Previously on the Best and Worst of WWE NXT: Adam Cole defended the NXT Championship against Jordan Myles, the re-imagined Breezango made their Full Sail tag team debut, and Roderick Strong burned the Velveteen Dreams’ couch like a complete asshole.
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 and everyone is terrible.
And now, the Best and Worst of WWE NXT for September 11, 2019.
Best: Johnny Fanservice
This week’s show opens with Johnny “Gargano” Wrestling making an appearance and getting one of those sustained crowd responses reserved for when everybody knows you’re leaving. He got one of those after NXT TakeOver: Toronto as well, so I guess everyone assumed that with him losing his big Three Stages Of Hell championship rematch, the USA Network move and roster shakeups looming, and Tommaso Ciampa presumably never coming back to put him in a grave, Johnny was headed up. Laterally. Sideways? Whatever we’re considering a roster call-up these days.
Instead, Johnny’s interrupted by grizzled young veteran (not like that) Shane Thorne, who tells him to get to stepping, because NXT will be fine without him. Gargano reminds us what the t-shirt says — he are NXT — and kicks him in the face. Survivor Series ’97 intensifies.
Hitman Hart: Wrestling With Shadows (1998) Dir: Paul Jay
With the move to USA Network happening, it makes sense to keep NXT’s big protagonist hero in the fold for a while, whether that’s “4 lyfe” or just for the next few months. If nothing else, Gargano’s a great hand to keep around for the younger, less experienced guys who can use him as a proxy Shawn Michaels to learn in-ring storytelling on a WWE level. Gargano absorbed that shit from HBK like he was Shang Tsung stealing his soul.
Eh: Boa Constricted
Bowin’ Corbin is back this week with another strong victory, this time over Boa. Characters like this are always interesting in NXT, because they never really go anywhere. You get Baron Corbin or Bull Dempsey or Dijakovic and Keith Lee, but they never seem to reach the top. They always get stuck somewhere in the middle, while the little guys who do superkicks reign supreme. It’s a stylistic choice, I guess. At least Dijak and Keith have each other. Otherwise they’d just squash the less important characters on loop until they get a match against someone in the middle of a championship push and eat a loss. Like, you can definitely image an episode of NXT six months from now where Austin Theory kicks out of Priest’s finish and pins him, can’t you?
Regardless, Priest is doing a good job in the ring, and as well as he can outside of it with his e-fed-ass character.
Best: Bruicha Libre
Angel Garza vs. Pete Dunne wasn’t the balls-out brilliant wrestling match I had in my head, but it was good for what it was. Garza’s not really supposed to be an imposing or important character yet, and Dunne’s positioning himself to be a big wheel down at the cracker factory heading into the USA Network move. The past few months of Dunne have been him running from WALTER (to the point of moving to the United States) and not being able to win the North American Championship, so giving him a few competitive rehab wins is a good idea. It’s not very hard to make Pete By God Dunne feel like the most threatening guy in the room. And the WALTER stuff’s just me joking in kayfabe, because everyone in Europe being terrified of an enormous Austrian murder baby is hilarious and awesome.
Make sure you’re reading the Best and Worst of NXT UK, by the way. If NXT Domestic is borrowing Pete Dunne, Rhea Ripley, and probably Toni Storm, can we get Radzi as well? Radzi is the shit.
Best: I Am A Rhea, American
Rhea Ripley is a bad ass Aussie street punk who don’t take no shit from anybody and requests car service to take her to her wrestling match at the for-profit university!
Ripley vs. Queen of Spades and Everything Else Shayna Baszler in this week’s main event was good while it lasted, but was clearly the first step in the interest of a much longer, more violent walk. Ripley feels like a big star since returning to Full Sail — how many other people get cold opens of them riding up to Full Sail in an Escalade? — and Baszler’s never really faced anyone like her, so having them go nose-to-nose for a few minutes en route to the Lesser Horses interfering and tricking Ripley into getting disqualified, therefore keeping her out of a number one contender match, is good.
The ultimate showdown between the two down the road could be special, and working with opponents who aren’t tiny is Baszler’s next step toward becoming one of the most well-rounded performers in the company. The focus on catch style makes her feel a lot like a Bloodsport Kumite competitor, and I like that in my professional wrestlers. They should be here because they’re good at specific stuff, you know? Anyway, what I’m getting at is that Rhea looked good for getting to kick Shayna’s ass a bit, Shayna looked smart for playing the long game and getting out of there without having to go to her limit, and the rematch is gonna be dope. Bonus points for Rhea Ripley bringing back the Hideo Itami chair taunting.
Also On This Episode
– Giles adds Buffy to the number one contender match for the NXT Women’s Championship on next week’s live, half-and-half episode. She seems happy with that, but Giles is still worried that he’s holding her back instead of helping her. Look for this to continue for several seasons when they should just keep working together and stop being so insecure.
– Dakota Kai will return soon! Hopefully they’ll connect her and Tegan Nox on one of these shows so it won’t see so odd to hear her call herself the “Captain of Team Kick.”
– Secular Bray Wyatt Cameron Grimes and his aggressive southern yokel hat defeat Raul Mendoza. I’m not sure I’m into Cameron Grimes’ whole thing yet. Maybe if he starts throwing his hat at people? Beth Phoenix says he “brings a hard hitting style we haven’t seen in a while,” and I can’t quite figure out what she means, unless “hard hitting style” means Kofi Kingston transitional moves as finishes. This was fine. I bet if Rob Zombie watches wrestling he LOVES Cameron Grimes.
– The Street Profits got to be on Monday Night Raw from Madison Square Garden, but only one thing would’ve made it better: wrestling on the show? being NXT Tag Team Champions again. So they’re coming back to Full Sail to challenge La Era Indiscutible for the belts. That should be rad as hell. The first episode of NXT on USA is basically a fake TakeOver. A FakeOver!
Next Week
Leave the memories alone, as it’s the first episode of NXT TV on USA Network. Well, half of one. Featuring:
- Velveteen Dream vs. Roderick Strong for the North American Championship
- Street Profits vs. Undisputed Era for the NXT Tag Team Championship
- Candice LeRae vs. Mia Yim vs. Io Shirai vs. Bianca Belair for a shot at Shayna Baszler’s NXT Women’s Championship
- Matt Riddle in a street fight against Killian Dain
- Tommaso Ciampa, fingers crossed?
