Previously on the Best and Worst of NXT: The Robert Stone Brand relaunched with a Kona Reeves-like intensity, Velveteen Dream and Roderick Strong had an awkward main event, and Dominik Dijakovic made his intentions clear for Keith Lee. Okay, maybe not THAT clear.
If you’d like to read previous installments of the Best and Worst of NXT, you can do that here. Follow With Spandex on Twitter and Facebook. You can also follow me on Twitter, where everything and everyone is terrible.
And now, the Best and Worst of WWE NXT for February 26, 2020.
Worst: WAIT JUST A MINUTE WHAT’S THIS, Three Times In A Row
You guys know I love NXT and have been writing this column since it was on Hulu in 2013, right? So I’m just going to come right out and say it: this was the worst episode of NXT in a long, long time. I don’t want to jump to any reactionary conclusions about WWE being concerned about their “good” brand being regularly dunked on in the Wednesday night ratings and feeling like they’ve got to “main roster” it up to compensate or whatever, but primetime WWE brand presentation is so antithetical to what NXT had developed that when you drip a drop of one into the other, it turns the water foul. Between this and last week’s episodes, it’s starting to feel like NXT peaked about 3/4 of the way through TakeOver Portland, fell victim to its own worst instincts during the main event, and hasn’t been able to get back onto its feet yet.
Shorter version: Do you like run-ins? If they were all slightly different, would you take three in a row?
The opening match of the night is Dominik Dijakovic versus Cameron Grimes. They’re working hard and the match is pretty good, though not particularly noteworthy or spectacular, and then we get to the finish: Damian Priest running out with a Tonya Harding club to Nancy Kerrigan Dijakovic in the knee, knocking him off the apron. Dijak almost gets counted out, but rolls back in to beat the 10 count and gets immediately Caved In. But that’s just one run-in in the opener, that doesn’t mean anything. They’re building a feud! It’s a big agile guy who loves “groups of women” versus a big agile guy who loves Keith Lee. It’s all good.
But that’s followed by Xia Li vs. Mia Yim, which probably wouldn’t have been very good BEFORE Dakota Kai and Raquel Gonzalez wandered out to do a random, mid-match promo. Kai’s still got beef with Mia for “stealing her spot” in the War Games match — not even kind of the truth, but a good delusional step to the left from the truth of Tegan Nox standing around in the background watching Mia and the rest of the team bag on Kai for not being good enough — and her promo about it causes, surprise! A roll-up. The Divas Distraction Roll-Up Of Doom, done on NXT in 2020.
After the match, Gonzalez hosses up and beats down Mia. And internally I’m like, “okay, that’s two bits of outside interference in a row. There’s a Kenny Omega vs. PAC Ironman Match happening on the other channel and for better or worse, they’re countering it with the first half hour of Raw. And not even a GOOD first half hour of Raw.” But maybe I’m just a jaded and joyless smark, and things will pick up. It’s just coincidence, because the team agented the matches independent of one another and accidentally put two similar ones back-to-back with a promo between them.
The next match is Tommaso Ciampa vs. Austin Theory, and hey, it’s got a clean ending! Ciampa wins a competitive 12-minute match that gives Theory some time to shine but doesn’t ever try to convince us he’s seriously going to beat Tommaso Ciampa, he of the 45 TakeOver Portland near-falls. But it’s a night of run-ins, so the second it’s over, Johnny Gargano shows up in 1990s Miami club casual to attack Ciampa. Ciampa fights him off, but then Austin Theory causes a distraction in the middle of a SEPARATE distraction to give Gargano the edge.
Look, I know the tone of this is probably way more negative than you’re used to reading from me — well, about NXT at least — and I know I’m probably just feeling bummed about the one WWE show I can rely on to be good for me not living up to expectations for like one damn week, but so much of the wrestling on this episode felt flat, and bad. Even when it wasn’t bad it felt bad, because there was no urgency or inspiration to what they were doing. They were just hitting their marks to get to the plot progression. It’s a bummer when it feels like the performance of pro wrestling becomes truly secondary to sports-entertaining, and that’s just where we are this week.
So let me go back and add some complimentary language, so it hits the actual tone I’m going for. I like NXT’s ongoing growth of its Big Man division (more on that later) and that they’re working to give Dijakovic something to do so he’s not just puppy dog-eyeing Keith Lee all the time. I think Dakota Kai and Raquel Gonzalez are a promising duo, especially visually because of how dramatically different they are. Heel Evie is how Dakota Kai should’ve arrived in the first place. And there’s always an undercurrent of appreciation in my heart and brain for Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa’s endless blood feud, and an honest sense of anticipation for the build to what’s GOT to be the final chapter in NXT. After Gargano/Ciampa and the Undisputed Era wrap up, that’s the official end of an era. It can be like when Sami Zayn showed up, or when Kevin Owens beat up John Cena on Raw, or DIY broke up in the first place. Generational markers for a promotion that’s put dense, valued work into a decade of cohesive storytelling and American pro wrestling excellence.
I’ve just gotta type what’s in my heart sometimes, whether it’s short-sighted and reactionary or not. This episode stunk.
Best: Oh My God NXT TakeOver Dublin Is Going To RULE Though
Since Johnny Gargano “turned heel” at the end of TakeOver Portland and Finn Bálor kicked his ass and graphically dominated him earlier in the night, it looks like Bálor’s more good than bad again. It’s good that he’s perfected the “tweener” role on NXT, because it looks like his next move (arm bar!) is to TakeOver Dublin for a title match against the OTHER A+ international tweener, WALTER. It’s probably not entirely accurate to say WALTER’s a tweener based on the fact that he’s the head of a sports-first, quasi-dictatorial hit squad in track suits who rule over NXT UK with an iron fist, but the main event of Worlds Collide showed how easily WALTER can be popular and beloved with only small tweaks to his character and presentation.
Long story short, holy shit Finn Bálor vs. WALTER is a hell of a main event for your first Ireland-based TakeOver, and I am a thousand percent ready to see a tiny ballerina serial killer made of ab muscles and dropkicks get theatrical as hell against an enormous Austrian murder baby for 26 minutes.
Best:
The NXT women’s division is stacked and the Women’s Champion is already booked to defend against Charlotte Flair at WrestleMania 36, so they need a big payoff the night before at TakeOver Tampa Bay. Lord Bill Regal’s solution: a women’s division tournament, with the finalists going on-on-one in a ladder match to decide a new number one contender. That whole thing should be good, and shout-out to Regal for finally adding a stipulation to a match that isn’t “everyone has to be in cages.”
What are the finals there? Bianca Belair vs. Candice LeRae? They’re the next two in line, at least with Io Shirai on the shelf. By the way, more on Bianca Belair and the futility of ever expecting her to actually move up to the next level in a minute. I’m working up to it, so it’s not just 10 paragraphs of curse words.
Also On This Episode
Killian Dain goes over Bronson Reed in the latest Clash of the Hosses, putting him away with three sentons and a Vader Bomb after about six minutes. These two are definitely on NXT’s second tier of hosses right now, as neither one of them feels like they have much momentum or believable intensity. Killian Dain really had something going in that Matt Riddle feud, and then they just forgot about him for a while. Bronson Reed has a lot going for him, too, although I’ll be happy when they stop putting THICC all over his gear. It’d be like Kona Reeves showing up in a t-shirt with LONG BOI across the chest.
The Grizzled Young Veterans defeat the Forgotten Sons as well, which I’m happy about considering last week’s EXTREMELY DUMB promo where the Sons got mad about how they think “veterans” can only mean American soldiers, or something. YOU THINK YOU KNOW ABOUT VETERANS?? Yeah man Zack Gibson and James Drake aren’t doing an army gimmick, they’re persons with long experience in a particular field. Words can sometimes have more than one definition. Read a book, Gunner.
Worst: And Then This
[facepalm]
All right, let me try to organize these thoughts. I want to start off by saying that yes, purely as a fan I’m disappointed that Bianca Belair lost, at least in the way she did. I think everyone assumed Flair was going to win this, because (1) she’s Charlotte Flair, (2) she’s the one with an announced WrestleMania match against the NXT Women’s Champion, and (3) Belair’s entire involvement in the story is feeling overlooked and under-valued. So that all checks out. I want Bianca to win, but as a guy who tries to write constructively about what did and didn’t work on the wrestling shows, I get it.
The how, though. Feel free to jump to the 3:10 mark in the video to see Charlotte completely and nonchalantly no-sell a spear, not even pausing for a SECOND before getting right back up, and then hitting one of her own to set up the worst Natural Selection she’s done in like four years. So not only does Bianca lose, she loses badly to somebody who won’t even pretend her opponent could hurt her. Okay, so that’s pretty bad. And then Flair decides to break Belair’s ankle for some reason, I guess because Belair derisively quoted Mean Girls at her, and Rhea Ripley makes the save … except Rhea Ripley doesn’t make the save. Not really. The YouTube video edits it to look better, but in the live version, Ripley’s music hits and you expect her to sprint out and save Belair from getting her ankle Pillmanized. Except she does her full, slow WWE Superstar entrance animation, with the big timed high kick and stomp, while Belair’s getting mangled. It’s fucking dumb.
So the only person who comes out of this looking good is Charlotte Flair. Bianca Belair’s moves don’t hurt and she got completely embarrassed after the match. Rhea Ripley looks like a goober for doing her full entrance instead of helping, which flies in the face of that whole “we are NXT, you pick on one of us you pick on us all” bullshit from a couple of weeks ago. Good job, everybody.
Best: Top 10 Comments Of The Week
Mr. Bliss
Forgotten Sons: “We’re gonna have this match to stand up for America!”
America: “We’re good. You don’t have to do that.”
AddMayne
The fact that Mauro is saying “why Johnny why” is infuriating
Dave M J
“Goodness, I don’t think there’s anything on NXT that could get me away from this Kenny/PAC match”
“…wanna see Balor/WALTER?”
…
“Hold on Bianca, I have to do my stomp tau-…oh she already snapped your ankle. Oops.”
JayBone2
MAURO: JUST LIKE THE CLASSIC JEAN CLAUDE VAN DAMME MOVIE, THIS MATCH IS GOING TO SUDDEN DEATH!
BETH: What was that Mauro?
MAURO: Nothing. You were saying about…
(checks notes and sighs)
…Mansoor?
notJames
♫ Despite Tegan’s Rage
Kai will still have Raquel in the cage ♫
The Forgotten Sons are like the Street Profits if all three of them were Angelo Dawkins.
troi
Austin Theory looks like if you had to draw Finn Balor from memory
AJ Dusman
Rhea taking her time and letting the heel beat someone up shows she’s truly ready to be a main roster face.
See you guys tomorrow for some middle of the afternoon self harm aka Super Showdown.
Join us next week for NXT LOCKDOWN, where every match is in a steel cage! Well, at least Tegan Nox vs. Dakota Kai and Velveteen Dream vs. Roderick Strong will be. Although it’s not too late to just go with the concept, you know? Give me Vanessa Borne vs. Xia Li inside the unforgiving steel structure!
That’s it for this week’s Best and Worst of NXT. Make sure to drop down into our comments section and let us know what you thought of the episode. If you liked or laughed at anything in here, give us a share on social media to help us out. It helps more than you know. See you next week, for (hopefully) something better than this!
