By John Moore, ProWrestling.net Staffer (@liljohnm)
NXT TV Hits
Adam Cole vs. Jordan Myles: A Hit solely based on the match quality. It was not a “Takeover quality” main event, but the match did it’s job in building up Adam Cole’s in-ring credibility while also showing that newcomer Myles can hang with NXT’s top champion. It helps for Cole to look dominant against a mid-tier opponent, and at the same time this match got enough time to allow the artist formerly known as ACH to look plucky and like a future star so that maybe the next time Myles faces Cole he might become champion.
Bianca Belair vs. Taynara Conti: Seeing who was in this match, I was about to toss it out in my mind as a throwaway match because you had to know that Taynara Conti had no chance. Yet while she had no chance, she did show enough improvement in the ring to put together a good back and forth. Similar to the main event though, the favorite was more dominant. Belair enhancement matches are fun in that they showcase her unique mix of power and agility. Male or female, it’s unique to see someone who can both military press someone and then afterwards hit them with a 450.
Roderick Strong: A minor Hit just for the chuckle factor. The chuckle comes from good ol’ Roddy Strong resorting to arson and arsoning Velveteen Dream’s sex couch no less. This isn’t the first time we’ve see good ol’ Roddy do such a random act of psycho because when he was trying to win back the favor of Adam Cole, he showed up with a flip flop covered in Matt Riddle’s blood. It came off as if Roderick Strong stabbed Matt Riddle based off the subsequent skits. Again, a bit random, but I get a kick out of Roddy being that nice guy that may secretly be a psychotic killer on the inside.
Io Shirai: Evil Io will always get a Hit from me as long as she appears on the show. I kid partially. I just thought her short segment of beating Candice LeRae in the parking lot with a kendo stick was a simple and effective way of forwarding her feud with LeRae in under 30 seconds.
Breezango vs. Chase Parker and Matt Martel: Again, I would have preferred that Fandango switch over to a different, and more Johnny Curtis persona because I feel like the guy is really limiting himself with this played out gimmick. That said, I guess the Fashion Police are here to stay and this can work if done right. The Fashion Police had some potential on the main roster if the creative forces up there didn’t pigeonhole them to YouTube video skits. This is a good first step in presenting them correctly as they got to tell a story in the ring. Their opponents looked good and we should be seeing more from Parker and Martel in the future since they are signed to NXT.
NXT TV Misses
Breezango’s new theme: Not a big deal. Maybe it’ll grow on me. That said, I thought Tyler Breeze’s theme in particular was special because he did sing the lyrics (I’m honestly a bigger fan of Breeze’s prior theme, so this is two steps down). This was kinda generic and the only thing that stood out was the sirens and how the intro to the song reminded me of Chavo Guerrero’s “Ooooooh Chavo!” theme.
NXT Breakout Tournament: Why did they hold a multi-round tournament which lasted about two months and then blow off the reward of the tournament just one week after the tournament was won? I like that Myles didn’t go after the North American title, that made sense (I still remember Low Ki cashing in his potential world title shot in a losing effort against Intercontinental Champion Dolph Ziggler from back in the day). I just thought they could have gotten a lot more out of this. They could have done some promos where Adam Cole tried to convince Myles to go after Velveteen Dream. Even less cliche’, they could have done promos where Velveteen Dream tried to convince Myles to battle him, the superior champion in his mind, only to have Myles choose Cole and cause a character evolution for Dream. Instead, it look likes they are building towards Myles vs. Keith Lee, looking past the breakout tournament. In hindsight, I would have given the breakout contract to Angel Garza, who could have done some good work holding on to the contract for a while.
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