Swerve swerved on Leon Ruff, Toni Storm kicked Io into heaven, MSK and Beth Pheonix shared some popcorn, Zoey Stark debuted, Finn and Kyle don’t know who to trust and I think I’m coming around on the Xia Li storyline.
This Week: Oh man another double article, whew here we go
POP: Indi…CRUSH!
Opener was Dexter vs. Johnny in a non-title matchup to further the story they got going on with Dexter’s never ending quest to both win the NXT North American Championship while also tormenting The Way at the same time.
The match was fine, it didn’t even bother me that they did the whole “X has beaten the Champion!” deal since they rarely do that in NXT and Johnny passed out in the hold instead of tapped out. But what’s actually important here, is what they appear to be setting up between Indi Hartwell and Dexter Lumis.
At one point they lock eyes and Indi does the universal “call me” hand sign popularized by WWE Legend Zack Ryder and is making heart eyes at him for most of the match. So i’m sure there’s already a ton of fanart of this ship on Tumblr.
POP: Nash’s Shirt
I need that. Expeditiously.
Oh also, this was a really well done little package to flesh out MSK some more as anyone who doesn’t watch Impact still doesn’t know much about them. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t tear up when Nash started talking about his Pops.
POP: WASTED *fade to black* *screen loading*
Former Source Awards Winner Malcolm Bivens pops up behind Leon to challenge him to a match against his ward Tyler Rust. Luckily while I sit in dread of having to watch a Tyler Rust match, Swerve shows up and absolutely demolishes Leon in disturbing (and slightly funny) fashion.
Bivens takes this as an absolute win, as do I.
POP: The Million Dollar Hick
Cameron Grimes is watching that classic Ted Dibiase clip of him screwing a kid out of a payday by cheating at a dribble challenge (while also helpfully pointing his tablet at the camera, good looks). Grimey wants to follow in his footsteps of course so he decides to humiliate the closest NPC available, but he forgot to watch the part where Ted kicks the ball before the kid can reach 10 so he loses the bet.
He tries again a second time, but unfortunately he forgets that adults are capable of cross up moves to avoid his foot.
The third time is the best because he gets so upset he just punches the poor guy before he can even dribble once. Unfortunately he threw his money in the air in celebration and left it so he basically still lost his $1000.
Oh my god, if Grimey eventually loses all his money due to not understanding how cheating at bets work, I’m gonna lose it.
POP: Rookie Aggression
After her really impressive debut, Zoey Stark continues to make me a fan by holding her own against Io Shirai. It’s obvious that they really wanna position her as a future star and she’s certainly got the size and look for it, as well as the in-ring acumen. Her second match being against the Champion isn’t anything to sneeze at.
Toni comes out once again after the match to taunt Io into another shot at her Championship so it looks like we can finally officially look forward to that.
POP: Damn, Xia
Yeah I think I’ve fully come around on Xia Li. This week she faced her former friend (as far as we know) Kacy Catenzaro and it goes without saying it was way better than pretty much every squash match she’s had for the past couple months.
Xia wins when she pulls a Shayna on Kacy’s knee while it’s leaning on the steel steps and tells Kayden that she’s next. Points to Kayden for not wanting to get her friend DQ’d and waiting until the match was over before getting in Xia’s face.
POP: Friends Forever After
The Not Best Friends face off against GYV who inform us that due to their attack on MSK earlier, Wes Lee’s hand is broken and they’ve been fined. Gibson calls them Shrek & Donkey which is such an apt description/insult that I’m actually pissed I didn’t come up with it first.
The match is pretty average, I don’t have any real complaints about it. That spot where Killian hit a slam and a Samoan Drop on GYV at the same time was pretty cool.
NXT remembers their own history when after the match Alexander Wolfe expresses his disgust at what Killain has become while he’s getting a Doctor for Donkey.
POP: Karrion a Good Match
Holy shit, it’s the first time I liked a Karrion Kross match! Maybe the secret is just to have every single match he has from now on be some variation of a No- DQ match because he really shined in this environment. It helps that he was in there with Santos Escobar who’s shown he can work with pretty much anyone.
So comes an end to this kinda random storyline where Santos snuck a sneak diss in a random promo and got tormented for 2 months over it.
POP: Sorry’s Just a 5 Letter Word
Resident Scumbag Adam Cole comes down to the ring and is just beside himself (not not so beside himself that he can’t do his entrance taunts). He cuts a promo that really makes you believe he regrets what he did to Kyle (who will be out for an undetermined amount of time) and that he just got too passionate about the NXT Championship and wants to make amends.
Roddy drops by and…well, he tries his best. But nevermind that shit, here comes Finn, who doesn’t want to do no talking, he’s here to throw hands. I honestly fell on the floor laughing when he mushed Roddy in the face.
They fight for a while until Roddy gets him Finn off of Adam and then clotheslines Adam. Adam apologizes again to Roddy but then…dun dun dun, a nutshot! Adam feels no regret at all! The episode ends with Adam standing tall.
Fast forward a week…
POP: Easter Eggs
Clearly whoever’s writing this show is a bit of a Marvel Cinematic Universe fan because they love putting little foreshadowing hints to what’s to come in the background of scenes of this show. Right before Thatcher comes out for his non title match up with his other Angry Dad partner Ciampa against 1 2 Punch (set up the night before), we see him having a blink and you’ll miss it chat with former stablemate Marcel Berthel. Anyone else getting like a tingly excitement feeling?
The match features 4 guys who love beating the crap out of their opponents so definitely check it out if that’s your thing because all of them pull it off very well. The blink and you’ll miss it moment gets followed up on when all the non WALTER members of Imperium show up to stand on the stage and the Angry Dads get distracted for no real reason and end up losing. Ok, who borrowed a trope from RAW?
POP: Should’ve Hired Dr. Shelby
The Way has gone to Family Counseling to hash out the issues that they’re having with Dexter Lumis. I mean their daughter has a crush on a (maybe?) serial killer/zombie enthusiast so clearly someone needs to intervene.
Most of the people involved in these segments were really flexing their comedy bonafides and I was genuinely in tears watching these.
POP: A Couple of NXT OGs
This was a nice little match between Ember and Aaliyah (not Mysterio). Although the highlights for me (other than The Eclipse) was seeing that Robert Stone still has leftover PTSD from Shotzi constantly running him over with her tank. Also I gotta say, I see why people thought his gimmick was originally shade being thrown at Tony Khan, dude was favoring him heavy this week.
POP: NXT Homecoming
Y’all ever seen that movie Big Bully with Rick Moranis and Tom Arnold where Arnold was bullying Moranis in high school, and then they grow up and reconnect as adults and they resume their victim-bully relationship? This match kinda reminded me of that.
Anyone who’s been a longtime viewer of NXT knows that Dakota Kai back when she was a Technico was a favorite victim of Shayna Bazsler. Nia Jax when she was in NXT pretty much bullied everyone on the roster as well, so you have both of them returning to their old stomping grounds to what they believe will be an easy win.
However, the former bullied party now has a tall lady on her side who very recently just sent the former most dominant woman on the NXT roster packing to RAW, so, it’s not a sure thing that they’ll be walking out still champions.
Dakota and Shayna are so good at this that even if you didn’t know, you could tell from the way they interact with each other that they have a history, down to Dakota very shortly reverting to that scared wrestler before getting pissed off enough to get over it. She was clearly having flashbacks to when Shayna broke her arm and put her on the shelf by stomping it.
Seeing Raquel go head to head with Nia was great too and Nia being able to go the whole match without injuring someone was great too. However, RAW is involved so of course something screwy happened.
The Orlando Screwjob occurred when Raquel tagged in for a fading Dakota Kai and then proceeded to accidentally knock out the ref. Then she tackled Nia over the announce table and WWE Vague Authority Person Adam Pearce came out with a “RAW Official” when Shayna put Dakota to sleep for good. This appears to be part of an angle that you guys already know about and that I will talk about in the next POPS & BOTCHES (woooooooooooooooooooooo).
POP: Drop Some Beats
Ok, we’re finally doing something interesting with Swerve. We meet up with him in his lab working on some music when he tells us that the only thing in his way of opportunity is Leon Ruff so he needs to be “handled”. Even got him a new catchphrase, “Just Different”. I’m interested in seeing what’s coming up for Swerve.
POP: Game Knight
Man, I’ve loved LA Knight ever since he was Eli Drake, so all I got to say is watch this man introduce himself. Give him a mic and let him go.
POP: THEY MADE IT HIS THEME SONG
They made the song they debuted at Vengeance Day his theme song you guys. That is literally all I wanted and they did it.
Oh, yeah I should probably talk about the match too. I mean, it was fine. It was your usual good Bronson Reed match with some Grime$ hijinks thrown in. Frankly if someone was handing me a bunch of 100s, the last thing I’d do is punch them in the face but that’s just me.
The match turned when LA showed up (probably upset about Reed abruptly ending his promo) and distracted Reed long enough for Grime$ to steal a win.
POP: That’s Not Very Tranquillo
We were gonna get a match between Never-Rise and Breezango (Astronaut variant), but LDF show up and beat down everyone within sight since Escobar is pretty upset about getting sonned by Kross. Shout out to Breezy for somehow keeping his space helmet on the entire time.
POPBOTCH: Blame Game
Look, Rodrick Strong is a freakin’ beast in the ring. But man, the guy can’t cut a promo to save his life and I don’t know why they insist on having him speak on his own. It’s like he keeps putting the inflection on every wrong word in the sentence he’s saying. Also, why did he demand Adam show up and then give him like 3 seconds to show up? Also how are you gonna blame Finn for the Era beef when Adam kicked you square in the face?
Look, the important part is Finn came out told everyone he’s giving Adam a shot at his championship on the next episode.
However, for THIS episode, the main event will be Strong vs. Finn in a non-title match. Off top this is a straight up grapple fest which is right up my alley (crazy how Finn appears to be better at these kinds of matches than certain MMA fighters). Strong noticeably came out without wearing UE colors and with a new (meh) theme song, so this might really be the end of the Undisputed Era.
I’ve already talked about how great Strong is in the ring so he definitely holds up his end here, and there were even a couple times where I was like “damn, is he gonna take it here?” But no, of course, the Champion gets the W.
Ok, almost caught up on NXT. I’ll be fully up to date eventually but until then, share this on all your shareables, check out all our other Reviews & Recaps on the site and join the SRP Discord.
Peace.
