Previously on the Best and Worst of WWE NXT: NXT TakeOver Colon Toronto happened, and then we took a week off. But don’t worry, we’re still in Canada so nothing that happens between TakeOver and Full Sail really matters.
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And now, the Best and Worst of WWE NXT for November 30, 2016.
Best/Worst: SAnitY
If you missed last week’s episode (as we did, because of Thanksgiving), it was the now traditional NXT TakeOver: Dark Matches show that follows TakeOver. And aside from Daria Berenato taking an O-Face sideways, all you missed was Sanity attacking everyone.
The show opened with future Cruiserweight Champion Rich Swann wrestling Kona Reeves — yes, a Hawaiian Keanu Reeves — and Sanity running in to attack them both. No Way Jose shows up to stick up for his CWC/NXT tag team partner and challenges Eric Young. That happens for a few minutes until Sanity attacks them. The reason I wanted to point this out here is because it leads directly into this week’s rematch, with Jose taking on Young again. Quick, guess what happens!
Jose has the match won with his … elevated punch? What’re we calling that? But yeah, Jose hits Young with the pop-up pop-you-in-the-face and Nikki Cross jumps on the apron to distract the referee. That allows Young a moment to recover, and he’s able to hit Jose from behind and put him away with his wheelbarrow neckbreaker.
You know, I like Sanity. I like their presentation, I LOVE Nikki Cross’ everything, and I think pairing a not-spectacular-but-extremely-knowledgeable vet like Eric Young with otherwise NXT jobbers Sawyer Fulton and Alexander Wolfe is good for everyone. I like everything about them but the wacky capitalization, honestly. But what I don’t like is NXT having an excuse to do this many fuck finishes in a row.
I’m not against there being a big heel faction, or a heel faction running amuck, or the build to Jose (or whoever) standing up to them and winning. And yeah, NXT has its fair share of fuck finishes no matter what. I just don’t like the entire point being, “there are four of them, and nobody’s doing anything about it, and they just attack you and nobody seems to want to win any matches.” That’s what happened with the Wyatt Family. They had a cool look, good talent, cool characters, and then eventually they were just a notable heel who couldn’t win anything, flanked by a bunch of henchmen who’re never gonna do anything but hench. It got tired, because none of it had any stakes, and they didn’t seem to care about winning or losing. Which, I know, it’s pro wrestling, but if you don’t have “win wrestling matches” as your goal, you’ve gotta be real crystal clear about what that goal is. If Sanity doesn’t care about winning, why are they here? Because anarchy? At least say it.
A supplemental Best to Nikki Cross though, seriously. During the post-match attack Sawyer Fulton has to like, pick her up under his arm like a duffel bag to keep her from attacking. Then they leave, he loses grip on her, and she runs back in to hit Jose with a missile dropkick. She’s feral as hell and I love it.
Best: Nicole Matthews
Hey cool, both Wednesday night shows this week featured ninjas!
This week’s NOBODY IS READY FOR ASUKA exhibition pits the champ against former Shimmer Champion Nicole Matthews. You may also remember her as one half of THE NAUGHTY GIRLS on Wrestlicious. I’m kidding, you wouldn’t. But yeah, NXT’s love affair with bringing in spectacularly talented women as jobbers continues, and if they don’t stock the Women’s Classic with Matthews and Santana Garrett and Evie and Shazza, they’re out of their damn minds.
Anyway, Asuka beats Matthews in a couple of minutes with the Asuka Lock, but manages to at least make it look like a struggle. Matthews isn’t afraid to throw forearms and get in Asuka’s face, so Asuka has to kinda Go To That Place Where She Hears Voices earlier than usual and shift up into murder mode. It’s a nice spot between Nia Jax “I have to take you seriously now” Asuka and Liv Morgan “I can beat you with anything I want in like five seconds” Asuka.
Best: Samoa Joe Vs. Shinsuke Nakamura Is Not The Main Event Of The Next TakeOver
On the one hand, Nakamura’s getting his NXT Championship match right away in his home country, which could mean they’re hot-shotting the belt around to make Nakamura and Joe a serious rivalry and turn them into stereo 2-time champs. That could be fun, especially since NXT’s big into having a showcase attraction babyface champion who can barely feel pain.
On the other, Nakamura’s not getting his next championship shot on a TakeOver, which increases the chances of Joe being able to retain. I think it’s in everyone’s best interests to toss Nakamura into the Royal Rumble as a surprise entrant, because he was pretty obviously bored as NXT Champ and as done whatever he’s gonna do here. The next TakeOver happens the day before the Rumble, so that’s a perfect spot for a championship-free Nakamura goodbye match. You can leave the belt on Joe until Mania weekend, have someone finally snatch it away from him, and (maybe, if we’re lucky) give Joe one of those Post WrestleMania New Hotness spots.
So, who should beat Joe, you ask? Here are ten suggestions:
Best: Ten Man
Joe is backstage talking to Heartless Robot about how nobody’s in his league when Tye Dillinger shows up, challenges him to a match and slaps him in the face. Joe is motivated to great acts of violence by tiny moments of disrespect, so that sends him over the sweaty anger edge and sets up the main.
Tye Dillinger can’t beat Andrade Almas or Bobby Roode, so of course he’s not going to beat Samoa Joe, but he’s in his home country still and the promise of his momentum is extremely viable, so the match works. It’s long, too, filling up the entire second half of the show and going out of its way to make Dillinger look like the next big thing. In fact, if they pulled an NXT greatest hits track out of the vault and built up Dillinger like they did Sami Zayn, Dillinger/Joe with a Dillinger upset could tear the goddamn roof off TakeOver in Orlando. And then you’ve got Bobby Roode right there as his first challenger. It makes a lot of sense. He doesn’t need to keep the belt for long, but it’d be a feel good story in a career that desperately, desperately needs one.
And that’s this week’s show. It ends NXT’s Canadian arena tour, and next week we go back to regular Full Sail tapings. The next TakeOver happens about an hour away from me in San Antonio, so it’ll be fun to get back to business and see how everything lines up. Asuka vs. Ember Moon, right? You’ve gotta do that in Texas. Samoa Joe vs. … who else is from Texas, Wesley Blake? COWBOY FIDDLE ENTRANCE FOR WESLEY BLAKE.
