NXT returned from the Capitol Wrestling Center (CWC) in Orlando, Florida last night (Feb. 24). All results can be found here on the live blog.
No regrets
Adam Cole: Still a dick.
This week’s episode concluded with the explanation of Adam Cole’s betrayal. But we never really got it. Instead, Cole pretended to be sorry, only to predictably reveal that he absolutely wasn’t.
Kyle O’Reilly, who they told us will be absent for 4-6 months (but will definitely be back sooner), didn’t show up tonight. It was too early for all that. Instead, Roddy Strong confronted the former leader of Undisputed ERA. At first he didn’t buy Cole’s BS. But after an interlude in which NXT champion Finn tried to confront Bálor Cole, but was beaten down by a brief alliance between Roddy and Adam (a bit reluctant on Strong’s behalf), the Panama City Playboy turned on the water mains, sucked Roderick in and punched him in the nuts.
All of this created enough drama that it was fun to follow along with, but it didn’t really add up when I really thought about it. Who was trying to fool Adam? He knew Kyle was not there. Was he trying to lure Roddy out to attack him? Would the ruse have continued 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 to regret his decisions or whether this week was a one-off. It feels like the kind of segment that was entertaining but doesn’t stand up to real research. But that depends on how they play it as this continues.
Best Try
I’ve never seen Karrion Kross sell as much as this week.
I’m not looking at Triple A, but I’ve watched his full series in Impact and of course everything he’s done in NXT, and this game had more sales than maybe all those combined.
OK, that’s obviously an exaggeration, but Kross may have spent maybe 90% of tonight’s non-DQ game getting his left shoulder worked by Santos Escobar. It started with their brawl in the parking lot when the Cruiserweight Champion dropped a truck door on it. Combine that with a constant three-on-one threat, Karrion found himself in a situation he rarely does.
While it was often a handicap match, it still left the lasting image of Santos Escobar doing something that no one did to this dangerous man. The reason doesn’t matter. The bottom line is that at times Santos Kross dominated, despite the fact that Escobar ended up losing this match.
The fight itself was … fine. There were some fun spots, like Kross throwing both Joaquin Wilde and Raul Mendoza through a fan pod barrier and staring at a concerned Escobar. But it was mainly a one-sided battle. When Kross finally got back on his feet, he didn’t actually sell the arm that had been worked in the past 20 minutes. Sure, you can write off some of that because he’s superhuman, but if that’s the case, that undermines the idea that Santos was working on the previously injured shoulder.
In the end, they achieved what they had to do. Kross came across the odds of asserting his dominance, while Santos gave the big man the most money he had. It just felt like it was dragging to get there.
The rebellious phase
The Road has some problems.
Dexter Lumis has begun to drive a wedge between the parents and the children. Austin Theory has been wrong since being kidnapped by Lumis TakeOver: Vengeance DayThat sounds like a pretty obvious statement. Being kidnapped for days will mess with everyone. In this case it is closer to Stockholm Syndrome as he thinks he had a great time with Uncle D (my nickname, not his).
He is also generally disabled. He tried to high five Johnny Gargano with the wrong hand. He used to play the clueless member of the Way, but it’s more now that he took a vacation with Dex.
This may have cost Johnny his game against Lumis this week. After a fun match (Gargano has great matches with pretty much everyone), the leader of the Weg distracted the referee. Candice ordered Theory to attack Dexter with a chair. But when the creepy Lumis made eye contact, Austin smiled and said something like, “What’s up?” and don’t use the chair as a weapon. When Gargano tried to storm his enemy from behind, he accidentally hit his protégé and then became entangled in the silence and lost through submission.
Oddly enough, Indi Hartwell is also a bit in love with Dexter. The announcers made sure to point out that she was smiling at a moment when Lumis beat Johnny Wrestling. And backstage later she admitted that she found the aloof wrestler ‘hot’. Whatever happens, Johnny and Candice need to get their house in order.
(The aforementioned backstage segment is enclosed above because backstage segments featuring The Way weekly are one of the best things on NXT.)
All in all, The Way is still hugely entertaining. I certainly appreciated them singing “That’s the Way (I Like It)” prior to Johnny’s match. I hope this continues. May I suggest “Baby, I love The Way?” as their next tune? I am also impressed with how well Theory has adapted to the group. At first he felt like the odd man out. But then they leaned into it, which made him the mute one. It’s a role he plays well that makes the whole group feel whole.
Quite the rollout
NXT is very high on Zoey Stark.
Not everyone will get a two-segment competitive match with the best woman on the roster in their second NXT game ever. That’s what Stark got this week. And she more than held her ground against Io Shirai.
We’ll see if she lives up to the push they’re going to give her. But tonight we got a practice match from Io Shirai, which is something we don’t see often. I’ll be watching one of the best wrestlers in the world every day of the week. It’s not something we should see often, but when we do it’s a treat.
After the match, Toni Storm took to the podium to accuse the champion of dodging her. It was simple, but probably my favorite help promo from Storm. It’s a smart take, as Toni has a history of beating Shirai in a high-profile situation.
This should be a really fun program. The title match is already set in two weeks, but that could just be a chapter in the longer story.
First test
Xia Li had her first real match since joining the ranks of Tian Sha.
She took on her “former boyfriend” Kacy Catanzaro. The match itself was fine. Both women are both relatively new to the business, and they’ve made a solid match. But the closing angle when Li got into character work as a brutal fighter was very good.
When a reclining Kacy lay against the ring stairs, Xia gave a nasty punch on her arm. She then took her hair and dragged her into the ring. Li did not get a chance to finish her opponent as the referee decided that Catanzaro could no longer go and called the match.
Kayden Carter tried to get Mei Ying in the face again, which was a bad move. Mei nodded to Li, who was still in the ring, and Xia kicked Kacy’s head, as the former Ninja Warrior was already being groomed by the officials.
This will lead to Carter vs. Li, that will probably be more of the same. That works. What happens next will be interesting. Maybe it leads to some physicality from Mei Ying?
The rest
– MSK had a video package that told us a little bit more about them. That’s good because when they went on to do a live promo with McKenzie Mitchell, the Grizzled Young Vets attacked them. This lets us know that the real schedule for the Dusty Cup winners is a rematch with GYV. Their tag title contest next week will likely set that up further.
– The Young Vets followed this up with a tag team victory later in the evening against Killian Dain and Drake Maverick. There was intrigue when Dain faced his former SAnitY buddy Alexander Wolfe while wearing Maverick. The current Imperium member wondered what Dain has become. Is this the beginning of the end for Drake and Dain?
– Another segment that didn’t happen due to a brutal attack was a Tyler Rust match with Leon Ruff. Isaiah “Swerve” Scott was not about his loss to Ruff last week. He attacked the former North American Champion and delivered a Death Valley Driver on the ring apron. That move looked … wait for it … rough.
– Cameron Grimes remains fantastic. This week, he tried to hit the basketball bit that the Million Dollar Man used to do, but he was too dumb to get it done. I would certainly love it if this led to a Ted DiBiasi cameo.
This was a pretty good show, but none of the major segments felt like they had done really well. Still enjoyable overall.
Grade B
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