Previously on the Best and Worst of WWE NXT: Nia Jax defeated Bayley and injured the former champ’s leg, making her questionable for her assumed rematch with Asuka at NXT TakeOver. William Regal announced that Finn Bálor would face Samoa Joe for the NXT Championship at TakeOver in a steel cage match. Also, in less exciting news, BAMF broke up.
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And now, the Best and Worst of WWE NXT for May 25, 2016.
Best: The Mighty Don’t Win
This week’s opener is Team CWC (Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa) against the debuting “TM61,” aka the former TMDK, The Mighty Don’t Kneel. You may know the Australian duo from their time in Pro Wrestling NOAH as two-time GHC Tag Team Champions, or from their appearances in places like New Japan Pro Wrestling, Ring Of Honor or, if you’re hip, Championship Wrestling From Hollywood. You may also know them from the most brutal Lance Archer chokeslams ever. They’re not singular enough to keep their names, so now Mikey Nicholls is “Nick Miller” like the guy from New Girl, Shane Haste is now Shane Thorne — I would’ve leveled him up and called him “Shane Hastega” — and now TMDK is TM61. That’s Thorne (T) Miller (M) and the country calling code for Australia (+61).
I didn’t expect TMDK to lose their NXT debut, but I honestly like how it was done. Gargano and Ciampa have a ton of momentum going all of a sudden, and with the Cruiserweight Classic coming up you want to keep the guys the NXT Universe Prime recognizes strong so they can have someone to root for in-context. Familiarity goes a long way. I was never much of a fan of Gargano or Ciampa on the indies, but it helps to think about them with a fresh set of eyes. When I was a little kid, I LOVED the kinda bland white guy tag team that worked together really well and tried hard. It’s why I liked Tim Horner and Brad Armstrong so much. If I was 10 and watching NXT, they’d probably be my favorites.
But yeah, this is a good, competitive match that continues to make Ciampa and Gargano look like hot sh*t, establishes that TM61 are eventually gonna put it together and become one of the best tag teams in the company, and keeps both the NXT tag team and burgeoning cruiserweight division looking promising and strong. Good stuff all around.
Best: La Sombra!
Up next we get a video package for the soon-to-debut La Sombra, now known as “Andrade ‘Cien’ Almas.” “Cien” means “hundred” and “alma” is “soul,” so the name translates to “100 souls,” which is initially cool in that “Sin Cara” kind of way. I can’t wait for him to go heel, start wearing black and calling himself “Dark Souls.” Nobody will be able to beat him.
The promo video is of Almas in his mask watching footage of himself wrestling, then taking it off. It’s a nice nod to the past and a much nicer nod to the future. I’m gonna guess the “Andrade” will get dropped at some point and he’ll just become Cien Almas, and that I’ll continually fantasy book him as NXT’s version of Fenix. Do we need a personification of death to feud with him, or is Samoa Joe close enough?
If Finn gets a “Bálor Club,” I’ll keep my fingers crossed for Los Ingobernables de NXT.
Best: Nakamura English Promos
Good: Austin Aries acknowledging the fact that Shinsuke Nakamura’s overshadowed him since day one in a reasonable kind of way, then challenging Nakamura to a match to prove who’s better. Also, William Regal seeing the writing on the wall, listening to the NXT crowd and signing a match between the two for NXT TakeOver before anyone starts jumping anyone else from behind.
Great: Nakamura cutting promos in English. They’re just as weird and great as you’d hope. He constantly looks like he’s going to pee his pants, and he won’t stop pointing at people. He speaks Japanese, apologizes for Aries not understanding him, and responds to Aries’ “I don’t understand YOU” with “yeah, me too.”
https://twitter.com/skrongstyle/status/735722832986968068
That GIF is my life.
Best: Bayley Cutting Promos In A Paramore Shirt
Put Lucha Underground on in the background, fill the room with baby animals and have her not shut up about being vegan and you’ve got everything I like in one promo.
Worst Best: No Way Jose Dance Party USA
Stupid Sexy Flanders gets another squash win this week, this time over “Jonathan Ortagun,” carrying on the now time-honored tradition of jobbers putting their names on their gear and then going by different names. Sklyer and Hollis fought the Shining Stars with CH and SKYLER on their butts, and now here’s Johnny Ortagun with VANDAL across his. Also, when Randy shoots on you, he uses an Ortagun.
Yeah, so it’s more of what you either love or impossibly despise from No Way Jose. I think he’s pretty fantastic, but there’s also a part of me that wants to see him wrestle Brock Lesnar. He’s great, but he also kinda makes me want to destroy something beautiful. Does that make sense?
After the match, he heads up to the announce table and gets Tom Phillips and Corey Graves to dance with him. Simpsons did it.
Best: American Alpha
We don’t get much from the homies Jordan and Gable this week, but I liked what we got a lot. It’s a classic, straight-forward promo about how they know The Revival are tough and are gonna punch them in the mouth, but they’re world class pro wrestlers and can handle anything. I’m excited to see which one of them goes nuts and becomes the Scott Steiner.
Best: Number One Contender
At the beginning of the show, William Regal makes a totally logical decision about the NXT Women’s Division: Bayley is owed the first title shot because she’s the former champ and has a rematch, but Nia Jax hurt her on last week’s episode and now she’s unable to compete at TakeOver. Therefore, Regal’s putting the women who have a legitimate claim to challenging for the Women’s Championship — Nia Jax, Alexa Bliss and Carmella — into a triple threat match. The winner moves on to get blistered by Asuka and hospitalized for 2-4 weeks.
The result is a fun triple threat main-event that plays to the strengths of everyone involved. Nia Jax is way bigger than everyone else but still sorta learning how to come across as a monster, so she gets put into the ring with two of the smallest people on the roster. Carmella gets to be the scrappy, ersatz-Bayley babyface who tries hard and ultimately loses. Alexa Bliss gets to be a manipulative, opportunistic heel who occasionally gets in way over her head and pays for it. She starts the match by bailing on it, because she’s smart.
Of course, as the role descriptions suggest, the finish is Nia Jax dropping a leg on Carmella and becoming the new number one contender. It’s not only the right call, but a good addition to the already mapped-out story; Nia Jax beat and injured Bayley to take away her title match, and now she’s officially taking it for herself by hurting Bayley’s best friend. Whether Nia wins or loses at Takeover is irrelevant, because when Bayley gets well, she’ll have a great revenge story and motivation heading into their rubber match. We’re doing Bayley vs. Asuka II in August as Bayley’s farewell, right?
