 |
| Hopefully this is a Watchmen spoiler GIF credit: Sean McCafferty |
All it takes is a major holiday and a minor car accident, and suddenly the timeline is melting away from a limping scribe who just wants to continually put over the work NXT's doing, especially what they did going into Survivor Series weekend, then there and WarGames the night before, as well as what's come out of it. Rather than clog your lives with three separate posts for Episodes 10-12 and a Best Coast Bias for WGIII, we opted to take a page from the boss' book and just put up the best of the best with elucidation as to why. Suffice to say, things were already interesting. But now without the guest stars and need to have the background sing for the crossover, the captains of the Full Sailors are moving into deeper water by the week.
For purposes of this exercise I'll begin at the bottom of the top, and throw out some hosannas to a few performers who couldn't quite crack the top of the ladder. Anyways, let's commence!
Also receiving votes:Lio Rush (defending Big Purp in a rematch against Garza having dropped him backstage after the latter's WarGames preshow match), Matt Riddle, Killian Dain, Pete Dunne, and Damien Priest (Dain pinned Dunne in an impromptu match last week and is being attributed as putting both his WG opponents on the shelf)
10. the Revival
They had one match in this time period on NXTV, but did the former Mechanics make it count. They and the tag team champions had an instant classic on the November 20th show, spanning three segments and possibly not any cheating at all. It was the whole "championship of each other" Ali/Frazier vibe, right down to Dawson cursing before getting Hi/Lowed into Loserville. This may fall under the umbrella of Most Legit Yet Underlooked MOTYC when 2019 is fully in the books; when your reaction to a three-segger is to be fine with a fourth, the people involved are doing great work and you don't need a "Tag team wrestling!" chant to tell you that.
9. Dominik Dijakovic
Outside of losing an opportunity to win the NXT World Tag Team championships when he was too shocked that his partner in the Workrate Towers had pounced the Champ so hard he almost landed on Dynamite, D2 has been having a hell of a past few weeks, coming to assist the victorious Team Ciampa at WG as well as being on the side of the winners in last week's show-closing trios match v. the Era. About the only problem is that there's a #1 contendership match this week that he's on the outside of.
8. Dakota Kai
Her heel turn at WG surprised nobody, but her ferocity and target - ex-bestie Tegan Nox - did. She even shoved Master Regal. Since then she's been toting around Nox's brace as a trophy, and used it to get herself intentionally disqualified against Candice LeRae a couple weeks ago (intentional DQs in NXT are annual, if that) and got jumped by Mia Yim (who she jumped at WG before the show) ahead of their match this week. Cobra Kai is just the latest person to fail against the Queen of the women's division and don a black hat as a result, but her vitriolic intensity separates her as something different.
7. TAFKA ReDragon
Despite being on the losing end of WarGames for the second consecutive year, Fish & O'Reilly managed to beat #10 in that classic, then turn around and face the Workrate Towers days after Survivor Series. Unfortunately, Kyle couldn't catch Bobby on a Dijakovic throw to the outside and Fish got reinjured, with Roderick Strong taking his place once again. Hopefully this isn't as debilitating as some of Fish's other injuries have been and we get the authentic champs at their sleazy, calculating best once again sooner rather than later.
6. Tommaso Ciampa
5. Keith Lee
4. Finn Bálor
Putting these three together because, as mentioned in the Dijakovic section, these are the men in the #1 contendership match tomorrow. Ciampa faced Balor the show after WarGames and lost thanks to Cole interference, but rebounded in a trios match last week with the Workrate Towers v. the Era that was won by Lee, who overcame Bálor interfering against everyone else in the match. That came on the heels of the Finn shady win over Ciampa, which was highlighted by Cole coming out and taking some of TAFKA Prince's spotlight; he patted him on the back and ate a Pele kick in a moment like Kai's that everyone saw coming. At least Finn proving fully neutral evil was hilarious. But Tommy Sports Entertainment never lost the belt, Keith turned Cole into a satellite (Cole noticeably, hilariously stayed the eff away from the Limitless One for the entirety of the trios match) and Finn's completely recovered from getting turfed by the Fiend and cleanly beat Riddle in a fine match at WarGames. So have fun, Adam!
3. Rhea Ripley
2. Shayna Baszler
They're heading for a three exclamation point title showdown next Wednesday, and you know the story: Shayna has literally cleared out the division, maybe twice, and failing against her has driven several women into villainy. The counterargument is that Rhea Ripley DON'T GIVE A FUCK. Despite Dakota's turn at WarGames, Rhea mustered out of the Clutch and Riptided the champ into chairs to win from the wrong side of a 4 on 2. Following that, Rhea saved Xia Li from getting too jumped by the Horsewomen and seemingly backed Shayna down, only to get choked out last week when they held the arms and Shayna applied it again. The Underlings had to hold Rhea's arms because she'd escaped twice and briefly fought all 3 of them off. Shayna revealed that she wanted a title match just as badly as the Nightmare as the Aussie was catching her breath, and while this looks like a setup to springboard to February's Takeover: Portland no one has had the continued momentum of my faux girlfriend from Down Under. Either way, every time they get together, no matter who gets the upper hands the crowds are molten hot for it every time. In fact, you could argue given the heavy muddle over Goldie, they might be in the hottest program on NXT, periodt, and we're all the better for it.
1. ADAM COLE, BAY BAY!
Beat Dijakovic in a ladder match to get the Era the WarGames advantage. It took an Air Raid Crash off the double cage for him to lose, a trend that would last almost 24 hours before he beat Pete Dunne cleanly to retain the Big X at Survivor Series. He followed that up with helping Finn beat Ciampa and largely avoiding the Workrate Towers even if the Era lost. In case him and Daniel Bryan putting on an impromptu clinic (that he also won cleanly) last month didn't drive the point home, Adam Cole Is That Dude and he's getting the spotlight accordingly. No matter who he faces in next week's triple threat or who ends up ultimately dethroning him, Cole is putting together one of the greatest championship runs in NXT history leaving a trail of great matches and giffable moments in his wake. Put two fingers in the air and say it loud and proud: Dr. Britt Baker's significant other is the sun NXT's orbited around ever since Ciampa got hurt early in the year, and the product from matches to weekly television on USA has never shone brighter.
For purposes of this exercise I'll begin at the bottom of the top, and throw out some hosannas to a few performers who couldn't quite crack the top of the ladder. Anyways, let's commence!
Also receiving votes:Lio Rush (defending Big Purp in a rematch against Garza having dropped him backstage after the latter's WarGames preshow match), Matt Riddle, Killian Dain, Pete Dunne, and Damien Priest (Dain pinned Dunne in an impromptu match last week and is being attributed as putting both his WG opponents on the shelf)
10. the Revival
They had one match in this time period on NXTV, but did the former Mechanics make it count. They and the tag team champions had an instant classic on the November 20th show, spanning three segments and possibly not any cheating at all. It was the whole "championship of each other" Ali/Frazier vibe, right down to Dawson cursing before getting Hi/Lowed into Loserville. This may fall under the umbrella of Most Legit Yet Underlooked MOTYC when 2019 is fully in the books; when your reaction to a three-segger is to be fine with a fourth, the people involved are doing great work and you don't need a "Tag team wrestling!" chant to tell you that.
9. Dominik Dijakovic
Outside of losing an opportunity to win the NXT World Tag Team championships when he was too shocked that his partner in the Workrate Towers had pounced the Champ so hard he almost landed on Dynamite, D2 has been having a hell of a past few weeks, coming to assist the victorious Team Ciampa at WG as well as being on the side of the winners in last week's show-closing trios match v. the Era. About the only problem is that there's a #1 contendership match this week that he's on the outside of.
8. Dakota Kai
Her heel turn at WG surprised nobody, but her ferocity and target - ex-bestie Tegan Nox - did. She even shoved Master Regal. Since then she's been toting around Nox's brace as a trophy, and used it to get herself intentionally disqualified against Candice LeRae a couple weeks ago (intentional DQs in NXT are annual, if that) and got jumped by Mia Yim (who she jumped at WG before the show) ahead of their match this week. Cobra Kai is just the latest person to fail against the Queen of the women's division and don a black hat as a result, but her vitriolic intensity separates her as something different.
7. TAFKA ReDragon
Despite being on the losing end of WarGames for the second consecutive year, Fish & O'Reilly managed to beat #10 in that classic, then turn around and face the Workrate Towers days after Survivor Series. Unfortunately, Kyle couldn't catch Bobby on a Dijakovic throw to the outside and Fish got reinjured, with Roderick Strong taking his place once again. Hopefully this isn't as debilitating as some of Fish's other injuries have been and we get the authentic champs at their sleazy, calculating best once again sooner rather than later.
6. Tommaso Ciampa
5. Keith Lee
4. Finn Bálor
Putting these three together because, as mentioned in the Dijakovic section, these are the men in the #1 contendership match tomorrow. Ciampa faced Balor the show after WarGames and lost thanks to Cole interference, but rebounded in a trios match last week with the Workrate Towers v. the Era that was won by Lee, who overcame Bálor interfering against everyone else in the match. That came on the heels of the Finn shady win over Ciampa, which was highlighted by Cole coming out and taking some of TAFKA Prince's spotlight; he patted him on the back and ate a Pele kick in a moment like Kai's that everyone saw coming. At least Finn proving fully neutral evil was hilarious. But Tommy Sports Entertainment never lost the belt, Keith turned Cole into a satellite (Cole noticeably, hilariously stayed the eff away from the Limitless One for the entirety of the trios match) and Finn's completely recovered from getting turfed by the Fiend and cleanly beat Riddle in a fine match at WarGames. So have fun, Adam!
3. Rhea Ripley
2. Shayna Baszler
They're heading for a three exclamation point title showdown next Wednesday, and you know the story: Shayna has literally cleared out the division, maybe twice, and failing against her has driven several women into villainy. The counterargument is that Rhea Ripley DON'T GIVE A FUCK. Despite Dakota's turn at WarGames, Rhea mustered out of the Clutch and Riptided the champ into chairs to win from the wrong side of a 4 on 2. Following that, Rhea saved Xia Li from getting too jumped by the Horsewomen and seemingly backed Shayna down, only to get choked out last week when they held the arms and Shayna applied it again. The Underlings had to hold Rhea's arms because she'd escaped twice and briefly fought all 3 of them off. Shayna revealed that she wanted a title match just as badly as the Nightmare as the Aussie was catching her breath, and while this looks like a setup to springboard to February's Takeover: Portland no one has had the continued momentum of my faux girlfriend from Down Under. Either way, every time they get together, no matter who gets the upper hands the crowds are molten hot for it every time. In fact, you could argue given the heavy muddle over Goldie, they might be in the hottest program on NXT, periodt, and we're all the better for it.
1. ADAM COLE, BAY BAY!
Beat Dijakovic in a ladder match to get the Era the WarGames advantage. It took an Air Raid Crash off the double cage for him to lose, a trend that would last almost 24 hours before he beat Pete Dunne cleanly to retain the Big X at Survivor Series. He followed that up with helping Finn beat Ciampa and largely avoiding the Workrate Towers even if the Era lost. In case him and Daniel Bryan putting on an impromptu clinic (that he also won cleanly) last month didn't drive the point home, Adam Cole Is That Dude and he's getting the spotlight accordingly. No matter who he faces in next week's triple threat or who ends up ultimately dethroning him, Cole is putting together one of the greatest championship runs in NXT history leaving a trail of great matches and giffable moments in his wake. Put two fingers in the air and say it loud and proud: Dr. Britt Baker's significant other is the sun NXT's orbited around ever since Ciampa got hurt early in the year, and the product from matches to weekly television on USA has never shone brighter.
