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NXT returned last night (February 24) from Capitol Wrestling Center (CWC) in Orlando, Florida. You can find all the results on the live blog here.
No regrets
Adam Cole: Another jerk.
This week’s episode ended with the explanation for Adam Cole’s betrayal. But we never really got it. Instead, it was Cole pretending he had remorse for predictably revealing that he certainly wasn’t.
Kyle O’Reilly, who they told us he was away 4-6 months (but who will surely be back sooner), did not show up tonight. It was too early for all of that. Instead, Roddy Strong faced off against the former Undisputed ERA frontman. At first, he didn’t buy Cole’s BS. But after an interlude where NXT champion Finn Bálor attempted to confront Cole but was put down by a brief alliance between Roddy and Adam (a bit reluctant on Strong’s part), the Panama City Playboy opened up the aqueducts, sucked Roderick and hit him. in nuts.
It all gave enough drama that it was fun to follow, but it didn’t make much sense to me when I really thought about it. Who was Adam trying to deceive? He knew Kyle wasn’t there. Was he trying to attract Roddy just to attack him? Would he have kept the cunning until he had the chance to punch someone in the balls if Strong hadn’t intervened?
We’ll see what he does next, if he continues to claim to regret his decisions or if this week was a one-time thing. It sounds like the type of segment that was entertaining but doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. But that will depend on how they play it as you go.
Best effort
I have never seen Karrion Kross sell as much as this week.
I don’t watch Triple A, but I watched his entire Impact run and obviously everything he did in NXT, and this game had more sales than maybe all of those combined.
OK, that’s obviously hyperbole, but Kross spent maybe 90% of tonight’s no-DQ game working his left shoulder 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 did.
Even though it was often a handicap match, it left the lasting image of Santos Escobar doing something that no one did to this dangerous man. The reason doesn’t matter. What matters is that it happened, that Santos sometimes dominated Kross, despite the fact that Escobar ultimately lost that game.
The fight itself was … good. There were some fun places, such as Kross throwing both Joaquin Wilde and Raul Mendoza through a fan pod barrier and staring at a worried Escobar. But above all, it was a one-sided blow. Then when Kross finally hit back, he didn’t really sell the arm that had been worked on for the previous 20 minutes. Of course, you can infer some of it as being superhuman, but if that’s the case, it undermines the idea of Santos working on the previously injured shoulder.
In the end, they accomplished what they needed. Kross had every chance to assert his dominance while Santos gave the big man the biggest run for his money. It was just like it dragged on to get there.
The rebel scene
The Way has a few problems.
Dexter Lumis began to drive a wedge between parents and children. Austin Theory hasn’t been right since his kidnapping by Lumis at TakeOver: Vengeance Day. This seems like a pretty obvious statement. Being kidnapped for days will bother anyone. In this case, it’s closer to Stockholm syndrome because he feels he had a good time with Uncle D (my nickname, not his).
He also left in general. He tried to score Johnny Gargano with the wrong hand. He’s always played the distraught member of The Way, but it’s not now that he’s gone on vacation with Dex.
It may have cost Johnny his match against Lumis this week. After a fun match (Gargano have very good matches with just about everyone), the leader of the Way distracted the referee. Candice ordered Theory to attack Dexter with a chair. But when the creepy Lumis made eye contact, Austin smirked, roughly saying “What’s up?” and do not use the chair as a weapon. When Gargano tried to rush his foe from behind, he accidentally hit his protégé and then found himself caught in silence, losing by submission.
Oddly enough, Indi Hartwell is a bit in love with Dexter as well. The advertisers made sure to point out that she was smiling during a while Lumis was beating Johnny Wrestling. And backstage later, she admitted that she found the distant wrestler “hot.” Either way, Johnny and Candice need to get their house in order.
(Said behind-the-scenes segment is embedded above, as behind-the-scenes segments with The Way are one of the best things on NXT every week.)
Overall, the Path is always very entertaining. I certainly enjoyed them singing “It’s like that (I like it)” before Johnny’s game. Hope this continues. Can I suggest “Baby, I like the way?” as their next track? I’m also impressed with Theory’s adaptation to the band. At first he felt like a strange man. But then they looked at it, making him stupid. It’s a role he plays well, making the whole group feel whole.
Quite the deployment
NXT is really high on Zoey Stark.
Not everyone gets a competitive two-segment match with the top woman on the list in their second NXT game. That’s what Stark got this week. And she more than held her own against Io Shirai.
We’ll see if she lives up to the push they’re going to give her. But we had an Io Shirai exhibition match tonight, something we don’t see often. I’m going to watch one of the best wrestlers in the world work out any 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 came out on stage to accuse the champion of dodging her. It was simple, but probably my favorite Storm heel promotion. That’s a smart angle considering Toni has a history of defeating Shirai in a high level situation.
It should be a really fun program. The title match is already scheduled in two weeks, but it could be just a chapter in the longer story.
First test
Xia Li has had his first real match since joining Tian Sha’s ranks.
She faced her “old friend” Kacy Catanzaro. The game itself was good. The two women are still relatively new to the business and they are a good marriage. But the closing angle when Li entered character work as a brutal fighter was very good.
When a recumbent Kacy was lying against the steps of the ring, Xia gave her a nasty kick in the arm. She then grabbed her by the hair and dragged her into the ring. Li didn’t have a chance to finish off his opponent as the referee decided Catanzaro couldn’t go any longer and called the match.
Kayden Carter tried to get in front of Mei Ying again, which was a bad decision. Mei nodded to Li, who was still in the ring, and Xia kicked Kacy in the head as the former ninja warrior was already being treated by officials.
This will lead to Carter vs. Li, who will likely be more similar. It works. What happens next will be interesting. Maybe this will lead to some physicality of Mei Ying?
Everything else
– MSK had a video package to tell us a little more about them. Which is good because when they were going to do a live promo with McKenzie Mitchell, the young veterans Grizzled attacked them. This lets us know that the real upcoming schedule for the Dusty Cup winners is rematch with GYV. Their tag title match next week is more likely to define that further.
– The Young Vets followed up with a tag team victory later in the evening against a game against Killian Dain and Drake Maverick. There was an intrigue when Dain was confronted with his former SAnitY mate Alexander Wolfe while carrying Maverick. The current member of the Imperium wondered what had become of Dain. 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 on his loss to Ruff last week. He attacked the former North American champion and delivered a Death Valley Driver to the ring apron. This move looked … wait for it … difficult.
– Cameron Grimes continues to be fantastic. This week he tried to pull off the basketball hunk the Million Dollar Man had done that day, but he was too stupid to pull it off. Would definitely appreciate it if that led to a Ted DiBiasi cameo.
It was a really good show, but none of the big segments felt like they were really successful. Still pleasant overall.
Category B
Ring below.
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