Previously on the Best and Worst of WWE NXT: NXT finally returned to Full Sail University for a real episode featuring synchronized powerbombs, Lady Ascensions and tag team excellence. Also, Oney Lorcan got back to his roots.
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And now, the Best and Worst of WWE NXT for January 18, 2017.
Best: Damo Song And Dance
Most of this week’s plot goes to SAnitY, now more accurately described as “AnitY” thanks to the absence of their S, Sawyer Fulton.
The most important moment comes when Eric Young interrupts a promo from Tye Dillinger, who is still being extremely emo about having toiled in developmental for like 15 years and being unable to beat anybody important. Young offers Dillinger a spot in SAnitY via Sawyer Fulton’s old jacket, and Dillinger turns it down twice, possibly because it’s got a big American flag hankie attached to it. C’mon, E-Y, you couldn’t have sewn an extra Canada patch on that shit before you pitched it?
Dillinger ends up getting jumped by the Large Marge of NXT, Big Damo, who accepts the jacket despite also not being American. He’s from Belfast, so I hope they get him outfitted with an XXL leather jacket with Fit Finlay’s face on the back.
This segment accomplishes quite a bit, if you think about it. Firstly, it reinforces Dillinger’s scrappy, embattled underdog story, which is going to be important heading into WrestleMania weekend. All signs in my brain point to presumably new NXT Champion Bobby Roode and Dillinger throwing hands again on the biggest WWE weekend of the year to complete the best and most emotionally engaging story on the NXT roster right now. Secondly, it allows SAnitY to have a little more purpose, and shows Young basically trying to take advantage of an emotional guy while he’s down, which is a total cult mentality. Thirdly, Damo gets added to the group and is a massive upgrade from Sawyer Fulton. Angelo Dawkins wearing a helmet with antlers on it would’ve been an upgrade from Fulton. Fourthly, how adorable is Nikki Cross bobbing up and down with a smile on her face standing next to Damo? I kinda want them to be best friends and tag team champions. I also kinda want her to be the Krang to his big bald Dimension X robot.
Speaking of Cross, her crazy ass opens the show with a squash victory over Kennadi Lewis, aka Gillberg trainee “Kennadi Brink,” whose name reads like you typed it on your phone without looking and autocorrect couldn’t figure out what you were saying.
What’s great about this is that not only is it a strong singles win for Cross — who needs it, since she’s going into an NXT Women’s Championship match at TakeOver — but it’s a squash win over someone much bigger than her. That says a lot about Cross’ character and persona. She’s not just straightforward and violent … she’s SO straightforward and SO violent that people larger and stronger than her end up on their knees desperately trying to pull themselves up because she’s beaten them so badly.
As much as I like The Australian Women, I wish the match at TakeOver was just Asuka vs. Cross. Asuka trying to intimidate and kick down someone who can’t be intimidated and doesn’t hang around in one spot long enough to get kicked that much would be great. That match doesn’t really need Billie Kay and Pay-en Summer Raeing around in the background.
Backstage Segment Lightning Round
Let’s approach these from Worst to Best.
Worst: No Way Jose is talking to what appears to be his 5-year old daughter when KONA REEVES interrupts, and we’re asked to get interested in the storied friendship of Jose and Reeves. Uh, sure? Jose rolling his eyes and reading his lines like he’s auditioning for Lizzie McGuire doesn’t help things. Can’t wait for these two to scrap, in the same way I “can’t wait” to throw away my junk mail.
Better Than Kona Reeves, At Least: NXT’s Stan Marsh Liv Morgan shows up and challenges Ember Moon to a match, because the only character traits Liv has are, “New Jersey,” “can’t say Payton,” and “picks fights with people who could break her neck in like five seconds.” I can’t wait for her to show up on Raw in a few weeks and be like, “I may have lost to pay-en, but badda bing badda boom Braun Strowman, let’s tussle.”
Best: The Revival calls TM-61 the “tilapia” of NXT. That’s amazing. Plus, watching the Revival cut a promo on Roderick Strong’s Australian dad and Shane Thorne is like watching someone tell a disinterested dog to “sit.”
Speaking of Roddy …
Worst: Cutler Your Losses
They should put the audio of this match into teddy bears you can squeeze to help babies fall asleep.
Worst: Also, Please Do Not Ever Let Roderick Strong Talk
Best: Tilapia Floats To The Top
My favorite bit of the week (surprise, surprise) is the match between The Revival and TM-61, which suffers from the crowd being burned out but still succeeds because of how smartly it’s put together.
The Revival absolutely does not take TM-61 seriously. They aggressively jump them before the match is even underway, which is what they do to jobber teams when they’re mad and want to prove a point. That’s how they see them. They just straight-up murder them, too, with Thorne and New Girl‘s Nick Miller getting in almost zero offense. Then, because of supreme overconfidence, TM-61 ends up getting an out-of-nowhere cradle and a flash victory. The Revival’s response is to not necessarily react, but amp up their violence tenfold and try to break dudes legs.
What I love about this is that it makes TM-61 look like a threat, but not really like a “threat.” They’re smart enough to capitalize and win a match, but they’re clearly outgunned and outclassed, so they’re still at a disadvantage. It’s not one of those Roman Reigns things where he wrestles and pins Kevin Owens three times before they’re supposed to wrestle at a pay-per-view and makes him look like a total loser … it’s the best team in the world getting cocky and slipping up, and an underdog tecnico team showing why they’ve got a shot to beat even the best in the world, even when they’re jumped. It’s a great dynamic. I hope these two teams get 25 minutes to open TakeOver: San Antonio so we can have one bulletproof workrate match on the show.
Best: Such Glory, Wow
This week’s main event is a contract signing featuring Bobby Roode cutting a … uh, glorious heel promo about how he’s improving everyone’s lives by making them feel like shit all the time, capped with Shinsuke Nakamura telling him he looks like a shiba inu. It’s SO ACCURATE. Combine that with the fact that Nakamura kinda looks like a 7-year old girl and this clip becomes NXT TakeOver: San Antonio fantasy booking:
In all seriousness, I’m really excited for this one. I’m hoping Nakamura fires up and gives us another top level performance, as this finally gives him the opportunity to face a North American-style heel in a North American pay-per-view main event. So far he’s only fought valiant babyfaces and Samoa Joe, who is more “violent, skilled pissed-off heel” than “Tully Blanchard with a lighting rig.” It’s either going to be a classic, or a weirdly boring Triple H/Randy Orton thing. I’m hoping for the former.
+1000 points if TakeOver ends with Nakamura holding Roode as they slide down a slide.
