Last Sunday on NXT TakeOver XXX…
A good celebrity wrestling match, NXT’s midcard died, Io Shirai did what Io Shirai does and we say good bye to NXLee.
I’ll Be Missing You (on Wednesdays)
It wouldn’t feel right to not start out this column with a so long(ish) to the NXT version of one Mr. Keith Lee. Given that he’s been such a huge part of the success of NXT on USA, yet had such an unceremonious exit, maybe I can pay some sort of small tribute to his time on the yellow brand.
Brother was a walking gif. A “moment maker”. How many times have we rewatched him rise from the depths of the corner of the ring behind an unsuspecting opponent? How many times have we rewatched him launch Adam Cole into space? How memorable was his series of matches against Dominic Dijakovic that will go into the annals of NXT as one of the best rivalries of all time?
I remember switching over to NXT from AEW to the first time just to see him become NXT Champion.
You deserved a better exit, but hopefully you’ll have a better future. You got a star on your hands, Mr. McMahon. Use him well. At least the RAW audience will get to hear his awesome theme song, right?
POPBOTCH: Kross Words
So, I’m afraid i’ve got some bad news. Karrion Kross is NXT Champion.
No, but seriously (I like Kross, I swear), the actual bad news is that Kross got a separated shoulder during his match with Lee on Sunday and has to vacate the title. He did at least get the chance to show that he is a really good promo even without the black and white effects on the tron and extreme close up (Don’t know about the whole “everyone suffered” thing tho bruh. You only beat up and/or shot a fireball at like maybe 9 guys and only 5 of them had names). Dude does the whole “intense” thing very well.
Not sure if a guy like Kross would voluntarily give up the title tho. I feel like the Kross we’ve come to know and love so much (am i right) would fight to keep it but Regal would force him to drop it. I feel like that would give us a bit more character consistency. The guy murdered and shot fire to get this title for crying out loud. However, out of the darkness comes the light…
POP: Mr. Regal, You Da Real MVP
…which comes in the form of a 60 MINUTE FATAL 4-WAY IRONMAN MATCH between Johnny Gargano, Adam Cole, Finn Bálor, and a returning Tommaso Ciampa (more on him later). Just like Lizzie McGuire once said, this is what dreams are made of.
NXT is gonna be on Tuesday next week due to being preempted by Hockey so it’ll be nice to have something amazing after I probably get pissed off about something that happened on Monday.
POP: Return Of The King
In case you didn’t know, former leader of Nexus, former IC Champion and podium enthusiast Wade “Bad News” Barrett makes a special guest appearance as commentator this week (and will come back next week as well!). Guy did solid commentary work on NWA Powerrr the few times i’ve watched and he did great this week. Hope to see him doing stuff around WWE more often.
POP: Model Champions
Wade apparently likes to call Fandango, “The Dangler”. Just wanted to point that out.
Not gonna lie. Ya boy got kind of emotional about this one. A tear may or may not have escaped my very cynical eye.
You got Fandango. A ballroom dancer. A man who was put over by some legendary Champagne salesman on TNT at WrestleMania. A man with a theme song so catchy, the drunken post-WrestleMania crowd invented a dance to go with it and continued doing it all the way home. His theme song went so viral, it actually charted on Billboard. But despite the former Dirty Curty gaining popularity, a Hot Summer, and being good in the ring, he never really broke out of the lower midcard.
You got Tyler Breeze. The NXT folk hero. The NXT OG. The only man in NXT to face Jushin Thunder Liger. A man who was always popular in NXT, even when a heel, simply for being such an entertaining character and a damn good wrestler despite never winning a title. But then he got called up and the same thing that happens to a lot of NXT call ups happened and he gets lost in the shuffle.
Then these two talented dorks find each other and become Breezango a.k.a. The Fashion Cops. They create a show called The Fashion Files where they “solve” numerous non mysteries and hang out with their goth illuminati dork pals (miss you Ascension), and it becomes the most popular segment on SmackDown until one day someone forgets to put it in the script and then they just never do it again.
Fast forward years later and now these two friends have once again found each other in NXT, one a beloved NXT icon, the other, an underground fave of an NXT long gone. And both of them have won their first ever championship in a WWE ring. Your new NXT Tag Team Champions.
The match was great of course. NXT’s tag division may be lacking in numbers right now, but everyone in it is still crazy talented. My favorite moment was Dango dodging Imperium’s double dropkick in the corner which causes Barthel to wipe out Aichner, just a great visual.
After a pretty tough Wednesday, I think we all needed this win.
(Also due to this win and also being Left Right Left Right Champion, that makes Tyler Breeze, Tyler 2 Belts.)
Every Party Needs A Thatcher, That’s Why They Invited You
Damian’s on his way to continue the afterparty from Saturday night (jeez man, hope you’re cleaning that hot tub thoroughly) and Timothy Thatcher’s fun senses begin tingling so he heads his way to mock him and make a play for his title. I kind of thought they’d be continuing the Reed/Priest rivalry from the ladder match and the past couple of weeks, but hey putting Thatcher up against anyone is a surefire way to still have me invested. Reed however is busy with…
Wednesday Night Pariah
…possibly having a match with Austin Theory. Boy, NXT you really like making it uncomfortable to talk about you, huh. At least Reed pointed out that he’s actually beaten Priest and deserves a shot more than Thatcher. And slapped Theory.
POP: Johnny Gargano Did Nothing Wrong
THE GREATEST SPORTS ENT-TER-TAINER OF ALL TIME is back and all is right with the world because he is once again the ruthless bastard he’s always meant to have been (he’s even dropped his babyface camo pants attire and gone back to Ciampa Classic undies). I get why they made him a face when he came back from a career threatening injury, but Ciampa isn’t really Ciampa unless he’s attempting to murder the closest white meat babyface in his vicinity.
Which is very unfortunate for Jake Atlas who is about as white meat as it gets right now and gets completely washed by Ciampa, and sent to the closest medical facility after Ciampa keeps beating him up after the match. Glad to have you back you monster.
POP: Friends! How many of us have them?
Following up on that Tegan Knox interview from a little while back, we get some more background on the friendship between her and Candice LeRae from Mrs. Wrestling herself. I love how she was able to make her talking about herself also sound like a compliment (“she reminded me a lot of me. She was pretty, amazing, talented, passion for wrestling…”).
I don’t know about you guys but honestly between comments made from Candice and Dakota…and what we visibly saw take place on this show, Tegan seems like a bad friend. I don’t really recall Tegan having Candice’s back that much. Candice LeRae did nothing wrong.
BOTCH: These Glasses
POP: TCB FROM OUTTA NOWHERE
Aight so we were supposed to get Mia vs. Mercedes tonight, but due to Robert Stone being Robert Stone, he decides that isn’t gonna happen tonight. This leads to him once again being ran over by Shotzi Blackheart in a tank. I appreciate Wade being absolutely disgusted by this. How do you sneak up on someone in a tank?
So instead we get a little West Coast vs. West Coast action in Mia vs. Shotzi. The Match itself is fine, tho it did feel like they were kinda moving in slow motion at first. Mia punching Shotzi in the throat while she was howling was funny. Extra points to Mia for making sure her shoulders don’t touch the mat while she has Shotzi in a Bow and Arrow submission hold.
Shotzi gets the surprise win here which does well to establish her as the scrappy underdog babyface they’re trying to set her up as. (Heel turn for Mia possibly?)
(More gold from Wade Barrett: “I always hated taking on the weirdos.”)
.@RobertStoneWWE #WWENXT pic.twitter.com/KswXqR4mTQ
— WWE on FOX (@WWEonFOX) August 27, 2020
POP: Mask Off, Fuck It, Mask On
Meanwhile, over in the Cruiserweight Division, we get the long awaited title match between Santos Escobar and the only man to defeat him in NXT, Isaiah “Swerve” Scott.
Before I talk about the actual match, I gotta point out this really cool new addition to Swerve’s entrance where I guess his coolness vibes off of the LED board when he’s in the middle of the ring? I love that NXT really likes to take advantage of the SailTron for little things like this.
This was match of the night for me (I feel like I always say the match with these 2 was). Escobar and Swerve both really got to shine here and show what they can do in the ringe and in the air. I highly recommend checking this one out. Even got a second appearance from NXT Heroes Of The Night, Breezango when the rest of LDF made themselves known.
The finish however is very interesting. Escobar rolls out of the ring after getting a ropebreak. He reaches under the ring and pulls out a Luchador Mask and precedes to headbutt Swerve for the W. A loaded mask perhaps? Or does the mask simply make his head stronger? Either way, I love it.
POP: Nice For What
Drake Maverick challenged the UE to a match online (as a response to the UE beating up him and Killian Dain a couple weeks back) and Kyle (DA GAWD) answers the challenge (sans Adam Cole).
The match was a lot more back and forth than I was expecting but it was never in doubt who was going to win. The most important part of this segment happened after the match ended.
I guess this ends any talk about an actual face turn for the UE because they immediately jump Drake after the match. Then Killian Dain runs out and fights them off (Roderick Strong dropped his steel chair for like no reason when he could’ve just hit him. I know Strong is supposed to be in canon dumb, but c’mon). But when Drake tries to thank him, Dain clobbers him. Maybe he’s got Owens’ Syndrome or something.
POP: No They Can’t Co-Exist, duh
Earlier, Kota and Raquel were asked about how they feel about the main event tonight (them vs. Io and Rhea) and they simply state (paraphrased) “we are a team and they aren’t, why would we be worried”. Can’t argue with logic like that. Why the hell would 2 singles wrestlers (especially 2 that don’t particularly like each other)beat an actual team?
You know, it’s kind of hard to figure out different ways to say “this was a great match” when all NXT matches (usually) start at great and then go up from there, but yeah man, this was another great match and a great main event.
Raquel and Rhea going head to head (literally) got me excited for a future match. I loved that funny little moment where Kota is hanging on to the top rope so Io kicks her hand to make her all and Kota yells out “OWWWW!” as she’s caught by Raquel.
But what they really did well was follow up on the interviews done prior to this. Team RaqKota were cutting a promo together on why they were gonna win. Rhea mostly talked about how she wants to beat Io for her title and she probably didn’t even bother talking to her before the match. Io wasn’t even interviewed.
Throughout the match we see little moments of RaqKota actually acting like a team (which mostly consists of Raquel pulling Kota out of dangerous situations) while Io and Rhea mostly wrestle like they’re having separate handicap matches against these two. And of course they lose, because they aren’t a team, they’re 2 women who don’t even like each other that much. I’m tying this with the CW Title match for MOTN, for being a fun watch as well as making logical sense.
What really does Io and Rhea in however is Mercedes showing up to take out Rhea (completely snubbing Mia, I mean damn), which softens up Rhea for Raquel to lift her up(!!!) and slam her back down to win the match. Trying to take on 2 hosses at the same time may have been a mistake Rhea.
That was this week’s NXT, a dope follow up to a mostly good TakeOver and we get what’s sure to be a Match Of The Year candidate next week.
(I could watch this video over and over.)
Next Week (on NXT SUPER TUESDAY):
Johnny Gargano vs. Tommaso Ciampa vs. Finn Bálor vs. Adam Cole – 60 Minute Fatal 4-Way Ironman Match for the NXT Championship
