Previously on the Best and Worst of NXT: NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn II happened, so if you haven’t read about that yet, go do that first. Bayley said goodbye, Ember Moon said hello, Bobby Roode was glorious and Shinsuke Nakamura is the new NXT Champion. If you want to know my thoughts on last week’s actual NXT episode, go listen to my guest appearance on Afterbuzz TV. Note: I was wrong about everything.
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And now, the Best and Worst of WWE NXT for Aug. 24, 2016.
Best: Tye Dillinger, The Happiest Boy In The World
Real quick, can we have a serious discussion about Wesley Blake’s entrance theme? It sounds like it’s from the PURE MOODS CD. It never gets going, and the sleepy intro combined with a generic video that just says WESLEY BLAKE in generic-ass font is the ultimate buzzkill. It’s like CF0$ made Nakamura’s and Bobby Roode’s themes, went to turn them in, realized they’d been contracted to do three instead of two and were like, “take whatever’s in the trash and label it WESLEY BLAKE.”
Anyway, this week’s show is the NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn II pre-show, which means nothing’s really happening and everyone’s super hyped for it.
The opening match is Tye Dillinger in his sparkly Mr. Sinister get-up finally getting to be the most important person in the ring against Wesley “Return To Innocence” Blake. The selling point here is how f*cking ecstatic Dillinger gets to be listening to 15,000+ chant TEN TEN TEN TEN while he wins a match. Dillinger’s like a hodge-podge of Tyler Breeze and Bayley right now. He’s got Breeze’s “all we ever see him do is lose to people WWE thinks are better, I sure wish HE’D get to win sometimes” vibe with Bayley’s “been around forever and it’s time for them to start winning” underdog charm. With all this roster transition, it’d probably a good idea to finally do something with him and let him be the homegrown favorite in the new Evolve NXT.
Dillinger gets the win with his goofy kneepad dance and a fireman’s carry neckbreaker which 100 percent made Mauro Ranallo scream USHIGOROSHI~ in the face of anyone standing nearby.
Best: Arthur And Arthur, The Arthurs of Pain
Two character building notes here:
1. TM61 now have differently colored trunks, which helps a lot when you’re trying to tell them apart. One of them is Pinky, the other one is Blinky. Yes, my understanding of Australian culture begins and ends with the Noozles.
2. The Authors Of Pain finally get individual names: Sunny Dhinsa and Gzim Selmani are now “Akam” and “Rezer,” and yes, that will result in me calling them “Tokka and Rahzar” for the remainder of their WWE careers.
I like the story here that TM61 are fearless but a little outmatched, and sorta figure out as they go that they’re gonna have to hit harder and move faster if they’re going to survive the Authors. I also like that it ends up being an actual competitive match for the big monster heel team without really ever putting them in jeopardy. Paul Ellering’s chill nature during the entire thing really brings that home. TM61 look like they can hang with the best guys in the promotion, but you never seriously buy that the AOP are going to lose. That’s a delicate balance.
And That’s It
Outside that, there’s not much to the show beyond some beautifully put-together hype videos for NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn II. The Revival get a short bit about how WWE should start bringing down teams from the main roster to fight them because they’ve beaten everybody in NXT — The Revival vs. Golden Truth for 25 minutes at the next TakeOver, please and thank you — and we get an emotional mashup of Bayley’s childhood wrestling dreams letter and her goodbye in Brooklyn.
Can’t wait for next week to see where everything goes. An Itami vs. Aries feud is really the only guarantee, right? Who’s gonna step up to challenge The Revival? Who’s brave enough to carry their jaw into a championship match against Nakamura? Is Peyton Royce going to jump Asuka and make her smell that one flower until she passes out? Who knows?
