The Best And Worst Of WWE NXT 3/4/20: Steel Vengeance

Previously on the Best and Worst of NXT: A bunch of run-ins and distractions plus Charlotte Flair making Bianca Belair look like a hunk of crap added up to arguably the worst episode of NXT ever. Certainly the worst since they started doing good shows on purpose. Can they recover this week? (Of course they can.)

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 March 4, 2020.

Best: NXT Lockdown (2020)

On this week’s edition of NXT, Tegan Nox learns an important lesson: if your rival is being followed around by a posse or in this case a large bodyguard, don’t assume a stipulation like “steel cage” or “shark cage” or honestly any kind of quadrilateral fencing is going to keep them from interfering in the match. Life, uh, finds a way. Frankly I think having to work around a cage actually empowers the heels to come up with more clever ways to cheat than usual. Nox would’ve been better off just waiting for Reina Raquel Gonzalez to get on the ring apron during a Regular Match and dropkicking her off.

In case you missed it, the show opened with the latest installment of the Nox and Dakota Kai rivalry, this time within the confines of NXT’s unforgiving four sides of steel. It’s fought with a lot of intensity, which is a welcome sight, and they managed to come up with a clever finish I don’t think I’ve ever seen before. Nox can’t get through the cage door because Gonzalez is blocking it — yes, I still hate “escape” cage matches, I know you grew up watching WWE and think that’s just how cage matches are supposed to work, it’s fine — so she calls an audible and tries to climb over. Gonzalez uses her brain and tries to pull Kai to the floor before Nox can get over, but Nox kicks the cage door into Kai’s knee. That’s when Gonzalez gets her prize-winning idea: swing the door back the other way and use it to pin Tegan Nox against the cage wall until Kai can crawl to victory:

This manages to keep the feud going, establishes that Raquel Gonzalez is smart as well as physically imposing, and marks two matches in a row that Nox lost because of her. Although Nox totally could’ve won here if she’d just scooted out of the wide-open door after Kai kicked out of the Shiniest Wizard. I know it’s shocking, but yo, be shocked on the floor. You’ve also gotta wonder why they’d let the woman who battled back from multiple knee surgeries go flying off the top of the cage straight onto her knees, but I guess they know what they’re doing. Nox’s knees are like Daniel Bryan’s neck. You know they wouldn’t be in there if they weren’t cleared, but you still don’t want this to be the move that puts them on the shelf again. It’s anxiety from a place of love.

Then there’s the main event, where Velveteen Dream plays his hand. He’s never cared about Roderick Strong; he simply understood that feuding with one Undisputed Era member feuds you with the pack, that Roderick has a brain the size of a walnut and is the easiest guy in the faction to manipulate, and that by baiting in Roddy, he could get a direct path to Adam Cole and the NXT Championship. And I mean yeah, I’m sure there’s still a measure of revenge involved, but he could get in a bunch of side quest face-punches on his way to his true goal.

Dream sacrifices the win here (because what would he win, really? Proof he can beat a guy he’s already beaten?) to lock himself inside the cage with Cole, which allows him to put a full-on paisley ass-whooping on him and make his NXT Championship intentions clear. That’s two clever finishes in two cage matches on the same episode, which is a feat, and it looks like the main event of TakeOver: Tampa Bay is (unofficially) set. Dream as NXT Champion is a long time coming, and I sincerely hope he airbrushes Dr. Britt Baker onto his tights and jams his hand into Cole’s mouth.

Best: NXT TakeOver: Chicago II, Never Forget

Elsewhere in Undisputed Era news, Kyle O’Reilly and Bobby Fish spend a quarter-hour with their old friends, Oney and Twoey, en route to setting up what I assume is eventually going to be a triple threat Tag Team Championship match for TakeOver Tampa Bay. Unfortunately Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch don’t also seem to be in the plans to make it a fatal four-way — I’m not sure Oney and Twoey are ever going to be in WWE’s plans no matter how good they are, as they’re two moderately sized bald guys whose gimmick amounts to, “hold up fingers, good at wrestling” — but they’ve got expert chemistry with ReDRagon and are the best possible hands to put against them when you want 12 minutes of tag team excellence as a preface to whatever unrelated thing you’re doing in the post-match.

In this case, that Whatever Unrelated Thing is Undisputed Era calling out the Broserweights for a TakeOver Portland rematch, Matt Riddle being predictably chill about it, and the Broserweights getting jumped from behind by Grizzled Young Veterans. I’m looking forward to the match, sure, but I’m already in love with the promo dynamic. O’Reilly is out here being snidely and obnoxiously condescending, Riddle responds by making jokes about William Regal is the “most majestic stallion of them all,” and then Zack Gibson comes out screaming THREATS and FACTS into the microphone.

And yeah, me assuming it’ll be a triple threat is just that: an assumption. Later in the show they announced that the Undisputed Era’s challenging Dunne and Riddle for the championship next week, but if Gibson and Drake are running in and interfering in basic conversations, they’re going to have a hand in the title match, aren’t they?

Best: Swerves And Theories

Also in the Men’s Division we get Austin Theory vs. Isaiah ‘Swerve’ Scott in one of those matches where it’s obvious who WWE should be putting their efforts behind, and then watching them give it to the other guy. Not to say 22-year old Mark Jindrak-ass Adonis Austin Theory doesn’t have a tremendous upside, but I wish NXT was using Scott for something other than slightly elevated enhancement talent. The guy is so good. Which, you know, is probably why they trust him to go out and make their new pet project look like a million bucks, right?

I still think we should retire blatant thigh-slapping in 2020, at least for most moves. It’s another thing I’m in the minority on, but as cool as Tajiri’s buzzsaw kick was 20 years ago it feels like we should’ve moved past the novelty of every move sounding like a slap. Scott “snaps” Theory’s arm in the match and emphasizes it by wildly smacking his own rump on both sides to make a clapping sound. Mauro freaks out about it, and Theory does an admirable job of selling it, but it just kinda plays corny to me. Similarly there’s a great photo from the match on WWE.com of Theory looking like a teenage Brian Cage and absolutely MURDERING Scott with a dropkick to the face, and right in the center there’s a thigh being slapped. Why would the bottoms of your boots make a loud slapping sound? You’re legitimately mauling him with the strike, I feel like we’d get the idea without the foley.

Anyway, just a pet peeve. I know y’all love those sound effects.

Not The Best: The Tournament Qualifier

Just to clarify, Chelsea Green and Shotzi Blackheart’s match to qualify for the Women’s Championship number one contender tournament isn’t overtly bad, but it’s the clear in-ring low point of the show and even at a brisk 2:20 is more awkward than not. They got in and got out without any real major issues, though, and Robert Stone didn’t have to randomly get involved to help his hot new client win matches against the very bottom of the division, so that’s something. They toned down the run-ins and interference a bit this week, which I appreciate. I also think it’s funny that there’s a “Chelsea Green” in this match but it’s not the one with green hair in green gear.

Best/Worst: Why Ask Why?

Firstly, Mauro Ranallo is a good actor and AWESOME at sit-down interviews that require him to speak in a calm, conversational voice and project his deep, sincere love for the sport. Even at his AHHH MAHH GAHHH shoutiest, Mauro works because he’s enthusiastic and sounds like he’s enjoying the show, to an almost bizarre degree, and never sounds like he’s phoning in a line someone barked at him through an earpiece. I’d take 100 quips of Mauro shoehorning in some rap lyric to holler and treat a Kona Reeves match like it’s Joe/Kobashi over one Michael Cole announcing “the big dog” and sounding like he’s reading Google-translated Jim Ross lines through a speech synthesizer.

Secondly and somewhat obviously, I’m still Team Gargano here. I’d be upset too if Mauro suddenly pretended like he hasn’t watched the past three years of NXT and declared me “Johnny Turncoat” without talking to me after watching me interfere to keep the guy who literally spit on my wedding ring and threw it into the crowd from being champion. Brother could’ve at least acknowledged in this interview that Ciampa was a dirtbag for the majority of his NXT career and did most of it at Johnny’s expense, so even if Ciampa’s reformed now and Johnny’s projecting after that humiliating loss to Finn Bálor, there’s some fucking precedent. Johnny getting up in anger to throw hands and then stopping to sit back down and meekly be like “go ahead, ask your question, I’m sorry,” is the realness. If somebody’s blanket ignorance hasn’t made you feel like that on a hundred occasions, you’re living a more enlightened life than most of us. Johnny’s not “right,” but he’s got a point.

LIKE YOUNGBOY NEVER BROKE AGAIN, THIS INTERVIEW HAS MAURO FEELING BAD BAD!

Best: Finn Vs. WALTER

Best: Cameron Grimes Gets Yeeted

I’m not sure I could handle another five minutes of Cameron Grimes’ shout-talking without Keith Lee shoving him so hard he disappears. Shout-out to the NXT crowd for deciding that a cheap win over Dominik Dijakovic is worth the same heat as Randy Orton trying to put Edge in a morgue, though.

Ripley Believes It Not

“This is like the first time that … anyone from NXT is gonna be on WrestleMania!”

This is a really good video and I’m looking forward to the match, but don’t think you’re sneaking that XFL product placement by us, WWE. P.S. imagine how much better this would be if it were NXT Kairi Sane, and she was walking into an empty WrestleMania arena and seeing a giant-ass pirate ship in the stands for the first time.

Best: Top 10 Comments Of The Week

troi

Going from Johnny Gargano to Walter is like going from a rambunctious puppy to Walter

Cameron Grimes sounds like the incompetent mayor who doesn’t believe the kids saw a lake monster and refuses to shut down the regatta

Endy_Mion

Dream knows WWE rules. To get a shot you don’t win matches, you just put your hands on the champ and boom! Kinda makes sense that Dream would pick a “psychological” victory because he knows how sensitive Cole is.

Grimes is being a pretty good heel here, talking smack about Lee’s murder husband right to his face.

AddMayne

“Johnny Gargano explains why TONIGHT”

if he doesn’t just sit down and play a highlights video of his entire 2019, then this is a waste of time

SexCauldron

I have it on good authority Dakota Kai is a bad girl who smokes cigarettes and has knives

DenseMan1

I reckon Gargano bought that jacket for the same reason I almost did when I saw it at Macy’s the other day: it looks like the street clothes the X-Men wear that are nonetheless always covered in “X”s so the reader can differentiate them.

The Real Birdman

Cameron Grimes looks like somebody saw Lynyrd Skynyrd in passing & was like “This. But a wrestler”

AJ Dusman

“Hard fought win for the 22 year old!” -Used to describe Austin Theory winning a wrestling match, and 22 year old me making my own doctor’s appointment.

The Voice of Raisin

Austin Theory looks like the actor they hired to play Finn Balor’s character in the direct-to-video sequel.

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 Cameron Grimes versus Keith Lee for the North American Championship, and the Undisputed Era versus the Broserweights for the Tag Team Championship!