Sunday, February 16, 2014

Best Coast Bias: Then. Now. February 27th.

All revolutions need their queens
Photo courtesy of the M. Sterling Tumblr
On a woefully underpromoted show that's coming up on something called the WWE Network, there's scheduled to be an unofficial triple main event that'll make even the hardest hardcore tumescent.  We leave aside the fourth installment of Zayn/Cesaro for later on--like, say, the next installment of the Bias--and focus on the other prongs that'll form this Voltron of awesome to kick off Full Sail in a live televised environment.

Lest you think the Emmalution is merely a new thing brought to RAW to befuddle Summer Rae, this is a movement that began in earnest last year here in NXT as Emma's seemingly unlikely run to the Women's Championship tournament finals claimed Summer as a victim.  Since that went down, Emma's wanted two things: another shot to prove she can beat Paige for the belt since the last time around was a coin flip that went the enchanted raven haired lady's way, and any opportunity to show her more serious side by beating Summer across the nose, eyes, and face.  And, of course, she can wrestle, too.  Getting her together with Alicia Fox this episode was like some sort of heretofore unimaginably delicious combination of peanut butter and chocolate.

This match had all the little acoutrements that go on like sprinkles on a sundae: The Lovely Renee Young at the table, Tensai marking out for bubbles and doing the Emma Dance at the table, Alicia's Best Northern Lights In the Business, and Emma torquing the Emma Lock on her way to another win just like she did over NattieKat earlier in the year.  So the Australian dance machine used her victory to announce that she hoped Paige felt  better soon (thus explaining the absence of the champion lately) because once she did, SHE WANTED THE BELT HYFR.  That's when things broke down in Central Florida, as Summer's sidekicks Sasha and Charlotte helped her and Alicia beat Emma up.  Don't worry, true believer: the calvary arrived in the form of Nattie and Bayley, and Emma even managed to get her hands on Summer for a brief secon.  That's a four-on-four match (assuming Paige can join the side of the white hats) that needs to happen.  Anything that makes Continuity Bear do the Dougie while showcasing the depth and talent of the women's division here as opposed to "the big leagues" needs to happen.

Speaking of other awesome things that need to happen, how would you feel about Bo Dallas lying helpless on the mat while Adrian Neville flies off and Red Arrows him?  Hey, even better -- how'd you feel about it happening from the top of a ladder?

Now, then: what if the choice was between making sure Bocohantas was splatterfied but good or grabbing the NXT championship?  This is the $64,000 Question come 2/27, as the show concluded with Triple H holding the NXT title (settle down boss and let me finish the sentence) overhead to illustrate that it was going to be on the line, on a hook, over the ring.  The NXT Championship match to highlight the first TV show would be a ladder match, thus psyching up everybody in the building who's name wasn't associated with groundbreaking two-sport athletes or J.R. Ewing.  It was really odd, since for a seemingly virtuous guy Bo waited until Adrian Neville had yet again disposed of Corey Graves with the aforementioned Arrow before coming out.  He didn't even smile. 

He looked like a menacing lunatic on a mission, almost as if it ran in his family or something.  It's a shame, since he missed a pretty decent match betwixt the former NXT tag team champions.  He missed a so-that-was-pretty-effin-ridiculous handless corkscrew Asai suicida from his future challenge, and then Graves started working to kick his leg out from under his leg just as he did to break up their union.  It was like Neville was some sort of bloke in some kind of competition!  But he survived the barrage to avoid Lucky 13, and in another nice little piece of history repeating managed to pull off a vault to the top rope by leaping onto it from the apron gut first before straightening himself out and letting loose with the prettiest finisher in NXT (sorry, Tyler). 

While Rusev added Sin Cara to his list of victims, Sylvestor Lefort's Quixotic quest to get over on Mason Ryan failed yet again, and Tyson Kidd looked more the nimble MVP of Superstars than ever in beating a distracted Aiden English, make no mistake about it: with the countdown on the title matches to come got the spotlight, in the form of two challengers who've proven their bona fides since their last title loss and are set to close the deal for the first singles belts of their WWE tenures.

It'll be interesting to see if either -- or neither -- of them succeed in that effort.  But it's safe to say in both cases it'll be damn fun to watch,