It was Championship Week on NXT, despite only 2 of their titles being up for grabs. Still, a solid NXT from top to bottom, though as with WWE, I always seem to enjoy the undercard more than the main event.
On with the show!
Walk Away On Top: What has to happen with Charlotte
There is no question that Charlotte is the best women’s wrestler in NXT, and in my mind, very little question that she’s actually the best in the entire WWE. Every week, I see something I’ve never seen before - this week it was the Figure 4 that she then bridged - I had a ‘mark out’ moments the likes of which I haven’t seen since I was 10 or 11.
In fact, every time I watch a match of hers, I can’t help thinking 2 things, the latter being much more scandalous than the former.
- Charlotte could very well be the best women’s wrestler in history by the time she’s done.
- Charlotte might be the best wrestler with the last name of Flair in history.
She’s so good that there’s no way she can lose that title. None. Can’t happen. They’re likely building for an eventual Bayley win, sure, but Charlotte is so head and shoulders above every other women’s wrestler on NXT, it can’t make any logical sense. (No, not even Vince Logic.)
I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating. Charlotte just needs to surrender the title. There’s nothing left for her to prove in NXT, she’s desperately needed in WWE, so just say you’re giving the belt up because you’ve obviously proven you’re the best in the world. Let Bayley, Sasha, Alexa Bliss and Becky Lynch battle it out for the title and let Charlotte destroy the competition on a more national stage.
On a related note, how utterly amazing would it have been if Bayley had snapped after losing, attacking Charlotte after the hug and just totally turning heel? Don’t lie - you’d have loved it.
Less really might be More
On two separate occasions tonight, I got very excited to see wrestlers walk out on stage. In tonight’s case, it was Baron Corbin (of course) and The Vaudevillains. That almost never happens for RAW. Upon reflecting, I realized its solely because of the time factor.
NXT is only 60 minutes long, so they can’t feature every wrestler every week. You never know (unless you read spoilers, and I’m trying to make my NXT viewing #SpoilerFree) who is going to show up week to week, so when you see your favorite guys, you’re legitimately excited.
Comparatively, RAW is 180 minutes a week, so I know I’m going to see my favorite guys. In fact, I see them so much, they stop becoming my favorites much faster than it seems like these NXT guys will, which is why I’ll continue loving Bull Dempsey even though very few others will.
Does RAW really need to be 3 hours long? Can’t WWE figure out some other way of divvying up their air time to feature a broader range of talents? Is the extreme length of Monday Night wrestling actually hurting the overall product? Let me know what you think.
The tag division in NXT is worlds better than WWE’s.
We didn’t see our tag team champions this week, nor did we see The Ascension in action, outside of their brutally pointless beatdown of Kenta Itami. (That’s as far as I’ll get.) Yet we had an incredibly entertaining tag match featuring the best team in NXT, the aforementioned Vaudevillains and up and comers Tye Dillinger and Jason Jordon, who are really going to have to work hard to not be compared to Shelton Benjamin and Charlie Haas. What I loved about that match was that Jordon and Dillinger got a pop for their entrance (which was quite well coordinated), yet played the match as heels, because Simon Gotch and Aiden English are just about as over with the NXT crowd as anyone can possibly be. And I dug it - they played excellent cocky heels and should be booked as such from now on.
I haven’t even mentioned Enzo and Cass (who had, in my opinion, their best vignette to date this week) or The Legionnaires, who didn’t make me any bigger fans of theirs with their own promo, but I didn’t hate it either. That’s 6 teams who all could, at some point, be vying for the NXT Tag Titles. Plus, if my next idea doesn’t wind up happening, I could see Tyson Kidd and Titus O’Neill as a pretty cool tandem.
While the WWE tag division is basically a Best of 7 series between whatever two teams are currently battling for the titles, NXT’s tag division is deep, talented and all entertaining.
This is where I’ll make my weekly statement that NXT needs to be on national television. #NXTSmackdown, people!
The Main Event
Authors Note: I had this whole amazing idea about Tyson Kidd coming back in a mask as The Calgary Kidd and trying to get another title shot. Then I remembered that A. Bo Dallas did something similar not too long ago and B. Miz already did Calgary Kid on WWE. I’m bitter, angry and apparently not very original.
I wanted to enjoy the hell out of the title match, but I couldn’t do it. Not only did I know the title wasn’t going to change hands (writing was on the wall plus I’d have heard about it beforehand), but Neville and Kidd as a singles match wasn’t something I was going to make a point of watching. You needed Zayn or Breeze to make it more compelling, or at least I did.
I will say that Neville has one of the nastiest powerbombs I’ve ever seen (though Tyson likely gets a lot of credit for that), and the whole Shooting Star - landing on your feet thing required a re-watch. I didn’t see any more hints that Neville’s heading towards a heel turn, but I do think its inevitable, especially once he gets to WWE.
Quick Quips
- I hope when Sasha does face Charlotte, Sasha attacks the champ during her little back-roll entrance. Seems to make logical sense for a heel.
- Two quick points on The Ascension. One, Viktor was billed at 218 pounds, and even as the skinny guy in a dominant team, that’s a little light. I really think there’s going to be some transition issues, which might be why they’ve looked more human lately with Kenta Itami.
- My second point is that their new finisher, if that’s what that was, is world’s better than Fall of Man, which is a set-up move at best.
- Baron Corbin is a beast, but with each additional squash, I’m beginning to wonder more and more what we’re hiding by not giving him a 5-7 minute match to show his stuff. Hope I’m wrong, fear I’m right.
- I am incredibly disappointed that The Vaudevillains have new theme music. I am terrified they’re going to suffer the same fate as Adam Rose, whose career plummeted as soon as he lost his original song.
- Am I wrong in being disappointed we didn’t get an “Indeed” from Funaki? I don’t think I am.
- Final point of the evening - The facial expression of guy sitting next to Titus after O’Neill attacked Neville was amazing. He needs front row seats every week.
No Discussion Questions this week, but feel free to comment @The2Contenders. See you next week!
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