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| Just like old times, more or less all photos courtesy of WWE.com |
NXT has problems.
Real problems.
More accurately, real life problems. The ratings are continuing to go down by degrees and remain secondary to Dynamite; more concerningly, some injuries to the upper midcard are starting to have on screen consequences, keeping a narrative from taking hold within the North American division.
And yet, another tight two hours with oodles of character development, above average matches at every turn, future matches set up or hinted at, plenty of time for the women's division to shine, and heels getting over by doing dastardly deeds while also setting the possible seeds of their future title reigns demise. If you think that's easy, try watching a main roster show in comparison. While the show wasn't entirely flawless, it was far more wheat than chaff, and we can begin this edition of the Standard the same way the show itself started, via the best song Marilyn Manson never wrote...
GOLD: returns
Because they were their respective return matches, you won't be surprised to find out that Tommy Sports Entertainment and Tegan But Not Sara won them pretty much going away in both instances. But while the possibly uncrowned Goldie holder came face to face with the Era as expected after beating Angel Garza, Nox got both pleasantly and unpleasantly surprised in short order after she Shining Wizarded Taynara another L. That W gave Dakota Kai the cheap excuse to come out and hug her longtime friend, thus for the first time on NXTV Team Kick on camera side-by-side. Unfortunately there are two of them and three of the Horsewomen, the most talented of whom hilariously dismissed Dakota because of, well, you know, history and then turning her cannon fire on Tegan by stating she's running out of limbs to rehab and instead of getting a shot at the gold to call her when she's done something worth talking about. Queen Baszler and her subjects left the friends fuming, so unconcerned that the smacktalk wasn't even precursor to a beatdown on which they'd have the advantage of numbers; they just left. The list of Baszler's would be dethroners seemingly gets longer by the show (more about which later), but of all the interesting options of future champions the most emotionally fulfilling would probably be Kai especially given how hilariously viciously she was written off on this show. WrestleMania weekend isn't for half a year, plenty of time for her to get her dander up and overcome the shattered arm of her past as well as the woman who did it to her.
BLACK: Roddy watching the show he's on and the shoot health of his possible future opponents
Velveteen Dream won't be getting his rematch, because he's legit hurt. (Apparently, the injury reports that come out post-show aren't entirely kayfabed. In the immortal words of R-Truth, my bad. This one's on me.) On camera, they wrote that off by having the Era "beat him up backstage" as we found out after the Ciampa match and then Master Regal pivoted quickly to make Keith Lee v. Dominik Dijakovic IV a #1 contendership match with the winner to take Dream's slot. They put on similar stuff to what their first three matches of varying degrees of very goodness showed while also varying and expanding their narrative (Keith focused on D2's arm for most of the match in both on the mat tactics and even hitting it with a frog splash, Dijakovic moving quicker to top rope moves as a possible result). Two segments in and it seemed like they could go another two easily...so the above happened, and somehow Roddy thought that had gotten him a completely blank dance card.
Roddy: I'm black. You know what I don't do? Go out to the woods by myself at night and talk about how fine everything is. It's one of the things that's kept me alive for nearly half a century. Anyway, this incursion bought Master Regal back out and He Was Not Amused, Y'All. I know he's been retired for years and I'm still scared of that GIF. Regal did the obvious to everyone not North American champion and announced a triple threat match, except that now Keith's on the injury report on the most recent release. Hopefully the injury is a minor one ahead of the Limitless One's first NXT title shot. Besides, if it turns out Roddy's not been watching the show because he's been marathoning No Mercy and knows that the best way to win a triple threat is to let one of your opponents hit their finisher on the other one, then toss them out and pin the unconscious guy, he'll get off my On Notice list.
GOLD: the Women's Division, especially the midcard
Kayden Carter showed us something in her match, but the Choke Me The Fuck Out, Io Shirai variant of recent vintage is Miss Thing, and didn't hesitate after her victory to say not Rhea (an antihero at best) or Bianca (ditto, and note it's a clearly minted heel threatening those alignments in order to go after possibly the biggest villain on the show) should be getting the next shot at Shayna, only for Rhea Ripley to come out and in not such an exact term tell the Genius of the Sky to keep her name out of her mouth since she was already set to shut Bianca up come the next show. When/if Rhea and Io have their contretemps I will get a doctor just so I have somebody to call four hours after I see that match, and I mean that in every single way implied.
GOLD: Damien Priest
The easiest way to get booed in NXT? You saw Rod Strong do it: interrupt a dream match before it can reach a resolution. Second easiest way? Be a bad guy with a lower pedigree than a good guy, then use a distracted referee moment to kick him in the theme park and nerf him with your finisher. So at the end of the show, Damian Priest was truly a main event Full Sail villain.
But he was also still undefeated. And this was really a coming out party for him, as maybe only his match against Keith Lee (which he also won in a similar fashion) went more than 5 minutes without Priest getting his hand raised. Talented as we all know Dunne is, Priest hung with him from bell to bell and landed some impressive looking kicks and a Frankensteiner to add to his mysterious aura. His step up tope con hilo drew Holy Shit! chants, FFS. He survived the joint manipulation, when the match went late into the second segment and a hockey fight broke out he fought it to at least a draw, and he avoided the Bitter End. So that's plenty of mental toughness before having the acuity to Eddy his way to victory. It's a shame none of the men's singles belts is held by a babyface, since that would seem to be the natural direction to take him next. Even Dunne has something planned out in all likelihood, as the departing Dain got in the Bruiserweight's face when he came out and got his fingers snapped for his smacktalk. Priest's win could be a launchpad for future brighter Full Sail successes, but what they do with him next - and who they pair him against - is where the watchword really is for him going forward.
GOLD: rebuilds
So you lost a #1 contendership match. Have a shot at the greenest guy on the roster who you jumped and injured last week! So you lost the title match under shady circumstances that the first guy didn't even get a shot at because you beat him? Here's a guy from the Breakout tournament! Up and down the two hours, winners bounced back from losses everywhere that wasn't the main event, especially Matt Tha Stallion and Killian Dain. Even with the expansion and channel change, there's only so much oxygen in NXT's airing room, so at least being on the show twice in a month is probably a good metric for the lower and midcard wrestlers to hope for or maintain. Riddle is a little bit better than Dain and certainly better than Bronson Reed (at least right now); Dain can easily eat BOA's lunch and still want a title shot afterwards. As much as AEW hypes win/loss records, NXT's version of climbing the Mortal Kombat ladder has its own clear delineations in not even six weeks and is very easy to follow along with for those who keep up with the show.
Coming up next on NXT and the Standard: we get to see if Rod's got a game plan or if he's going to spawn 2 opponents for him and his boys at the next WarGames, and Bianca and Rhea are about to throw down in their quest to dig the grave for the Queen of Spades.
Real problems.
More accurately, real life problems. The ratings are continuing to go down by degrees and remain secondary to Dynamite; more concerningly, some injuries to the upper midcard are starting to have on screen consequences, keeping a narrative from taking hold within the North American division.
And yet, another tight two hours with oodles of character development, above average matches at every turn, future matches set up or hinted at, plenty of time for the women's division to shine, and heels getting over by doing dastardly deeds while also setting the possible seeds of their future title reigns demise. If you think that's easy, try watching a main roster show in comparison. While the show wasn't entirely flawless, it was far more wheat than chaff, and we can begin this edition of the Standard the same way the show itself started, via the best song Marilyn Manson never wrote...
GOLD: returns
Because they were their respective return matches, you won't be surprised to find out that Tommy Sports Entertainment and Tegan But Not Sara won them pretty much going away in both instances. But while the possibly uncrowned Goldie holder came face to face with the Era as expected after beating Angel Garza, Nox got both pleasantly and unpleasantly surprised in short order after she Shining Wizarded Taynara another L. That W gave Dakota Kai the cheap excuse to come out and hug her longtime friend, thus for the first time on NXTV Team Kick on camera side-by-side. Unfortunately there are two of them and three of the Horsewomen, the most talented of whom hilariously dismissed Dakota because of, well, you know, history and then turning her cannon fire on Tegan by stating she's running out of limbs to rehab and instead of getting a shot at the gold to call her when she's done something worth talking about. Queen Baszler and her subjects left the friends fuming, so unconcerned that the smacktalk wasn't even precursor to a beatdown on which they'd have the advantage of numbers; they just left. The list of Baszler's would be dethroners seemingly gets longer by the show (more about which later), but of all the interesting options of future champions the most emotionally fulfilling would probably be Kai especially given how hilariously viciously she was written off on this show. WrestleMania weekend isn't for half a year, plenty of time for her to get her dander up and overcome the shattered arm of her past as well as the woman who did it to her.
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| Rod, you big dummy |
Velveteen Dream won't be getting his rematch, because he's legit hurt. (Apparently, the injury reports that come out post-show aren't entirely kayfabed. In the immortal words of R-Truth, my bad. This one's on me.) On camera, they wrote that off by having the Era "beat him up backstage" as we found out after the Ciampa match and then Master Regal pivoted quickly to make Keith Lee v. Dominik Dijakovic IV a #1 contendership match with the winner to take Dream's slot. They put on similar stuff to what their first three matches of varying degrees of very goodness showed while also varying and expanding their narrative (Keith focused on D2's arm for most of the match in both on the mat tactics and even hitting it with a frog splash, Dijakovic moving quicker to top rope moves as a possible result). Two segments in and it seemed like they could go another two easily...so the above happened, and somehow Roddy thought that had gotten him a completely blank dance card.
Roddy: I'm black. You know what I don't do? Go out to the woods by myself at night and talk about how fine everything is. It's one of the things that's kept me alive for nearly half a century. Anyway, this incursion bought Master Regal back out and He Was Not Amused, Y'All. I know he's been retired for years and I'm still scared of that GIF. Regal did the obvious to everyone not North American champion and announced a triple threat match, except that now Keith's on the injury report on the most recent release. Hopefully the injury is a minor one ahead of the Limitless One's first NXT title shot. Besides, if it turns out Roddy's not been watching the show because he's been marathoning No Mercy and knows that the best way to win a triple threat is to let one of your opponents hit their finisher on the other one, then toss them out and pin the unconscious guy, he'll get off my On Notice list.
 |
| Soon, my babies. SOON. |
Kayden Carter showed us something in her match, but the Choke Me The Fuck Out, Io Shirai variant of recent vintage is Miss Thing, and didn't hesitate after her victory to say not Rhea (an antihero at best) or Bianca (ditto, and note it's a clearly minted heel threatening those alignments in order to go after possibly the biggest villain on the show) should be getting the next shot at Shayna, only for Rhea Ripley to come out and in not such an exact term tell the Genius of the Sky to keep her name out of her mouth since she was already set to shut Bianca up come the next show. When/if Rhea and Io have their contretemps I will get a doctor just so I have somebody to call four hours after I see that match, and I mean that in every single way implied.
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| UN DEA FEA TED |
The easiest way to get booed in NXT? You saw Rod Strong do it: interrupt a dream match before it can reach a resolution. Second easiest way? Be a bad guy with a lower pedigree than a good guy, then use a distracted referee moment to kick him in the theme park and nerf him with your finisher. So at the end of the show, Damian Priest was truly a main event Full Sail villain.
But he was also still undefeated. And this was really a coming out party for him, as maybe only his match against Keith Lee (which he also won in a similar fashion) went more than 5 minutes without Priest getting his hand raised. Talented as we all know Dunne is, Priest hung with him from bell to bell and landed some impressive looking kicks and a Frankensteiner to add to his mysterious aura. His step up tope con hilo drew Holy Shit! chants, FFS. He survived the joint manipulation, when the match went late into the second segment and a hockey fight broke out he fought it to at least a draw, and he avoided the Bitter End. So that's plenty of mental toughness before having the acuity to Eddy his way to victory. It's a shame none of the men's singles belts is held by a babyface, since that would seem to be the natural direction to take him next. Even Dunne has something planned out in all likelihood, as the departing Dain got in the Bruiserweight's face when he came out and got his fingers snapped for his smacktalk. Priest's win could be a launchpad for future brighter Full Sail successes, but what they do with him next - and who they pair him against - is where the watchword really is for him going forward.
GOLD: rebuilds
So you lost a #1 contendership match. Have a shot at the greenest guy on the roster who you jumped and injured last week! So you lost the title match under shady circumstances that the first guy didn't even get a shot at because you beat him? Here's a guy from the Breakout tournament! Up and down the two hours, winners bounced back from losses everywhere that wasn't the main event, especially Matt Tha Stallion and Killian Dain. Even with the expansion and channel change, there's only so much oxygen in NXT's airing room, so at least being on the show twice in a month is probably a good metric for the lower and midcard wrestlers to hope for or maintain. Riddle is a little bit better than Dain and certainly better than Bronson Reed (at least right now); Dain can easily eat BOA's lunch and still want a title shot afterwards. As much as AEW hypes win/loss records, NXT's version of climbing the Mortal Kombat ladder has its own clear delineations in not even six weeks and is very easy to follow along with for those who keep up with the show.
Coming up next on NXT and the Standard: we get to see if Rod's got a game plan or if he's going to spawn 2 opponents for him and his boys at the next WarGames, and Bianca and Rhea are about to throw down in their quest to dig the grave for the Queen of Spades.
