NXT’s newest Must See Tag Team MSK as well as Dakota Kai & Raquel Gonzalez became the 2021 Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic winners, Io Shirai continued her dominance over the NXT Womens division, Dexter Lumis committed a crime on national television, and “Scumbag” Adam Cole betrayed one of his bestest best pals.
This Week: Why Adam Why?
BOTCH: Family Zip Ties
This was an ok match, but the thing is, they kept interrupting it. See, Johnny came out to talk on commentary and he’s upset about something Dexter Lumis did, I dunno. Whatever it was it probably improved the show.
Anyway, this unmarked van shows up outside the CWC and the match (that went on through 2 commercial breaks btw) kept getting interrupted by footage of the van and footage of Johnny going to the van. I don’t know why they did it like this. It really messed up the flow of the match for me.
The match was actually good, I just wish it wasn’t put together like this.
Anyway Johnny found some dude in the van, whatever, moving on.
POP: Some Ruff Swerving
Hey, wait a minute…fostering discord between two Black Men in the middle of February?
I’m on to you NXT.
No, but seriously, Leon Ruff might be the best on this show at fostering that classic Babyface in Peril type support that can go under-appreciated these days and is present in nearly all of his matches as even on a roster full of smaller wrestlers, he’s still somehow one of the smallest. But at the same time, his offense and style of wrestling that relies on his endurance and agility is believable as he often has to try to outsmart his opponent.
Swerve Scott is at his most despicable this week as he refuses to treat Leon seriously for most of the match and is just straight up being shitty to him for the whole match time, which is great as a heel should wrestle like a heel. However it makes him a bit short sighted, as Leon is able to get him into a surprise Crucifix pin to win the match.
Swerve however, doesn’t take too kindly to that and trucks Leon for his troubles. Motivation? The classic “You’re getting handed everything, where’s my shot?” motivation. An oldie, but a goodie.
POP: …wait, do I like this now?
Ok I might be coming around on this Xia/Boa/Chair Lady thing. (Clearly not enough to bother to look up the name of chair lady though, smh)
The Tag Team match between the East Coast Avengers and the Robert Stone Brand is fine (and thank goodness Kamea got some improved gear because that half-catsuit was not it at all), and Kacy and Kayden have amazing chemistry as a tag team, probably due to being IRL good friends.
There’s a little insert during the match where they talk about wanting to snap Xia out of whatever trance she’s in. After Double K win, Xia and Boa come out and Xia grabs Kacey’s arm and gives her a weird mark and challenges her to a match next week. And this was the point where I finally began to kinda dig this thing. I dunno, the whole Xia marking her next victims thin is sorta cool to me I guess? Hopefully, I still like it by next week.
Storm’s Hit You Fast
POP: Winning a Hole Trophy
MSK and Kai & Raquel are introduced by Beth Phoenix to celebrate all 4 of them winning their respective Dusty Classic wins and it’s a pretty fun segment. MSK is easily the most effortlessly entertaining Team in NXT and promos clearly come natural to them.
Dakota & Raquel barely get started talking before the Womens Tag Champions Nia Jax & Shayna Bazsler show up to size up the competition. They play off of both Nia & Shayna’s histories in NXT and the past relationship between Shayna and her favorite victim Dakota in particular. Dakota bringing up Shayna “running away” after Rhea beat her, the very same Rhea that Raquel caused to “run away” was a nice bit of psychological warfare.
Now this entire time, MSK have seemingly produced popcorn out of nowhere, and along with Beth are watching this all go down while snacking down on popcorn. Honestly, this segment is worthy of multiple rewatches based off of their facial expressions alone.
Their match is set in 2 weeks and while as I have said I’m usually wary of Heel vs. Heel matches, especially Tag matches, I’m pretty excited for at least 3/4ths of this match!
POP: RUN THAT TRACK BACK
They played this again so i’m posting this again idc
If NXT doesn’t make this his theme song, they are buggin’.
POP: $BIVENT Is Rising
Kushida’s being interviewed backstage and gets interrupted by Bronson Reed to let him know if he has to beat him to get a shot at the NXT NA Championship, he will, but that part’s not important. What is important is Malcolm “Da Gawd” Bivens is hidden behind a newspaper (those still exist?) waiting to have Kushida face Tyler Rust tonight. Seems like a bad move, but hey, he’s CEO of Bivens Enterprises for a reason. I suppose his logic is that Kushida’s not gonna be 100% after Sunday, but even a 85% Kushida ain’t nothing to sneeze at.
I don’t know if this is a testament to how good Kushida is, but Rust actually stood out to me this week. The match is actually pretty competitive too. There were a couple of times there that I almost could’ve bought an upset win. However, once Kushida locks in the Hoverboard Lock, Malcolm *figuratively* throw in the towel. Man, needs to protect his investment after all.
POP: If You Smell What The Knight Is Cookin’
Not much to say here, I could listen to LA Knight cut a promo for an hour. Dude knows how to talk. God, I hope WWE doesn’t screw this one up.
POP: Stark Contrast
This was the NXT singles debut of Zoey Stark who was previously seen in the Dusty Classic on 205 Live but I don’t watch that show so she’s new to me!
She’s facing off against Valentina Feroz who appears to have gotten lost on the way to a Figure skating competition. Her job here is to lose to Zoey Stark, but she looks really good in this match and I wouldn’t mind seeing more of her in the future.
But obviously the star here is Zoey Stark and she makes one hell of an impression here. I could easily see her as a face of this show and she really has a presence about her. She’s got a killer finish too that I can best describe as a modified GTS. Good debut.
Kross Words (hope I haven’t already used that one)
Earlier, Regal mentions that Santos vs. Kross won’t be happening tonight…
Oh I guess I should say why. Yeah Santos decided to bounce. Huh, why don’t more people do that? Well, if he doesn’t show next week, Santos will be suspended and lose the CW Championship, so I guess we will have that match next week. Yay.
Kross and Scarlett cut a dope promo advising Santos to show up next week so he can have an underwhelming match, I mean so he can face Kross like a man and not lose his title due to being a coward. I guess this means Kross has transitioned into Tweener territory which is fine I guess.
POP: The Young and The Undisputed
The night began with a promo (feels like it’s actually been a while since that happened) from Kyle O’Reilly understandably wanting some answers from Adam Cole about the bootprint on his face. This starts a promo train as Roddy then comes out which only pisses off Kyle more (again, who doesn’t get pissed seeing Roderick Strong (jk roddy)), because frankly he doesn’t want to her *audio drops out* about what he has to say about anything.
Big Prinxe on Campus Finn shows up wanting to talk to Adam *and* Kyle as well as he’s understandably pissed because he trusted Kyle and now wonders if that was a mistake. Here we have that little bit of emotional intrigue in a story that I feel has been missing from NXT for a while. Great wrestling is great, but you gotta have that extra gravy on top to really have people invested in your show.
Pat McAfee’s friends then show up and beat everyone up before they get sent to the back, which leads to Regal setting up a 6 man Tag between all of them.
Pat McAfee also makes an appearance via pre-taped vid gloat to the “Internet Wrestling Community” about how he was right all along about Adam being a scumbag…actually let me all caps that, SCUMBAG (that feels better) and that he will be accepting all apologies under the hashtag, #PatWasRight. Well, hard to argue. I also like that just because Adam is heel again (always has been) that doesn’t mean Pat is all of a sudden a good guy.
During the 6 Man, I like that they pay attention to detail by having Kyle repeatedly tag Finn into the match instead of Roddy, again, because he doesn’t really trust him right now.
The actual match is great because it’s a 6 Man Tag in NXT, those are always great. The interesting bit begins when Oney pulls a ref behind Pete, who gets drop kicked by Finn. Finn tries to hit the Coup de Gras, but Adam Cole, showing up for the first time all night, shoves him off the turnbuckle, then Brainbusters Kyle on the steel steps (who sells so convincingly that some fan there took a pic and a rumor that he may have had a seizure spread shortly after this episode aired, so that was a whole thing).
Roddy stops Danny from hitting Finn with the title, but then Finn accidentally Pele Kicks him for his troubles, and then gets pinned by Pete. Adam shows up again to Superkick Finn and pose with the title. Smh, #PatWasRight.
All in all, solid episode of NXT that sets up the stories on the road to NXT TakeOver: WrestleMania.
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Peace.
Next Week:
Santos Escobar vs. Karrion Kross
Xia Li vs. Kacy Catanzaro
