The Best And Worst Of WWE NXT 11/7/18: Runnin’ Down a Dream

Previously on the Best and Worst of WWE NXT: Matt Riddle made his in-ring debut alongside the Grand Theft Auto San Andreas loading screen music. Also the War Games main event was set, and Montez Ford hit a springboard frog splash that made our eyebrows go way 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 November 7, 2018.

Best: You Otis To Us

Up first this week is Heavy Machinery featuring breakout NXT darling Otis Dozovic getting a strong tag team victory over living Dugtrio The Forgotten Sons. It’s probably that Lazy Susan thing NXT’s tag team division does sometimes where teams that aren’t competing for the championship trade victories and tread water for a while before they get pushed — booking tag teams is one of NXT’s only weaknesses, DIY excluded, despite how great a lot of their tag team matches have gotten — but I hope it’s a clear signal that they know Otis and Big Tuck are dope, and that Jaxon Ryker, Raxon Jaxon, and Xmus Jaxon Flaxon-Waxon aren’t very cool.

The Forgotten Sons are kind of hilarious to me. Imagine if the Riott Squad were all identical. It feels less like a cool anarchist biker gang (or whatever) and more like a trio of clones escaped from the Impact Wrestling factory. If anything, they need to take a note from classic Lucha Underground and film vignettes of them riding bikes across the country and getting into fights, instead of taking their shirts off to hang out with each other by the dumpsters outside of Full Sail.

Otis for President though, seriously. When he’s on the ramp yelling “I LOVE THIS MAN” at Tucky, I get those emoji heart eyes.

Worst: Stand By Your Man

Whatever the opposite of emoji heart eyes is, that’s what I’m giving to Candice LeRae. I don’t know if she’s the worst character on the show by design, but she’s definitely the worst. She wasn’t doing great as “concerned wife,” especially since she’s Candice Goddamn LeRae and is the first person who should have complete agency in her actions, but now that Johnny’s turned heel she’s just off her rocker.

I’ll put it to you this way. Johnny Gargano attacked Aleister Black to keep him out of the NXT title match at TakeOver Brooklyn, right? Feral Informant Cat Nikki Cross found out about it and told Black, but before Black could get revenge, Johnny attacked him from behind AGAIN and openly admitted to the attack. What did Candice do? Get mad at Nikki Cross for snitching, I guess, even though Johnny admitted it. This week, Gargano sends in a self-shot promo about how and why he attacked Black, and how he’s happy living with that decision. What does Candice do? Say she’s “being exploited” because people are asking her questions about shit she involved herself in by choice, and challenge Nikki Cross to a match because she’s still mad at her for some reason. If Johnny’s fine being a heel, and we all know Johnny’s a heel, why are you mad at a third party for letting a guy who got attacked in a parking lot by Johnny know Johnny’s a heel?

Just terrible. The Garganos are so unlikable right now they make Tommaso Ciampa look like NXT Bayley.

Best/Worst: I Am Worried About Dakota Kai’s Finisher

First of all, we were supposed to have Lacey Evans in action this week. Don’t promise me my MAGA Liberty Belle and get me singing about how I should act like a lady and then take it away from me without explanation. The going theory is that she took the election results too hard and was unable to compete.

Instead, we get Dakota Kai vs. Taynara Conti. It’s probably better than whatever Lacey was going to do, but I’m extremely concerned about Kai’s finisher. If you haven’t seen it, it’s like a sunset flip and a Backstabber had a baby.

I know Kai’s great and these are trained professionals, but that move makes me nervous as hell. The entire thing relies on her opponent grabbing her feet at the heels when she’s on their back — you can see Conti doing it in the photo — while Kai is completely upside down in the fetal position with her head pointed straight at the ground. All it takes is one person losing their grip and not flipping enough and she’s getting piledriven into the mat. Just … I don’t know, be careful with Dakota, everyone.

Also, Taynara Conti is going to be pretty great soon. That judo throw with the held wristlock into a pump kick was boss. With Ronda Rousey piloting the entire women’s division all of a sudden and Shayna Baszler ruling NXT, the next big stars are either going to be the most physically impressive (Evans, Bianca Belair) or the ones with legit martial arts skills. Part of me wants to see the Four Horsewomen run amuck for a while until Sonya Deville, Taynara Conti, and whoever else band together and form a homegrown resistance.

Best: The EST Keeps Getting Better, Somehow

I had to screenshot this exact moment, because Mia Yim saying she’s the “HBIC … the head BADDIE in charge!” and Bianca Belair just smirking at her, going “GIRL … uh uh,” and wandering away is the funniest shit I’ve ever seen in my life. SAME, Bianca.

I also love that un?duh?fee?ted? has evolved, and now she’s just taking her time between syllables. NXT’s always been the best at introducing something you like, then gently working and reworking it so you don’t get tired of hearing it. Mia’s great, but Bianca Belair is all the best parts of Sasha Banks crammed together with all the best parts of Charlotte Flair, and that’s dangerously great.

Best: William Regal For President

I wrote in this column that Tommaso Ciampa vs. Velveteen Dream at NXT TakeOver War Games was going to be the match of the year, and then William Regal meandered into a Three Horsewomen interview to announce Shayna Baszler vs. Kairi Sane, 2-out-of-3 falls. It’s my favorite series of matches getting blown off in NXT’s established Ultimate Stipulation. Nothing in NXT matters as much as 2-out-of-3 falls; not War Games, not ladder matches, not Last Man Standing, nothing. You can thank Sami Zayn and Cesaro for that.

As it stands, NXT TakeOver War Games is set to feature:

• Ciampa vs. Velveteen Dream for the NXT Championship
• a War Games match with Undisputed Era vs. Pete Dunne, Ricochet, and the Renaissance Faire Road Warriors
• heel Johnny Gargano vs. angry Aleister Black
• 2-out-of-3 falls for the NXT Women’s Championship
• Matt Riddle beating the child’s basketball player Halloween costume off of Kassius Ohno

That’s maybe the best TakeOver card of all time. Seriously. If Keith Lee and Bianca and some random pairing of spectacular British dudes show up on the hour-long episode taping before it, they’re going to put me in a happiness coma.

Best: The Boyhood Dream Is About To Come True

This week’s main event pits beauty vs. the beast, as Velveteen Dream takes on (and loses to!) Lars Sullivan. While that pairing in itself seems like something they’d save for a TakeOver or a more important standalone episode of NXT, it’s here this week for a very important reason: to establish Velveteen Dream as the clear and present face heading into the match with Ciampa at TakeOver. Dream has always been a popular heel, and this shows that if you just pivot his motivations and direct them at someone we want to boo, he can keep his act exactly the same and be a popular face. Keeping the act exactly the same is the most important part. The last thing we want is Dream telling us how much he loves the WWE Universe and calling people stinky-breath bitches.

Dream seems to have the match won, but Tomato Champs shows up and distracts him. Dream takes him out with a big Macho Man double axe-handle to the floor, but gets caught with the Freak Accident sliding back into the ring and loses. Ciampa tries to be an opportunistic dick afterward, and Dream — once again being super face by fending off an attack, getting attacked more, and having to defend himself instead of instigating and escalating everything himself — drops him with a DDT onto the belt. He tries to drop a Purple Rainmaker (+1 to Nigel for calling it When Doves Fly, which is such a better name), but Trainers, EMTs, Referees Down get in the way and stop it. As an exclamation point, Dream breaks away from them, drops the elbow anyway, and poses with the belt over his head.

I’m 100% into removing the NXT Championship from the ongoing Ciampa/Gargano A-story, especially with Gargano going to the dark side and maybe teaming with Ciampa as a tag team again (fingers crossed), but more than anything I want Super Babyface Dream to win the title in dramatic fashion, start cutting a promo about how much he appreciates the win, and then completely turning on us and shitting in our faces a la The Rock at Deadly Game. Dream/Black II still needs to happen before one of them gets called up, and a Dream title run through WrestleMania is the best possible idea.

Next Week:

• Bianca Belair is scheduled to shot-put Mia Yim into outer space
• Lacey Evans returns from being voted out in midterms, I hope
• the War Games teams have a singles match to see which side (the heels) will have the advantage in War Games (it’s literally always the heels, that’s how it works)