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| Is Full Sail about to rain down Zaddy's Home chants? Photo Credit: WWE.com |
The biggest heel in wrestling in 2020 could very well end up being the Coronavirus.
It's possible by the time you read this, WrestleMania and Takeover might've been cancelled, which seems to be one of the craziest sentences to type that also feels inevitable. Like First Aid Kit before them, NXT has to keep on keeping on, whether their biggest show of the year - maybe ever - goes on.
While there are a few blemishes on their collective skin, all their title pictures are shining bright and even the undercard feuds are getting more time to shine than they presumably would've in a non-USA Network eraAssuming we get Takeover: I'm On A Boat, it's shaping up as the sort of card that scoffs at Portland and tosses it a quarter while stepping over it, and here's some of the reasons why:
GOLD: Title Dreams
There are smart people, there are geniuses, and then there are galaxy brained individuals who'll throw a main event cage match against a rival looking for a bigger prize to gain.
Maybe that's why the Velveteen Dream is an Experience, something that we'll never comprehend.
But when he jettisoned Roderick Strong from the cage last week and locked himself in it with Adam Cole, you could hear a few hundred light bulbs go off at once, followed by immediate, raucous glee. Dream whooped Cole's ass, when anybody from the Era tried to make a save for their leader, he whooped their ass, and the episode ended with him posing with Goldie on top of the steel cage. I don't know if Dream is going to end up being the man who puts the final nail in the coffin of Undisputed Golden Ubiquity, but I was in a building once when it looked like he was going to win the belt and the fervor in the fanbase for him has only grown in the year and a half since, no matter how Rick Rude he gets at times. And while the main roster has Goldberg and Lesnar, for the first Takeover ever (assuming) we're going to get Cole/Dream in a match that could honestly go either way. You love to see it.
GOLD: the North American title scene
Why they didn't come out and call it the Television title is beyond my reckoning, but that's the spot it serves. Most gloriously, with Keith Lee as the kingpin of the subdivision, it seems like everyone else who is frequently on TV and can put together a couple wins is aiming for the belt, most of them super-athletic hosses akin if not quite equal to Dark (Big Van) Vader. Killian Dain got a win over Bronson Reed a couple of weeks ago and still wants a title shot; Damien Priest interfered against Dominik Dijakovic and cost him a match on the last episode of February against Cameron Grimes , who'll get his shot at the NA belt tonight (let us remember that Lee won a fatal four-way against Diajkovic, Grimes and Priest a few weeks ago to get his eventually successful shot at Roddy). Keith's reaction to this swirling chaos around him and his title is to play the background until someone steps up, knock that meester on their keester, then wait for the next one, rinse and repeat - and if you were him, wouldn't you be doing that, too? TO: Pirate Ship is probably going to be home for Lee/Dijakovic II (c'mon Iron Man match c'mon Iron Man match) but at least there's some fun and interesting matchups to be had with a multitude of people on the way to the fireworks factory.
GOLD: Johnny, Angry Johnny
Outside of almost laying out Mauro during their interview last week, Johnny Gargano is having the reaction many of us hoped or expected he would have to Ciampa coming back and being feted like a king despite the fact he built his reputation on knifing his best friend in the L5 followed up by being such a scumbag even Kevin Owens had to shout him out at various points during his run, which must kind of be like a young up and coming psycho serial killer getting props from Ted Bundy. Maybe I/we am/are destined to mark out for possibly the first wrestling feud where everyone knows why a heel turn happened and is operating from that point going forward. While we have yet to be privy to whatever the Johnny Gargano Way is, we have a few weeks to probably get us to a Loser Exiled To Smackdown match, thus making it the match with the most ominous stipulation in the history of Our Great Sport.
GOLD: Imprinceium
Everybody wondered what Prince's next move was going to be after snuffing the remnants of babyface Johnny at Portland, and based off of the beatdown delivered by Fabian Aichner and Marcel Barthel on the 26th, it looks like he's going to be colliding with Der Ring General sooner rather than later.
GOLD: Dakota Kai
If you're going to get a hired goon, then the hired goon better be worth the money you're paying them. So far the statuesque Raquel Gonzalez has more than filled the bill for King Kota, first helping her beat ex-bestie Tegan in Portland and then doing so again in their cage rematch last week. Don't be surprised if/when they target Rhea Ripley, possibly as soon as April 7th.
BLACK: Bianca BelAir
The last main event of February saw her get outclassed by Charlotte (you may remember, she Doesn't Go Here) at every turn. Given the stakes of Ripley/Flair on the pirate ship, we weren't expecting Bianca to win. But a sloppy match followed by Charlotte hitting a bigger spear in direct response to Bianca's followed by a Natural Selection put an abrupt end to things, then Charlotte got to Pillmanize Bianca's neck and leg and put her in the F8. Rhea getting her full entrance before running down to clear her WrestleMania challenger was pretty funny, but it fridged the EST ice cold. Hopefully she comes back for the crown as a result of this. Either way, a bad end to February for Mrs. BelAir (something that seems to be going around).
GOLD: Grrrrrrrrrrizzled Young Veterans
The thing that's great about the Grizzles is that Zack Gibson doesn't care to be cheered, and acts as if the very idea of anyone liking him who isn't his tag partner is anathema. He says horrible things about America and somehow it just seems accurate and usually amusing. When they take the tag belts from the Broserweights (sorry New Oscar and New Felix), hopefully they go on a long title reign that shows the Full Sailors what the UK brand came to find out: the only thing possibly bigger than Liverpool #1's mouth is their cohesiveness and talent as a tag team. Maybe they can fight the Revival in a winners-get-the-finisher match before Dash & Scott are punching out the Bucks on the other Wednesday night wrestling show?
Tonight, the ReDragon portion of UE gets a title rematch against the Broserweights, and Keith Lee defends against Cameron Grimes, so it should be another fine show.
Let's hope Takeover: Tampa can go off without a hitch and join that list.
It's possible by the time you read this, WrestleMania and Takeover might've been cancelled, which seems to be one of the craziest sentences to type that also feels inevitable. Like First Aid Kit before them, NXT has to keep on keeping on, whether their biggest show of the year - maybe ever - goes on.
While there are a few blemishes on their collective skin, all their title pictures are shining bright and even the undercard feuds are getting more time to shine than they presumably would've in a non-USA Network eraAssuming we get Takeover: I'm On A Boat, it's shaping up as the sort of card that scoffs at Portland and tosses it a quarter while stepping over it, and here's some of the reasons why:
GOLD: Title Dreams
There are smart people, there are geniuses, and then there are galaxy brained individuals who'll throw a main event cage match against a rival looking for a bigger prize to gain.
Maybe that's why the Velveteen Dream is an Experience, something that we'll never comprehend.
But when he jettisoned Roderick Strong from the cage last week and locked himself in it with Adam Cole, you could hear a few hundred light bulbs go off at once, followed by immediate, raucous glee. Dream whooped Cole's ass, when anybody from the Era tried to make a save for their leader, he whooped their ass, and the episode ended with him posing with Goldie on top of the steel cage. I don't know if Dream is going to end up being the man who puts the final nail in the coffin of Undisputed Golden Ubiquity, but I was in a building once when it looked like he was going to win the belt and the fervor in the fanbase for him has only grown in the year and a half since, no matter how Rick Rude he gets at times. And while the main roster has Goldberg and Lesnar, for the first Takeover ever (assuming) we're going to get Cole/Dream in a match that could honestly go either way. You love to see it.
GOLD: the North American title scene
Why they didn't come out and call it the Television title is beyond my reckoning, but that's the spot it serves. Most gloriously, with Keith Lee as the kingpin of the subdivision, it seems like everyone else who is frequently on TV and can put together a couple wins is aiming for the belt, most of them super-athletic hosses akin if not quite equal to Dark (Big Van) Vader. Killian Dain got a win over Bronson Reed a couple of weeks ago and still wants a title shot; Damien Priest interfered against Dominik Dijakovic and cost him a match on the last episode of February against Cameron Grimes , who'll get his shot at the NA belt tonight (let us remember that Lee won a fatal four-way against Diajkovic, Grimes and Priest a few weeks ago to get his eventually successful shot at Roddy). Keith's reaction to this swirling chaos around him and his title is to play the background until someone steps up, knock that meester on their keester, then wait for the next one, rinse and repeat - and if you were him, wouldn't you be doing that, too? TO: Pirate Ship is probably going to be home for Lee/Dijakovic II (c'mon Iron Man match c'mon Iron Man match) but at least there's some fun and interesting matchups to be had with a multitude of people on the way to the fireworks factory.
GOLD: Johnny, Angry Johnny
Outside of almost laying out Mauro during their interview last week, Johnny Gargano is having the reaction many of us hoped or expected he would have to Ciampa coming back and being feted like a king despite the fact he built his reputation on knifing his best friend in the L5 followed up by being such a scumbag even Kevin Owens had to shout him out at various points during his run, which must kind of be like a young up and coming psycho serial killer getting props from Ted Bundy. Maybe I/we am/are destined to mark out for possibly the first wrestling feud where everyone knows why a heel turn happened and is operating from that point going forward. While we have yet to be privy to whatever the Johnny Gargano Way is, we have a few weeks to probably get us to a Loser Exiled To Smackdown match, thus making it the match with the most ominous stipulation in the history of Our Great Sport.
GOLD: Imprinceium
Everybody wondered what Prince's next move was going to be after snuffing the remnants of babyface Johnny at Portland, and based off of the beatdown delivered by Fabian Aichner and Marcel Barthel on the 26th, it looks like he's going to be colliding with Der Ring General sooner rather than later.
GOLD: Dakota Kai
If you're going to get a hired goon, then the hired goon better be worth the money you're paying them. So far the statuesque Raquel Gonzalez has more than filled the bill for King Kota, first helping her beat ex-bestie Tegan in Portland and then doing so again in their cage rematch last week. Don't be surprised if/when they target Rhea Ripley, possibly as soon as April 7th.
BLACK: Bianca BelAir
The last main event of February saw her get outclassed by Charlotte (you may remember, she Doesn't Go Here) at every turn. Given the stakes of Ripley/Flair on the pirate ship, we weren't expecting Bianca to win. But a sloppy match followed by Charlotte hitting a bigger spear in direct response to Bianca's followed by a Natural Selection put an abrupt end to things, then Charlotte got to Pillmanize Bianca's neck and leg and put her in the F8. Rhea getting her full entrance before running down to clear her WrestleMania challenger was pretty funny, but it fridged the EST ice cold. Hopefully she comes back for the crown as a result of this. Either way, a bad end to February for Mrs. BelAir (something that seems to be going around).
GOLD: Grrrrrrrrrrizzled Young Veterans
The thing that's great about the Grizzles is that Zack Gibson doesn't care to be cheered, and acts as if the very idea of anyone liking him who isn't his tag partner is anathema. He says horrible things about America and somehow it just seems accurate and usually amusing. When they take the tag belts from the Broserweights (sorry New Oscar and New Felix), hopefully they go on a long title reign that shows the Full Sailors what the UK brand came to find out: the only thing possibly bigger than Liverpool #1's mouth is their cohesiveness and talent as a tag team. Maybe they can fight the Revival in a winners-get-the-finisher match before Dash & Scott are punching out the Bucks on the other Wednesday night wrestling show?
Tonight, the ReDragon portion of UE gets a title rematch against the Broserweights, and Keith Lee defends against Cameron Grimes, so it should be another fine show.
Let's hope Takeover: Tampa can go off without a hitch and join that list.
