Previously on the Best and Worst of WWE NXT: The NXT Tag Team Championship changed hands (on a different show), Tommaso Ciampa declared his intentions for the NXT Championship, and poor Vanessa Borne wondered out-loud why nobody makes fun of Kairi Sane for literally being a pirate.
If you missed this episode, you can watch it here. If you’d like to read previous installments of the Best and Worst of NXT, click right here. Follow With Spandex on Twitter and Facebook. You can also follow me on Twitter, where everything is terrible.
And now, the Best and Worst of WWE NXT for July 4, 2018.
Best: Johnny Darkness
This week’s major story is Johnny Gargano’s continued scenic-route dip into evil, more or less “broken” psychologically and emotionally by the Tommaso Ciampa feud, so much so that he’s becoming Ciampa in Ciampa’s absence. NXT management put Gargano in this match with EC3 to “move on” from the heavy Ciampa beef, so what does Gargano do? Wrestle like his normal old self again? No, he’s losing his goddamn mind, doing moves from the Ciampa match from Ciampa’s point of view against a guy who had nothing to do with the feud. Between that and interrupting his match to announce a contract, EC3’s got legitimate reasons to want to kick this guy’s ass. I like that wrinkle. Johnny’s not just “acting” heel, he’s become one, to the point that it messes with people’s lives outside of his immediate social circle.
I don’t love The Carter taking a pinfall loss this early in his reborn NXT career nor do I love NXT’s continuing obsession with Johnny Gargano and Candice LeRae’s marriage, but I get what they’re going for here. I also really liked them tying in what happened between EC3 and Velveteen Dream on the UK shows and having them clearly establishing the first steps of a feud, which will presumably allow Yonder Carter to move into something fun while (1) not dwelling on a single loss, (2) not having to rely on one of WWE’s iffy “win streak” angles to be his entire character, and (3) putting over Johnny Gargano as a threat to people bigger and stronger than him. Great utility work there.
Best: I Am, The Top, Dream, Top Dream Percent
Up next is a weird create-a-Superstar match between Mark Jindrak in Kazuchika Okada’s gear and a Hollywood Hogan with the wrong hair selection and too dark a tan.
Like the Carter/Gargano match, this is more about utilitarian purpose than “being a good wrestling match,” although it is that. It’s about giving Dream a much-needed rebound victory over someone with something at least resembling a name following his loss to Ricochet in my current WWE Match of the Year at NXT TakeOver: Chicago II. It’s also about continuing to give Dijak just enough personality and momentum in these Jobber To The Stars matches so that when they flip that Baron Corbin switch on him and decide he’s important, it won’t be much of a leap for us to accept. He’s clearly big, talented, and going somewhere. He just needs to chill with the clip-art slogans all over his gear. Dude’s probably got “ANDY” on the underside of his boot.
I don’t know if they’re building to Dream vs. EC3 specifically for TakeOver Brooklyn — I would’ve done a Dream vs. Black title match, although they might be saving that — but I’m excited to see where that goes, especially in the intersection of an entitled guy dealing with his first loss, and an entitled guy who always seems to lose when it matters and needs to redeem himself.
Also On This Week’s Show
Speaking of Jobber To The Stars rehab matches, NXT brings back the always Almost Employed Here Santana Garrett to look good but take a loss to Dakota Kai. Kai got to stand up for herself against Shayna Baszler in a tough loss, so now she’s gotta string together a few wins or get left behind in a burgeoning but still relatively (contextually) green women’s roster.
Garrett is obviously really good at what she does, but I was distracted by that noise she makes when she does moves. It reminded me of the Most Annoying Sound In The World, but in half-a-second bursts during arm drags. I’d have more analysis for this match, but Bianca Belair’s awesome behind-the-scenes promo where she casually shades everyone in the company hit most of the points. I just want one follow-up promo where Kairi Sane grabs a camera with both hands and screams I JUST LIKE PIRATES, LEAVE ME ALONE.
I will say I like how interlaced the women’s division is, but it can be a little jarring sometimes. Like how we get Shayna Baszler and Belair both insulting Sane on this episode, but when it’s time for Sane’s promo, it’s pre-taped and only about Vanessa Borne. Who’s nowhere near as important as the other two.
Real quick, let’s take a moment to deeply laugh at TM-61’s new personae, “The Mighty.” Instead of color-coded underpants they’re now wearing Keiji Mutoh/Austin Aries tights and DUSTERS, and they’ve got a new signature pose: that back-to-back lean romantic comedies use to show that couples sure are different, or that billboards use to show that characters from different shows are “back to back” in a programming block:
I liked this handicap match because it’s what most handicap matches should be. I remember watching these as a kid, and you never thought the guy down 2 men to 1 was going to win, you just wanted to see them almost win. That way the heels would have to do something cheap, which makes them extra scumbags because they already have an advantage, AND you preserve the very basic idea that everyone employed at this company with a name is a top level athlete and two of that should usually beat one. Unless the one is a giant, or 600-pounds, or whatever.
I think Otis could find a lot of life as a singles guy. Not to discount Tucker Knight, I guess, but the second Vince McMahon realizes he’s got an affable fat guy with long hair who can do the Worm, he’s got a new Intercontinental Champion.
