Previously on the Best and Worst of NXT: William Regal tried to investigate the attack on Aleister Black by asking a bunch of crazy people to answer straight-forward questions. Also, Pete Dunne and Pastor Rick O’Shea teamed up just to break up.
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 5, 2018.
Worst: Assiest Prohmo
A few notes:
- Kassius Ohno defeating Kona Reeves to prove he deserves respect would be like Bartolo Colon striking out to prove he can hit more home runs than Barry Bonds
- Ohno’s post-match promo about how he’s going to knock the “next guy with buzz” to the back of the line is funny, especially since the next guy with buzz showing up is Matt Riddle, who is going to suplex him on his head so hard. It’s a lot like Jumpin’ Jeff Farmer saying he’s gonna go FOOL FORCE on Motley Cruz, and the next promo being, “welp, he did it, he p-pinned me right there in the millaring.”
- how you gonna make me root for KONA REEVES
Best/Worst: Masked Men Help A Biker Gang Of Clones Defeat Montez Ford And The Other Guy
A few more notes!
- I spent most of the evening obsessing about the Street Profits’ entrance theme. Someone pointed out that it’s just Team B.A.D.’s old “Unity” theme with slightly different lyrics, and I’m glad they did, because seriously, you could’ve held a gun to my head and I couldn’t have remembered Team B.A.D.’s entrance theme. It was also pointed out that it sounds like a hip-hop remix of Finn Bálor’s theme, and I’m starting to wonder if CFO$ didn’t just buy an introductory “how to make music and Quicktime videos” package several years ago and haven’t been working from the same base materials, like Marge Simpson sewing and resewing the same suit
- hey Forgotten Sons, maybe they forgot you because you all look exactly the same. t’s like Gunner got a “buy two get one free” deal at the TNA outlet
- TM-61 doing the Brutus Beefcake masked man gimmick was pretty funny, but the Forgotten Sons needing another team’s crazy schemes to win a match against a low-level opponent doesn’t say a lot for them … although it does say, “we’re ready for the only thing they’d have us doing on Raw”
- U-N-I-T-Y, what it spell huh? What it spell huh? What it what it spell huh?
Best: William Regal Interviews Lars Sullivan About The Attack On Aleister Black
In a related note, I had no idea Otis Dozovic was one of Bill Swerski’s Super Fans. I think it made me like him even more, even during a promo covering the specifics of when and how he takes a shit, and I really want to see them bring in Steve McMichael as the third member of Heavy Machinery.
Best: Shayna Baszler’s Recipe For Hate
NXT’s seriously out here making me choose between a dorky Japanese woman who thinks she’s a pirate princess and celebrates wins by doing the Thriller dance and her rival, Ronda Rousey’s coolest friend in a Bad Religion shirt. I think Shayna wins for her slow, bullying walk up to a prop pirate chest just to closely inspect it and shove it over, as she continues to take Dickhead Fonzie to new and exciting places. These two had what I thought was one of the best women’s matches in NXT history back at TakeOver Brooklyn IV — which is saying something — so I’m into them doing the rematch whenever, wherever, before Baszler gets called up to do all the heavy lifting for her side of an 8-woman tag.
Also, when I saw the name “Trish Adora” I was expecting one of those placeholder locals, not pro wrestling Shuri. She’s got a great, unique look, and I was pretty much hooked by her the second she walked out on the stage. Keep her around!
BEST: Dream And Gargano Mess Around And Give Us A TakeOver Match
Finally this week, we have the reason you should find and watch this episode as soon as possible, if you haven’t already: 16-minutes of Johnny Gargano vs. Velveteen Dream, with NXT TakeOver-quality in-ring and psychological work.
This is such a perfect pairing for a number of reasons. One, it’s a guy who works an “indie friendly” style but has molded it to fit WWE’s idea of marquee, televised wrestling against a guy who was BORN working WWE’s ideal style, but has done the best thing an indie wrestler can ever do: fully commit to what they’re doing, to the point that it’s undeniable. Two, it’s the perfect time in the story for both men. Johnny Gargano is a beloved fan favorite who has spent the past few months being driven insane by his former best friend, so he’s about to break and everybody knows it. Plus, he’s self-sabotaging and throwing himself off stages to lose championship matches. Meanwhile you’ve got The Dream, who is for all intents and purposes a HUGE heel that can’t stop childishly making fun of everyone he knows or wrestles, who is becoming more and more beloved because he’s so singularly focused. It’s brilliant.
There’s a moment in the match that I love with all my heart where Dream gets a roll-up and reaches out to grab the ropes for leverage. Only, he’s not near the ropes … he’s in the middle of the ring, but he’s reaching out for a short-cut in desperation, because he’s being challenged. Those short-cuts shouldn’t always work, and by showing us one that didn’t, it let us put ourselves in the midset of a heel that WOULD be cheating if he could, but can’t, and has to turn it up another gear to keep from losing. Which we know deep down he could always do, but he doesn’t, because he’s a jerk. It’s an easy-to-miss moment in the middle of a long match full of bigger and broader stories that Dream still makes sure everybody sees, because he is next level good at this.
The ending is also incredible, as Dream adapts on the fly and decides that instead of cheating, he’s going to THINK, and use Gargano’s glaring weakness against him. He knows the “Johnny Failure” stuff rubs on him, but not enough to really matter at the beginning of a match. As the match progresses, Johnny gets more and more in his head, trying to basically project Tommaso Ciampa onto Dream, and Dream sees it happening. The attempted rope-hung DDTs to the inside and the floor are the breaking point. That’s when Dream knows he can bait Johnny in by breaking his concentration (like Ciampa did). He does it, Compromised Johnny Gargano falls for it, and he runs right into a Dream Valley Driver. Once again, even in his non-Ciampa-related day-to-day job performance, Gargano lets his brutally crippled confidence in himself and others cause him to act like an impetuous fool.
And Dream may act foolish, but he’s nobody’s fool.
