By Haydn Gleed
NXT Hits
Sami Zayn, Samoa Joe, and Baron Corbin opening segment: This was the best way to showcase not only your top stars but also the importance of the championship they are fighting for. Sami Zayn, Samoa Joe, and Baron Corbin had sound reason and a logic behind why they think they deserve a chance. At the same time, each man gave good and legitimate reasons as to why they felt the other two didn’t deserve the opportunity. This setup excitement brilliantly for the triple threat match that was announced later in the show. It created excitement and intrigue as to who will come out on top to challenge Finn Balor, presumably at the next Takeover live special.
NXT Awards: Unlike the Slammy Awards, which are treated as a joke and dragged out over the course of a full episode of Raw, the NXT awards were done and dusted in a small highlight segment. Still, it felt like the winners had won something of importance. I’m not sure I’m too fond of the bell and hammer style trophy, but that’s just me.
Hype For The Battle Royal: The segments reminded me of the old promos the wrestlers would cut backstage before a Royal Rumble match. Sure, you knew that Repo Man wasn’t going to win the Rumble, but by watching the simple 30 second promo you knew it meant something to him and the other competitors and, therefore, elevated the importance of the match. It was doubly important here with some of the women making their debuts, and it gave the viewers the chance to make a split second decision as to whether they wanted to root for them or not. Good stuff.
Tommaso Ciampa: I was never that high on Ciampa when I watched him Ring of Honor or even when I saw him live at an independent event here in the UK. Yet even though he’s not setting the world on fire, Ciampa has put in some good performances since coming into NXT and his match on this show was no exception.
Women’s Battle Royal: I couldn’t have been the only one who went into this match expecting Asuka to come out on top. Instead we got Carmella winning the match, which I love for a number of reasons. Firstly, it was a shock, not in a “they’ll never see it coming, bro” type of way, but in a logical and believable way. Secondly, there is potential for some great storytelling between best friends (#baymella!) Bayley and Carmella. They can either go down the “trying to maintain a friendship but be fiercely competitive route” because the championship is what they are all striving for, or Carmella can turn on her best friend in a moment that will dump tons of heat onto her. Whatever route they go, I can’t see this being anything other than entertaining.
Overall Show: NXT set up a No. 1 contenders match that people are excited to see in two weeks time, all three possible opponents are intriguing for different reasons. They also set up their next women’s championship feud. They also started an upper mid-card feud between Asuka and Eva Maria (I’m sure the majority of the fans hoping Eva gets torn from limb to limb). They also continued their tag team title feud. They did all of this in a one-hour show. If I had been told that without seeing this episode, I would have assumed they were trying to do too much, but it seemed to flow beautifully with everything being given the right amount of importance to it.
NXT Misses
Elias Samson: I’m just not getting the character or the gimmick. When you combine that with quite a boring offense and wrestling style it’s not off to a great start. After seeing him at NXT Takeover: London, I felt the same way but didn’t want to judge too soon. After two weeks of television dedicated to this gimmick, I still haven’t seen anything to change my take. His finisher was an elbow from the top in one one. This week, it was a neckbreaker. I think they are trying to show that even the “simple” moves in Samson’s hands are devastating. That’s intriguing, but that’s not enough to keep me interested.
As always if you agree or disagree feel free to let me know either on twitter @haydngleed or via email haydn.gleed@gmail.com
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