The Best And Worst Of WWE NXT 1/10/18: Feeling This

Previously on the Best and Worst of WWE NXT: We ended 2017 with Johnny Gargano becoming No. 1 contender, Aleister Black’s undefeated streak coming to an end, and seeds for about a bajillion new feuds planted.

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And now, the Best and Worst of WWE NXT for January 10, 2018. I guess this is growing up.

Best: Good Old Days

New year, new NXT — this batch of tapings was done at Atlanta’s Center Stage Theater, the longtime home of WCW Saturday Night. When I was a kid, I always had choir rehearsal on Monday nights so I rarely got to see any of Raw or Nitro, but I almost always sat down in front of my TV on Saturdays at 5:05 p.m. (I was in the central time zone) and watched all of WCW Saturday Night. In fact, it was the weekend shows for both brands that got me into pro wrestling in general; it’s why I don’t care about Hulk Hogan at all but love guys like Adam Bomb and Bunkhouse Buck. For me, the mid-card was the main event.

So it was thrilling to see NXT return to WCW’s old stomping grounds, the same building where William Regal both lost and won the WCW Television Championship. I guarantee he was soaking in the history, along with any other old-timers working in the back. It was great to hear Mauro Ranallo acknowledge the building’s history, too. I’d love to see NXT run here more often, as it’s a bigger room than the Full Sail Arena that still feels intimate, and is laid out similar to Lucha Underground’s temple. Fingers crossed this isn’t just a one-time thing.

Best: Heart’s All Gone

Can we start calling Shayna Baszler “Shayna Baeszler” yet? It’s only her first official NXT match, but she’s already a fully formed character, one that is a cold, heartless bully. The pre-match vignette, where she suckers a Performance Center rookie into getting choked out on camera, was downright evil, and her quick match with Dakota Kai (who low-key has the best theme music in NXT) was just as sinister, ending after she kicked the holy hell out of Kai’s elbow. Honestly, I have no idea how you do a spot like that safely, because it looked painful from every angle. Unless Kai is secretly double-jointed, I bet she had an ice pack or two on for a while after that match.

After the ref ends the match, Baszler decides to lock in a rear naked choke on Kai for the hell of it, drawing out Ember Moon for the save. (It’s worth noting that Moon didn’t try to help Kairi Sane two weeks ago when she was being choked out.) Afterwards, Regal scolds Shayna for her actions, promising her this type of behavior won’t get her a shot at Ember Moon’s championship.

(Ron Howard voice: “It would.”)

Worst: Bored To Death

Asking Alexandria is capital-T terrible, and these two themes for TakeOver: Philadelphia are the epitome of nü-butt rock, the kind of sh*t all these mall-metalcore bands are trying to transition into as to not be fully jettisoned into the late-2000s scene wasteland. (See also: Of Mice & Men, Black Veil Brides, Attila, and similarly trash groups.) Why is it so hard for NXT to use good music?

Best: Easy Target

Kassius Ohno vs. Raul Mendoza isn’t exactly David vs. Goliath, but was adjacent enough where both men could play their roles effectively. Mendoza has the speed, where KO has the power — only unfortunately for Mendoza, KO also has the speed.

I did like this match, though — even though the crowd was solidly behind Ohno, Mendoza performed well, and he adapted to Ohno catching him in some of his offense to avoid being caught later in the match. There was probably as much tumbling in this contest as there was bumping, which was refreshing for NXT.

Ohno finishes Mendoza with what the announcers are calling the High Tension Elbow Strike, the same sequence of moves from his match with Johnny Gargano a few weeks back that I bought as the finish then. It’s a little flashier than Ohno’s previous finisher, which was either a big boot or a rolling elbow, depending on the day. I like the change.

Best: Enthused

Next, we get Time Traveler Zelina Vega quantum leaping into Atlanta, where she calls Johnny Gargano an opportunist (true — he wasn’t even in the No. 1 contender’s tournament originally), says Andrade “We’re Still Keeping This Nickname, Huh?” Almas has beaten Gargano twice (also true — Almas has two clean-ish wins over Gargano), and that “Johnny Wrestling is a lie” (I mean, false — the dude is a former NXT tag champ, but whatevs). It was a quick, effective heel promo that thankfully spared us from having to hear Almas himself speak.

Gargano then gets a chance to respond, but he’s quickly interrupted by the Velveteen Dream, who not only runs down Gargano for stealing his spot but also insults Kassius Ohno (the man Gargano beat to advance in the tournament), saying he could have beaten him way faster. First off, it is so nice to have Velveteen Dream back on TV. Please never leave us again, Patrick.

Secondly, this promo is great because now I’m trying to guess how the next few weeks of NXT leading up to TakeOver will play out. Here’s my best guess: Ohno demands a match against Velveteen Dream to shut him up, leading to Dream winning and then challenging Gargano as sort of a sub-boss he needs to beat before making it to TakeOver. Gargano/Dream would be a solid half-dozen fire emojis, most likely, so hopefully that’s where we’re going — and if somehow Almas interferes in that match causing Dream to win, then hell, I’m even more onboard.

Best: Violence

It’s kind of surprising they did two David vs. Goliath matches on the same show, but Lio Rush vs. Lars Sullivan wasn’t even competitive. Sullivan completely manhandled the former Ring Of Honor star, who must really be regretting that tweet about Emma right about now, and then calls out Killian Dain, which made me clap my hands together like a cymbal-playing monkey. Hosspocalypse 2K18, here we come!

Best: All Of This

The Undisputed Era caps off the first episode of NXT in 2018 (and a very strong episode overall) with a great main event storyline. They know they have to defend their newly won tag titles against SAnitY, who is the epitome of unpredictable. So what’s the best way to beat them? Take them out ahead of time.

This leads to Adam Cole, Kyle O’Reilly and Bobby Fish standing in the middle of the ring mocking their opponents for not showing up, only for a wild Nikki Cross to appear and try to get blood for blood. I am 10,000% confident she could take all three of these dudes if given the chance, but sadly, she is held back and removed by refs.

This brings out Regal, incensed that his main event has been ruined and his champions are behaving like children, so he promises they will, in fact, still defend those belts tonight — and before he can name a challenger, Roderick Strong comes out and says he wants in (to a mild crowd response), followed by Aleister Black, who demands the same thing (to a huge crowd response). And just like that, the main event is on!

The worst part about this otherwise-dynamite last 15 minutes of the show was the match itself. It was totally serviceable but never really got into a good groove, partially because of the commercial break right in the middle of it. (Also, I doubt anyone truly believed there would be a title change here, so that also somewhat limits the enjoyability of the match.)

Strong gets pinned after Black abandons him to chase after Adam Cole, leading to a great moment when Black realizes he just blew his first title opportunity by not keeping his eye on the prize. After returning to the ring, he gets gets beaten down by Bay Bay’s Kids post-match, including a nice callback where Cole picks Black’s chin up with his foot a la Black Mass. Cole then more-or-less Attitude Adjusts Black through a steel chair (yeah, he tried to make it look like a kneebreaker, but c’mon, I know when someone’s attitude is being adjusted). This brings Regal back out, where he announces that Cole will face Black at TakeOver: Philadelphia in an Extreme Rules match.

Aside from the weird flub where Regal said “Your match against Aleister Black will be…” as if NXT had already announced the two were facing each other (which, to the best of my knowledge, they hadn’t), this was perfect. Regal is desperately trying to keep his talent in line, but he knows he has sneaky f*cks like the Undisputed Era, legitimate monsters like Lars Sullivan and cruel mistresses like Shayna Baszler lurking in the locker room, and it’s only a matter of time before all hell breaks loose on multiple fronts.

Even this decision, to place Cole in an Extreme Rules match, ends up favoring Cole, because it’s inherently no-DQ, meaning Fish and O’Reilly will surely pop their heads in for a spot or two. Maybe this means Black will have to recruit some friends to watch his back in the coming weeks, or maybe it means he’ll go it alone and try to overcome the odds. Either way, we should (hopefully) be in for some good TV until then.

Next Week: Street Profits will likely get shoot-murdered by Authors Of Pain. Tune in for carnage!

(Check out our must-listen McMahonsplaining podcast with WWE superstar Big Show. Subscribe on iTunes or Google.)

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