Previously on the Best and Worst of NXT: Nothing, really. Apollo Crews beat Elias Samson in a dark match from a better show, and we watched a bunch of highlights. Before that, though, we got NXT TakeOver: Dallas, which was f*cking tops blooby. Shinsuke Nakamura debuted, Asuka became the new NXT Women’s Champion and American Alpha won the Tag Team Championship. It was a good night.
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And now, the Best and Worst of WWE NXT for April 13, 2016.
Best: That Rolling Elbow Finish
First of all, shoutout to the announce team for calling it a “rolling elbow” instead of the “roaring” elbow, which remains one of my 1990s Joey Styles pet peeves. Second of all, I loved Dawkins’ sell of the move. Just instant unconsciousness and falling over like a tree.
Worst, But Not Even Really That: The Rest Of It
Aside from that moment, there’s not much to the match. It plays a lot like Austin Aries wrestling a broomstick. That’s not to say Angelo Dawkins is a terrible wrestler or will never turn it around, but man, he just doesn’t have it right now. The headbands is all he’s got, and the novelty of a dude wearing two headbands wore off about 30 seconds into the first match he wore them.
Taking a step back from it, it’s a good idea to give Aries a strong pinfall victory over a bigger opponent, and Dawkins is an easy win.
Best: Alexa Bliss Is Weird
I don’t know how they did it on a one-hour show, but there were six matches on this episode. Six. I guess they’re trying to make up for last week, which was just Elias Samson and 45 minutes of recaps.
The second match of the episode is Alexa Bliss vs. Tessa Blanchard. If you aren’t familiar with Blanchard, she’s got arguably the best wrestling pedigree ever. She’s the granddaughter of Joe Blanchard, daughter of OG Four Horseman Tully Blanchard, and stepdaughter of Magnum T.A. If you know who any of those people are, it’s hard to come from a better place than that.
One thing you’ll take away from this match is that Alexa Bliss’ character is super weird. Like, what is it? She’s the manager of a tag team that occasionally wears horror-themed gear, she’s kinda threateningly bossy and she wears exoskeleton gloves. In the ring, she sorta comes across like a PG Kevin Owens, standing on people’s backs and kicking their faces into the mat while screaming things like, “AW HECK NO.” Near the end of the match, she gets giant anger eyes and looks like she’s about to throw a chokeslam.
I like the choke STO/backflip double knees finish, but she’s gotta start connecting better with the knees. Right now she’s just kinda grazing them as she goes over. Sometimes they don’t hit at all.
Surprising Best: The Vaudevillains Lose
I was surprised to see Gargano and Ciampa beat the Vaudevillains clean by submission, especially right before the Villains are supposed to be a part of a big tag-team tournament on the main roster. It makes sense, though, if you think about it in a broader scope.
The Villains are going to the main roster, right? They aren’t gonna get a farewell legacy run, because as much as I love them and a lot of people love and support them, they’ve never been the most important team. Right now you’ve got Enzo and Cass and American Alpha setting up a thing, and nobody’s going to pay attention to Gotch and English with that going on. So you have them put over your new team, go up to Smackdown to be rich(er) TV stars, and you move forward with your new team. Right?
So that’s where I am with it. Surprised, but understanding.
Best: 3! 3! 3!
I think my favorite single moment of the episode (besides maybe “aw heck no”) was the ending to poor Alex Reyes trying to interview Tye Dillinger.
Dillinger ends the conversation by looking Reyes up and down and judging him a “3,” complete with a big card with a 3 on it. He then stuffs it into the front of Reyes’ coat and leaves, and Reyes just stands there immobilized, crushed by the judgment. Like, he doesn’t remove the card or move or anything, he just stands there looking super sad. I want them not be able to find him next week, only to realize he’s still back in that room feeling badly about himself.
Best: How Are You Guys Doing
Another great moment is the non-confrontation between American Alpha and Enzo and Cass, which is as close to a normal human interaction as I’ve seen in a while. That’s one of the things I loved about NXT that hasn’t been a big part of the show recently. Normal reactions to abnormal situations. Sami Zayn was the king of that.
Anyway, Enzo and Cass congratulate American Alpha on their tag titles win and ask for a shot. Not at the titles themselves, but a two-on-two match to prove themselves. The two teams have never had a match together — at least not one that was just those two teams — so they want to see what’s up. Because everyone’s likable and relatively normal aside from the haircuts and the novelty towels, they agree and shake hands. HOORAY FOR NORMAL FOLK!
LOL Tucker Knight
Tucker Knight tries to defeat Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal Winner and Lone Wolf Senpai Baron Corbin in a match. Quick, guess how it ends!
Baron Corbin needs a Street Fighter II style post-match statement that he says every time he beats a dude like this. “Go back to Ring of Honor!” should be his “go home and be a family man.”
Best: Bayley Is Still Standing
I like these matches between Bayley and younger, newer talent. It shows how far Bayley’s come, because she used to be that. She was the one getting tossed around and beaten in a few minutes whenever someone more important hit a signature move. I hope that cycle continues, and that in three years we’re like, “it’s great to see Liv Morgan wrestling the new people because that’s where she started.”
The post-match stuff here is especially great, with Bayley putting over Asuka, announcing that she’s still standing tall and gunning to be Women’s Champion again, and pointing out a little kid in Bayley cosplay for ultimate emotional relevance. The announce team putting over the Bayley loss in the same breath as the Undertaker streak ending was pretty funny and appropriate, too, because I think most of us compared those reactions whether we were serious or not.
Best: KING OF COUNT STYLE
This was the perfect TV introduction to Shinsuke Nakamura. A perfect 10, you could say.
The TakeOver match with Sami Zayn was a special thing on a special weekend between two of the best workers in the world. That’s not going to be Every Week WWE Shinsuke Nakamura, so this gave us a chance to see what that would be like. Spoiler: It’s still f*cking great.
We got a little bit of comedy, with Nakamura not understanding the 10 taunt and asking the referee about it, which shows how well the guy can nonverbally connect with audiences. We got a look at his offense outside of a 30-minute strong style classic, and it looks great. We saw his signature spots, his signature taunts, and we got Corey Graves puro announcer shouting his finisher name. It’s exactly what we needed. Nakamura’s the only guy who can get “this is awesome” chants for being in the first third of a normal TV match and not really doing anything, and totally deserve it.
Also, just to say it, Tye Dillinger rules. This was a surprisingly great episode, honestly.
