Previously on the Best and Worst of WWE NXT: The Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic rolled on with two matches affected by injuries, leading to a forfeit and a one-on-one tag team match. This is what happens when you accidentally kick in one of your stars’ faces, guys.
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And now, the Best and Worst of WWE NXT for November 9, 2016.
Best: The Revival Has The Worst Plan Ever
Wrestling heels don’t always have to make sense, I guess, but The Revival sure is taking the scenic route to get back at Hashtag DIY.
All the way back in June, Gargano and Ciampa pinned the Revival in a tag match. This was only six days before The Revival were set to challenge for a Tag Team Championship match they’d end up winning. The Revival spent all summer ducking DIY, who wouldn’t get a formal title shot until August at TakeOver: Brooklyn II. It was great, but the Revival retained.
Despite straight up beating them fair and square in the middle of the ring, the feeling that DIY “has the Revival’s number” or whatever still exists. So when the teams were set to face each other in round two of the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic, a probably actually injured but kayfabe faking it Scott Dawson bailed on the match, giving DIY a free ride into the semi-finals. That’s where we stand going into this week’s episode.
So in this episode, DIY does their best impression of a millennial, music non-specific Rock n’ Roll Express as they take on the Brodus Clay Road Warriors, the Authors of Pain. Between this and last week, the Authors are proving they can work. Ciampa and Gargano are riding a wave of hard work, great booking and even better timing to be the best pure babyface tag team we’ve seen in WWE since American Alpha. Whereas Alpha is a team of guys hyped as hell at how good at wrestling they are, DIY gets a more classic build, where they bust their asses to win fairly, work brilliantly together as a team, and uphold charming (and waning) ideas about competition, passion and loyalty when they’re, say, pitted against one another in the Cruiserweight Classic. They feel like human beings, even if their promos haven’t caught up, and that’s easy to cheer for.
As the match reaches its climax and DIY looks like they’re about to pull off what most folks would consider an upset, the Revival reveal that they’ve been hiding under the ring for what must’ve been HOURS just to wait for that perfect moment when one of DIY was on the outside, the referee was distracted, and they could beat them up to … I guess momentarily inhibit proper teamwork? They don’t directly affect the outcome of the match, but their attack on Gargano leaves Ciampa to eat a Last Chapter and lose the match. You’ve gotta laugh at the Revival for not like, finding DIY backstage and beating them up with crutches or something instead of wasting their entire day on fateful anticipation and like 10 seconds of behind-the-back jerkery.
So in this match, we:
– set up 1/2 of the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic Finals, based on the idea that (spoiler alert) TM-61 will have to be the scrappiest of the scrappy babyfaces if they want to beat the monster team that’s beaten the four happy-scrappiest babies in the company (DIY, No Way Jose and Rich Swann), made even harder with the knowledge that the Revival’s just hanging around fucking shit up for fun
– re-establish that Gargano and Ciampa can beat any team on any night, even the big tough monster team, because they work harder than everyone else, are a great actual team and are sticking together even when shit gets tough
– combining last week’s Authors of Pain revelation (they can work!) with their previous vibe of, “we are so strong and our manager is an evil genius and we’re gonna kill you with movez”
– remind the audience that The Revival are great at what they do, but they’re colossal jerks for more or less no reason and are gonna keep trying to offensively emasculate people until it truly comes back around to bite them in the ass.
Great work all around.
Best: The Other Semi-Finals Match
The other semi-finals jam that’s very good but worse than the opener in literally every way (except “does this match contain Nikki Cross?”) is TM-61 and their homemade arm teepees vs. SAnitY, who need to fix their keyboard.
TM-61 don’t have the NXT history or character development of Gargano and Ciampa — although their promos are pretty much neck and neck in “trying to be funny” secondhand embarrassment — and Sawyer Fulton and Alexander Wolfe still kinda wrestle like jobbers, but the match tells a good, essential story. TM-61 are outnumbered, which they’re gonna be in the finals against the Authors of Pain, and they’re also a little overpowered. Like the Authors, Sanity doesn’t have a lot of NXT experience as a team, so it all kinda coordinates. The Authors beat the better (for now) version of TM-61, and TM-61 beat the worse version of the Authors.
My only complaint, I guess, is that New Girl‘s Nick Miller shouldn’t be the TM-61 guy taking the hot tag. Shane “Hastega” Thorne is sorta leaving him in the dust right now, so maybe you want to have the better guy do the selling and anchor more of the match, but damn, TM-61’s never gonna truly pop until they aren’t stumbling through the hot tags. American Alpha works so well because Gable takes the beatings, and when he tags in Jason Jordan, Jason Jordan is the motherfucker. So yeah, either switch the 6 and the 1, or give Nick a confidence boost and some dynamic solo offense.
Worst: Rachel Nitro
Back in May, Paul Ellering’s power-lifting daughter who really could make something out of that debuted as Rachel Ellering. Her dad showed up to manage the Authors of Pain, so instead of just rolling with it or, you know, adding her to the crew in some way, they rebranded her as “Rachel Fazio.” This week, she’s “Rachel Evers,” paying tribute to Lance Storm.
That’s three names in like five months. Can we just call her Ellering and not worry about it? I wish she’d at least gone from Rachel Tinkers to Rachel Evers to Rachel Chance.
Best: Anime Werewolf Ninja Is Still The Best
Next week’s Rachel Cornette is out here to lose to Ember Moon, who isn’t really doing a lot, but is still cool as shit. I’m really hoping this is building to a scenario where Asuka foot-murders Mickie James at TakeOver Toronto and is like NOBODY IS READY FOR ASUKA, and Ember just drops from the ceiling and stunners her.
Best: Full Contract Fighting
Here’s a true statement: NXT does contract signings better than any promotion in the history of wrestling. They just get it. Remember the epic psychological warfare between Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn? Remember Sasha Banks standing on Becky Lynch’s head? If you’re a newer fan, remember Asuka going kick-nuts on Nia Jax and getting powerbombed? NXT contract signings always get to the heart of a matter, and are (weirdly) a non-wrestling segment to actually look forward to.
This week’s contract signing is no exception. William Regal brings out a bunch of security guards to keep Nakamura and Joe apart, but Joe doesn’t have any faith in it and drags out his own table and chair (and microphone) to the top of the ramp on the stage. He’s going to do his contract signing from there, which is not only a great heel move, but escalates the shitty heel attitude by making Regal have to walk all the way up there to do stuff he should be doing in an arm movement. He makes fun of Regal’s accent, calls Nakamura a dog that he’s going to put down, and manages to simultaneously be the most threatening and cowardly baby ever. It’s super great.
Once the contract is signed, Nakamura I guess substantiates Joe’s belief that he’s a crazy animal by beating up six security guards, powerbombing the final guard through the — well, his — contract signing table. Those poor security dorks didn’t do anything, but that’s where we’re at now: the champion’s tired of the bullshit, and a guy who got his jaw broken must either power up to break jaws or have it broken again. Regal’s “god dammit” face on the apron really sells it.
Great episode this week. Join us next week for … a clip show, probably. AND THEN TAKEOVER CHRONTO!
