Previously on the Best and Worst of WWE NXT: Keith Lee threw Damian Priest around like a child (but somehow lost), Killian Dain literally put Matt Riddle in the ground, and Jordan Myles advanced into the finals of the Breakout Tournament.
If you missed this episode, you can watch it here.
If you’d like to read previous installments of the Best and Worst of NXT, click right here. Follow With Spandex on Twitter and Facebook. You can also follow me on Twitter, where everything and everyone is terrible.
And now, the Best and Worst of WWE NXT for July 31, 2019.
Best: Scaramouche, Scaramouche, Can You Do The Fandango?
Jaxson Ryker is still the wrestling equivalent of a body cold, but this gets a Best for two major reasons: Tyler Breeze winning a match, and the return of NXT season 4 winner Johnny Curtis, better known to the WWE Universe as Breeze’s ballroom dancing partner-in-crime-solving Fandango.
I can’t say enough about how great Fandango looked here. He looked intensely motivated and looks to be in the best shape of his life, and I honestly believe the combination of documentable NXT history dating back to the game show era, a chance to have good matches, and (hopefully) the return of the Fashion Files on a WWE brand that doesn’t hate when shit accidentally gets popular could be the best thing that ever happened to him. To both of them, really. A semi-serious Fandango is the perfect compliment to a semi-serious Tyler Breeze, and we can ease Breeze back into fun character work beyond being the guy who left and came back to find the difficulty’s on Very Hard.
The Forgotten Sons are super lame, but Breeze and Fandango teaming up to get a big win over Steve Cutler and Wesley Blake could be the highest of highlights on what I assume will be the hour-long taped before TakeOver Toronto. As an added bonus, here’s the Dot Com Exclusive backstage followup where Dango meets Queen Cathy, tells Breeze he realized their fashion sense is “wack,” and leaves with the microphone for some reason. You’re not even a real journalism, Cathy!
Welcome back, Dirty Curty. We missed you.
I Yim What I Am
One of the low points of the episode is probably the promo battle between Shayna Baszler and Mia Yim, as long-winded promos have never been Baszler’s strong suit — her strong suit is “spades,” by the way — and Mia’s act felt a little more like foreshadowing than a confident promo. She’s already bragging about taking out Jessamyn Duke and Marina Shafir this far before TakeOver? What’re the chances that they don’t show up and maul her in the parking lot before the actual show? It’d be a fun way to prolong Mia’s inevitable title run for a while longer, and could give us a fun surprise “last minute” challenger at TakeOver. What’s Asuka up to these days? Fuckin’ nothing?
Speaking Of TakeOver Toronto
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997)
How great does this card look, honestly? With the addition of Candice LeRae vs. Io Shirai being added via unsuccessful parking lot stalking and the helpful Watcher general manager, we get:
- Adam Cole vs. Johnny Gargano, 2 out of 3 falls, with the first fall as a “classic match,” the second fall as a street fight, and the deciding third fall at the whim of the general manager (which is going to be an awesome moment, assuming he doesn’t choose “coal miner’s glove match”
- Velveteen Dream vs. Pete Dunne vs. Roderick Strong for the North American Championship, which would probably be three-plus stars if they just laid down in the ring and went to sleep
- Shayna Baszler choking out Mia Yim, don’t @ me
- Candie LeRae stepping into the ring against the human Hell in a Cell that is evil Io Shirai
- Street Profits vs. Undisputed Era for the Tag Team Championship and the right to hang out backstage and Raw and scream at the camera about whatever’s happening
And then …
- FKA ACH vs. FKA Trevor Lee in the finals of the NXT Breakout Tournament
- maybe Matt Riddle vs. Killian Dain
- maybe Breezango vs. Blake and Cutler, with Ryker at ringside trying not to fuck it up
- maybe Keith Lee powerbombing Damian Priest through the goddamn ring
Even if you push those last four to the pre-show, that pre-show episode is better than most people’s pay-per-views. Let’s hope this isn’t NXT’s last hurrah in its current, precious form before they move it to FS1, add a bunch of “WWE Superstars” to it, and ham it up for a broader, stupider audience because they’ve got to run something against AEW on TNT.
Best/Worst: Grimey Advances
I don’t think Cameron Grimes vs. Bronson Reed got a fair shake here, as it appears to be pretty deep into the tapings so everyone in the crowd’s sitting on their hands. It’s so silent in there that the announce team EXCITE-SHOUTING about every little thing felt wildly out of place. Mauro and the crew need to dial it back a scootch when the crowd’s dead. Why are y’all the only people in the building going AAAH AH GOD WOWWWW at hammerlocks? The only noise I heard from the crowd for most of this was them making fun of Grimes and Reed’s weird battle noises. Listen, you can hear the crowd go BLEAHHH! and see them look at each other and laugh nearly every time there’s a strike.
As it stands, it’s a pretty good match. I don’t love that jumping mushroom stomp thing Grimes does, in the same way I don’t like it when Kofi does it. If you can’t hit it clean regularly, switch it up. Watching guys try to clear the pecs, snag their toes on people’s sternums and just kinda jumping shin them in the chest isn’t great.
I think Grimes vs. Myles will be good, but I still think Myles vs. Garza should’ve been the finals and gotten stretched out a bit from what we saw on TV. I’ve never really “gotten” Trevor Lee, but I’m happy to figure it out sometime. Get Reed into a tag team with Thorne as quickly as possible.
Best: Snap, Crackle, And Rod
Finally we have the main event, which is excellent as it’s 16 minutes of Pete Dunne in a wrestling ring. That guy has “it” in so many ways I’m surprised they haven’t repackaged him as a spooky sewer clown. I do still think he’s running scared from WALTER, though, and I wish somebody on commentary would bring it up.
Plus, mostly jokey hatred aside for once, Roderick Strong absolutely knows what he’s doing in a wrestling ring and can carry his end of it, especially if his end is chops and backbreakers. That’s where he’s a Viking! Watching him get his fingers snapped is a lot of fun, and I’m almost certain he’s leaving TakeOver Toronto as the North American Champion. Dunne’s such a layup to win it that he’s gotta be a red herring. +1 to Strong for remembering to sell the fingers, too, after he points a bunch in the post-match and then randomly slaps them against the apron as he’s leaving. Better late than never!
The post-match is a lot of fun here, as it doesn’t really do anything, but reminds us of how much fun it’ll be to see these three guys go at it at TakeOver. And isn’t it nice sometimes to be reminded that you like the product you’re watching? NXT can just have guys show up in the same place and get a “holy shit” chant, because we haven’t been conditioned to expect disappointment after six months of whatever we like being spread so thin it disappears.
Next Week:
A contract signing for the NXT Tag Team Championship match at TakeOver Toronto. Plus, Matt Riddle gets his one-on-one match with Killian Dain! I hope everything I know about how NXT is booked telling me this will end really badly for Riddle before it begins doesn’t happen! See you then!
