WWE NXT Review // 14th March 2018

On 14th March 2018, WWE aired its 291st episode of NXT, filmed at Center Stage, Atlanta, GA on 2nd February. Our main event was an NXT Championship match contract signing for the WrestleMania weekend rematch of Aleister Black & Andrade Almas. The card also featured Adam Cole challenging for Pete Dunne's UK Championship, two first-round matches in the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic and MYC competitors, Dakota Kai and Lacey Evans, in competition. But was it any good?

Dusty Rhodes Classic First Round // SaNitY (Eric Young & Alexander Wolfe) def. Tino Sabbatelli & Riddick Moss // Pinfall

Quick squash m8. This wasn't so much a match as it was a continued set-up for the slow dissipation of the Tino-Riddick partnership as Riddick blames Tino for being the one who has taken the pin in consecutive matches but Tino blames Riddick for a miscommunication leading to him getting punched in the head. Still, the right team won and whether it's Lorcan & Burch or Moustache Mountain (or another team as Tyler Bate is currently injured), it seems we're going to be getting a good second round match.

Tommaso Ciampa came down to the ring again, this time crutchless, to a chorus of boos and a spread of Johnny Wrestling signs so uniform they could only have been handed out by the production crew. The crowd chant at him for so long, he can't be bothered to talk to them again. To be honest, I can't blame him. Is it bad I want Ciampa to just Air Raid Crash everyone in the crowd?

Dakota Kai def. Lacey Evans // Pinfall

Quicker squash m8. Early on Evans went for the previously injured (by Shayna Baszler) arm of Kai but very quickly, Kai was able to reverse an armbar attempt into a quick roll-up. This was more a set-up for the post-match shenanigans but it's nice to see Kai getting put into the mix as she's one of the more underrated talents to come from the Mae Young Classic.

Post-match, Shayna Baszler music hits as she came down to the ring and backed Kai menacingly into the corner, till Moon came down to the ring as well. She told Baszler that if she wanted to do this one more time, they could finish it at New Orleans. Moon then attacked Baszler as the two brawled around the ring. Eventually Moon went to the top but Baszler hit her with a boot to the head and tried to work the arms till Kai came back with a kick off the apron allowing Moon to hit a one-armed Eclipse on Baszler and stand tall. It's official, New Orleans will see Moon v Baszler III.

Dusty Rhodes Classic First Round // Street Profits def. Heavy Machinery // Pinfall

Mauro Ranallo said that with this Dusty Classic, the stakes have never been higher, what about the weights? This was a fun, little match with Ford and Dosevic playing early on for comedy before the big lads played their Beef advantage for all it's worth. The finish came as Knight had Dawkins set up for the Trash Compactor but as Dosevic ran to the ropes, Ford pulled down the ropes sending Dosevic flying out, Dawkins hit a DDT and tagged Ford who hit a Frog Splash for the pin. This did as much as it could for the two teams in the short time and most importantly for a Face vs. Face encounter, both teams came out of it with the crowd still on their sides. With only one more first round match to go, the brackets now look like this:

WWE United Kingdom Championship // Pete Dunne (c) def. Adam Cole // Disqualification

It's been a while but since his Extreme Rules match with Aleister Black, Cole seems to have finally worked out how to make his style work in WWE. This was an interesting match as Dunne was clearly positioned as the de-facto face but being a dickhead at heart, he still never played it as a good person, just someone who is quite as happy to beat up three men as one. They worked a good back-and-forth match, throwing in some fine near falls including a Last Shot by Cole that was so close, I thought he might be about to take it for a second. Even though he let Cole take the heat in the match, Dunne still approached the match from his normal clinical, brutal style, attacking the fingers and continually trying to stomp out his arms. Of course, with the tag champs on the outside, this was never going to be a clean fight and Dunne tried to fight Fish and O'Reily on the outside to neutralise their threat, but as Dunne was about to hit a Bitter End, in they came and kicked the heck out of Dunne for a DQ victory. I don't think the finish hurt the match as even with the near falls, it didn't seem like a title change was likely on TV and it keeps Cole from taking another pin which keeps him looking strong. It wasn't the best defence Dunne has had but with the ridiculously high level of quality he's maintained, even that isn't a notch against this. Oh, and Adam Cole kicked Dunne in the head while Dunne was backflipping off the ringpost which was dope.

Post-Match: Dunne tries to fight off the Era but the number's game is too much for him, Roderick Strong comes down for an assist but is also beat down, before Cole can take Strong's head off, Dunne comes back with a forearm and the two clean house before a show of something approaching respect. What could this mean? Could there be a begrudging partnership forming between the two former foes? Keep watching NXT to find out.

Aleister Black and Andrade Almas Contract Signing

So who knew Aleister Black was either an improvisational genius or has spent the last week just writing jokes about Zelina Vega's diminutive stature? Black, dressed in Aleister from head to sockless toes came out first, followed by a lone Vega who proceeded to explain that she was there because this wasn't worth Almas' time before Black proceeded to move the table to the side and Black would go into his Satan's full lotus pose before explaining that now they were on the same level, he could begin. The two went back-and-forth trading insults until Vega gave Black a stinging slap on the cheek. After Black had signed and left the ring, he announced that he was glad she'd come alone because he hadn't and out came Candice LeRae who battered Vega around the ring and back in to hit a tornado bulldog to stand tall, sending us home happy. I love a good contract signing and this one had everything you could want. If Black and Almas can deliver on the build here, we might be in for another classic at TakeOver.

On The YouTubes

Tino and Riddick are still having problems but Moss doesn't want to give up on the good thing they have, whatever that is. They're going to go and review the tapes.

It's another edition of Street Talk but this one is neither on the street or involving talking to anyone other than each other. They say they're going to win the Dusty Classic. Don't forget, you've got Authors of Pain in the next round, lads.

Finally...

Another week, another very good episode. Is it too early to declare NXT to be on a new hot streak? I hope not because I think with a great match between Cole and Dunne, some great world-building around it and some hot stuff still to come in the Dusty Classic, this definitely feels like how a hot streak feels.

Written By Jozef Raczka // @NotJoeRaczka

WWE NXT Review // 7th February 2018

On 7th February 2018, WWE aired its 286th episode of NXT, filmed at Stage Center, Atlanta, GA on 1st February. Our main event saw the two big teams of NXT, SaNitY and The Undisputed Era go head to head in Tornado Tag action. The show also featured action from Bianca BelAir, Heavy Machinery, Tino Sabbatelli & Riddick Moss aswell as Johnny Gargano speaking publicly for the first time since NXT took over Philidelphia. But was it any good?

The first match of this show was set to be SaNitY finally getting their rematch for the NXT Tag-Team Titles but as The Undisputed Era made their way to the ring with Adam Cole, SaNitY would attack from behind and brawl around the ring until the entire security and ring crew had to hold back SaNitY while the Era retreated. William Regal would come out and say 'enough is enough' and book all six men in a tornado trios match in the main event.

Tucker Knight & Otis Dozovic def. Tino Sabbatelli & Riddick Moss // Pinfall

This was a pretty standard, little tag match and an effective rematch after Moss stole a win over them previously. Otis and Tino started with Dozovic running roughshod over the former American Football players, a tag in to Knight allowed him to work the peril section and give Dozovic the hot tag with a close near fall broken up by Moss who was then sent back out and allowed Heavy Machinery to hit their Trash Compactor assisted powerslam for the pin. The story of Moss having to cover for Tino's shit, aided by a crowd constantly chanting 'Tino sucks' while also building some fun near falls off things like Tino going for a rope-hung pin in echoes of the previous match were effective and added a different flavour to the match but it still suffered from a lack of invention to the heel heat segments. Still, with the rumours of a third Dusty Classic on the horizon, don't be surprised if we end up with a first or second round blow-off match to this mini-feud.

Post-match Riddick Moss goes to help his partner up as the crowd chants 'Tino Sucks', he then decides not to and leaves him to help himself to the back. Are they done? What will happen to the jointly owned Maserati now?

Johnny Gargano Has Something To Say

There's a lot to unpack here as Johnny came out and talked about how he had failed but the response of the crowds and their respect bring him back to life every time and remind him that he's Johnny, Freaking, WRESTLING. He also called out Tomasso Ciampa stating he'll never forget what he's done and he's tried to bite his tongue and move on but he's done ignoring him and wants Ciampa one-on-one, instead of the bald crutchfighter, out come Almas and Vega, Vega taunts Johnny saying all he's done is prove how much of a loser he is and that respect means nothing because he's not Johnny Wrestling, he's Johnny Loser, Johnny then says that beyond getting the audience's respect, his favourite bit of Philly was when Candice LeRae beat up Vega, as if by magic, up turn LeRae to push Vega out of the ring as Johnny does the same to Almas before an enraged Vega asks Johnny what it will take to get rid of him? Johnny responds by saying that all he wants is one more title match and if he loses, he'll leave NXT for good. This was great, everyone played their parts perfectly with LeRae's involvement in this storyline doing more to sell her to the NXT crowd than any number of squash matches could, Gargano continuing to be the best babyface of the '10s (yes, better than Daniel Bryan, don't @ me) and the Vega-Almas partnership showing a smug, callous ruthlessness that is perfectly in character but doesn't sell either of them short. Also, we're getting another Gargano-Almas match, presumably in three weeks time if my knowledge of how tapings work is correct, and that can't be a bad thing.

Shayna Baszler is interviewed backstage, she talks about how since she's turned up in NXT, no one's been able to stand up to her, listing her victims so far and stating that anyone who steps in the ring has three choices: Tap, Nap or Snap. When reminded Ember Moon beat her, Baszler establishes how barely she did so and says that she doesn't think there'll be another match against Moon for he because Moon is too scared before presumably doing her own Arrested Development style chicken dance.

Next Week: Roderick Strong gets his UK title shot as he takes on Pete Dunne.

Tyler Bate is interviewed backstage, he says that he's disappointed to have lost but well done to Strong and he'll be watching next week very closely, he feels great having had the officially voted NXT Match of the Year but is looking forward to this year trying to have more MOTY candidates and expresses a desire to face Aleister Black, Andrade Almas, Johnny Gargano and Velveteen Dream. Insert 'Two Intrigued Eyeballs Looking Down to the Left' Emoji here.

Bianca BelAir def. Jessie Hill // Pinfall

I have no additional knowledge to provide about Jessie Hill, she doesn't have a Cagematch profile so Jessie, if you're reading this, please @ us, we'll fill in the gap here. Anyway, Quick. Squash. M8. The quickest and squashiest as Hill would offer a handshake which BelAir would accept, only to pull her into a backbreaker rack, slam her over and hit the AlleyOop Powerbomb for the pin. This was never going to be a competitive match so I appreciated BelAir looking as ruthless as she did, destroying her quickly and with ease.

We get a video package for Kairi Sane including footage from her appearance at the Royal Rumble. 

Ember Moon tweets to say next week Baszler can have another title shot.

Tornado Match // Eric Young & Alexander Wolfe & Killian Dain def. Adam Cole & Kyle O'Reilly & Bobby Fish // Pinfall

In what is a nice piece of full-circle storytelling for my ATPW career, on the two-year anniversary of my first contribution to this website, this was as close as we get to a PG TV Monster's Ball. This was a big, dumb match, the kind that I can't write much about beyond just saying, basically every spot in this match was really cool but for a pair of groups with a storied history at this point, there wasn't much storytelling in this, it was just lots of spots, but as previously mentioned, they were all really cool. The advantage of making this a tornado match was with this kind of free-flow madness, there was no time to be stuck in resthold boredom, it was just big thing after big thing, the closest thing to storytelling being that act one-Eric Young gets out a table, act two-Killian Dain puts himself through the table, act three- Killian Dain comes back and murders everything before hitting the Ulster Plantation electric chair driver on Bobby Fish for the pin. I don't know what else you want me to say: Kyle O'Reilly came out earlier playing along to his theme music like his title belt was a guitar, Eric Young kicked out of a Chasing the Dragon/Last Shot combo, Alex Wolfe continues to throw every move like a madman and it's great, just go and watch this match, form your own opinions, I have nothing more to add here.

On The YouTubes

Tino Sabbatelli doesn't care about the crowd chanting that he sucks, he just needs to find his tag partner, or should that be, former tag partner?

Finally...

Some good-to-very good in-ring action accompanied by a strong focus on character and storybuilding mean that this was an effective and at times, thrilling installment of NXT. It lacked one standout moment to really bring it to the next level but with next week set for two big title matches, it should be a real corker.

Article By Jozef Raczka // @NotJoeRaczka