NXT returned last night (February 24) from the Capitol Wrestling Center (CWC) in Orlando, Florida. You can find all the results on the live blog here.
No regrets
Adam Cole: He’s still an idiot.
This week’s episode ended with an explanation for Adam Cole’s betrayal. But we never really understand. Instead, it was Cole pretending to be remorseful only to predictably reveal that he definitely wasn’t.
Kyle O’Reilly, who told us he’s been gone for 4 to 6 months (but he’ll certainly be back soon), didn’t show up tonight. It was too early for that. Instead, Roddy Strong confronted the former Undisputed ERA leader. At first, he didn’t believe in Cole’s BS. But after an interlude in which NXT champion Finn Bálor tried to confront Cole, but was brought down by a brief alliance between Roddy and Adam (somewhat reluctant on behalf of Strong), the Panama City Playboy turned on the water system, tricked Roderick and punched him in the nuts.
It all caused enough drama to be fun to accompany him, but it didn’t make a lot of sense to me when I really thought about it. Who was Adam trying to deceive? He knew that Kyle was not there. Was he trying to attract Roddy just to attack him? Would he have kept up the ruse until he had a chance to punch someone in the balls if Strong didn’t intervene?
We’ll see what he does next, whether he continues to pretend he regrets his decisions or whether this week was just one time. It looks like the kind of segment that was fun, but it doesn’t stand up to any real scrutiny. But it will depend on how they play as it progresses.
Best effort
I’ve never seen Karrion Kross sell as much as he did this week.
I don’t watch Triple A, but I watched his full race on Impact and, obviously, everything he did on NXT, and that match had more sales than perhaps all of those combined.
OK, this is obviously hyperbole, but Kross spent maybe 90% of the fight without DQ tonight having his left shoulder worked by Santos Escobar. It all started with their fight in the parking lot when Cruiserweight champion knocked the door of a truck on him. Combine that with a constant threat of three against one, Karrion found himself in a situation that rarely happens.
Although it was often a handicap match, it still left Santos Escobar’s lasting image doing something that no one did to this dangerous man. The reason doesn’t matter. What matters is that Santos sometimes dominated Kross, although Escobar lost this match.
The fight itself was … good. There were some fun places, like Kross playing Joaquin Wilde and Raul Mendoza through a fan pod barrier and looking at a worried Escobar. But mostly, it was a one-sided beating. So when Kross finally fired back, he didn’t really sell the arm that had been working for the previous 20 minutes. Sure, you can dismiss him as being superhuman, but if that’s the case, it does away with the idea of Santos working on his previous injured shoulder.
In the end, they accomplished what they needed. Kross won the chance to assert his dominance, while Santos gave the great man the biggest run for his money he has ever had. It looked like it was crawling to get there.
The rebel stage
The Way is going through some problems.
Dexter Lumis began to create a barrier between parents and children. Austin’s theory has not been right since it was kidnapped by Lumis in TakeOver: Day of Vengeance. This sounds like a pretty obvious statement. Being kidnapped for days will hurt anyone. In this case, it is closer to Stockholm Syndrome, because he feels that he had a lot of fun with Uncle D (my nickname, not his).
It is also turned off in general. He tried to hit high five Johnny Gargano with the wrong hand. He always played the ignorant member of the Way, but it is more now that he went on vacation with Dex.
This possibly cost Johnny his match against Lumis this week. After a fun game (Gargano makes big fights with just about everyone), the leader of the Way distracted the referee. Candice instructed Theory to attack Dexter with a chair. But when the scary Lumis made eye contact, Austin smiled, practically saying “What is it?” and not using the chair as a weapon. When Gargano tried to attack his enemy from behind, he accidentally hit his protégé and was caught in Silence, losing by submission.
Oddly, Indi Hartwell is also a little bit in love with Dexter. The announcers made a point of pointing out that she was smiling during a time when Lumis was defeating Johnny Wrestling. And backstage later, she admitted that she found the indifferent fighter “hot”. No matter what happens, Johnny and Candice need to get their house in order.
(That backstage segment is embedded above because the backstage segments with Way are one of the best things about NXT on a weekly basis.)
All in all, the Way is still extremely fun. I certainly enjoyed them singing “This is the way (I like it)” before Johnny’s departure. I hope this continues. May I suggest “Baby, do I love the Way?” how your next song? I am also impressed with how well Theory adjusted to the group. At first, he felt like a strange man. But then they leaned towards it, making him the idiot. It is a role he plays well, making the whole group feel whole.
Really the Rollout
NXT is very interested in Zoey Stark.
Not everyone gets a competitive two-segment match with the woman at the top of the list in her second NXT match. That’s what Stark received this week. And she more than defended herself against Io Shirai.
We’ll see if she is up to the push they’ll give you. But we have an exhibition match for Io Shirai tonight, something we don’t see very often. I will watch one of the best fighters in the world work any day of the week. It is not something we should see often, but when we do, it is a pleasure.
After the fight, Toni Storm entered the stage to accuse the champion of dodging her. It was simple, but probably my favorite Storm jump promotion. It is a smart angle, given that Toni has a history of defeating Shirai in a high profile situation.
This must be a really fun program. The title fight is scheduled for two weeks from now, but that could be just a chapter in the longer story.
First test
Xia Li had his first real match since joining Tian Sha’s ranks.
She faced her “ex-friend” Kacy Catanzaro. The game itself was good. Both women are still relatively new to the business and have a solid partner. But the final angle when Li entered the character’s work as a brutal fighter was very good.
When a Kacy lying on her back was leaning against the steps of the ring, Xia punched her arm badly. She then grabbed her by the hair and dragged her into the ring. Li did not have a chance to finish his opponent because the referee decided that Catanzaro could not go and ended the game.
Kayden Carter once again tried to get in the face of Mei Ying, which was a bad move. Mei nodded to Li, who was still in the ring, and Xia kicked Kacy in the head while the former Ninja Warrior was already being taken care of by the officers.
This will lead to Carter vs. Li, that will probably be more of the same. It works. What happens after that will be interesting. Perhaps this leads to some physicality from Mei Ying?
Everything else
– MSK had a video package telling us a little more about them. Which is good because when they were going to do a live promotion with McKenzie Mitchell, the Grizzled Young Vets attacked them. This lets us know that the next real show for Dusty Cup winners is a rematch with GYV. Matching the tag title next week is likely to further define this.
– The Young Vets followed up with a tag team win at the end of the night against a Killian Dain and Drake Maverick game. There was intrigue when Dain was confronted by his former SAnitY partner, Alexander Wolfe, while carrying Maverick. The current Imperium member questioned what Dain has become. Is this the beginning of the end for Drake and Dain?
– Another segment that didn’t happen because of a brutal attack was a fight between Tyler Rust and Leon Ruff. Isaiah “Swerve” Scott had not overcome his loss to Ruff last week. He attacked the former American champion and put a Death Valley Driver in the ring. This movement seemed … wait … difficult.
– Cameron Grimes remains fantastic. This week, he tried to get the basketball that the Million Dollar Man did back then, but he was too stupid to get it. I would definitely love it if it led to a cameo from Ted DiBiasi.
This was a very good show, but none of the big segments looked like it really hit the nail on the head. Still nice in general.
Serie B
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