Previously on the Best and Worst of NXT: We began our post-NXT TakeOver: Dallas run with the Axxess tapings. Shinsuke Nakamura made his NXT TV (proper) debut against Tye Dillinger. Enzo and Cass challenged American Alpha. It was a good week. Also, Angelo Dawkins was there!
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And now, the Best and Worst of WWE NXT for April 20, 2016.
Best: American Alpha Vs. Enzo And Cass
I loved this match. I probably loved it more than’s reasonable.
There’s something fascinating about how the teams match up. The crowd’s chanting “this is awesome” before it even begins, which is interesting. These teams aren’t special guests or big stars from somewhere else, and they haven’t built to a big dream match … it’s just two likable, exciting teams with clear, discernible goals going head-to-head, and NXT has created a WWE Universe where that’s a thing that’s awesome.
Both teams are faces, so the interplay of the match is in the contrast between each team’s members. When Enzo is in the ring with Jason Jordan, it’s like that 9-year-old Japanese girl wrestling Kenny Omega. Jordan can throw him around like a Wrestling Buddy. When Enzo’s in the ring with Chad Gable he’s still getting out-wrestled, but the size difference isn’t as extreme, and Enzo’s got a fighting chance. There’s a great sequence where they throw simultaneous forearm strikes, sell, then go for simultaneous shoulderblocks over the middle rope. It’s a stalemate. When Gable’s in the ring with Big Cass, the dynamic shifts. I love Cass as a “game-changer,” and I like that NXT managed to have two almost parallel faces in peril at different times in the same match for two completely different teams, and kept everyone on the side of the angels. It’s two teams playing the percentages, and trying to outlast the other.
Of course, nobody’s beating American Alpha right now. The finish here is incredible, with JJ pulling down the straps to hit Enzo with a shoulder in the corner, and Cass throwing himself between them to “take the bullet.” Jordan’s able to recover, though, and pulls the straps back up just so he can pull them down again. Everyone knows what’s happening when he starts doing it, and it doesn’t matter because it’s THE BEST.
Loved loved loved this. NXT tag team wrestling is the sh*t right now, and it’s only going to get better. Have fun being popular millionaires on Raw, Enzo and Cass.
Best: Not Any Way Jose
I made an “am I gonna cheer for this guy/No Way Jose” joke a few weeks ago before this guy debuted, and while I stand by my timely use of Johnny Carson screencaps, I’m gonna politely rescind it. I think the key moment was during his entrance, when Corey Graves asks, “Who is this Jose and why is he always being denied?” Tom Phillips shoot laughing at it was adorable, and I guess we all just have to be on board.
Jose debuts against Alexander Wolfe, who still sounds like the villain from a Tom Clancy novel. Or like, a turn of the century playwright. Predictably the character is all about playing off crowd chants and dance-fighting, which gets Phillips into a conversation about whether ballroom dancing pro-wrestling exchanges are capoeira. There’s a two-stage airplane spin, the world’s least dangerous equivalent to the Sister Abigail setup, and lots of stopping to … what would we call it, pop and lockup?
One of my favorite moments is when the crowd turns the Sami Zayn “olé” chants into “Joseee Jose Jose Joseeee, Joooseeee, Joooseeee.” That’s good chanting.
Note: Please don’t ever let him get close enough to Jerry Lawler for a “Jose and Hose-B” joke.
It’s a good start, but I hope they’ve got an actual character prepared for the guy, because that’ll make or break the gimmick. It’s the difference in Tyler Breeze in NXT and Tyler Breeze on the main roster. You can say “he’s a model” all you want, but unless he’s got a consistent, developed personality and a few more layers underneath, he’s nothing.
Worst Best: SEE YOU NEVER, ELIAS SAMSON
William Regal is my hero. He sits in on an Elias Samson jam session (Read: holding a guitar and occasionally strumming it while looking pensive and wearing scarves) to tell him he doesn’t understand anything Samson’s going for but hey, he’s signed a match for him against Shinsuke Nakamura. Translation: “Well, this guy sucks, maybe I can get Nak to knee him in the back of the head and f*ck up his motor skills so he’ll stop playing these horrible songs.”
Best: Deonna Gets Jax’d
Nia Jax has felt a little nerfed since her loss to Bayley. They keep talking about how dominant she is, but the only time we’ve seen her go one-on-one with someone in an elite level in the division, she lost to a lady half her size. So yeah, she’s dominant, but dominant against people anybody good could dominate.
It’s time to build her back up, though — presumably Asuka will roll past Bayley in their rematch, and we’ll continue to build toward a big Asuka/Nia Jax showdown — so here she is getting back on track by trouncing NXT whipping post Deonna Purrazzo. Poor Deonna’s only here to get the worst possible beating from anyone she’s in the ring with, so this week it’s a little of being dropped and being dropped on. I liked what they did, as it looks like Nia’s upping her intensity and moving around the ring a little quicker. I appreciate a stalwart hoss gimmick, but at some point you become Kane and the immobility of your character compromises the work.
Excited for where they’re going with this, and I like how the Nia, Eva Marie, Bayley and Asuka threads are all staying entwined.
Best: Crews In For A Brusin’
… why is Samoa Joe not NXT Champion again?
I’m not sure I’ve typed it out loud yet, but god damn this was a great episode of NXT. The main event is Samoa Joe vs. Apollo Crews, and it’s easily the best Crews match in WWE so far. Joe’s on another level right now. I know we go to the “he’s back in 2005 form” talking point a lot, but he might be better now than he was then. He feels more menacing. More exacting. Even his convoluted stuff has started to feel natural, like that slam counter he does in the corner. His opponents are setting it up by actually hitting running corner moves on him earlier in matches, so when they go to the well again he can put them down. He’s so good.
Crews is great here, too, in the way Crews is. Getting called up to Raw might mess with what they were doing, but I like that his NXT story has been that he’s a born, destined champion, but he doesn’t really have a killer instinct and can be beaten. That’s the difference in Crews and Joe. Crews has all the physical gifts in the world, but he’s tapping out to a 37-year-old heavyset dude in baggy shorts because that dude has the fire and the fury. I’d love for Crews to stick around long enough to finish that story and find the moment (or rival) that forces him to stop thinking things are “too easy” and get real.
Great stuff this week. Next week: Eva Marie!
