Last Sunday on NXT TakeOver 31…
NXT moved (back) to the PC the Capitol Wrestling Center, Ridge Holland killed Adam Cole (way to steal a kill from Dexter man), The Garganos found out that Love conquers all, except for Io Shirai, and we got the return of both Toni Storm, and Ember Moon!
This Week: A whole lotta fallout from Sunday, let’s go over what went down.
POPBOTCH: Well, it was good while it lasted
The opening match was really dope and fairly intense and had the plus of being a matchup we haven’t seen before. Tommaso Ciampa is great as well as Kushida. But then, it went south when [redacted] showed up and caused a DQ, which now means [redacted] might be heading into a program with Tommaso Ciampa. Oh great. Getting even more of a spotlight on this show.
Cole World
The Undisputed Era are licking their wounds backstage and you can tell it’s serious business because their theme isn’t playing while they’re talking. Cole’s conspicuously wearing large shades and I assumed it was from a late night Damien Priest Party but it turns out he has what looks to be quite the shiner as well as “broken ribs” courtesy of Ridge Holland. Last Sunday the Era took an L, now it’s time to bounce back.
Later, Holland is asked outside why he even attacked Cole and responds word for word:
“Last week I didn’t have a Mercedes. This week, I do. You can thank Adam Cole for that.”
Did…did Adam buy you a car?
But seriously, I believe he’s implying someone bribed him to take out Adam Cole. Wow, someone paying off NXT Superstars to take out Adam Cole, man it’s gotta be a mystery who it is, I mean who could possibly figure it out, ok I’m 100% sure it was Pat McAfee.
POP: (unintelligible scatting) WORST FRIENDS
Ok, we’re finally here to where this Dain/Drake storyline was heading towards, and I don’t mind it. Drake Maverick is genuinely hilarious and was able to somehow make a Cuck storyline featuring the 24/7 48/7 7/11 I-95 South Television European Championship one of the most entertaining segments every week over on that other show, so it stands to reason he’d work well on NXT.
Killian Dain’s a great big man too, but he’s yet to really show his stuff outside of SAnitY, so why not put them together in an Odd Couples situation. I’m not gonna lie, that crappy, preppy pop song with the constant whistling that Drake chose as their theme popped me. As did Drake doing a somehow even whiter version of the Carlton Dance.
They take the W here against perennial losers Ever-Rise (shout out to Ever-Rise guy #1’s weird smoking a cigarette taunt), and once again, Drake gets a punch to the face for his troubles. But this time, he actually feels regret and carries him to the back! I think ol’ Drake is growing on him.
A Storm’s Brewing
Allow her to reintroduce herself, her name is TON!-i Storm, and they played a video of her doing stuff like running on a beach and staring off into the distance to reintroduce her to the NXT US audience. She also talks about how this recent break from wrestling is the first since she started in the business at age 13 which is wild. As far as I’m concerned, the sooner we get to Toni Time, the better.
Leon Ruff had a match
I like Leon Ruff. Instead of watching that match, learn more about him from this WWEPC video. Also follow that channel, they have some pretty cool BTS stuff.
In Your Eyes
Right after that, Dexter Lumis made his official return and I don’t know I guess he just stared into the camera or something? That was odd. You’d expect he’d be out there to like, have a match or something but no, he just stared at the camera. Hey, I just remembered, you know what show had a really good theme song? Dexter. Man, that shit was catchy too. Shame about the last season.
Cameron Grimes hits Dexter with a Cave-In (FROM OUTTA NOWHERE!) and at first you would assume this makes him a bad person. However, Grimey seems to imply it’s because Dexter rudely did not answer him when he was asked a question. See, totally justified.
Kyle for the Finn
WWE’s production team comes through with another banger of a package that summarizes that 5-star classic between Kyle and Finn on Sunday as well as informs us that Finn is gonna be out very shortly due to 2 fractures in his jaw. Get Well Soon, Prinxe.
POP: NXT UK
Taking it back to Ridge Holland, he has a match with Danny Burch that goes exactly how you would expect it would. That being said, Burch is able to hold his own and give as good as he takes. I like how lately they’re showing that Danny Burch isn’t as easy as a win as you would expect (don’t forget his match with Karrion Kross a while back).
Ridge disrespects Burch after the match and all hell breaks loose when Burch slaps him in response. After headbutting him to near-death, Burch’s tag partner Oney Lorcan comes out to save him from Holland. Holland actually shrugs off a dive from Lorcan, but a second one is actually able to take him down. Now, after the second one, Holland buckles, audibly yells out in pain and is surrounded by refs and you see one of them throw the “X” up. He gets carried out on a stretcher and it looks like he has a leg injury of some sort. Hopefully it isn’t serious.
POP: Gargano’s Best
This week on USA Network’s hit Reality TV show, Johnny and Candice are taking their dog for a walk when they come across a TV that’s been delivered to their front door! According to the note it’s from Indi Hartwell (who Johnny suddenly “always liked” now thanks to the free TV natch, his comedic timing is A1). I half expected Dean Ambrose to pop out of that large box.
Johnny is standing while watching TV in the dark like a complete psychopath (“Impressive…very impressive.”) and we find out he’s watching a clip on a USB sent with the TV that features footage of Indi saving Candice during the Battle Royal from a few weeks ago. Perhaps a new follower of The Gargano Way is on the way.
Tune in next week when Nanny Faye Gargano calls Johnny a “snitch bitch” for some reason! Can’t give all the surprises away! Man, sure do hope Johnny remembers to cancel his order on that other TV before it shows up.
BOTCH: Back To School
What are they doing with Timothy Thatcher? Are these Thatch-As-Thatch Can wrestling school segments doing anything for y’all? I figured once they had him send Matt Riddle off to Friday Nights he was gonna get the rocket strapped to his back for a push, but they haven’t had him do anything other than lose big matches and disappointingly reopen his school in the middle of a pandemic.
Well either his students didn’t wanna risk an in-person class or they got tired of getting beat up by a guy who loses all the time because he’s got like one student left apparently. Hopefully his recent losses are meant to motivate him to start stacking up wins. Guy is too good to be languishing like this.
Mid: The Boa Brand
The match between Shotzi and Xia is fine, nothing to write home about. What is of note however, is that after Xia loses (duh) Boa (last seen losing to Killain Dain last October), comes out and hands Xia a letter. Then, they go backstage together. Ok, my interest is piqued.
On an unrelated note, if a Shotzi Blackheart and Chuck E. Cheese team up doesn’t happen at NXT Halloween Havoc, I will be very disappointed.
If I’m not in this ballpit match I will be be very jealous. Can I join the band? I sing and played violin in the 3rd grade. https://t.co/14zV23bzJ9
— Shotzi Blackheart (@ShotziWWE) October 6, 2020
SHOTZI AND THE MONDAY NIGHT MOUSEIAH MMC BOOK IT VINCE
— Chuck E. Cheese (@ChuckECheese) October 6, 2020
POP: Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon
It’s fucking great to have Ember Moon back from her injury that took her out for a long time. We haven’t even seen her since late 2019 and she hasn’t been in NXT since NXT TakeOver New Orleans back in 2018 so even just seeing her wrestle again is really dope. I also dig the whole, apocalypse, fall of society look she’s going for with the shoulder pads, torn up shirt and face paint (Did I see a tail on her jacket). Also that new theme slaps, just saying.
After her fiery return “This is a NEW Ember Moon!” promo, what follows is what the audience at home would assume to be a promo train as Io comes out to talk only to be interrupted by Rhea, but thankfully, expectations are subverted when Dakota and Raquel dead that shit immediately and Regal gets his Teddy Long on by scheduling a Tag Match (points to Io for staying out of a fight she has no reason to be in).
Our main event is set up for the night (was the actual main event gonna be Shotzi vs. Xia if these 4 didn’t start fighting at the top of the show?), and it was really good. Ember and Rhea have great chemistry and I wouldn’t mind it if they ever became a legit Tag Team. Ember has not lost a step and hits this one high impact suicide dive that I thought was gonna launch Dakota to the stage.
This match was some of NXT’s best women’s wrestling on display. On top of that, we got the first Eclipse in forever.
Welcome back, Ember.
This Week’s NXT was overall good with few hiccups and really capitalized on the momentum from TakeOver. Night 1 of the Draft is this Friday so even though we were kind of in a holding pattern this week due to not knowing for sure who is gonna go where, you couldn’t really tell.
Next week:
Oh. They uh, they didn’t announce any matches for next week.
Uh, don’t know what to put here. Wait, I know!
Peace.
