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| BOOM! (this and all photos courtesy of WWE.com) |
Let's begin at the beginning, not with the slick work you knew was coming from God's Production Team and ubiquitous Papa Haitchery, but with this homemade video by BACHUR you might have seen going around leading into the biggest weekly TV episode in Full Sail's NXTenure:
There's a reason why he used the "Lonely Road of Faith"/Desire framework to fill in NXT's history; longtime friends like your intrepid reviewer remember a figurehead babyface Ric Flair in early 2002 using the original to illustrate half a century of the McMahons' grappling empire as it changed names and got the F out, turning into the WWE we alternately despise, tolerate and love today.
With the move to being broadcast live for 2 hours on a major cable channel, NXT might not be changing its name but a lot of things about what we knew are going to be minimized if not evaporated entirely. They also now face a similar seismic shift in not only presentation, but a future in which more hands will have to be on deck to survive their growing pains as well as the incoming competition from AEW's Dynamite on TNT in a few weeks' time. As NXT changes so too does this column: formerly in incantations of the Best Coast Bias and NXT In 60 Seconds, the B and GS hopes to use the expanded weekly show to expand on what worked over the course of an episode (Gold) and what didn't (sadly, Black).
While famously nothing gold can stay, the premiere panned out far more than it didn't. Now - appropriately for a WWE product - it is about building momentum not only ahead of future adversaries but for their 3rd WarGames in November. Let's begin with the thing that will probably have the biggest impact on the program going forward:
GOLD: the Undisputed Era
For fans of the truculent collective, the outcome of the North American title match went very much according to plan: Roddy kept up for most of it, and even when Dream kicked out of the End of Heartache, Kyle was there to get Drake's attention and Adam was there with a friendly blindside superkick and just like that (and another EOH), a fifth North American champion was made. The yearlong threat became a promise just after Labor Day, which is a great ROI and follow through on Some Guy's prophecy. It was the right choice all the way around - Dream is probably the biggest babyface this side of Gargano on the roster and in obvious ways has a deeper association with the championship than his predecessors, and outside of his heel turn match Roddy was wandering into Sami Zaynish "never win the big one" territory at least so far as his NXT singles career has meant.
As a Hall of Famer so eloquently put it, it ain't braggin', muthafucka - if you back it up. Now UE has, and certainly has nothing to worry about vis a vis headlining WarGames yet again or certain former champions who might want Goldie back returning to action from surgeries in the near future. NO COMEUPPANCE! You hear them, rabid and loyal fanbase? NO COMEUPPANCE!
GOLD: Blazing Saddles
You would think that given the fact there was a title match with a title change as well as two #1 contendership matches, the main event street fight between Matt Riddle and Killian Dain would ... well ... have a conclusive ending? But never mind that shit: Riddle landed 2 suplexes, then they fought into the back, then a bunch of random roster members proceeded to brawl for the rest of the show. A clear winner and a clear loser? Piss on you, we work for Triple H!
Never fear, dear reader: the rematch will occur this week with a future title shot at What's-His-Name thanks to the quick work and steady hand of Master Regal. Most notable about the Full Sail spanning melee that concluded the show was the fact that WALTER jumped Riddle at the soonest opportunity, backed up by his Imperium mates in the parking lot. Will this lead to Dain joining Imperium since his former stable mate A. Wolfe is already in the pocket? There have been crazier conspiracy theories when it comes to the pro graps, especially since way down the line you can spin it out further with the ex-SAnitY members against, presumably Aichner and Barthel. But that is the future, and what the now is focused on is another Dain/Riddle match that's probably heading towards Riddle/Cole, another cheap excuse for Stamford to print money.
GOLD: the Women's Division
With the expansion of time comes the expansion of opportunities, and what the premiere USA show displayed was that an integral part of NXT even getting to this point was their women's division. Even in fallow periods the women have gone just as hard if not harder than the men, and now they not only got their new title program over but showed something special in their undercard, too. In fact the fatal fourway between Bianca BelAir, Candice LeRae, Mia Yim and Choke Me The Fuck Out, Io Shirai (hey, the heel turn gave her a new wrestling name. I don't make the rules) was the premiere's premiere and gave every single woman a couple chances to shine before Candice managed to reverse rana Mia and follow up with a quebrada to earn her title shot. Watching them haul ass for double digit minutes through a commercial break, but it said without saying one of the things NXT is going to be speaking about going forward: they aren't kicking off the show to get them out of the way, they're kicking off the show because they're dope enough to set the pace for the entire show. Hopefully seeing this spawned a new generation of fans of women's wrestling.
Not only did Candice get the duke, but she got to go face-to-face with Queen Shayna and stand up for herself. Sure, Marina and Jessamyn were lurking around her periphery while she engaged in a bit of slightly uncharacteristic smacktalk with the champ, but she kept her balance and an eye on them and the prize at the same time. That bout will occur and may main event the show on the 2nd, and there already is a backstory built in with her and CMTFOIo should they go in that direction with the title.
On the undercard...well, I want to say Xia Li fought Aliyah, but in actuality what happened was Xia beat Aliyah like a dirty rug. You could even call it a squash. On a show with a title match and title change as well as two #1 contendership matches, what may have been the biggest highlight of the show was Li getting her biggest spotlight to date and absolutely shining despite a botch of a double jump. In fact, her strikes and kicks looked the right amount of snug in the closing moments after it happened, and given the fact Stamford loves the archtype and with her sometime house show tag team partner Karen Q injured, this is the perfect time to put some time behind the kind, attractive woman who could also KUNG FU YOU TO DEATH. There's not enough of that on NXT, in WWE, or for that matter in the world, and the fact she anchored the match against someone with far more experience and bossed up after a blown spot suggests her future is on the up and up. Hell, you could run her v. Io at any point you wanted to over the next couple years and maybe several times depending on if she can keep her upward trajectory going.
Women's wrestling! What a concept!
GOLD: Lio Rush
It turns out all the rumors of the Man of the Hour's death were greatly exaggerated as he returned to action on this show and successfully yanked the possibility of the number one contendership away from Oney Lorcan. As Xia brought something different and stark to the show in her successful squash, the guys from 205 Live did the same thing between Rush's preternatural speed and Lorcan's technical prowess. There are rumors that the 205 tent is going to be folded under NXT's auspices, and frankly that entire subset of the E will probably be better off. Why kill yourself in front of 1/20th of Smackdown's audience for golf claps when the Full Sailors will give you borderline standing Os just for parting the curtain? It also gave Lorcan a chance to show off a rare role where he had a noticeable size advantage over his opponent, especially when the crowd was so fully behind Rush that it turned him babyface without him having to say a word like Rhea Ripley a couple weeks ago. With incorporating aspects of WWEUK as well as 205, it is clear in this new era that all the possible hands, especially the good ones, are on deck.
BLACK: Sean Maluta
He ran into Cameron Grimes' 1-Up stomp and got pinned quicker than it took you to win this sentence. It was a strange decision made stranger by the fact that later in the show there was a debuting NPC who was only out there to serve as fodder to set up a bigger angle and match (more about which later) and even he got to last several times longer than six seconds before getting murked.
BLACK: Cameron Grimes
The top hat doesn't seem to lend anything to a technical savage character-wise besides the suspicion that he's seen Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats at least twice live and will not shut up about it at parties. We didn't get to see Angel Garza v. Raul Mendoza but there was enough time for this? Where is Swerve?! For that matter, where was Jordan Myles? (To be fair, we might see him next week given that they're doing Dijakovic/Lee III, whichis probably going to will be golden as it always is.)
GOLD: Arturo Ruas
The former Adrian Jauonde gets the inaugural Chuck Howley Award for getting golden even though he technically got in the black due to the finger snapping efforts of one Peter Dunne. In the same fashion that Xia's kung fu flavor might have the special sauce to differentiate her from the pack, Ruas used the biggest opportunity he's had to date to show off his capoiera influence on his style. He survived the early wave of grapplefuckery, then all too briefly went after Pete's fingers for a receipt. He also managed to surive the X-Plex (avoiding the Bitter End entirely) and didn't even give up until Dunne doubled down on his joint manipulation combined with a submission. Besides, any time people get educated about capoiera being cultivated by Brazilian slaves to fight their oppressors by Nigel McGuinness during the "dead period" of a match? AU TO MAT IC GOLD.
GOLD: Imperium and KUSHIDA
Denzel Dejournette, at least as of right now, is the footnote to a larger story that he may never figure into again. And yet, we are the better off for his unwilling willingness to get ambushed and laid out. DDJ is what would happen if Kid N' Play were forced to be the same person, and after he got his Public Enemy on (Rocco and Johnny, not Chuck and Flav) he found himself besieged on all sides by Imperium. The underlings were there to clear a path for their leader and WWEUK champeen WALTER. He reiterated their mission statement of The Ring being Sacred and said that anyone who disrespected them would answer to him. Unfortunately for him, it turned out the disrespect was about to come. You see, Denzel had had an opponent, and KUSHIDA wasn't in time for a save but was in plenty of time to note that the current moment was meant to be his in a match. Unafraid, he marched to the ring, waylaid the underlings, and even landed some blows on Der Ring General before bailing out due to the numbers game. Again, the Russian Doll of matches they've made to set up getting to KUSHIDA/WALTER in a Loser Has To Decapitalize Their Name match are all going to be worthy of a viewer's time.
The success of this show can't be measure this week, or even this year. It may be 2022, 2026 or never until we find out what truly succeeded with the program. But there are way more reasons to shine than blots above, and until Dynamite gets going and as long as they have the hysterically deep lineup that they employ there's a chance we won't look at this as a tipping point into main roster style bloviating and Perfectly Cromulent Wrestling Hours. Rather, they may succeed further than their wildest dreams throughout the growing pains about to occur and come out something bigger and better than is still demonstrably the NXT we know and love.
And we'll see you in a week's time to continue walking down this occasionally lonely road, wrestle fwiends. May the Standard come to enrich your life as NXT has certainly done mine.
There's a reason why he used the "Lonely Road of Faith"/Desire framework to fill in NXT's history; longtime friends like your intrepid reviewer remember a figurehead babyface Ric Flair in early 2002 using the original to illustrate half a century of the McMahons' grappling empire as it changed names and got the F out, turning into the WWE we alternately despise, tolerate and love today.
With the move to being broadcast live for 2 hours on a major cable channel, NXT might not be changing its name but a lot of things about what we knew are going to be minimized if not evaporated entirely. They also now face a similar seismic shift in not only presentation, but a future in which more hands will have to be on deck to survive their growing pains as well as the incoming competition from AEW's Dynamite on TNT in a few weeks' time. As NXT changes so too does this column: formerly in incantations of the Best Coast Bias and NXT In 60 Seconds, the B and GS hopes to use the expanded weekly show to expand on what worked over the course of an episode (Gold) and what didn't (sadly, Black).
While famously nothing gold can stay, the premiere panned out far more than it didn't. Now - appropriately for a WWE product - it is about building momentum not only ahead of future adversaries but for their 3rd WarGames in November. Let's begin with the thing that will probably have the biggest impact on the program going forward:
GOLD: the Undisputed Era
For fans of the truculent collective, the outcome of the North American title match went very much according to plan: Roddy kept up for most of it, and even when Dream kicked out of the End of Heartache, Kyle was there to get Drake's attention and Adam was there with a friendly blindside superkick and just like that (and another EOH), a fifth North American champion was made. The yearlong threat became a promise just after Labor Day, which is a great ROI and follow through on Some Guy's prophecy. It was the right choice all the way around - Dream is probably the biggest babyface this side of Gargano on the roster and in obvious ways has a deeper association with the championship than his predecessors, and outside of his heel turn match Roddy was wandering into Sami Zaynish "never win the big one" territory at least so far as his NXT singles career has meant.
As a Hall of Famer so eloquently put it, it ain't braggin', muthafucka - if you back it up. Now UE has, and certainly has nothing to worry about vis a vis headlining WarGames yet again or certain former champions who might want Goldie back returning to action from surgeries in the near future. NO COMEUPPANCE! You hear them, rabid and loyal fanbase? NO COMEUPPANCE!
 |
| ...sure! |
You would think that given the fact there was a title match with a title change as well as two #1 contendership matches, the main event street fight between Matt Riddle and Killian Dain would ... well ... have a conclusive ending? But never mind that shit: Riddle landed 2 suplexes, then they fought into the back, then a bunch of random roster members proceeded to brawl for the rest of the show. A clear winner and a clear loser? Piss on you, we work for Triple H!
Never fear, dear reader: the rematch will occur this week with a future title shot at What's-His-Name thanks to the quick work and steady hand of Master Regal. Most notable about the Full Sail spanning melee that concluded the show was the fact that WALTER jumped Riddle at the soonest opportunity, backed up by his Imperium mates in the parking lot. Will this lead to Dain joining Imperium since his former stable mate A. Wolfe is already in the pocket? There have been crazier conspiracy theories when it comes to the pro graps, especially since way down the line you can spin it out further with the ex-SAnitY members against, presumably Aichner and Barthel. But that is the future, and what the now is focused on is another Dain/Riddle match that's probably heading towards Riddle/Cole, another cheap excuse for Stamford to print money.
 |
| ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED |
With the expansion of time comes the expansion of opportunities, and what the premiere USA show displayed was that an integral part of NXT even getting to this point was their women's division. Even in fallow periods the women have gone just as hard if not harder than the men, and now they not only got their new title program over but showed something special in their undercard, too. In fact the fatal fourway between Bianca BelAir, Candice LeRae, Mia Yim and Choke Me The Fuck Out, Io Shirai (hey, the heel turn gave her a new wrestling name. I don't make the rules) was the premiere's premiere and gave every single woman a couple chances to shine before Candice managed to reverse rana Mia and follow up with a quebrada to earn her title shot. Watching them haul ass for double digit minutes through a commercial break, but it said without saying one of the things NXT is going to be speaking about going forward: they aren't kicking off the show to get them out of the way, they're kicking off the show because they're dope enough to set the pace for the entire show. Hopefully seeing this spawned a new generation of fans of women's wrestling.
Not only did Candice get the duke, but she got to go face-to-face with Queen Shayna and stand up for herself. Sure, Marina and Jessamyn were lurking around her periphery while she engaged in a bit of slightly uncharacteristic smacktalk with the champ, but she kept her balance and an eye on them and the prize at the same time. That bout will occur and may main event the show on the 2nd, and there already is a backstory built in with her and CMTFOIo should they go in that direction with the title.
On the undercard...well, I want to say Xia Li fought Aliyah, but in actuality what happened was Xia beat Aliyah like a dirty rug. You could even call it a squash. On a show with a title match and title change as well as two #1 contendership matches, what may have been the biggest highlight of the show was Li getting her biggest spotlight to date and absolutely shining despite a botch of a double jump. In fact, her strikes and kicks looked the right amount of snug in the closing moments after it happened, and given the fact Stamford loves the archtype and with her sometime house show tag team partner Karen Q injured, this is the perfect time to put some time behind the kind, attractive woman who could also KUNG FU YOU TO DEATH. There's not enough of that on NXT, in WWE, or for that matter in the world, and the fact she anchored the match against someone with far more experience and bossed up after a blown spot suggests her future is on the up and up. Hell, you could run her v. Io at any point you wanted to over the next couple years and maybe several times depending on if she can keep her upward trajectory going.
Women's wrestling! What a concept!
 |
| Too sweet to be sour |
It turns out all the rumors of the Man of the Hour's death were greatly exaggerated as he returned to action on this show and successfully yanked the possibility of the number one contendership away from Oney Lorcan. As Xia brought something different and stark to the show in her successful squash, the guys from 205 Live did the same thing between Rush's preternatural speed and Lorcan's technical prowess. There are rumors that the 205 tent is going to be folded under NXT's auspices, and frankly that entire subset of the E will probably be better off. Why kill yourself in front of 1/20th of Smackdown's audience for golf claps when the Full Sailors will give you borderline standing Os just for parting the curtain? It also gave Lorcan a chance to show off a rare role where he had a noticeable size advantage over his opponent, especially when the crowd was so fully behind Rush that it turned him babyface without him having to say a word like Rhea Ripley a couple weeks ago. With incorporating aspects of WWEUK as well as 205, it is clear in this new era that all the possible hands, especially the good ones, are on deck.
BLACK: Sean Maluta
He ran into Cameron Grimes' 1-Up stomp and got pinned quicker than it took you to win this sentence. It was a strange decision made stranger by the fact that later in the show there was a debuting NPC who was only out there to serve as fodder to set up a bigger angle and match (more about which later) and even he got to last several times longer than six seconds before getting murked.
BLACK: Cameron Grimes
The top hat doesn't seem to lend anything to a technical savage character-wise besides the suspicion that he's seen Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats at least twice live and will not shut up about it at parties. We didn't get to see Angel Garza v. Raul Mendoza but there was enough time for this? Where is Swerve?! For that matter, where was Jordan Myles? (To be fair, we might see him next week given that they're doing Dijakovic/Lee III, which
GOLD: Arturo Ruas
The former Adrian Jauonde gets the inaugural Chuck Howley Award for getting golden even though he technically got in the black due to the finger snapping efforts of one Peter Dunne. In the same fashion that Xia's kung fu flavor might have the special sauce to differentiate her from the pack, Ruas used the biggest opportunity he's had to date to show off his capoiera influence on his style. He survived the early wave of grapplefuckery, then all too briefly went after Pete's fingers for a receipt. He also managed to surive the X-Plex (avoiding the Bitter End entirely) and didn't even give up until Dunne doubled down on his joint manipulation combined with a submission. Besides, any time people get educated about capoiera being cultivated by Brazilian slaves to fight their oppressors by Nigel McGuinness during the "dead period" of a match? AU TO MAT IC GOLD.
 |
| Reclaiming his time |
GOLD: Imperium and KUSHIDA
Denzel Dejournette, at least as of right now, is the footnote to a larger story that he may never figure into again. And yet, we are the better off for his unwilling willingness to get ambushed and laid out. DDJ is what would happen if Kid N' Play were forced to be the same person, and after he got his Public Enemy on (Rocco and Johnny, not Chuck and Flav) he found himself besieged on all sides by Imperium. The underlings were there to clear a path for their leader and WWEUK champeen WALTER. He reiterated their mission statement of The Ring being Sacred and said that anyone who disrespected them would answer to him. Unfortunately for him, it turned out the disrespect was about to come. You see, Denzel had had an opponent, and KUSHIDA wasn't in time for a save but was in plenty of time to note that the current moment was meant to be his in a match. Unafraid, he marched to the ring, waylaid the underlings, and even landed some blows on Der Ring General before bailing out due to the numbers game. Again, the Russian Doll of matches they've made to set up getting to KUSHIDA/WALTER in a Loser Has To Decapitalize Their Name match are all going to be worthy of a viewer's time.
The success of this show can't be measure this week, or even this year. It may be 2022, 2026 or never until we find out what truly succeeded with the program. But there are way more reasons to shine than blots above, and until Dynamite gets going and as long as they have the hysterically deep lineup that they employ there's a chance we won't look at this as a tipping point into main roster style bloviating and Perfectly Cromulent Wrestling Hours. Rather, they may succeed further than their wildest dreams throughout the growing pains about to occur and come out something bigger and better than is still demonstrably the NXT we know and love.
And we'll see you in a week's time to continue walking down this occasionally lonely road, wrestle fwiends. May the Standard come to enrich your life as NXT has certainly done mine.
