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Previously on the Best and Worst of WWE NXT: Sanity debuted, revealing themselves to be Eric Young, Necky Storm and two other guys. Their Purge aesthetic made Bobby Roode bail on the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic, leaving Tye Dillinger alone to take a beatdown. Also, Shinsuke Nakamura returned from injury to confront Samoa Joe, and Peyton Royce made a donkey face.
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And now, the Best and Worst of WWE NXT for October 19, 2016.
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Would love to see your Smackdown write ups
“Billie Kay is the Dana, btw.”
How dare you, Brandon. No one deserves the indignity of being the Dana.
Dana was dope in NXT. Granted, her wrestling was a little green when she got called up, but she was a great character. Personally, one of my favorite performers for live shows too.
Hell yes. NXT Dana Brooke was the dopeness. I agree she needed more seasoning before being thrusted into live tv everyweek, but I still enjoy the shit outta her and her character. Also, I dont find it as a dig at all, Billie is the muscle, much like Dana was. The big boot is the big forearm/clothesline and Peyton can be all Evil-Emma-esque with her dark lipstick(I got nothin else on that comp).
After her undeniably huge fuckup on Monday, I feel I can finally really let my anti-Dana flag fly. I’ve always felt she was a worse version of Aksana (literally eye-crushing knees withstanding).
TBH, the foot-on-the-ropes fumble with Charlotte and the missed pin break on the first Brooklyn show were worse than Monday’s gaffe. She was going to win anyway to cultivate Bayley as the resiliant babyface, she just did it without officially cheating. Not as bad as completely changing the outcome of the match.
Wasn’t the foot on the ropes with Paige? Or was there more than one? You’d begin to get suspicious of such glaring errors happening all the time if they didn’t completely ruin storylines and match momentum so never get mentioned again.
Nope, the foot was TOUCHING the rope, but was under it. That’s not the miscue, though. The ref was staring at her as it was happening because she was late on the action trying to get the foot over the rope.
Seems quite strange that Full Sail would pop huge for La Sombra and James Storm, even some make the Catch Point gesture at Gulak, but shrug their shoulders at Roderick Strong and his Unshitty Regular Sized Boots. But then being thrown into a tag tournament you know he’s winning (because Aries is kind of “just there” already, maybe because of Roode stealing his ex-TNA thunder, and because they already have three strong heel teams) where the team don’t have an upcoming story because of Itami’s injury, and you can’t really see a singles program for him right now, isn’t entirely helpful.
I was shocked too…the TNA guys all got hyuuuge reactions just for showing up. Roddy’s been in smaller promotions, but he’s from the area and yeah, the crowd definitely seems aware of Evolve-level stuff. I hope there’s a Aries/Roode/Young level of character development eventually, but he’s just there right now.
Roddy kinda perfected a douchebag character by the end of his PWG run … he called Speedball a ‘nerd’!
@Patrick MacAdoo If he can match that PWG heel magic here, he’ll be a Full Sail legend.
I like this new “smokes crystal meth out of a lightbulb” Nikki Cross
Poor Tye…. First its Brooklyn I vs Crews. Dumped. Then it’s Shinsuke post-Sami at Axxess…. gets rolled. Then Cien at The End, gets housed. Brooklyn II comes, wins, but on preshow vs Blake. Now he gets his full rightful babyface turn, and gets a spotlight match likely higher than the opener in HIS HOMETOWN, and has to now fight the ultimately over-as-fuck heel in Bobby Roo, ALSO FROM HIS HOMETOWN. Shitty luck. But that match will still be dope.
Honestly…I think Tye takes this one. Roode is a made man on his entrance and past alone. A huge upset gives him something new to work with. And this would give Tye a step towards the next level. His character is over, but sweet mercy does he need a trademark win.
I think so too – now Almas is heel, Jose’s taking defeats and Cedric’s on Raw they really need another strong singles face given we have two more strong heels just in (counting Young) and the top two faces are god-tier and often-injured.
Toronto is not Tye’s home town. Dude is legit from Niagara Falls and is billed as being from Niagara Falls. That’s like two hours away from Toronto. He’s a Canadian, so he’ll get the requisite home country pop, but motherfucker ain’t from TO. Fuck, Buffalo is closer to Tye’s home town than Toronto is.
Believe he meant that Toronto is Roode’s billed hometown (even though he’s from Hamilton, Ontario).
With Cien’s first vignette making a big deal about him taking off the mask, his gimmick so far being defiantly lame, and now his heel turn calling back so directly to that first vignette, I am utterly convinced it has been the plan all along. Get a talented guy to fill in some of the massive talent loss they just had, give him some time to work on some effective english by keeping him out of anything promo-demanding, use his debut to turn Dillinger face, then have him job to help other people and fill spots in matches, but have that jobbing serve this heel turn. The months of people wondering “WTF?” was definitely justified, but I really think it’s plausible it was all a plan and a genius one at that.
No way (Jose, tee-hee). They’re just really good at taking their random dumbassery and welding it into a coherent character arc when they decide someone they never intended to be anytthing special is important now (or fan demand forces their hand) later on. They did the same thing for Daniel Bryan’s entire WWE career to that point once he started catching fire, and with Sasha & Bayley (and the Four Horsewomen as a whole) once it came time to start focusing on the endgame. And Cien only has like two or three bad months to turn into a coherent arc. That’s unusually easy-peasy for them.
I agree NXT does make mistakes and they’ve been good at covering them by making sensible adjustments, but they tend to do it quickly. I stressed the “defiantly lame” aspect of Cien’s gimmick and presentation because NXT just doesn’t let stuff fall THAT flat on its face for multiple tapings and specials. On the main roster they do, and they’ll switch at the very last second and then have Cole try to Jedi-mind trick everyone into thinking they didn’t, but NXT tends to be quick changes until they find what works and then dragging what works out until it doesn’t. The fact that Cien came out in that hat and suspenders – like he was Jerry throwing his stand-up set to stop Bania riding his coattails – for so long can’t be an accident.
Best part of the show was Nikki riding Sawyer’s back up the ramp when they left. They seriously need to have her enter on his shoulders for big-time matches/events. If going with the post apocalyptic vibe, might as well go full Master Blaster with it.
Was thinking the same thing. Had flashbacks to Little Guido on Big Sal’s shoulders.
This sold me 100% on Sanity. Interested to see what sort of things EY says when they give him a mic to lay some story work down, but this already feels like it could be the kind of heel stable that lords over all of NXT at some point, and that’s a fun dynamic when done right.
This is one of the few moments where Brandon and I are polar opposites on the spectrum. Roddy has always and will always be my jam and for me was always the far more interesting and entertaining member of his tag team with Aries. Sure, Aries has more character. But my cold heart would always get excited when Strong would tag in to chop the skin off someone then backbreaker them into oblivion.
I totally agree with you. Roddy is a fucking cardio and strength machine with the skills to back it all up. I’ve loved him in PWG and ROH for the last 5 years, especially when he’s 30 mins in a match and just turns it up and starts hitting big move after move after move. And he’s decent on the mic! He’s been a great heel in PDub. I think he’s a far higher calibre athlete then the majority of Full Sail and I hope he gets the push to reflect his status.
Thirded. As I said above, if he can capture that shit heel magic like he had in PWG, he’s a made man.
I’ve got no real opinion on Roddrick Strong yet, but what a weird entrance video/lighting: spooky green that seems to be dripping down the screen/arena? Is he haunting Full Sail?
I will say Strong’s hairline is about five years away from an awesome Boyd Crowder gimmick.
Also, the woman interviewing Aries looked like one of the Westworld robots waiting to be taken out of analytical mode. Her eyes and face barely even move when he walks away.
Can’t believe how far Aries has come. He and Strong made the two big guys look like a million bucks. They might even be able to get a decent match out of Botchson and Wilder (not holding my breath, though).
NXT needs more Takeovers or something. Setting up the Dillinger/Roo match and then announcing it’s five weeks away killed me.
That Cross ending was bs. Idk if reversals like that are in the rules or used to happen all the time back in the AWA or UWF or wherever but it flies in the face of the weekly product and thus is stupid. Just DQ her during the match and it’s the same result + sense.
Overall, though, it’s crazy how much NXT quality has improved since the post-Summerslam talent drought.
+1 on Botchson and Wilder
YOU DON’T LIKE THE REVIVAL I WILL ACTUALLY FIGHT YOU FOR REAL GOING HARD ALL DAY ALL NIGHT
But you’re right, they botch at times.
HOWEVER
They have fantastic matches all the time.
ALSO HOWEVER
you might be joking and I’m just stupid.
-1 on Botchson and Wilder
-1 too
Botchson and Wilder. Really clever.
The Revival are the best tag team in the whole of the company right now. Shame on you.
Botchson? Is this sarcasm?
Watch Takeover: Dallas, then watch the Axxess squash they taped the day after. That is all I’ll say on the matter.
Conversely, I think main roster has too many PPVs.
I thought all of the “look how KA-RAZY I am” crap that Nikki was doing in the match really sucked. She couldn’t do any of it without looking straight into the hardcam, plus given her suspect “acting” ability it all came off as super forced and hamfisted as a motherfucker. That said, I really liked it when she popped Eric Young in the post-match. It seemed a far more organic way to get over how unstable she is rather than completely beating you over the head with bad panto.
I agree with this – I feel like I’m the only one who’s really not digging the rollout of Sanity. They obviously have big plans for the stable, so I’m hoping I come around on them.
Yeah, Cross’s antics just made me roll my eyes. There is such a thing as too much, and that was it.
I’m sure Cross is a good rassler. Really. But she’s not good at conveying crazy. I’m not the biggest Dean Ambrose guy in the world (although I do like him) but he can do crazy expressions. Half-assedly raking your face and biting the ropes doesn’t cut it for me. At all. It was pretty bad.
Have her eyes pop out or something. Have her yell when she gets someone in a headlock (and not a Diva yell, an actual gutwrench HEAERGH). Make her violently beat people’s heads into the mat. Have her kick a bunch. Give her long awkward silences of her staring at a grounded opponent, maybe sitting in the corner. Maybe bite someone. Kick women in the crotch? Have her slap herself a couple of times. I mean, the forearm to Young was nice, it’s just the rest was not.
Wait, she actually did slap herself.
But she did it poorly, so the point still stands.
Agree. She definitely over did it when she had her in a move and started hitting herself. Her crazy antics shouldn’t interfere with her moves they should come before or after.
I dug everything she did pre and post match. It worked for me. As she continues to develop the character, I’m sure the in-ring stuff will follow.
Wait. So, Roderick Strong debuted as Ricky Morton?
Ya’ll can let go of this “No no, Patrick Clark is totally doing a Prince impression” nonsense because he (Clark) certainly has. Everything about his behavior–from his voice inflection to the way he took off his earrings says flamboyantly gay black man. And that’s okay. NXT hopefully can do better by that character type than what I know we’d get from RAW.
Ummmmmm….the first thing he did when he was coming down to the ring to confront Nak was paraphrase a line from Let’s Go Crazy. “NXT Universe, we gathered here today to get to this thing called NXT Takeover: Toronto” is the exact quote.
1: It’s “Y’all” not “ya’ll”.
2: The guy’s wearing paisley and quoting Prince directly. It’s a Prince impression.
1.) The fact that you thought that was noteworthy tells me I shouldn’t continue this line of discussion, but….
2.) Then I stand corrected on half of it. Patrick does NOT realize he’s not Prince. ‘Cause Prince didn’t behave OR sound like that. He can SAY that’s what’s happening, but that just means he completely misunderstands Prince.
I like this new Clark character. He seems comfortable doing it, he sounded a little wooden but not too bad, he’s seemed competent enough doing jobber work so far. Hell, Nakamura is camp as fuck in some ways and still murderises people and wins titles, there’s no reason why Patrick Clark couldn’t get at least some success as a good-looking man with a flamboyant character.
I was looking forward to (and expecting) ‘Team Aries’ to only consist of himself. It would have been a fun element to the tournament.
Lots of pretty people on this episode. Never a bad thing.
I admit I was cheering for the Australian Mean Girls, because sorry Liv, you’re not ready yet. I like you, and root for you, but you need another year or more to maybe start wrestling matches at full speed. You can just be plucky babyface getting beat down for the next six months.
And um, I admit I might have a…thing for Nikki Cross. Pretty lady being so crazy she got a totally justified “DQed For Kicking Too Much Ass” reversal finish.
Really great episode this week. It’s funny when you just have simple storylines and people are allowed to be themselves rather than scripted robots, things are often good!
Is it possible that Liv is actually a Westworld automaton? This would require NXT creative anticipating pop culture trends, but her robot-like delivery and penchant for making the same mistake over and over again without learning or becoming self-aware fits perfectly.
I am all-fucking-in on this version of Nikki Cross. Heart eyes. There’s some stuff she needs to tone back on a bit but tweeker Alexa Bliss is doing some stuff for me I don’t entirely understand. I wish BAMF was still intact so they could clash with Sanity. Maybe someday in the wasteland.
The wasteland = Smackdown?
I am LOVING this version of Nikki Cross. I think we even saw some foreshadowing back in her debut during that trios match, the way she just went after that MMA girl. Now she’s one of the most violent members of the team who can actually get shit done in the ring.
One suggestion, though, would be to dial it down a bit. Sure I love that she’s the crazy super secret weapon of Sanity’s, but there’s such a thing as trying too hard, you know? Easy, sister!
Nikki looked much better in that trios match. Here she looked like she’d done drugs and headed down to the ring right after.
Patrick Clark would be better off aping the “What. What. In the butt.” Guy.
The first three Roderick Strong matches I watched were all against Bryan Danielson for the ROH Championship. So I’ve always liked the guy, even if those three performances are the best I’ve seen from him.
I’m on board with Big Tuck *chuckle* and Dzogo.
I was surprised at how into Tucker and Otis I was. Those dudes might end up being a better version of the Hype Bros.
On the Otis and Tucker gimmick: The obvious would be trucker or lumberjacks. But I think they should go for (non-occult) hillbillies, think “Tucker and Dale vs Evil”. In this case, have everyone think they’re members of the Wyatt Family, but really these two are the purest white-meat babyfaces. So all the faces keep trying to attack them, but hurt themselves instead.
Tell me you wouldn’t want to see Roman Reigns spear himself into a wood chipper trying to attack Otis and Tucker.
This idea is beautiful.
Otis Dozovic and Tucker Knight, ALL I could think was New Eliminators.!
I’ve only got around to seeing the show today, but Otis Dozovic & Tucker Knight squishing just Strong’s head between their bellies was as hilarious as it was awesome.
THEY SQUISHED HIS HEAD BETWEEN THEIR BELLIES!!!!
“The best part is Bobby’s entrance, which has gotten so bright and sparkly it looks like Scott Bakula has Quantum Leapt into his body to make sure he wins the match”
I’m only now reading this because I’m catching up on NXT episodes, so forgive me for being stupidly late, but oh man, I’m a huge Quantum Leap fan, and I didn’t even make that connection. But it’s spot-on, and made me laugh more than just about anything this year. This solidifies Stroud as my favorite wrestling writer anywhere.