What a dull episode. Whatever will we talk about?
Recap:
Still working the Enzo Amore-esque entrance promo, even without Enzo & Big Cass, Carmella arrived to face the undefeated Nia Jax. She managed to counter a bear hug into a choke and then get some offense in on the monstrous newcomer, but was still taken out in pretty short order by Jax.
#1 contender Alexa Bliss was cutting a promo about how sick she is of hearing about Women's champ Bayley and the Four Horsewomen when a referee appeared to inform her that General Manager William Regal banned Blake & Murphy from ringside during tonight's main event title match. The boys were indignant, but Alexa told them she had things under control.
The longest reigning tag champs in NXT history return to answer Chad Gable & Jason Jordan's challenge. The Ascension soaked in Full Sail's adoration and worked over Gable for most of the match, but when JJ dodged being knocked off the apron by Viktor and created an opening for his partner to hit a slam and make the tag. When the dust settled after he cleaned house, Jordan & the Olympian won with their tandem finisher.
Reactions:
- Still amazes me how over Carmella is now considering how reviled she was a few months back. What's really something is, even more than getting a popularity rub from Zo & Cass, most of that is just because she stopped feuding with Blue Pants.
- Very hard to judge what progress the Princess of Staten Island has made, because Jax is still so green. The concerning thing is that she seems really immobile, and I don't know that that can be taught. But it can be worked around, and they tried here and she'll probably get better at it. Nia's come a long way in a short time with things like when to smile, and her in-ring taunts come naturally, so she could work out in a very specific role. She should be a long-term project, though.
- Is every female heel going to yell, "How you doing?" at Carm during matches?
- Especially with what came later, I wish they'd shown us some follow-up to Jax's hallway conversation with Eva Marie, and/or her backstage confrontation with the champ and challenger, from last week. Regardless of who faces who or wins what, a Women's title program with Eva and Nia is going to have to be well-written to be very satisfying. But I'm getting ahead of myself...
- Turning into a Blake mark. He (the blonde, not-Australian one) is the guy I watch when I'm not watching Alexa. His antics when dismissing Bayley's title run during Bliss' promo were the goods.
- Not sure "Blissed off" is gonna work for you, sister.
- Really wish we could have kept Gable & Jordan as heels. They're still great and really fun to watch, but they're missing an edge that served them well now that they're playing to the crowd. It should be a good test for them to stay compelling without that level of arrogance.
- Wow, The Ascension must love coming back here, huh? And not just for the crowd reaction, but because they get a chance to work five minute matches where they're capable of competent work and at least a couple of stiff spots. Have fun back in the wasteland, fellas.
Recap:
Slick video recap of the Bayley vs. Alexa program leads us into an interview with the champ. The Hugster praises her opponents improvements in the ring, but says that tonight she'll show Bliss she's out of her league.
A jobber awaits Dark Emma, who hits the ring without her partner Dana Brooke. The story is that the Aussie is even more aggressive now that she's decided to take on Asuka, and it comes across in not only defeating but taunting and inflicting pain on Mary Kate en route to a submission victory.
The saga of Baron Corbin and Apollo Crews is replayed as a segue into the promo from WWE.com where The Lone Wolf challenges Crews to match at TakeOver: London.
New tag champs Dash & Dawson face off against a couple of recognizable part-timers in a match designed to showcase their ruthlessness. They pick apart Corey Hollis for most of the contest before quickly hitting John Skyler with the Shatter Machine.
Tom Phillips is set to interview Asuka about her masks when Brooke walks on camera. Dana says that the joshi star earned her respect at Respect, but didn't like having her head tapped. She challenges her to a rematch next week, and Asuka accepts then walks away. Brooke dismisses Phillips with a head tap of her own, and then Emma appears to ask if their rival "bought it?" Dana says yes and the villains gloat a bit.
Reactions:
- Love the progression of Bayley's character, but her mic skills aren't quite where they'll need to be for this to work on the bigger stage. For those of us who've watched the character arc, a little unevenness makes sense. Someone seeing her for the first time will expect her to talk more like John Cena if they're presenting her in a similar vein.
- Been a mark for her since I started watching this show almost three years ago, but I still thinks its objectively true. Since her heel turn, Emma has been a highlight of every show on which she's appeared. However the Asuka match works out for her, they've done a great job giving us the pieces of her transition to evil. You have to think they'll pick them up and package them into a great main event program - if not in the next few months, then at some point.
- Oh, and there were three women's matches on this show, setting up two more for next week. You may not like the direction of some of the angles or the way women are presented in WWE - I know I don't at times - but they are more prominently featured than they have ever been in my decades as a fan. That is not nothing...regardless of who leaves tomorrow's tapings with the Women's title.
- What was surely intended as a showcase for the new tag champs featured a dissection of their opponents which went on a bit longer than it probably needed to, but, DANG, do I like to watch Dash & Dawson work. It's simply a matter of preference, but how excited a lot of folks seem to be for Gable & Jordan? That's how jazzed I am to see the mean bastards torture some jamoke.
- Sweet, goofy Dana. They could have been a little bit more clear about whether or not she still thinks she beat Asuka at TakeOver, or if that delusion is all part of she and Emma's evil plan. But Brooke is a master class in leaning into the quirks or even deficiencies in your delivery and integrating them into your schtick. It's almost...almost...enough to give you hope for a certain someone else...
- Totally wanted Asuka to let Dana pat her head and then roll it into an armbar.
- Sorry, Tom...it's just not the same (miss you Devin! At least for the interview-ending head tap bit).
Recap:
Since Regal banned him from the building for either his or Finn Bálor's safety, Samoa Joe gets an off-site segment to tell us that he and the NXT champ will sign a contract for a title match in London on next week's episode.
In the main event, the Women's champ comes out agressive and dominates the action early, but Alexa turns the tide with an arm wringer on the ropes. She works Bayley's arm and survives a brief rally to hit a Glitz Flip, but her attempts at a Sparkle Splash is thwarted. Even using a sunset flip after her second try at her finisher doesn't work, and the champ uses Bliss' frustration as the opening to hit her own, and a Hugplex allows the Hugster to keep the belt.
The celebration is interupted by Eva Marie, who is met by a chorus of boos so loud that neither she nor the champ can get to them to calm down so All Red Everything can deliver her lines. They eventually go ahead, and the Total Divas star challenges Bayley to a title match next week.
Reactions:
- There's an saying among the immigrant settlers of Western Pennsylvania that goes, "never trust a Samoan standing in front of an abandoned building with all the buttons on his Polo buttoned." I'm just sayin...
- Not that it will stop me from incurring the wrath of the followers of their Demon King, and I really only bring it up because it strikes me as odd, but...have we ever had a champ who appeared on television less than Finn?
- One unfortunate side effect of the big show ending angle that has ripped the internet in two...I feel bad for Alexa, who turned in the best match of her career, and I guess gets shuffled to the back of the line. This wasn't a Sasha Banks or Becky Lynch match, but it earned its main event spot and demonstrated growth for both ladies as performers.
- We really need to rename Bliss' moves, though, right? The mean-spirited, controlling queen bee she plays now shouldn't be "Glitz Flip"ping and "Sparkle Splash"ing folks.
- Okay, so, how bout that ending?
- Before we talk about next week's challenger, a little baffled by how Bayley handled this. Was her acting like an encouraging teacher to a second grader on purpose? It sort of fits in character, and with the interview she gave a while back about giving Eva a match. But once Red insulted the fans, shouldn't she defend her fans or get pissed? We can write this off to not having any experience dealing with a crowd that vocal, but I ended up thinking the champ could have handled it better.
- Beyond that, no one in Full Sail or who posts on the web can complain, because we helped make it happen. When Eva walked down the ramp, I was hopeful that the crowd might kind of ignore her, but blowing the roof of the joint with boos is a sure fire way to get the backstage powers' attention. If there is such a thing as "the wrong kind of heat", this ain't it. Because trying to jeer her out of the building or slapping thousands of hits and hundreds of comments on an article about her within an hour of it being published? That means you care. Deeply. There are a lot of threats to cancel Network subs if an All Red title reign starts tomorrow night, but everyone is tuning in or clicking on spoiler posts to see what goes down.
- Is that a mistake in the long run, cashing in on nuclear heat generated incidentally by a green wrestler? Depends. Like I said above, this could be a fantastic angle...but it has to be crafted that way, because at least one of the principal performers isn't very comfortable on stage.
- So far, their success at doing that has been...mixed. They've positioned Eva very well to keep getting these reactions without having to do much and therefore really exposing her. What they haven't done is built the back story of why she's getting this chance in kayfabe. She'll be a more compelling heel if we get some evidence of how she's pulling the strings to get what she wants. It's the main reason I wanted more development of the Nia Jax relationship.
- Now, make no mistake, this is not my joining Team Geno and trying to tell you all that she's a great heel, or some kind of amazing performance artist who's trolling us by not knowing how to say "versus". She's bad. If she was even just below average, this could be amazing. As it is, it's like rubbernecking a car accident. You feel bad about it, and you know that whatever you're going to see will probably be horrific, yet you can't look away.
- My prediction? A disqualification due to interference by Bliss and Jax setting up a Fatal 4Way in London. And then we can start getting worried.
I have even less of an idea how to grade this than the usual episode. It's already kind of hard to remember anything other than the last couple minutes.
With the possible exception of the opener, all of the matches were enjoyable. Mostly, this episode was about setting up tonight's taping. If the mission of set-up is to make me want to see what happens next, well, I may not agree with how they hooked me, but...
Grade: A-
Anybody have anything left after blowing up Mrosko's Eva thread?