WWE’s cable shows this week, and virtually nothing will happen the next two weeks, either, due to the holidays. On the other side of things, this episode of NXT was a whopping 75 minutes long and featured two championship matches and the final qualifier for the No.1 contender Fatal Four-Way match.
It’s honestly a bit shocking how much of NXT TV in recent weeks has been of consequence — I guess they had to make up for lost time following those two post-WarGames episodes which accomplished nothing.
Tonight’s episode starts off with SAnitY (minus Alexander Wolfe, whose skull is still stapled together) defending the tag titles against two-thirds of the Undisputed Era (or Undisputed ERA, if you’re WWE and obsessed with randomly capitalizing letters), Bobby Fish and Kyle O’Reilly.
I know it’s low-hanging fruit to bitch about the Full Sail crowd, but holy hell, guys — this was a title match and you gave the performers nothing. I know this match came relatively late in the tapings, so maybe NXT creative should shoulder some of the blame for it too, because this may have been the most uneventful, humdrum title change in NXT history. Congrats, Ring Of Dishonor: You shocked the system so much, it completely shut down.
Best: Glorious You
Full disclosure: I had surgery yesterday and am currently doped up on Percosets. Now, the label on the bottle clearly states I am not to operate heavy machinery while taking them. However, it doesn’t say that I can’t watch Heavy Machinery, so watch them I shall!
This run-in with the team of stylish, dedicated couple Tino Sabbatelli and Riddick Moss is basically the exact same storyline Tino and Riddick had last month with Street Profits, and presumably, it will end the same way. But this gets an extra Best for this incredible bit of dialogue between Tucker Knight and Moss:
“Is that what it is, pal?”
“That is what it is, guy.”
“Well now I know, friend.”
“Well I’m glad that both of you know, chiefs.”
Bonus Best for Otis Dozovic jumping in with this absolutely perfect line: “Why are we jaw jacking when can get it on right here, right now?!?” Steaks and weights forever, you guys.
Worst: I Am Disappeared
Why is Sonya Deville still in NXT? Like, seriously? She was in the main event of Raw this Monday. She already beat Ruby(yyy) Riot(ttttt). And now you’re going to feed her to Ember Moon next week? And it’s a championship match??? What good does this do for anyone?
Let’s assume Ember Moon retains. Congratulations, you’ve beaten someone who has already been called up to the majors as a sidekick. She has bigger fish to fry anyway. And if Sonya wins, then we have an NXT women’s champion who’s on Raw, which has historically resulted in the title being vacated, meaning yet another tournament. Neither scenario here makes any sense and benefits no one. If you call someone up, let them stay up! Sending them back to NXT to do the job helps neither wrestler.
Best: The Next Storm
NXT has clearly been building Lars Sullivan to be the next big monster, and I figured he was going to win this No. 1 contenders qualifying match against Roddy Strong, but I honestly didn’t expect the match to be that one-sided. Sure, Roddy got some nice spots in (the top-rope superplex for a one-count, the Olympic slam for a two-count), but this match was more or less all Lars, all the time. He looked damn good demolishing Roddy, too: That pop-up powerslam into the Freak Accident was, well, freakishly awesome.
Now the field is set for next week’s No. 1 Contender’s Fatal Four-Way: Lars Sullivan vs. Killian Dain vs. Johnny Gargano vs. Aleister Black. Who ya got? I have avoided spoilers for this match, but my gut tells me that Johnny Gargano is either in this match to take the pin or make the pin. So we’ll see what happens in seven days.
Best: English Curse
While no one ever wants to see John Cena vs. Randy Orton again, there was a period in WWE’s history where that was a big-money match, and crowds couldn’t get enough. One day, I have to assume I will get sick of Pete Dunne wrestling Tyler Bate, the same as Cena/Orton, but today is certainly not that day. Let’s run through this Christmas present of a match, shall we?
- First off, Tyler Bate has a new hairstyle and new, Glacier-meets-Val Venis trunks, and I think my loins are twitching.
- Nigel mentions on commentary that Dunne wants to face Brock Lesnar? My loins are definitely twitching.
- Dunne spends the entirety of the match — all 22 minutes of it! — working Bate’s joints. The entire match is built around joint manipulation. it’s brilliant. It’s the very first thing Dunne does, to zero crowd response; fast-forward eight minutes and the crowd is popping for every tiny bend. Absolutely phenomenal work.
- The sequence where Bate continues to bridge out of pinfall attempts that ends with Dunne just kicking him in the ribs was everything I want from a heel wrestler.
- Dunne’s forearm to Bate on the outside? Ouch.
- Dunne’s suplex to Bate off the steel stairs? OUCH.
- Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe this match was the first time either man had kicked out of the other’s finishing move in WWE all year. The match got better with with each successful kickout, too.
Eventually, Dunne hits his third Bitter End for the 1-2-3, and Mauro yells, “We have witnessed the future of this business!” It is extremely hard to disagree with that call. I’m not sure any other WWE-contracted wrestler put on a better overall performance than Pete Dunne this year. Every single time he steps through the ropes, he is captivating. Bate is his perfect opponent, too, though I hope they start to let these guys tangle with other folks on the roster so we don’t get burned out.
Next Week: Ember Moon vs. Sonya Deville for the NXT women’s championship plus the hotly-anticipated No. 1 contender Fatal 4-Way match. See you next week!
